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The
Award-Winning Aspen Grille Dishes-Up Unique Opportunities
Conceived and designed by students, the Aspen Grille
offers real-world experience to students in theRestaurant
and Resort Management Program within the Food Science
and Human Nutrition Department.
| Visitors
to the Aspen Grille find young servers wearing black
slacks and shoes and champagne button-down shirts
delivering attractive salads, sandwiches, and entrees
to salivating customers. Tables elegantly covered
with pale green linen tablecloths and chairs upholstered
in a leaf-motif fabric complement the paintings
and photographs of aspens that decorate the walls.
A glass wall facing west offers a panorama of the
Colorado foothills.
No
ordinary restaurant
Despite appearances, this is no ordinary restaurant.
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| For students majoring in restaurant
and resort management, Aspen Grille is a working
classroom where they earn credits rather than paychecks.
Five days a week, students work in the kitchen,
serve customers, tend bar, and participate in virtually
every aspect of the restaurant’s operations. |
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A
unique partnership
Aspen Grille evolved from a partnership between
the Division of Student Affairs and the Department
of Food Science and Human Nutrition. Eager to
offer a higher-end dining experience on campus,
Student Affairs picked up the tab to remodel part
of the University Club. Restaurant and resort
management students, wishing to practice what
they were learning, worked with their professors
to decide on the kitchen layout, dining room decor,
place settings, menu offerings, pricing, restaurant
philosophy, and other details.
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"This whole project has been student-driven
from the beginning," says Ken Smith, former
restaurateur and associate professor and coordinator
of the Restaurant and Resort Management Program.
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Students conducted a feasibility study and then
determined that the menu would offer simple, innovative
cuisine, made primarily from locally and regionally
produced foods. This year diners will have the
opportunity to taste Colorado cuisine created
by the new Aspen Grille Executive Chef, Gene Fritz
and enjoy dishes ranging from a Peach-Cinnamon
Tart with Rose Petal Ice Cream to Colorado Farm
Raised Striped Bass with Smoked Tomato Sauce and
Seasonal Vegetables grown by the CSU Horticulture
Department.
The decor carries on the restaurant’s "home
grown" philosophy. Colorado State graduates
Becky Everitt and Bill
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Cotton provided, respectively, the aspen watercolors
and photographs adorning the walls, and small
wooden boxes holding sugar packets were made by
another local alumnus.
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Reservations
The
Aspen Grille, located in the University Club in
the Lory Student Center on the upper level and can accommodate
as many as 50 people. Tables seat from one to four diners,
and individual seating is also available at the bar.
Please call (970) 491-7006 for reservations.
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