Day 87: Food trends (Eat what you want Day)

At first glance, you might think having a restaurant, deciding on the theme, picking deco, and making a menu plan is a one time thing. Let me tell you, it’s not!

In the past thirty years, we’ve tried our best to find tasteful solutions for our guests that were on some special diet, be it South Beach, low carb, high protein, vegan, lactose intolerant, gluten free, allergic to celery or nuts, and more! 

We have fielded some interesting questions as well along the way.  Are there nuts in your Pecan pie? What is rhubarb? Are there cowboys in your Cowboy Buffalo Stew?  Could you take the seed off my strawberries?

Thankfully most guests are in the game with us, looking for solutions that keep the flavor and banish the issues. We are always grateful when we get a recipe or substitution suggestion that really works.  Guess the good news is that since we make most all our food from scratch, we can often eliminate or replace troublesome items in our recipes. In doing so, we have systems in place to prevent cross-contamination as we best can.   In spite of our efforts, we are not a gluten free kitchen or strict certified Kosher kitchen as we do not have the space required for these strictest of culinary practices.

We do our very best to train and educate our entire staff as to our menu items and their makeup. As guests check in for our B&B we strive to always check for dietary restrictions. For several years we’ve had a dietary cheat sheet for our Dining Room Staff to us and give to dining guests who ask us about ingredients. We especially loved the ‘business card” idea a guest brought last year to alert us of her daughter’s challenges, just having that on the table throughout the meal was a super reminder to give extra consideration.  That idea spurred us to create our own table tent sign for these special guests.

So when you dine with us, as you have questions or concerns, we invite your inquiry of our ingredient details.  We truly want you to eat what you want every day!  

Written by Lois Smith 

Day 83: Lemons to Lemonade (National Lemonade Day)

One of the most challenging things about life, and indeed business, are the unexpected twists and turns. From the slight annoyances to the devastatingly insurmountable, the wise among us have learned to take a creative twist to the lemons of life, knowing that a challenging situation may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. So, on this National Lemonade Day, when life has handed the good folks of The Baldpate Inn lemons, we honor their spirit and unwavering determination to make the best of it, get creative with those lemons, and turn them into something delicious like lemon blueberry muffins, lemon ginger muffins, or pink lemonade pie!!  

One of the biggest unexpected challenges that has been faced by The Baldpate Inn was the extreme flood of 2013. The reality of the damage to the property and loss of business, by being forced to close six weeks early, was a heavy and imposing challenge to overcome. The shift towards the positive began with gratitude, recognizing that everyone was safely evacuated. Through much hard work, persistence, and the healing balm of time, we are now able to see blessings that have come from this event. The generosity and kindness of family, friends, and even people we didn’t know, all reaching out to help demonstrated the very best in humanity. Perseverance paid off in the major improvements on the road, and indeed, we can now laugh at the cleaned out basement.

We are learning to see the bright possibility in every trying situation. As previously mentioned, even disappointing social media reviews turn into opportunities to improve, and better delight our customers. A new food trend can present an initial challenge that can result in a bouquet of new recipes and favorites! More to come on this soon!

Even this blog, as rewarding as it has been, has come with its own set of challenges. 100 blogs in 100 days is a lot of blogs, and not a lot of time, let me tell you. But the difficulties have been far outshined by the relationships and connections that continue to strengthen. The history of the Baldpate Inn has taken on new life, and been shared with so many curious folks. And, as an unexpected bonus, our archives are now much more organized! 

As we are certain that life will continue to present the unexpected, we stand assured that the family and friends of The Baldpate Inn will continue to look on the bright side, find the silver lining, and enjoy those lemony treats at The Baldpate Inn.

Written by Liz Rodgers

Baldpate Flood video at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-wYPYq_poQ

Day 71: Christmas in July at The Baldpate Inn

What is more fun than decorating for Christmas? Since we are closed during the winter, we didn’t want to miss out, hence Christmas in July! Noting this 1922 news story, our recent promo is not a new idea.

Our dining promotions have always been sort of a marketing idea, but intended as fun for the staff as well. An initial aspect of our Christmas in July celebration was our behind the scenes staff competition (who can sell the most gift shop items). When our cooks commented that they really couldn’t compete, we brainstormed how to get them involved.  Competition for specially decorated Christmas cookies for our B&B guests' nightly snacks was the first plan.

Somewhere along the way we decided on an even better idea ~ Gingerbread Houses!  With a cook or manager heading each team, the competition took on a whole new level.  Not to be left out, we decided our guests could be the judges to join in the fun. (Our resident Santa seemed perhaps a little biased!)

Our cooks are responsible for the basic shape, then only imagination is the limit! 

Yes, we have added some basic rules over the years, to limit size and edible-ness, along with, "Don’t eat the gummi bears off your opponent’s house."

Team bonding happens for sure, but also it has been a fun culture-sharing event especially for our international staff.


Of course the winning team loves the special bragging honors!

Written by Lois Smith

Day 69: New Recipes

Having an award-winning restaurant doesn’t mean you can just relax with your menu offerings. There are always new ideas being suggested either by guests, or food trends, or a popular new ingredient.

As the primary chef, I’ve tried hard to be unique and original. Being known as the “best of” is always fun, but it is especially nice to be “one of a kind” as well.  So when developing our menu items I’ve tried to not copy other places, especially in Estes Park, but to have our own branded items.

We have to admit as well, our menu gets a little too familiar to our staff by the end of the season (especially since we eat it twice a day every day).  We do get a laugh at the concoctions that diners and staff come up with, adding this to that from the Salad Bar or mixing soups or whatever!

Fall seems to be our most experimental season for new recipes.  We’ve had some huge winners, think Banana Butterscotch Muffins, and some long forgotten sincere losers, like Baseball Park Muffin with pickle relish and hot dogs.

You know how things sometimes just stick in your mind, well that pickle relish did, and so be on the lookout for our new 2017 Dill Pickle soup….. working on a name, but so far, family reviews are positive!

Wish I’d kept a diary of our new menu items as they were created! We started with just Beef Stew and Red Chili as our hearty soups, then my sister-in-law, Loretta, gave me the idea for our White Chili recipe. I must admit I hesitated trying it, but when we added it to our menu in 1991, customers greeted it with lots of odd looks and ridiculously silly comments, along with some rave reviews.

Being located in the mountains we often received requests for “wild game” so our Cowboy Buffalo Stew became our answer in 2005. The “wild west trail drive” flavors (simple ingredients you might find along the trail), made this an instant favorite.  Its name has a special double meaning too, as the year we perfected this recipe, several of our cooks were “Cowboys” students from Oklahoma State University.

Then there is our beloved Pumpkin Curry Soup, recipe yet unpublished, which is based on one that Jen sent me. She discovered it during her time stationed in Germany in the US military.  Several years after we added the recipe, as I was telling guests the recipe was originally from Germany, she told me the full story. The recipe wasn’t from one of our favorite little German pubs as I had thought, but she had actually found the idea on the side of a canned product she had purchased in the US Army commissary!  So much for my proud story of its German culinary ties. 

Although the “German” pumpkin one isn’t there, you can find many of our classic recipes in our famed cookbook, Collections of Baldpate. 

What have been your most favorite Baldpate recipes? Anything you’d like to see us add?

Written by Lois Smith

Day 68: Earth Day Recycling at The Baldpate Inn

Unless you have been in this situation, it is sort of hard to imagine how much trash, cardboard and leftovers a business can generate.

We have striven to be earth friendly as best we can with the added challenges of being a bit remote in a mountain community.  We’ve tried some novel things, had some successes and some failures.

Even back in the 1990s we earned an EPA award for our efforts in recycling. Still now, even though the staff would say it is not their most favorite task, but we do make at least weekly trips to the Estes Park recycle center to donate our cardboard and tin cans. 

With so much ‘good’ produce scrap, (think lettuce leaves and carrot peelings)  for a couple of years, we worked with a local family contributing to their compost, but eventually it became too much for them to continue.

Our local bear family would of course be delighted to help whenever they can. However, knowing the pitfalls of feeding wildlife, we have diligently taken their best interest to heart and spent lots of time discouraging them from investigating our bins.  At first, just having motion lighting worked. But we have really smart bears, so additional deterrents were needed. Grandpa Sam came up with the electric fence solution around our dumpsters, which is still effectively in place today. 


This “shocking” system works great if you remember to turn it on and off, a fact that could be confirmed by more than one staff member. (Honestly, we do try to remember to warn new staff members to turn it off before they touch the dumpsters.)

Since we are so insistent about the hot, out-of-the-oven freshness of our baked goods, we needed some solutions here as well. Leftover pies and cinnamon rolls do not seem to be a problem, as the staff would happily concur. But try as we may, baking just the correct amount of muffins can be a daunting challenge. At the end of the day, our local foodbank, Crossroads Ministry, has been our saving grace for this surplus. We are happy to share and pleased to know that our lovingly-made food is going to an excellent cause. 

Written by Lois Smith

Day 65: Oops Breaks and Bloopers (National Humorous Day)

Everybody has had a one of those days that just doesn’t go right. And some of us have had several of those days in a row! So what do you do? Laugh and smile for the camera! Here’s an ode to some of the ‘whoops!’ moments of the Baldpate Staff, caught in action. 

So if your day could fill a bloopers reel, know that you are not alone! Take a moment, breathe, and look for the humor in the situation. 

After the milk machine explodes all over you, a congratulatory glass of milk from your colleagues is a must!

The latest in salad dressing masques.

Sad day! Not one but two chocolate cream pies demolished.

July 29th....  and August 1st!

Some days, gravity is just stronger! 

Written by Liz Rodgers

Day 50: Water at Baldpate

It is really fascinating that way up in the Rocky Mountains, water has been such a recurring theme at Baldpate.  From our Big Thompson Water project key, to our floods, to the challenges of providing water at 9,000 feet elevation with our Baldpate water system.

Ever wonder how to get water from one side of a mountain to the other?  Our Key Collection has part of the answer. 

The Big Thompson water project did just that in the Colorado mountains, and we have a key and key hole donated in 1944 from that project. 

 "This key was presented to Baldpate Inn through the courtesy of S.S. Magoffin Company.  This key was forged from the last piece of drill rod, drilling the last hole in the last round of the Alva B. Adams Tunnel.  This drill rod was removed from the ground at a point 42,994 feet from the tunnel portal; the longest single heading known to engineering history.  Forged and finished by James B. Pearce”

Water coming and going for The Baldpate Inn has had its challenges as well.  When we bought the Inn, our property was part of a development project, Baldpate Estates, which had its own metro district for water and sewer. For the first several years, they furnished these utilities for us. 

Not to be too graphic, at the time we were using holding tanks for our waste, but since our business grew rather quickly, we were all surprised when the tanks couldn’t keep up and another solution was needed.  First we went with our own septic field but ultimately ended up with the “flush & forget” (as they called it) attachment to the Upper Thompson Sanitation District. Let me tell you a two mile long 1,500 foot drop service line is not cheap to put in the rocky mountains! 

In the meantime, the Baldpate Estates was phasing out as an entity and with it, much needed maintenance to the water system. I’ll never forget Father’s Day 1998, with 200+ dining reservations, and we ran out of water!!  We struggled for several hours, using every dish and piece of silverware we owned, but ultimately had to close and call our guests to cancel.

A very long story short, along with another bank loan later, today we are blessed to have our own water system. Our system includes two adjudicated wells, a 40,000 gallon holding tank, and an augmentation plan that entailed answering (and thankfully winning based on historic use) a water rights court case filed by the US Government against me as property owner.  And as a bonus, I have managed to somehow maintain my licensing as a Class D Water Operator (I know that means nothing to most of you, but let me tell you, even counting my college Chemistry days, it was the hardest test I ever took!)

So water, water everywhere……  I’m remain thankful we have some to drink!

 Written by Lois Smith

Day 31: Baldpate China

Nearly anywhere you look in The Baldpate Inn, you can find history that makes you wonder about the past.  The story of our Baldpate china is no exception.

When we first bought the Inn, we found several pieces of the Inn’s oldest Mayer white & green signature china, but certainly not enough to use. I just love the shapes of some of the old pieces we have found in boxes over time. I mean, who uses “bone” plates anymore?!

Back then, we had been told there was a set of brown Baldpate “Key” Syracuse china (circa 1933) that we could purchase, but at the time, we could not afford it. Eventually we received it as a gift, and have since used it for special events when we can.

Fortunately, I received a small inheritance from my mom’s sister, and so with that we bought our silverware and the basic white china which we used for many years.  Several years down the road, when we needed more china, we decided to try to track down the original company, Syracuse, to see if they could reproduce our original Baldpate china. The sad news came back that a fire at the factory had destroyed all the custom records, so it was no longer an option.

Don’t know about you, but I have always loved my coffee in a mug, so we found a source for custom mugs, and many of you will remember the tall Baldpate mugs we used and sold for years. We even did a special blue & gold one for to commemorate our 75^th birthday in 1992.

You may wonder, even today, why we have three colors. We did it to simplify service for our waitstaff, a code for what you are drinking!  Tan (now blue) mugs for regular coffee, green for decaf and burgundy for tea. 

Now what you probably don’t know, is that I seem to have an uncanny ability to choose whatever is going to be discontinued. So in the past 30 years, our china, silverware, mugs, sheets, towels, robes, staff shirts…you name it, were all at one time or another taken off the market!! 

Deneen Pottery saved the day when they stepped in to custom-make our beloved new Baldpate china. What a delightful family-operated company to work with!   

And so we are especially pleased to announce our newest 100^th birthday celebration mug for 2017!  It’s going to be spectacular and available online in our gift shop or at the Inn when we open on May 26^th!

 Written by Lois Smith

Day 29: 3.14 Pie Day!

Ok, given we are a family of foodies, I guess it was just to be expected that we would come up with family gatherings that centered around pie-eating contests.  In fact we just had one a few weeks ago at my sister’s home in Morrison!   We’ve tried some dandies over the years! —the avocado one, not so good, the peeled grape one, way too much work, the Swedish Apple, always a family fav!  Who knows, one of these 2017 winners might show up on our menu!

My mom, Esther Hoke, is really the inspiration for our pies.  Growing up in the Midwest (Ohio), I thought everyone had meat, potatoes, a vegetable, bread and then pie for dessert every night!  Mom loved to cook and entertain and was ready to try new “healthy” recipes.  Enter the non-lard pie crust, made with Wesson oil which I am sure she determined was not only better for your health but much easier to make. In my family, having a pie in the freezer has always been just basic insurance for drop in company.

My dad, Sam Hoke, is the reason we are so generous with our pie. He said if we were going to charge “that much” it better be a full one-sixth pie!  And he when he was ordering, he would never forget the ice cream on top!

When we discovered that The Baldpate Inn was homesteaded via the Agricultural Act, of course we pondered, so what was the crop?  Rhubarb was the key!!  Even today, our rhubarb pie is among the top sellers.

 

I sure wish I’d kept track because I am often asked, how many pies have we sold?  Don’t really know, but I do know some days we make 30 or 35 pies. Hmm, 30 pies x 100+days x 30+ years--you do the math, it makes me tired!

What you may not know, is that our staff is only allowed to eat the “leftover” or damaged pies. You can imagine the definition of damaged seems to vary in the eye of the beholder!

While I make most of the pies, our seasonal cooks are always most proud when they master the crust and complete a pie!

Of course like any kitchen, we do have our moments too when things get a little overdone!

Written by Lois Smith