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The New Mexico Restaurant Association has just announced that for the second year in a row, they have nominated me as a finalist for their “Restaurateur of the Year” award, the highest honor they present each year. The winner will be announced at the Association’s annual Hospitality Industry Awards Dinner on September 10th at the Embassy Suites in Albuquerque.

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The summer season has arrived and we are open!  Join us and enjoy the cool mountain breezes.  Our flowers are blooming and for the first time in four years, there is no construction adjacent to the café.

We are featuring the same New Mexican breakfast we have during ski season.  Our Mountain Luncheon includes Salads, Sandwiches, Salads, and Specialties.  Escape the heat in your neck of the woods and drink in the view here in Taos Ski Valley.

We’re open Friday through Monday from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm.  There are several options for seating:  Our front patio, our café, our dining room, or our beautiful back garden.

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Writer Christopher Solomon pens a terrific article in today’s New York Times Travel Section about Taos Ski Valley’s transition, thanks to Louis Bacon’s investment in our ski resort.

The article also features beautiful photography by the paper’s Kate Russell.  The first thing that struck me about the photos was our famous Taos Light.

Also striking was the author’s mention of our two restaurants here at the Edelweiss Lodge and Spa:

“Perhaps the best food is at the Blonde Bear Tavern in the Edelweiss, with entrees like whole rainbow trout with red grapes and balsamic sauce ($25) or flatiron steak with Italian salsa verde ($28).”

Our flatiron steak, of course, is from New Mexico’s Four Daughters Land & Cattle ranch.

Plus this:

“For breakfast, go to Café Naranja in the Edelweiss, which serves entrees like pancakes made from organic Hopi heirloom blue corn and whole piñon ($7).”

The author has several quotes from our own Matt Gorman, who is a massage therapist here at the Edelweiss.  He’s been in Taos Ski Valley since 1999.  I liked this quote:

And everywhere, Matt shouted greetings to people he knew. Everybody knows everybody here. He said hi to Gary Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico who is a die-hard skier and who has a house in the area. “I joke and say that it’s not a season pass, it’s a membership card,” Matt told me on the lift. “It’s like a working-class country club. It’s not snooty. The locals are here, working hard, because they love to ski.”

And this quote from Louis Bacon:

“We established three goals: to upgrade the infrastructure and experience, to safeguard Taos’s unique character and to earn a return on our investment. Any two of these are doable, but accomplishing all three will be a challenge. I’m confident that by focusing on the first two goals now, we’ll get them all right for the future.”

Further Reading:

The New York Times:  “Mix of New and Old Enlivens Taos Ski Valley”

Related:

“On the Menu: Four Daughters Land and Cattle”

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The Kachina Peak Lift, right here in Taos Ski Valley.

The new lift will expand the mountain’s advanced and expert lift-serviced terrain by 50 percent.  The five-minute ride will whisk skiers up some 1,100 feet on a triple-seated fixed grip lift to New Mexico’s second-highest peak to an altitude of 12,450 feet.

The lift is being manufactured and installed by Salt Lake City-based Skytrac.  A majority of the concrete was poured in April, and the crew was back last week to install the poles.  I’ve gotten to know some of the guys when they come in Café Naranja to eat breakfast or buy beer.

It’s tough work in tough terrain, but they seem to take it all in stride. Check out the video to see just how tough:

Here’s a report from Albuquerque television station KOAT that aired back in May:

The new lift is on schedule to be operational when ski season starts on Thanksgiving.

Are you ready?

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Café Naranja has been named one of the finalists.  You can vote for your favorite by clicking here.

To celebrate the breakfast burrito’s success and its New Mexico heritage, the magazine has created the “New Mexico True Breakfast Burrito Byway.”

You can vote for as many as 10 of your favorites each day of the voting period.  You can submit only one ballot each day.

The finalists are listed in alphabetical order.  Once you’ve made your ten or fewer choices be sure to scroll to the bottom of the list and hit the “Submit” button.

And remember you can submit a new ballot every day! Voting ends at 11:45pm this Sunday, May 18.

Cast your vote each day by clicking here.

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From Fodor’s:

“At far too many ski areas across North America, the slopeside food options are dismal, consisting of little more than hamburgers, pizza, and wings eaten off plastic trays. But that doesn’t have to be the case. In fact, some of the world’s best ski areas are known as much for their food as for their slopes and snowfall. For apres-ski cocktails overlooking the French Alps in Courchevel to a multicourse meal at the top of Telluride, here’s where we go to ski and savor.”

.

1. Courchevel, France
2. Stowe, Vermont
3. Whistler, British Columbia
4. Vail, Colorado
5. Zermatt, Switzerland
6. Niseko, Japan
7. Telluride, Colorado
8. Cortina, Italy
9. Park City, Utah
10. Taos, New Mexico

.

Plus this:

“The low-key resort of Taos has a surprisingly good mix of restaurants, which are deeply rooted in Southwest and Mexican cuisine but it’s easy to find French, Italian, and Asian food too. “

Read the whole thing here.

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I’ve been gardening since I was a kid in Nebraska.  A few years after planting my first seed – a Lima bean I had plucked from a sack in our pantry and stuck it in the ground – I asked my dad if we could clear some bushes and trees in our back yard to make way for a sunny garden plot.  He agreed and I’ve been gardening ever since.

During the off season here in Taos Ski Valley, we only operate Café Naranja for breakfast and lunch four days a week.  That gives me time to tend to the beautiful gardens that surround the Edelweiss Lodge & Spa.

The Lodge is nestled within the heart of Taos Ski Valley on Sutton Place.  The crystal mountain waters of Rio Hondo meander through the north side of the property; these gardens we keep largely in their natural state.  To the south and east, we offer a more cultivated expression of our microclimate – our terroir.

Our terroir presents unique gardening benefits – and challenges, but this is my second year, so I think I’m getting the hang of it.

Friends and family have asked that I send pictures of my handiwork, so here they are, both for them and for folks that only come to Taos Ski Valley in the winter.

I spend many hours working the gardens, and do so with great pleasure.  My favorite time of day is near dusk, after perhaps a few hours of huffing and puffing in the thin dry mountain air:  tilling, planting, watering.  At sunset the light turns warm, the breeze becomes soft, and I feel close to God.

The music is the favorite of my grandma – Alice Hopp – to whom I dedicate this short film.

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