Is eating healthy in Aspen an Oxymoron?
-by Alison Berkley Margo
I always joke with my yoga students they need to “detox to retox,” but the thing is, I’m not joking.
Aspen is a decadent place where hedonism and indulgence comes easy for those who can afford it. It is a town that loves to eat and drink, to enjoy life. I’m all for that. But there’s this little inherent paradox in the Aspen lifestyle. Not only are you supposed to be the last one standing at the bar, you’re also supposed to be the first one in line for the gondola the next morning. What do you mean it takes you over an hour to skin up Aspen Mountain?
In order to keep up with the Jonses (or the Kennedys or the Marolts or Chris Everett, or whoever it might be in this case) you have to strike some kind of balance. As a Bikram yoga instructor, I believe it’s about maintaining a healthy diet and active lifestyle so you can get away with those little indulgences once and a while.
The real challenge comes with where to buy your healthy food. Aspen isn’t exactly an agricultural goldmine, nor is it a health food capital. In fact, most of the so-called “fresh” produce we get comes from places as far away as New Zealand and Chile. By the time it gets to us, these poor fruits and veggies look puckered, tired and worn. If you listen really carefully, you can almost hear them moaning and crying from the aisles of the supermarket. The flavor? What flavor? The only truly fresh product we get in Colorado is meat.
That said, there are a few small oases in our little health food depleted high country desert.
Honey Bee Juice Bar
I fell in love with Kate Linehan and the Honey Bee juice bar during a bout with a bad cold earlier this winter. Located in the Ute City building by Blooming Birds, Kate makes fresh, cold-pressed organic juices, smoothies, and soups fresh daily. Her Immunity Juice (carrot, ginger, orange and lime) got me through my bout with a virus that was going around and tasted and felt so good I looked forward to it every day.
Since then, I’ve had a chance to try some of her other concoctions. I love the Skin Glow (carrot, lemon, ginger, apple) and the Green Smoothie, which has tons of micronutrients (kale, spinach, banana coconut oil and cold-pressed apple juice) but is still tasty and sweet. I love the hint of coconut oil, which is one of the best antioxidant foods you can eat. You can almost feel the nutrients soaking into your bones. It actually tastes good-for-you, and the power of suggestion alone is enough to put a glow in your cheeks and a bounce in your step.
And her handmade almond milk is to die for—it’s so rich and creamy you want to just hang your tongue in it and give it a big, wet kiss.
Kate is always behind the bar with her bright eyes and wide smile. She grew up in the valley. In addition to providing downtown Aspen with the only source for fresh, organic, cold-pressed juices, she herself is locally grown.
Roxy’s Market
I know you think the Aspen Business Center is sooo far away, but get real: it’s three miles from downtown Aspen. And if you saw the mini-mart that was there before, with it’s fried food buffet and the stench of grease that would stick to your clothes and hair long after you walked out the door, you’d understand why we jumped for joy when this elegant gourmet market came in and took it’s place.
Roxy is one of the only markets in the valley that carries locally raised meat products from Milagro Ranch and Paonia as well as fresh, locally grown produce. I bought a bag of greens that were farmers market grade, but in the middle of winter. And one day, I picked up pork chops that were so fresh, they actually tasted like something other than the sauce I put on it. Roxy also carries an ample inventory of health conscious products, from organic rice pastas to gluten free this-and-thats. Her prices are high, even by Aspen’s standards, but like my mama always likes to say, “You get what you pay for.”
Pyramid Café
When I was living in Southern California, I could eat in or go out and stay on whatever kakameme diet or health regimen I was on at the moment. You go to restaurants and they’re literally coded for the health conscious and over-obsessed with menu items designated with GF and V and hormone free this and dairy free that. But in Aspen, you can pretty much assume your steak has been doused with butter and your food fried in oil that probably isn’t organic or made from coconuts. People don’t come to Aspen to care, they come to escape, and nowhere is that more true than in our restaurants: they are all decadent to some degree. Even the sushi bars pride themselves on signature dishes that are fried and rolls that are coated in sugary sauces. (After visiting me and spending over 200 dollars on our meal at a famed sushi bar, my brother once said, “That was really good 200 dollar sauce.”)
Pyramid is a good option for dining out even when you are being extra careful about what you’re putting in. The menu is both healthy and creative with options like flaxseed-spelt gnocchi and hazelnut barley risotto. There’re also a wide variety of raw organic salad options and salad and sandwich combos (if you aren’t on a gluten-free diet, the bread is made fresh and is very good). Just beware that it might not be the best place to bring your beer-and-wings kind of guy—the kale chrunchies and chilled split pea soup might scare him. But if you’re looking to score a meal that’s not going to throw you off your healthy eating program, at least the ingredients and preparations won’t scare you. And if a quiet, calm vibe is what you’re after, you can’t beat the upstairs-from-bookstore feeling. I don’t know if it’s the smell of new paper or what, but I always leave feeling smarter.
Alison Berkley Margo
Know any good places to get health food in Aspen? Please reply below