The off season shuffle in Aspen has always seen some changes of the available eats in town and this fall is no different. Dish Aspen has shut the doors after a 3 year run as well as D19 both for different reasons. Dena Marino, the chef that made D19 what it was, is working on opening a Aspen restaurant in the now empty Dish Aspen space down the block from her former eatery. No complete word on what exactly (D20) will be, but Italian would be the best guess. Ruth’s Chris has also ended its run of almost three years after losing close to 2 million trying to make it work. In one sense you could say that Aspenites like originality and national chains fail in that respect but the $35,000 a month lease they were paying would be hard for anyone to keep up with.
The new Aspen Restaurants that have come on the scene at the same time even things out. Newest on the scene is Noodles by Kenichi is a little noodle shop in the new Phat City Plaza, err I mean the Ute City Plaza. Opened in mid September was La Palapa at the ol’ Blue Maize, a mexican eatery operated by Eddie Zane of Zane’s fame. Il Mulino Aspen will be opening at the end of October. The famed il Mulino of New York has expanded to a few prime locations in the U.S. and now they are set at the base of the Little Nell at the Residences on October 23rd.