the ouray county watch tuesday, august 5, 2008 | OCW • 13

Four Corners Café Is Oriented to the Sun

We aren’t the only people who will enjoy the company of the restaurant’s owners at the

new Four Corners Café in the Chipeta Sun Lodge in Ridgway.

Jack and Patsy Young greet patrons of the restaurant as if they were old friends – as many of them are. The Four Corners captures the small-town vibe of Ridgway. The people who eat there are either Jack and Patsy’s neighbors in the Solar Ranches neighborhood, or other nearby Ridgway neighborhoods, or are guests at the Chipeta Sun Lodge, which is the sort of small des-tination resort that appeals to a self-selecting group of like-minded people. (You know who you are.) Or they go way back with Jack and Patsy, as far back as early resort-town Telluride, circa 1972.

In short, we are all friends here. (And that will no doubt be equally true in winter, when Jack and Patsy are at one of their other homes, in Kauai or Fiji.)

I’ve enjoyed dinner at the Four Corners on two consecu-tive Thursday nights. Both nights I met Jack and/or Patsy before we ate at the Ridgway

Town Park where there was free music. Was every single resident of Ridgway there? Sure seemed like it. The scene was right out of Norman Rockwell, dogs and kids running around, neighbors catching up on gossip, all under the gorgeous spell of a Rocky Mountain summer evening. The Chipeta Sun Lodge was a proud sponsor of the four Thursdays of free music in the Ridgway Park, and Jack and Patsy are commu-nity stalwarts, mingling in the park with the best of them.

An architect and builder, Jack developed the Solar Ranch-es, with the Chipeta Sun Lodge as an anchor to it. The neighbor-hood on the town’s south side helps define what Ridgway has become in the last ten years. Ridgway’s future was on hold for many years, Jack recalls, while plans for the Ridgway reservoir were being developed. There was a chance the town would be flooded. But after the dam’s size and location were finally determined, giving the town a reprieve, people could once again invest in their prop-erties. Shortly after that, he and a partner stepped in to propose and then develop the first full-on neighborhood of new homes in the new, future-oriented Ridgway.

That orientation is to the south, to the sun. Looking that direction from the gorgeous decks on the wing of the Chipeta

that houses the restaurant, and from the restaurant’s windows, the view is of the wide open Un-compahgre Valley, a spectacu-lar landscape. Part of what So-lar Ranches achieves is a town boundary beyond which the zoning is agricultural, hopefully forever, and the view protected.

So what kind of food should a sun lodge in the new Ridgway serve in its restaurant?

The Youngs recruited a chef from Telluride, Paul Sarmiento, who worked at a number of Tel-luride eateries, lastly Honga’s. His wife, Cathrine, is his un-failingly gracious front-of-the house partner. I chatted briefly with Paul, who cautioned that his new restaurant is too new to be written about. Come back in a few years, he said. The menu will evolve. Good attitude.

But, really, Sarmiento has nothing to apologize for. The starters tilt Southwestern, in keeping with the restaurant’s name and its adobe architec-ture, including Chipotle Garlic Prawns ($11), Mahi Mahi Tacos ($10), and Tortilla Soup ($7).

Our Dinner With Jack and Patsy

sports and entertainment

Linings

5 4 1 M a i n S t r e e t , O u r a y 9 7 0 - 3 2 5 - 4 9 3 0

Silveru n i q u e a n d e l e g a n t g i f t s

Mr. & Mrs. Luke YoungAnother Happy Coupleʼs Wedding & Reception

July 26th, 2008 at the 4-H Event Center.

Get Ready...2008 Ouray County Fair coming Aug 28-30 & 2008 Ouray

County Rodeo coming Aug 31-Sept 1

4-H Event Center & Fairgroundsphone 626-3304 • fax 626-330622739 Hwy. 550 • Ridgway CO 81432

CLASSICS FROM

THE PAST ANTIQUES645 Main St. • Ouray, CO

970-729-2453

www.classicsfromthepast.comclassics@ouraynet.com

Culinary TraCTsBy Seth Cagin

soLar eXposure – The Four Corners Café, located at the Chipeta Sun Lodge & Spa, features a fresh fusion menu. A porch bar and rooftop seat-ing overlook some of the best scenery in Colorado. (Photo by Seth Cagin)see cuLinary on page 17

the ouray county watch tuesday, august 5, 2008 | OCW • 17

All were tasty but my favorite were the prawns, dressed in an irresistible sauce. Crispy Bison Potstickers ($10) are a success-ful fusion of the Asian cooking Sarmiento told me he favors and the Southwest, served with a sweet chili dipping sauce.

Sarmiento makes a killer Ci-lantro Lime Vinaigrette dressing that I highly recommend if you order one of the salads, made with greens from Patsy’s garden when possible, but always organic regardless.

Another influence: the Youngs’ love of Polynesia. Why not “fuse” Mahi Mahi with a blue corn crust and salsa fresca Hollandaise ($24) for an entrée? Marta loved it. I ordered roasted rack of lamb ($26) one Thursday (unimpeachable) and the most unusual-sounding item on the menu the second: a pasta sautéed with roasted garlic, spinach, ca-pers, thyme, fresh parsley and … trout? Served with a choice of Maytag blue cheese cream sauce or olive oil? Naturally, I had to try the blue cheese sauce and am happy to report that this all came together beautifully. There was only a hint of blue cheese in the sauce and as for trout on pasta? Well, why not? Trout is a mem-

ber of the salmonid family, after all, and salmon on pasta is old hat – not that there’s anything wrong with it.

Our second dinner with Jack and Patsy we were joined by an-other Telluride old-timer, Kathy Wahlstrand, so naturally the din-ner conversation was full of remi-niscences – of “Smilin’ Jack” as

he was known in Jimmy’s Red Hots Presents, from Dynamic Downtown Telluride: Rocky Mountain Fever. This classic “alternative” comic book by Jim Burleigh, another early architect/planner of the then-new Telluride, seems to get it all, though I can’t testify to that from any first-hand experience. Jack will probably be

happy to tell you about a scene in the comic when Big Do Anne Hain went after him, and why and where, and with what tool.

The Four Corners Café will likely be the setting over the years for many such stories. It’s that kind of place.

Historical Society Announces Exciting August Calendar

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culinary from page 13

OURAY – The Ouray Coun-ty Historical Society’s popu-lar Evenings of History lecture series wrapped up on Tuesday night with Kevin Chismire’s talk on the Wright brothers of Ouray. More than 70 people gathered at the Wright Opera House in Ouray to learn about the family that built the grand and charming building on Main Street. Chismire is currently the president of the OCHS Board of Directors and an ophthalmolo-gist who lives in Ridgway with his family.

Although this was the final lecture in the Evenings of Histo-ry series, the OCHS calendar of events is brimming with fun and educational activities through-out August. On Saturday, Aug. 9, another of the ever popular

Guided Cemetery Walking Tours will be held at 9 a.m. at the Ce-dar Hill Cemetery. Learn about Ouray’s notorious and colorful

characters that have been laid to rest here.

A Family Style Evening Stroll of Historic Main Street Guided Tour will be held on Sat-

urday, Aug. 16, at 3 p.m. Hear the stories about the buildings and people that shaped Ouray’s Main Street. On the final day of

the annual quilt show, Aug. 25, the Quilter’s Tea and Quilt Talk will be held at the museum at 4 p.m. The Viewers Choice Quilt will be awarded and refresh-

ments will be served.Aug. 28-30 brings Victorian

Days to Ouray. A free lecture at the Wright Opera House titled

“Mesker Iron Fronts” is sched-uled for Aug. 28 at 7:30 p.m. Darius Bryjka of the Illinois His-torical Society, an expert on the subject, will present the lecture.

On Aug. 29, Vignettes of Histo-ry 2008: An Evening with Tom Walsh, Evalyn and Friends will be held. This is shaping up to be a wonderful evening of history and socializing and includes ap-petizers at historic Ouray homes, dinner at the Beaumont Hotel and the vignettes performance at the Wright Opera House. This will be an event not to miss.

Finally, two walking tours are available on Aug. 30. The first is a Guided Walking Tour of the Mesker Front Buildings on Historic Main Street at 10 a.m. and the second is a Guided Walking Tour of Historic Ouray Buildings at 2 p.m.

Contact the Ouray County Museum at 325-4576 for more information and to sign up for any of these events.

qualifying for circuit finals and the Wrangler finals in Las Vegas,” he said.

The Ouray County Rodeo Association has announced the Grand Marshall, the Queen and the Princess for the 2008 rodeo. The Grand Marshall will be Bill Fries, a.k.a. CW McCall. The Ro-deo Queen will be Kit Hietala and her attendant will be Selina Her-nandez. The Rodeo Princess will be Rosie Rogers.

Sunday is family day this year, with admission to the rodeo

costing $20 for a family of four. Individual admission both days is $8 for adults, $5 for children 6-12, and free for kids under 5. The Fireman’s Ball is on Sunday night at the Ridgway Firehouse, starting at 9 p.m. “You come to our ball, we’ll come to your fire,” the fire-men say.

The Labor Day parade is at 10 a.m. on Monday, with lineup in front of the Ridgway Elementary School at 9 a.m. A barbecue fol-lows in Town Park at 11 a.m. The rodeo starts at 1 p.m. both days. Contact Schroeder or Schlosser for more information.

On Saturday, Aug. 9, another of the ever popular Guided Cemetery Walking Tours will be held at 9 a.m. at the Cedar Hill Cemetery. Learn about Ouray’s notorious and colorful characters

that have been laid to rest here.

rodeo from page 11

file photo 2007