Monday, June 2, 7:00 p.m.
Members $85, guests $110

Renaissance chef/proprietor Charles Dale was born in France, spent his childhood in Monaco, his preteen years in the Bahamas, his adolescence in New York, and his adult years in Aspen. These days, he’s home on the range. After 13 high-octane years, Dale is closing Renaissance—where he fed Aspen’s stylish international crowds modern French food with a global spin—and transforming the space into Range. It debuts this month and will feature what Dale is calling Food of the West, specifically regional cuisine from Colorado, California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. A press release announcing the transformation explains just what caught Dale’s culinary fancy: “this wide and varied geographical landscape cradles a dazzling array of culinary riches.” At Range, Dale will emphasize regional ingredients, hormone-free meat, as much organic produce as possible, and an entirely American wine list. To reflect his new culinary direction, he is giving Renaissance a re-do from top to bottom, exchanging its elegant linens-and-crystal look for a more casual décor with natural elements.

It’s not that Renaissance wasn’t good to Dale. Five years into the restaurant’s life, Food & Wine named Dale one of the Best New Chefs in America, and in both 1998 and 1999, we nominated him as one of the best chefs in the Southwest region. Before opening his own restaurant, Dale worked under an A-list of French chefs in New York and in France—Alain Sailhac at Le Cirque, Georges Masraff in Paris, Daniel Boulud at Plaza Athénée Hotel and later Le Cirque, and Jean-Paul Lacombe in Lyon. Dale came to Aspen to work at Hotel Jerome.

Minnesota native Jason Tostrup signed on at Renaissance in 1996, shortly after graduating from St. Paul Technical College with a culinary degree. He worked his way up the kitchen ladder, starting as a pastry assistant, moving to roundsman, then sous-chef. In 1999, Tostrup was promoted to executive chef, and the following year Dale opened the country French Rustique Bistro and deployed Tostrup to run the kitchen. Tostrup is now at Range, and Rustique’s current chef, Joseph Munoz, will be joining Dale and Tostrup in New York. As befits its name, Rustique Bistro serves simple, hearty fare in a comfortable, romantic farmhouse setting. In 2001, John Mariani named the bistro to his Best New Restaurant list.

Wait ’til Mariani gets a load of Range.