The Cowboy & The Rose Catering St. Regis Grand Jct
Well faithful readers this would be home for the next six hours: Knife
bag at the ready!
Catering is about performing in any venue. And this would prove a
challenge! Oh sure the picture looks good now, but this is after three
days work, cleaning and bringing the physical plant back to life. The
historic St. Regis hotel, many have walked her halls and drank at her
bar. She was one of the majestic hotels of her time, hosting overnight
guests passing through on rail and carriage. If her walls could talk she
would talk of Billy the Kid, of the Hole in the Wall Gang, she would
talk of past Presidents on Whistle Stops. Oh if you could listen to the
secrets her walls could tell!
But as we find her she has sat derelict for better than 16 months. The
owner gives us a tour and it looks tough, she has roof tiles dropped
from a water leak. She has dirt and clutter everywhere. And her kitchen
has not seen sanitizer for a long long time.
But we shall take this wart of a building and restore her, abate for one
night, to host a glorious party for one of our local service clubs. She
shall once again have dishes passing through the dish pit.
We shall breath life into the place again and she shall be a exquisite
host. First up the menu, so we are going standard fare, prime rib,
salmon, chef cut veggies, wild rice, twice baked taters, and various
desserts.
First to breath life into the place the physical plant must be started.
As caterers you get used to figuring out how to fire up a building.
Where are the boilers? Hot water heaters? in the cellars I go matches in
hand. With both hot water tanks running and the boiler up pumping heat
through her veins again the cold abandon smell of stale must begins to
leave the rooms as warm air courses through her vast spaces once again.
To set the place The Cowboy and The Rose decoration team moves in, old
glasses, a non working watch, a couple of forgotten packages of sugar,
all must go, and when it starts to come together you can see we will
once again bring this lady to life and it will be great!
The room takes on a new look, a look that she may have had in the late
1800s when the well to do roamed her vast spaces and discussed the
building of the State's first million dollar highway! And those
discussion invariably happened with the elixir of deals, alcohol, her bar
was in need of cleaning and display modifications.
And polished she would respond, she would reveal herself in a way that
only an elegant lady could do, slowly she would begin to look like her
grand old self
Her first barkeep in a while and it would happen her first customer
would be our FOH manager Russ. Yes she seemed to like having someone
leaning up against her fine mahogany again. She was responding well to
the attention.
She would reveal her bad side as well, on the line the pilot would go
out twice on the convection oven as she teased me into having to watch
her closely lest she not perform. If that is all she needed to produce
then she would be handled with care for the event must go on!
As she started to host the first hors d'oeuvres on the mahogany from so
many years ago, she began to relax and realize this is what she was made
for, this was her thing. And she knew she was damn good at doing her
thing.
In the days of yesteryear she hosted lots of eye candy, why should today
be any different. As they neared the witching hour that would see the
paying guests arrive the bar becomes a gathering place. So comfortable
to all who know her ways, easy to sit, lean or stand and discuss the
plan for the evenings event!
She is ready now, ready to perform her dance once again. She knows the
steps and can follow without thinking of the dance! She is still giving
fits to us in the BOH as the pilots drop out again and the Vulcan says
350 but is really sitting at 225F. To 450 with the Vulcan almost as soon
as I turn the thermostat up she spits and with a puff her 125K btu
burner kick back to full burn. Twiced bakes in the oven, salmon in the
oven, veggies and rice done at the main kitchen and cambro'd. Yes this
old lady would pull through for us and in style!
As the guests pour in, she is happy once again. She will still pull the
prank as her thermostat sticks and many guest find themselves on an
unwanted tropical vacation. Knock down the boiler and open a few doors
and the heat leaves.
Yes she is a wonrous host and the revellers will party into the night
with us cleaning up as fast a possible in the BOH.
It was hard to believe that two days ago she had ceiling tiles laying on
her floors and no life at all, he11 is was hard to believe that three
hours ago she had no one, just an elegant lady dressed for the date, by
a catering crew that just can not say NO it will not work!
She may lay dormant again for a long time, but we will remember as will
her guests the night this elegant lady came to life and played host to a
spectacular party, a party that would see her host 155 people in style,
a party that would reveal what is hidden in many places that are old and
forgotten. Elegance, history and the ability to function! Yes we gave
her a prom dress that night and she wore it well!!!
And she wore it well my friends!
I love this job!
Til we talk again
Chef Bob Ballantyne
The Cowboy and The Rose Catering
Grand Junction, Colorado
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