Smart Growth
Photo by Brooke Casillas
The newly remodeled Cache Cache
Bigger is sometimes better: Sheriff Bob Braudis. Highland Bowl. Klaus Obermeyer’s smile. Add the newly expanded Ajax Tavern and Cache Cache to that list. Both have long been scenes as much as restaurants. Après-ski at the gondola-side Tavern could be a madhouse on a sunny ski day. Cache Cache, thanks to a bar menu concept that infected all Aspen, was often overrun any night. In a land where up-sizing is viewed suspiciously, these are welcome expansions. Both renovations were drastic. Ajax Tavern enlarged its patio and transformed its interior with dark woods. Executive chef Jim Butchart was brought in to manage the lunch rush and add dinner service for the signature French bistro cuisine. Cache Cache turned a neighboring 1,700 square feet of real estate offices into a sleek extension of its bar. The expanded room looks spacious by day—but by night, it still gets jammed. Now that’s smart growth.
