D I N I N G G U I DE SH O WC A S E
Ore House & Rochester COLLABORATION By Billy Grimes
On a cool autumn evening, I was lucky to enjoy the convivial magic of a five-course dinner outdoors at the Rochester Hotel’s Secret Garden. The sumptuous meal was prepared off-site in the Ore House kitchen, just a block away, then carefully transported by golf cart, ably assembled, and served with minimal contact by the Ore House’s attentive staff. This happy alliance made me curious about its origin. It has been said that ingenuity is stimulated by difficulty, and the pandemic has been nothing if not difficult for our local businesses. They’ve had to become very creative in order to remain viable. I’ve noticed this before in our somewhat remote mountain town: the resourcefulness that comes when our people are faced with a challenging situation. For example: After the 416 Fire two years ago, Durango came together to support businesses after the tourist season went bust. Sheer ingenuity comes in the absence of easy solutions. In the pantheon of Durango business establishments, the Ore House and the Rochester Hotel have to be included. These two places have withstood the test of time and have become part of the fabric of our community. Generations have enjoyed the oldschool steakhouse vibe of the Ore House, and the Rochester is one of Durango’s oldest hotels. Its revival 22 years ago brought new life to Second Avenue. These two businesses are stalwart institutions that help give Durango its character and charm. The Ore House, started in 1972 and located on East College Drive, cannot have a “bump-out” dining area to cope with the pandemic, like the other restaurants on Main Avenue, and the alley behind the restaurant is not suitable for patio seating, since dumpsters are not usually associated with fine dining. Operations director/co-owner Ryan Lowe found a solution during these difficult times after reaching out to his longtime friend Kirk Komick, proprietor of the The Leland House & Rochester Hotel, about combining their efforts to create something unique in Durango. The Rochester Hotel has a kitchen and usually serves delicious breakfasts for its guests, but it has been closed since May due to the pandemic. In normal times, The Secret Garden next to the hotel hosts a summer concert series and is open for many other events. The beautiful space 44 Durango Magazine Winter/Spring
Photos by Brandon Mathis
was lonely and needed to be enjoyed. The Ore House, with its state-of-the-art kitchen and classic steakhouse interior, is just two blocks away and needed a safe outdoor dining area. By combining forces, together they found a way forward, and the “Ore House at the Rochester Garden Wine and Dinner Series” was born. The menu changes weekly and is built around The Ore House’s extensive wine collection. The Ore House sources food from local farmers, ranchers, and other culinary contributors in the community to curate these exceptional meals. An optional wine pairing is offered to go perfectly with each dish. The menu for the dinner series will evolve with the changing of the seasons. Reservations open for the following week at 5 p.m. on Saturday, and dinners are served Thursday through Sunday.
As our meal progressed and the evening turned to night, the lights and excellent live music provided by the iAM Music Institute created a dreamy atmosphere we all enjoyed. The tables were spaced apart, and at no time did our group feel unsafe. It was a “black-mask affair,” although most people were dressed in “Durango casual.” I wanted to find out more, so I came back the next night to go behind the scenes to find out how this unusual coupling worked. When both businesses were forced to suspend their operations in the early spring of 2020, their employees were, of course, apprehensive about what would come next. I spoke with the Ore House kitchen staff the next evening, and they let me know how eager they’d been to get back to work in this new symbiotic union called The Wine and Dinner Series. I could