Courtesy The Fort |
New Life for the Old West
by Doug Schnitzspahn
The Fort is far more than a world class dining experience. It's a living, breathing museum that serves up the way the West used to be in the days of 19th century fur trappers—even when it comes down to the menu.
The bigger-than-life story of Samuel P. Arnold reads like an old classic movie script. In the 1940s the Yale grad and his wife traveled out West for a job at the still top-secret Los Alamos nuclear labs. But instead they ended up slumming with artists and writers in Santa Fe and developing a fascination with Western art, history, and food.
In the early '50s, the pair moved up to Denver to chase dollars running an advertising agency representing British sports cars including Jaguar and Triumph.
Then it was time to build the dream.
In 1962, Arnold purchased 100 acres of land in the red rock in Morrison, Colo., on a hogback ridge overlooking Denver. The charmed site supposedly had been somewhat sacred to Native tribes: none of the constantly warring factions would fight each other here. But more importantly, it was the ideal spot to build Arnold's dream home, an authentic recreation of the Bent's adobe fort built along the Santa Fe Trail in southern Colorado in 1833 as a base for fur trapping and trading operations. When the money ran out, Arnold decide to turn his home into a restaurant that would serve up not just meals from the early pioneer days, but also serve as a cultural and historical center for everything Old West.
Buffalo bone marrow
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Arnold passed away in June 2006, but his dream is thriving, and his daughter Holly Arnold Kinney, also a marketing whiz and history buff, has her restaurant/museum/home, running full steam—serving 200 to 400 diners each evening, seven days a week, in an adobe tower and Spanish colonial dining rooms.
The menu is based upon traditional food that the inhabitants of the original Bent's Fort (which supposedly Bent blew up when the U.S. government wanted to take it over) with a distinctly New Western flair for fine dining. You can spread divinely sweet buffalo marrow over crostini toasts or dig into a hearty, green-chili-stuffed Gonzales steak.
The entrées include wild game that would get a mountain man through a long winter—everything from lean buffalo filet mignon, to local Colorado lamb chops, to Teriyaki quail. It's this genuine American cuisine that makes the place a favorite for politicians including Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The heads of the G8 (including Clinton, Boris Yeltsin and France's Jacque Chirac) gathered and dined here in 1997.
Sam Arnold's legacy still holds sway here and should far into the future as Holly has set up a trust that will keep the restaurant running Sam's way. And Holly swears that The Fort's staff can feel Sam Arnold's ghost making sure they present everything the way the historic figure of a man would have wanted it.
The Fort 303-697-4771; www.thefort.com
FROM THE FORT'S KITCHEN TO YOURS
IF YOU CAN'T MAKE THE TRIP TO COLORADO, BRING THE FORT'S GRUB TO YOUR TABLE.
PREPARE THEIR TRIED-AND-TRUE FAVORITES WITH THESE RECIPES AND TIPS.
Jalapeños Stuffed with
Peanut Butter
Lucy Delgado, well known in the 1960s as a traditionalist New
Mexican cook, taught Samuel Arnold to stuff peanut butter into
peppers. "These are the best appetizers I know," she said during
a recipe swap. "But if I show you how to make them, you have to
promise to try them." Peanut butter-stuffed jalapeños! Arnold
vowed he would taste them even though they sounded stranger
than a five-legged buffalo. She prepared some and said, as a last
word of instruction, "Pop the entire pepper into your mouth so
you're not left with a mouthful of hot jalapeño and too little
peanut butter." Arnold gamely took the little morsel by the stem,
and in it went. Miracle! Delicious!
Fearful of serving them to guests but eager to try them out on
friends, Arnold made them for his own parties until they became
so popular that he put them on the menu. When NBC's Today
show came to Denver, Bryant Gumbel ate eight of them in a row.
(Jane Pauley would have none of it.)
One 12-ounce can pickled jalapeño peppers
11/2 cups peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
Slice the pickled jalapeños in half lengthwise not quite all the way
through, leaving the 2 halves attached at the stem end. Using a knife or
spoon, remove the seeds and ribs under running water. Pack the halves
with peanut butter, press together, and arrange on a serving plate. Be
sure to warn guests to put the whole pepper (except the stem) in the
mouth before chewing, to get 70 percent peanut butter and 30 percent
jalapeño. A nibbler squeezes out the peanut butter, changing the
percentages and making it very hot indeed.
A fun variation is to mix Major Grey's chutney with the peanut butter.
It gives a nice fruity sweetness that also buffers the burn.
Gonzales Steak
Per person:
3 green Anaheim chilies, roasted and peeled (canned will do,
but fresh are best)
Salt
1 clove garlic, chopped
Pinch of Mexican leaf oregano
10-12 ounce thick-cut New York strip, top sirloin, or tenderloin
of beef or buffalo steak
1/2 teaspoon salad oil
Freshly ground cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon butter (optional)
Slit the chilies to remove the seeds and chop 2 into a fine dice and mix
with the salt, garlic, and oregano. (New Mexicans traditionally like to
leave a few of the seeds in the dish. The seeds give it life, they say.)
With a very sharp knife, cut a horizontal pocket into the steak. Stuff
the chopped chilies into the pocket. Brush the meat and the remaining
chili with salad oil. Grill the steak on both sides to the desired
doneness. If using buffalo, watch carefully so as not to overcook!
Because it contains less fat than chicken, bison cooks much faster
then beef and is best medium rare.
Salt and pepper the meat. Grill the remaining whole roasted chili to
get a nice patterning of grid burn on it. Lay it across the steak as a garnish.
A teaspoon of brown butter on the steak as a special treat is
heaven. To make brown butter, simply place the butter in a sauté pan
over medium-high heat and allow it to melt and turn golden brown.
Teriyaki Quail
The West was built in good part by Chinese and Japanese immigrants
who supplied both hands and brains to build railroads
and cities, ranches and farms. Also, some of the first trappers
who had been brought to our northwest coast by John Jacob
Astor were Hawaiians. It is not surprising, therefore, that teriyaki
came to the West early on.
The Fort serves well over one thousand of these quail a week.
They start with partially deboned birds so that the little rib cage
has been removed. The legs, thighs, and wings are still attached,
and with the large breast, quail makes a delicious dish when two
or three birds are served.
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup Mirin rice wine or dry sherry
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, finely minced or smashed
2 whole anise (found in Asian section of most groceries or
in bulk at natural food stores; optional)
1/4 cup finely chopped orange peel
1 cup orange juice
1 cup water
8 individual 21/2 - to 31/2-ounce partially deboned quail
4 orange slices for garnish
Combine all the marinade ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil
over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool.
Place the quail in a single layer in a pan, pour the marinade over, and let
the quail marinade for 2-4 hours. Beware of leaving the birds in for more
than 8 hours because they will become unpalatably salty.
When ready to cook the quail, heat the grill to medium or preheat the
broiler. Cook the quail for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Garnish with a
twisted orange slice.>
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