That’s as long as we’ve been in Aspen yet it seems like a week! What a day. As I said, it started off with me driving to and back from Vail, ugh, can’t believe I forgot the bottle of wine I needed. Around 10:30 in the morning we all headed into town to start the day of well, food and wine.
First up was Bodega Jimmy’s, a great fresh seafood restaurant that I’m starting to do business with. We all had various things like Jagger with fresh ceviche and grilled octopus while Lori and I had the lobster salad. We joked that only in Aspen can you get away with a $54 salad. To be fair, it was worth every penny. It was a fresh lobster that was huge! Tina had crab cakes and Jeff had a crab salad like thing. Meanwhile Ty had a hamburger which he said was the best hamburger he ever had in his life! So it was a great lunch. Next up was Prada to drop some wine and pick up a couple shirts they ordered for me and then to Kemo Sabe, the chic western store that pours our wine. We’ve known them for years. Of course they were hopping with activity and had belt makers, engravers and other craftsmen on site. They also have this old time western bar upstairs behind a velvet rope for VIP’s that’s fun.
Here’s the shocker, our friends Jeff and Tina who are with us, started looking at the handmade belts. They were made from leather, crocodile and other exotic skins and all hand tooled. I walked by as I was putting Bocelli Prosecco on ice and said to the sales girl, jokingly, “oh, she needs a Bohlin buckle to go with that” (Bohlin is a famous silversmith company from Los Angeles that’s well known, old and expensive) Not thinking twice I grabbed Lori and told Jeff and Tina I needed to walk over to the Bubbles Party as I was already late. They said they’d meet us there.
We walked a few blocks to the party and soon were inside trying (not me) craft cocktails and bubbles. I made the rounds and saw lots of people I see once a year at this event from all over the Country. I also took pictures of “the bottle” I needed to go get from Vail. 30 minutes later or so Jeff and Tina showed up. I noticed she was carrying a Kemo Sabe bag and said, “what did ya get”? She looked at me and half excited, half nervous said “a $4000 belt” I almost died! Oh my God, what a splurge. Of course I could have got this for her for at least half of what she paid, (probably 25% of what she paid) but I told her, “that’s great! It’s so beautiful and you’ll always remember this day”! Later that evening we went back after a big dinner at Nobu and Jeff almost bought some overpriced boots! I told him this morning I could get him some good Lucchese’s for about a third of what they would have charged him. This morning Tina said she was having a little buyers remorse (duh) but no way she was going back as it was a pride thing, ha! I told her you only live once, you deserve it and enjoy it, and of course, it is beautiful, but $4000??? Come on.
In between the Bubbles Party and dinner we came back to hit the pool. Dinner at Nobu was over the top and great and fun. We headed home after heading back to Kemo Sabe for a night cap, (not for me or Lori). Our friend Rob who is the Master Distiller for Stranahan’s Whisky was with us for dinner and apres dinner.
So that’s about it, we have a great dinner tonight at Chef’s Club in the St. Regis Hotel with a Michelin Star chef from San Francisco who is doing a guest residency here for the summer. My buddy Marco runs the place and invited us, should be over the top. More to come, time to shower and head back into town! God Bless.