Goats cheese and eggplant capellaci with a light hazelnut pesto

pasta perfection:
Goats cheese and eggplant capellaci
with a light hazelnut pesto
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I
M o d er n Cu ci na
taliana
i n A spen
I
Dynamic duo:
Owner Miky Grendene with chef Andreas Neufeld
Italian food
reaches new
heights at
Casa Tua
By John M ar iani
P hotogr aphy by
Jason D ew ey
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’ve never been at a loss for good, lusty
Italian food in Aspen. Places like
Campo di Fiori, L’Hostaria, Ajax
Tavern, and other restaurants—serving
everything from grilled frutti di mare and ravioli
ai funghi to gnocchi al pesto and Colorado lamb
with balsamico—have earned my consistent
praise and recommendation.
Those restaurants have always been stylishly casual, evocative of
homey trattorias in Italian resorts like Cortina d’Ampezzo. Until the
opening of the new Casa Tua last December, however, Aspen had not
seen an Italian ristorante with modern cucina italiana and quite so much
flair and refinement. That the restaurant is an offshoot of one in
balmy Miami Beach that evokes Capri makes it even more unusual.
Michele “Miky” (pronounced Mee-kee) Grendene and his wife,
Leticia, created Miami’s Casa Tua after deciding the city was an ideal
place to raise their three young children. Miky, who originally grew up
near Venice, brought his seaside Venetian sensibility, while Leticia, a
former international model, made an easy connection between
Florida and her own Mexican–Puerto Rican heritage. With no
experience in the hospitality industry, the couple created Casa Tua
simply by following their own luxurious tastes.
Set within a 1925 Mediterranean-style house, the Miami location
was configured as a five-suite hotel and restaurant, with a private club
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cooking up a storm:
Andreas working with his sous-chefs
upstairs and a public dining room downstairs. Upon opening in 2002, it
quickly established itself as one of Florida’s best and most exclusive Italian
restaurants, using only free-range pigs for its prosciutto and matching
individual olive oils with individual dishes.
The decision to launch a branch of Casa Tua in Aspen made eminent sense
to the Grendenes. “I love Aspen,” Miky says. “Casa Tua has created its own ski
team that participates in the Town Series, and we’ve rented a house there for
years. My kids are going to live and go to school there for a couple of years. It’s
a small town, but with the advantage of a big town’s beautiful restaurants and
shopping and a great mix of people from all over.” That includes many of his
clients from Miami, who have already bought memberships in Aspen.
Casa Tua, in the Cooper Avenue mall location formerly home to Ruth's Chris
Steak House, has definitely lifted the bar for fine dining in Aspen, where
downscaling at many restaurants has been more the rule in recent years. But when
I say Casa Tua is highly refined, I don’t mean it is in any way stuffy; indeed, while
many women dress up and many men wear jackets, the ambience and hospitality
lack all pretense. The private club features vaulted ceilings, aspen trees pushing to
the roof, a small fireplace beneath a wall of animal antlers, shelves of books and
photos and mementos of the Grendenes’ family, and loden sofas and chairs.
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savory sensations:
Clockwise from left:
Tuna tartare with avocado and
polenta crisp; beef tenderloin
with foie gras, toasted hazelnuts,
and leeks; sous-chef at work on
Casa Tua’s gasless stove
imported from France
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The public dining room downstairs balances a raw-wood rusticity with
venetian blinds, signature china, thin stemware, and soft, thick linens. The
walls are decorated with large art photos that will change throughout the
year. Currently on exhibition are a series of Venetian palazzi by Matthias
Schaller. “Showing art by major artists in a restaurant is a new way of
exhibiting as well as changing the feeling of the room,” says Miky, who
works with contemporary-art dealers, such as Tony Shafrazi and Howard
Greenberg in New York.
The restaurant’s Munich-born chef, Andreas Neufeld, earned a master’s
degree in agriculture before beginning his restaurant career, eventually
working with Michel Richard of Citronelle in Washington, DC. He later
moved to Merano, Italy, to earn his culinary degree from the Instituto
Professionale Alberghiera. He then
worked at several restaurants in various
alpine resorts, most notably in Alto Adige,
which gave him a strong insight into the
kind of food appropriate to Aspen. “We
like to work with local growers,” says
Miky. “So while we share many dishes on
the menu with Miami, others are specific
to the climate and ingredients found in
Colorado and the West.”
The meal I enjoyed before Casa Tua
closed in April displayed that
commitment. A tartare of tuna with
Casa Tua has
sweet avocado and a polenta crisp might have come from the sea off the
definitely lifted the
speck, a smoked bacon from Alto Adige, which Neufeld wraps around
bar for fine dining
mozzarella, comes with marinated baby heirloom tomatoes and basil,
in Aspen, where
Amalfi Coast or the waters of the Caribbean. But then there was seared
prawns and serves with a white bean puree. His burrata, a cream-centered
which is very much a Caprese-style dish. He uses Japanese Wagyu beef to
create an Italian version of steak tartare called a battuto di carne, lavished
downscaling at
with a poached egg and shaved truffle.
restaurants has
ravioli called agnolotti del plin, with truffle butter and fresh thyme, were as
His pastas are true to Italian form and regionalism. Thus, the tiny
been more the rule
delicious as any I’ve had in the Piedmont, where they originated. The lush
in recent years.
stuffed with goat cheese and eggplant was impeccably Ligurian, while the
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green springtime basil with hazelnuts that embellished capellacci pasta
housemade ricotta cavatelli dumplings with tomato and basil were distinctly
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La Dolce Vita:
Left, guests enjoy dinner in the main
dining room; above, seared speckwrapped prawns with white bean puree
Neapolitan. The most unusual introduction to Aspen was his canederli, a specialty
of Trentino–Alto Adige, composed of bread dumplings with onions, speck, and
herbs cooked in broth and served with melted butter and Parmesan cheese.
Main courses toe the same line: a seared branzino with artichokes and
asparagus; an authentic veal cutlet alla milanese topped with tomato and arugula;
and, proudly, Colorado rack of lamb with Rostie caponata and a celery-root puree.
Casa Tua also embraces little gourmands: A “Per ‘Piccoli’ Sciatori” (“for little
skiers”) menu offers spaghetti alla bolognese, gnocchi with tomato sauce, and fillet of
chicken alla milanese with French fries.
Casa Tua’s desserts are good if not unusual, including a very good tiramisu, a
fine molten-chocolate torta with a raspberry coulis, and a plate of biscotti cookies.
The wine list, not yet among Aspen’s grandest, is still full of excellent
choices to accompany Neufeld’s cooking, including big names like Angelo Gaja
Sorì Tildin and Antinori Solaia, some large-format bottles like Tenuta
Ornellaia 2007 in magnum, and a Methuselah (eight bottles in one) of
Brigaldara Amarone Classico 2001.
For the time being, Miky tries to spend equal time in Miami and Aspen,
continued on page 201
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continued from page 123
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Hip Haunt:
Members chill out upstairs in the
private club
I n te gr i t y, Co m m i t m e n t , S u cce s s.
but he’s got his sights on new Casa
Tuas in London, New York, and
other cities. “We love what we do
with a passion and have many friends
among our clientele,” he says. “But
being always visible while building a
brand can create difficulties, so I like
to give our managers a strong
presence so that they become the ones
people become familiar with.”
The name Casa Tua, then, is
restaurants are meant to reflect the
ARTESIAN SPRING WATER
idea that they are not casa nostra—the
The ONLY Colorado spring water commercially availiable.
wholly appropriate, for the two club-
Grendenes’ house—but “your house,”
where both club members and
visitors may adapt and adopt a place
of their own.
Call Paul at Dreamtime Water
970-920-7814
www.dreamtimewater.com
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