Base Village to be up and running this winter

One iconic Snowmass Village business should see new life breathed into it this winter, while yet another new restaurant promises to open in Base Village, marking the first season the development at the bottom of Fanny Hill will be open for business.

Matsuhisa founder and former owner Jeffrey Klein is leasing the large restaurant space at the slopeside end of the Snowmass Mall that formerly housed the Cirque and before that, the famed Timbermill. He is also opening Buchi, a Japanese comfort food restaurant, in Base Village’s Capitol Peak Lodge.

Buchi, with about 80 seats, should be open by Christmas, said Klein, but the former Cirque — which may keep its name or may be renamed The Office at the Cirque (“because that’s where I’ll be spending all my time,” said Klein) — is planned to open its doors when the lifts start running on Thanksgiving.

“Related WestPac is thrilled to be able to announce another fine restaurant as part of the restaurant collection in Base Village, part of the strategy that partner Related employs in other residential developments to ensure a great 24/7 experience,” Related WestPac spokeswoman Maureen Poschman said in an e-mail.

Buchi rounds out a slate of businesses — many of them with ties to Aspen — that are expected to debut in Base Village this winter season. At least three other restaurants are planned, including the Sweet Life, a candy store and diner located in the red barn-like building, which has a sister eatery in Telluride. Entertainment mogul Scott DeGraff — who in Aspen also owns the Red Onion (now Junk at the Red Onion) and Worldwide Fun Lab (formerly the Cooking School of Aspen) — is opening Junk, an eatery based on the concept of healthy junk food, and Liquid Sky, a bar/nightclub, in the building next door to Sweet Life. And the Aspen Skiing Co. is opening Sneaky’s Tavern, near Buchi in Capitol Peak Lodge. SkiCo gave up the Cirque space in favor of a Base Village eatery, which is named after former longtime Snowmass mountain manager Jim “Sneaky” Snobble.

SkiCo also is opening a new mountain restaurant, Sam’s Smokehouse, atop Sam’s Knob this winter, three seasons after demolishing the former cafeteria there.

On the retail front are at least four new shops. Aspen-based Performance Ski will open its Snowmass shop in Capitol Peak Lodge this winter, as will Aspen Sports with its North Face Concept Store. Generation Snowmass, an offshoot of the Generation Aspen kids store in the North of Nell building in Aspen, also opens this winter, selling mainly logo apparel. On the back side of the red barn building, SkiCo will open its Beginner’s Magic store, a one-stop shop for lessons, rentals and ticketing. The company also has a Four Mountain Sports in the children’s center building which opened last year.

More retail and restaurant spaces are or will be available in the base as it’s completed over the next few years.

Buchi — which means to “slap down” or knock down in Japanese — will be open for lunch and dinner, operating as a noodle bar during the day with additional menu items like sushi rolls and Kobe beef burgers. The 2,600-square foot restaurant will be on the upscale side, said Klein, but not as pricey as Matsuhisa and with a menu that’s more accessible and understandable than many sushi places.

“It’s more like Japanese comfort food, like Ajax Tavern with a twist,” he said. “It’s about the atmosphere and making people feel comfortable.”

Klein has lived off and on in the valley since 1996 and founded, designed, invested in and owned Matsuhisa on Main Street in Aspen with his now ex-wife Nobiko, who worked for famed chef Nobu Matsuhisa. He sold his shares in the restaurant in 2000. Klein, who also has a film company and has developed projects recently in Miami and Los Angeles, lived in Japan for 17 years and plans a dinner menu that “concentrates on a mixture of spices from South America and Asia.” He says his partners are all local and he wants to cater to the local crowd.

For the Cirque, Klein is planning a pub-like environment open from breakfast until 2 a.m., with sandwiches and other pub fare the focus for lunch. He also aims to make it a gathering place at night — although he’s holding off on booking live music — with a “wii” screen that is an interactive game board and can screen movies.

“Although there’s two generations of people coming in there so I don’t want to alienate people,” Klein said, speaking of his approach to the menu and atmosphere.

Klein, who doesn’t currently own any other restaurants, said Related WestPac approached him last year when he was skiing at Snowmass. He had originally planned to sign a lease for a space in Base Village next ski season (2009-10), but when Related WestPac offered him the Buchi space, he negotiated a good lease and accepted.

The Cirque space was brought up during those discussions, said Klein, and the decision to head up two restaurants instead of one wasn’t too hard. Besides having faith in the future of both Snowmass Village nodes, “it had a lot to do with combining labor and food costs,” said Klein. “And it’s a very different customer” in each restaurant.

Asked what it’s like to be opening businesses in a gloomy economy, Klein said he was adaptable.

An economic downturn “makes people normal,” he said. “They’re still going to go out to dinner but they’re going to be more cautious. I know what I have to do to be profitable. Let’s just keep things simple.”

lutz@aspendailynews.com