Beloved friends of Helles,

Winter is upon us here in tiny, remote, beautiful Boulder, Utah. As the light grows shorter in the runup to the solstice, we are in the darkest days of the year. There’s a soft dusting of snow on Boulder Mountain, the deer have moved down into our valley, our 90 chickens are taking a rest from egg-laying in their coops at Blake’s house, we’re putting the farm to bed, and the “closed” sign hangs on the restaurant doors. We gathered with our Hellions after closing day to celebrate the end of the season—to give good-bye hugs to all who aren’t wintering here, to tie up loose ends, and to say, most of all, heartfelt thank-yous. We are endlessly awed by our talented and hardworking team (and we especially want to thank our general manager, Morgan Reedy, and our executive chef, Tamara Stanger, who truly astonished us this year). It was a critical season for us in so many ways, and everyone really leaned into a mountain of huge changes.

What a wild ride the past year has been. We’re still processing the incredible outpouring of love, concern, and kindhearted support we received at this time last year, and we want to reiterate and emphasize how profoundly meaningful it all was. Your generosity enabled us to find solutions to a number of issues that were limiting our ability to survive (much less thrive). It’s because of you that we were able to open our doors this past season.

It was ambitious to believe we could turn the restaurant around in just one year. But we made great strides, and as such, we’re thrilled to report that we’re in the position to open up next season, as well! The reality of the restaurant business (and our restaurant in particular) is complex, so we’ll confess we’re still under a bit of water. But visitation was way up this season—far more of you came to dine with us—and that meant so much.

And now y’all are sliding into our online store, too! Thank you! We’ve been shipping out packages all over the country this month, and we are tremendously grateful, not only because it helps us through the winter, it also keeps our Hellions (those who are still working) occupied, and it supports several of the artisans on our team. We’re continually adding new items to the shop, so don’t be dismayed if something you’ve been eyeing is sold out! Assume we’re making more. Check back often!

Buttermints, one of our seasonal special offerings that Blake personally makes, are available again this holiday season. We started packaging juniper berries to deliver our high desert flavor to your dishes. The crew neck sweatshirts in heather grey, mustard, and “Barbie” pink are especially cozy. We continue to make Brunch Boxes for those of you who miss breakfast in the dining room. And we have some new mug colorways up on the shop in the Camper, Diner, Rancher, and Round Belly styles!

Don’t forget that cookbooks can be inscribed from Blake and Jen! A personalized copy of With a Measure of Grace or This Immeasurable Place (or even better, a set of the two) make fabulous seasonal presents (not to mention host/hostess gifts and teacher appreciation gifts and white elephant gifts). They’re also nice gifts for you, from you, as you cook wintry meals!

Just please place orders by Wednesday, December 20 to arrive by Christmas.

We will continue to ship through the 23rd of December, but we will slow down to shipping once a week after that to give our staff a break & opportunity to see their friends & family.

Next year will be our 25th season. Let’s all hold this information for a moment: Our girl Helles is turning a quarter of a century old. This means her prefrontal cortex will finally be fully developed! About time! Anthropomorphizing aside, we’d be delighted if you would come to celebrate this landmark anniversary with us. We’ll definitely be hosting some celebratory dinners!

Building out our porch enclosure this year was a much-needed upgrade that will enable us to return to our usual opening date of mid-March. So, feel free to make your Southern Utah spring break plans.

We’ll open Season 25 reservations on Tock around Losar, the Tibetan New Year, which falls this year on February 10-12. 

We are going to stick with our five-nights-a-week model next season; it’s the only offering  that works for us currently, because of considerable obstacles and constraints around housing that developed here during the pandemic years.

As we reflect on the past year, some highlights for us were being semi-finalists in the James Beard “Outstanding Restaurant” category again—one of only twenty restaurants in the entire nation. We were also honored to be invited twice to Santa Fe, first as guest chefs at the Wine and Chile Fiesta, and then as guest speakers at the Edible Institute 2023. We have many opinions about the impacts of the restaurant industry on climate and social justice issues, so it’s meaningful to be asked to speak on what we perceive as important steps people in the restaurant industry can take to influence the dominant culture of waste and carbon footprint, and to embrace inclusivity.

We hosted a beautiful Thanksgiving feast last month, and we’ve just returned from a trip to Kanab, where we catered the staff celebration at Best Friends, one of the most noble nonprofit organizations on the planet. We were also invited to appear as guests on Dana Cowin’s Speaking Broadly podcast a few weeks ago. Dana was the longtime editor-in-chief of Food & Wine Magazine, and it was an honor and pleasure to be interviewed by her about our history, vision, and activism, and the success of our longstanding friendship and business partnership. We will let everyone know when that is released into the world; the podcast itself is easy to find on all the usual platforms.

And now: it’s winter. The temperatures are cold, and the canyons are so quiet you can hear your own heart beating, punctuated only by the occasional caw of ravens and the jabbering of Pinyon Jays.

Everyone always asks where we go in winter when the restaurant is closed, and our joke is that we go directly to bed. But that’s not really true. There are still plenty of projects to keep us busy, including hiring, making refinements to our systems, developing recipes, and planning for next year’s farm. That said, one of the reasons we’ve been able to run HBG for as long as we have is that wintertime allows us to unhook from the challenge of producing an extraordinary experience for guests each night. So, we’ll admit we’re also hoping for a bit of rest and rejuvenation. (Helles isn’t the only one having a big birthday next year—Blake turns 60 in February! So we’ll be celebrating as she “levels up to level six.”)

As we mentioned, it was a bit ambitious to think—even with all the help we received—that we could turn the restaurant around in one year, and so, as we look ahead to next season (and hope for seasons beyond), we have quietly opened up our Gofundme again. If anyone is feeling inclined, we’re still gratefully and humbly accepting help. The link can be found here.

Our hearts are filled with nothing but unending gratitude for you—our beloved friends, family, and community. We wish you a peaceful, safe, and joyful winter solstice and season. 

Love, 
Blake & Jen & the Hellions