A Love Letter from Helles

Late Winter 2023
A Love Letter from Helles

Photo by Jen Castle

Dearest friends & beloved HBG community,

We hope the winter of 2023 is treating you well. Here in Boulder, it’s the snowiest one we’ve had in years. This bodes well for the spring bloom in the desert, the trees, small farms, and all the wild creatures and places. It’s also been the right conditions for us to focus on the deep work we’ve needed to apply ourselves to. The past few months have been remarkable—intense and fruitful—and we’ve been powerfully engaged in a winnowing process, assessing what has worked, and what has not, in all the ways. Meanwhile, we have been giving ourselves ample space to make necessary changes that we trust (and hope) will support the restaurant’s long-term survival. We’re trying some extraordinary measures this year, and we‘re optimistic that collectively, the result will be a stabilization and even a thriving of this passion project we call HBG.

So, with that said: We have a lot of news since we last wrote…

Immeasurable Gratitude

We remain absolutely staggered and weepy over the generosity, love, and major financial support we received through our “Hail Mary” fundraiser. It was the replenishment and renewal we desperately needed. We’re now able to give our all to figuring out how to adapt and thrive in these difficult times of spiraling operating, food, and labor costs; supply chain and staffing shortages; and everything else plaguing (no pun intended) the restaurant industry. But thanks to your extraordinary outpouring of help, we are charging ahead with this season, and we’re hopeful that with the many changes we’re implementing (read on to hear about those), we’ll be able to keep going well into the future. We’re also truly grateful that donations are still coming in, because every little bit is so very helpful. As planned, we will take down the GoFundMe before midnight on Tibetan New Year, which is February 21st.

A snowy entrance to our farm.

Photo by Jen Castle

Baby we’re back!

We plan to reopen for our 24th season on Friday, March 31st. We’ll be offering dinner in the dining room and (weather permitting) on the patio from 4pm to 9pm, five nights a week, closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. With the staff and resources that we have, this is the schedule we can reasonably manage this season; a five-day workweek means we’ll need only one full-time crew instead of two. So please plan your travels accordingly, and reserve a table to come see us for dinner Thursday through Monday.

Butter dipped radishes.

Photo by Morgan Reedy

We’ve got you covered

If you’ve spent much time in Boulder, you likely know how fickle our weather is—and it’s growing less predictable each year. To account for this and to better prepare, we’ve budgeted to install ceiling-mounted electric heaters and vinyl roll-down walls on the patio so that even during inclement weather, outdoor diners and workers will be cozy and comfortable. It’s a big expenditure, and we feel it’s a worthwhile investment for our guests and our Hellions.

Last summer on the patio.

Photo by Morgan Reedy

Tock to me

One of the changes we’ll be introducing very soon, in an effort to save on labor and the hidden costs of “no shows” and last-minute cancellations, is shifting to an online reservation system. Using an online reservation system is a giant step into current restaurant practices, and in our case, it’s essential, because we simply don’t have enough staff to handle the reservations ourselves anymore. So we’ll be taking reservations exclusively through Tock, a system we like that was designed by a restaurant group in Chicago and is used and loved by many of our restaurant peers. We’re always happy to talk to you about your table if you have special questions, but we’ll route all reservations through the Tock site. There will still be a small percentage of tables available for walk-ins for those who stumble upon us or are unsure of their plans.

As part of this new system, we’ll also be joining many restaurants in charging a per-person deposit to reserve a seat. We came to this decision because (like many restaurants), we really do get a lot of no-shows, and we just can’t afford them. Many people aren’t aware that no-shows, last-minute cancelations, and reduced party sizes are extremely costly to restaurants. When we have a reservation on the books, we hold that table and have to turn away other potential guests during that time. And since we don’t exactly get the foot traffic of city establishments, losing the business is especially hard on us.

The new deposit system is very simple: when you reserve your table, you’ll be asked to pre-pay $25 per diner (so a table of four would put down a $100 deposit.) After dining, the deposit you paid is deducted from your final bill.

Keep an eye on your email inbox for a follow-up blast announcing the opening of reservations.

Lemony Cluck in the works.

Photo by Morgan Reedy

Hello, Dream Team!

One of our biggest announcements (drum roll, please) is that we are thrilled to have hired an executive chef who will be collaborating in the kitchen with us and helping to lead and mentor our team! She’s a James-Beard recognized talent whose work we’ve followed and respected for some years, and whose food style and principles align perfectly with ours. And she’s bringing along her wonderful sous chef, too! We (Blake and Jen) will remain chefs de cuisine, and we are incredibly excited (and relieved) to share the kitchen with these two extraordinary women and continue our pursuit of excellence. Stay tuned—we’ll announce their names very soon!

Calling all Angels

We’re definitely still looking to hire a handful of highly skilled, caring servers. If you have (or know someone who has) experience in fine dining as well as passion for and dedication to the art and craft of service—and interest in moving to a spectacularly beautiful, tiny, remote town in Utah, please click here! We have housing, too!

Our farm manager Kate!

Photo by Morgan Reedy

For She’s a Jolly Good Fallow

Based on best farming practices, we’ve determined that it’s time to give our annual crop fields some love, so this year we will be planting them in cover crop and doing a lot of mulching, soil building, weed mitigation, beautification, and important building projects, as well as tending to long-deferred maintenance of our aging irrigation system. We’re excited to have contracted with some of our favorite local farmers here in Boulder to grow produce for the restaurant for the upcoming season, while our farm takes a well-deserved rest. And, of course, we will still be harvesting and serving you all our own perennial delights, such as asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, elderberries, fresh herbs (like sage, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, and lavender), blackberries, edible flowers, garlic, parsnips, fresh eggs, currants, table flowers, and whatever abundance our approximately 100 heirloom fruit trees bear this year.

Asparagus! One of the first perennials from our farm.

Photo by Morgan Reedy

Outstanding News

We’re ecstatic to share that we’ve been named Semi-Finalists in the “Outstanding Restaurant” in the USA category of the James Beard Awards, for the second year in a row! It was an incredible honor last year to be one of twenty restaurants recognized in such a significant way. And to be included on the list for two consecutive years is jaw-dropping. We’re also delighted to see many of our peers, acquaintances, friends, and people we admire on various James Beard semi-finalists lists this year. The truth is, it’s probably never been harder than now to operate a restaurant, so we bow deeply to the indomitable spirit of the industry people who are still showing up, committed to excellence. And when we consider that a few months ago, we were fairly sure we wouldn’t be able to reopen in 2023, we feel even more grateful to all of you who lifted us up and gave us the chance to receive and really celebrate this honor. The Foundation will announce who advances to the next level of “nominee” on March 29th.

Chive blossoms in spring.

Photo by Morgan Reedy

We made you a mix tape!

Come dance with us! As a special thanks to everyone who enjoys our restaurant music, we’re sharing with all of you newsletter subscribers a special gratitude- and-love-saturated playlist Blake has put together for the new season. We’ll make it public on the 21st on Spotify, and you’ll be able to find it by searching Spotify for “Blake Spalding.” Called “Hang on Sloopy, Hang on Helles,” it’s dedicated to everyone who has supported us over the years, and especially in these last few critical months. It was inspired by the outpouring of love from all of you. You saved us! You can listen and turn it up loud and dance and celebrate with us that we get to have another year of doing what we love with all of you!

We really can’t say it enough: thank you again for your love and encouragement. We’re happy to report that we have renewed confidence and restored faith in the worthiness of our project, and we hope to see you this Season 24, in our magical little high-desert town.

Love,
Blake and Jen and the Hellions

ps. A special thanks to Torrey House Press, Kirsten Johanna Allen, and our beautiful author friends who put together a literary fundraiser for us. If you weren't able to attend but want to watch, you can click here to see Terry Tempest Williams, Brooke Williams, Pam Houston, Amy Irvine, Craig Childs, and Regina Lopez Whiteskunk share stories about Hell's Backbone Grill.

I would like
By Jane Hirshfield

I would like

my living to inhabit me
the way
rain, sun, and their wanting
inhabit a fig or apple.

I would like to meet it
also in pieces,
scattered:
a conversation set down
on a long hallway table;
a disappointment
pocketed inside a jacket;
some long-ago longing glimpsed,
half-recognized,
in the corner of a thrift store painting.

To discover my happiness,
walking first
toward
then away from me
down a stairwell,
on two strong legs all its own.

Also,
the uncountable
wheat stalks,
how many times broken,
beaten, sent
between grindstones,
before entering
the marriage
of oven and bread—
Let me find my life in that, too.

In my moments
of clumsiness, solitude;
in days of vertigo and hesitation;
in the many year-ends
that found me
standing on top of a stovetop
to take down a track light.

In my nights’ asked,
sometimes answered, questions.

I would like
to add to my life,
while we are still living,
a little salt and butter,
one more slice of the edible apple,
a teaspoon of jam
from the long-simmered fig.

To taste
as if something tasted for the first time
what we will have become then.

A frozen waterfall from a winter walk on our glorious monument.

Photo by Morgan Reedy