I’m Executive Chef David Mahler and welcome back to my new blog cooked up in the kitchens at the Meadows. If you read the first entry of the year, you might have noticed the mention of two new food venues that we will be opening this year. I am very excited and proud to be part of the opening of the Comfort Zone Cafe and Vertical Cocina de La Montana on the top level of our Lodge.
Each time I walked through those upstairs rooms I thought about what I could do, and what WE could do to turn them into areas that spoke more to the type of food our guests would like to eat after coming in from a thrilling (and cold) day on the slopes. I am a huge advocate of what we have come to call comfort food and comfort food is something I always associate with (and hope for) on a cold wintry day. I also wanted to be able to serve comforting and hearty meals that we would be able get to you almost immediately.
I envisioned a cozy room where people could walk right up to the counter to pick up a bowl of rich, steaming home cooked stews and braises or even meatloaf (!). I love cooking food that satisfies, that speaks to the inner hunger and creating the Comfort Zone felt like the way to do it. We will have meatloaf and a stew every week. We will have the fabulous Olympic Provisions sausages served with the perfect side dish. We will have both meat and vegetarian chilis and yes, mac ’n cheese AND nachos. And there will be mashed potatoes!
Comfort Zone Cafe Menu
The Comfort Zone Cafe will be replacing Manuel’s Cantina, but never fear! For those of you who need a good South of the Border food fix the kitchen in the Vertical Pizzeria is now morphing into Vertical Cocina de la Montana. In the Cocina we will be making fresh, great contemporary takes on traditional Mexican and Southwestern flavors. I love this kind of cooking and it has been really fun for me to create the menu for Vertical Cocina. We will be making tacos and quesadillas to order on fresh locally made corn and flour tortillas from Cascada Tortilleria in Hood River. There will also be some really interesting Southwestern flavored takes on some of your favorite salads as well as four different flatbreads coming hot and fresh out of our pizza oven. For those of you with bigger appetites there are four “Southwestern Bowls” featuring seared and spiced ahi tuna, flank steak, spicy braised pork and even tofu. Each of these will be served in a bowl brimming with accompaniments and great sauces.
Vertical Cocina de la Montana Menu
The Comfort Zone Cafe will be operating most weekends for lunch and the Vertical Cocina Restaurant will be open Weekends and Holidays.
Please, please join us on the upstairs level in these two new and exciting restaurants and let us fill you up and keep you warm!
Chef Dave