Marea will open at The Snow Lodge within St. Regis Aspen Resort on December 22, and executive chef PJ Calapa has a clear vision for his version of après-ski restaurant.
“When we looked at the site, it was like, ‘Eat your carbohydrates and drink your chlorophyll water,'” Calapa told the Observer. “And I was like, ‘Well, I’m bringing all the carbs.’
Marea is a fine Italian seafood restaurant that has been located in New York’s Central Park South since 2009. opened its second location in Beverly Hills last January. As in California, Marea will offer its most popular plates (such as its fusilli with octopus and its lobster with burrata) while unveiling new dishes at its Aspen location.
Calapa brings staples like his branzino tartare and his caviar-topped garlic bread bruschetta to Aspen, while keeping in mind the winter weather and appetites he’ll encounter at The Snow Lodge.
“I don’t want it to be fun in the way that you go to Marea anywhere and it will be the same,” said Calapa.
Cooking in Los Angeles led Calapa to create dishes like stuffed avocado with prawn tartare and shaved artichoke salad. In Aspen, Marea will have a new crab-and-caviar dish and platter tossed salad with tuna lardon.
At the same time, “We took a little inspiration from Aspen and the mountain and went a little bit more into seafood,” Calapa said.
One new dish is the rotolo, which is basically a folded lasagna, with white Bolognese.
“I think it’s going to follow very well in Aspen and it’s going to be a little nicer thing to have, like your grandma’s house that makes you feel warm inside,” Calapa said. “Maybe this is the first time we are opening a place where people will be seen as hungry in the best ways. I am happy with the real hunger of some people who come from the mountain.”
The rotolo is part of the house-made pasta selection at Aspen Marea, which includes spaghetti with clams, faldine with shrimp and pappardelle with crab. Carbs and crab, that’s the Marea way.
Marea plans to serve dinners early après-ski crowd looking for sustenance and a relaxed night after a hard days pounding powder on Aspen’s slopes.
“We are making a reservation now, and it was like, we need to open at least at 4 in the afternoon and book at 6 o’clock the second seat,” said Calapa.
He is down to open earlier if he sees the need for a 3pm meal.
“I think it’s a big pasta and a piece of meat,” Calapa said of the dining experience many Snow Lodge guests will crave.
So Marea will have her tomahawk and rosemary salt in Aspen. Calapa makes a duck dish that changes with the seasons, and will serve it at The Snow Lodge with butternut squash puree and toasted pepitas. Guests looking for some great seafood can try the Dover sole.
Because Altamarea Group founder and CEO Ahmass Fakahany, opening in Aspen is about following his customers and the need he saw for Marea. The Altamarea Group, which places an external force of Crazy Pizza in East Hampton This past summer, he loves seasonal places.
“My thought was St. Regis and Marea and Aspen makes a lot of sense,” Fakishany said. “Logically, that’s where our customers move, and we move with them.”
Marea at The Snow Lodge is a residence that ends at the end of March, but Fakahany wants the space to look and feel like Marea.
“There will be our decoration, our team, our process, our chefs,” he said.
In Aspen, Fakahany brings furniture and installs honey onyx, which is the main feature of the Marea design. Everything from the banquettes to the candles will make it clear that you are at Marea’s watchful port. Fakahany has even had paintings shown by Marea in New York recreated in smaller versions of Aspen.
This place will have about 80 seats, about half of the others in Marea.
“It will be comfortable and intimate, which I think works well for it après-ski,” Fakahany said. And there’s a lodge near the bar, so there will be a little atmosphere near the bar where you can sit and eat and meet and socialize.”
Fakahany is open to the idea of Marea returning to The Snow Lodge after this residential building. But it took him more than 15 years to open Marea’s second location in Beverly Hills, so he’s not one to rush into decisions. He’s excited to let this first season in Aspen play out and go from there.
At the same time, he is thinking about where to take Marea.
“I think Marea is the ultimate new age,” Fakahany told the Observer. “We call it casual luxury. It’s a dinner party for people who are invited without being a member of the club. And I think there’s a love for that model. For us, it’s about choosing markets where people want it and looking at certain places of the year. It could be Europe, it could be a few places in the United States—but very selective.”
He has received many requests for Marea from different places, and is open to the idea of a spinoff.
“Most of the needs that come in are also sub-parts or splinters,” said Fakahany shares. He sees a future where his next ventures could be something like Marea Crudo and Caviar Bar or Marea Beach Club. Marea Crudo Lounge and Marea Crudo and Pasta are also among the concepts he is considering.
At the moment, you like how many things are connected to Aspen. The owner of St. Regis Aspen Stephane De Baets, who once created New York’s Chefs Club (a restaurant with residencies for top chefs in a prime location in the city that is now Torrisi’s home), cares a lot about high-quality food. The Snow Lodge (founded by New York nightlife veteran Jayma Cardoso) is a chain of The Surf Lodge, which is a big part of the East End summer scene. Fakahany likes that all of this is “in the same ecosystem.”
Marea in Aspen is about luxury and a high-energy space, but it’s also about luxury and downsizing.
“We want that Sunday dinner feel at grandma’s, but it can be any day of the week,” Calapa said. “And it gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling and creates memories where you’d like to do this multiple times a week. and to get people in the most holiday spirit. It’s a great thing to have in your hands, people are more open to enjoying time and space and a little indulgence.”
