Soupskol at Winterskol in Aspen, CO
Every year for the past 70+ years, Aspen, Colorado has been home to a German-inspired beer festival called Winterskol, meaning Toast to the Winter, where brewers and local goods producers come together for an afternoon of brews, snow, and fun.
And each year, Winterskol gave us a little something extra to look forward to, that being Soupskol, a little competition where five restaurants from Aspen and El Jebel come together to make their best soup for the chance to take home an award, decided by votes from the crowd. I was fortunate enough to attend Soupskol this year, and after bearing through some very cold weather, I was able to taste each of these soups and am ready to tell you what I thought of each one!
There doesn’t have to be an order for this, but I’m going to do it in the order that I tried each soup.
Hominy Southern Kitchen-Hominy Chowder
Up first, we have a local El Jebel restaurant that knows how to put its spin on classic Southern comfort food, Hominy Southern Kitchen. Owned and run by Chef Jacob Burkhardt, Hominy Southern Kitchen utilizes local produce and ingredients with a bit of an upscale flare to give the Roaring Fork Valley a unique taste like no other.
Hominy’s offering at the festival was a real treat, a hominy, corn, and poblano chowder topped with applewood smoked bacon bits. I am glad I chose this soup first because it was out-standing! That smoky bacon plus the plump hominy and that light spice from the poblanos was an explosion of flavor. Plus, it had a thick, creamy broth typical for chowders that was perfect for that cold winter day.
It is who I happened to vote for as my favorite soup of the day, not that any of the other four soups served didn’t match up.
West End Social-Winter Squash Soup
Up next, we head down the valley to a new restaurant in Aspen run by Chef Rachael Saxton, who also utilizes local ingredients for a cuisine that’s described as ‘approachable’, West End Social. With beautiful mountain views, warming plates of food, and a welcoming atmosphere, anyone would feel at home once they enter West End.
For Soupskol, West End Social provided a vegetarian option that still delivered on big flavor, a creamy winter squash soup topped with amaretti crumble and fried parsley leaves.
I do not have enough good things to say about this soup. It had an incredibly creamy, thick texture with a slight nutty flavor that I had a hard time identifying, but then that sweet crumble came in to lift the whole dish and give a wonderful bit of crunchy texture. I would order that soup at West End, if they were offering it.
Meat and Cheese Restaurant and Farm Stand-Tuscan Kale Soup
Staying with an Aspen local, the next soup came from a restaurant located on a line of restaurants in Aspen called the Restaurant Row who also utilize local ingredients blended with scratch-made culinary traditions of America, Asia, and Europe for food that is one of a kind, Meat and Cheese.
For the festival, Meat and Cheese offered us a Tuscan kale soup with potatoes and buffalo sausage, however…by the time I got to Meat and Cheese’s stand, there was already a considerable line forming in front of each stand, which was expected, but for some reason it took quite a while for their line to stay moving. And what I did receive was a rather watery soup with shreds of kale, one small cube of potato, and one small piece of that sausage.
I have to be honest here, that plus the wait was somewhat disappointing. I know that not all soups have to be super thick, but for a soup that’s meant to be a winter warmer, it was a bit of a letdown. This soup had a decent flavor, but I would’ve loved more of the potatoes and sausage.
Limelight Aspen-Seafood Chowder
Up next, we have an Aspen restaurant that I am already familiar with, as it is where I had my Upslope beer dinner, the Limelight Hotel at Aspen. With 126 rooms and a restaurant that cranks out stunning food to warm you up after a day of skiing on Aspen’s slopes or to kick back and relax, a stay at Limelight is a stay to remember.
For the festival, Limelight offered something that was quite new to me but was very welcomed, a unique and flavorful seafood chowder. With shreds of crab, mini scallops, vegetables, and a highly flavorful broth, the taste of that seafood chowder will remain on my tongue’s memory for quite some time.
However, what set that chowder over the top for me was a presumably scratch-made cheddar biscuit that sat right on top and was tender, flaky, loaded with cheese flavor, and the perfect thing to soak up that chowder.
Sodexo-Pork Posole
The final soup offering of the day came from a company that works with the Colorado Mountain College (CMC) in Glenwood Springs as well as 55 countries across the globe, Sodexo, a food service and facilities management company that helps to feed over 100 million customers all over the globe, something that I believe is a very noble cause.
At the festival, Sodexo provided us with a unique pork posole, posole being a Mexican stew typically made with hominy and meat, in this case pork. That posole was the perfect way to end my short but wonderful Soupskol journey, it had a ton of flavor loaded into the broth, that tender hominy and shredded pork, and an added touch of a lime slaw and some crushed tortilla chips for some added texture.
It was a perfect soup to end a perfect festival.
