The team behind Harper and Hudson acquires Il Poggio in Snowmass

When Jeff and Ashley Moerke first relocated to the Roaring Fork Valley in 2021 from the Denver area, they knew they wanted to build a life here with their two young children. The question was how they would do it.

“I learned to ski in Aspen when I was three years old by my ‘skiing-in-blue-jeans dad,'” said Jeff Moerke. “This is the community that we were seeking for ourselves and our kids. So when the opportunity arose, we came up here and I was like ‘Well, what are we gonna do? I’m leaving corporate America, we gotta figure something out.'”

Little did they know that within three years they would open four businesses and become an integral part of preserving a piece of Aspen culture that seems to be fading away.

“It’s been an honor, humbling, and exciting all at the same time,” Jeff Moerke said. “We’re thrilled and we’re just getting started to be honest with you. This is the very tip of the iceberg.”

A Colorado native, Moerke grew up visiting the Aspen area and instinctively understood that he and his wife could bring value to the local community by focusing on accessible places for them to shop and eat.

They started with a retail space for his wife’s apparel business Harper + Hudson (the names of their two children) on Hunter Street and quickly expanded to the adjacent patio which is home to Aspen Country Food and Beverage.

“We ended up with 50 Square feet for the cedar shed that is Aspen Country,” Jeff Moerke said. “If it had been even 51 square feet, I would have had to pay much higher fees to the city. We wanted to keep costs down so that we could offer the highest quality of food at the lowest prices possible.”

Jeff Moerke said he quickly learned the biggest challenge, after securing permits and getting the town to buy into his vision, was obtaining and retaining the right staff. He had a crash course on the need to offer housing, ski and bus passes, meals, and other perks that local restaurants and hotels use to properly staff up.

There were naysayers. Some folks thought that opening up next to the town’s favorite affordable lunch spot, The Big Wrap, was a mistake, while others doubted his ability to turn a tiny cedar shed plus patio into a profitable business. But, he wasn’t swayed.

“We just thought let’s activate a space and do our own concept,” he said. “Everybody’s like, ‘Oh my God, you’re going next to Babs and Big Wrap. She’s gonna kill you.’ The opposite has happened. She’s become close to our kids and a mentor figure to us and has been available for anything we’ve ever needed. I also worked in the shed for six months, 17 hours a day, seven days a week and that helped me learn the ropes and gain the respect of our employees right away.”

They learned a lot about the town and how to run a food business at Aspen Country. So when the opportunity to acquire the former Mountain Dragon space in Snowmass Village, which had been operating as a Slow Groovin’ BBQ for a couple of years, presented itself they jumped at the chance. The space was reopened as The Tavern Snowmass in the summer of 2023.

Moerke said the vision was to return it to the spirit of the old Mountain Dragon, which had been in operation for over 30 years and was a place for locals and visitors to enjoy good value, high-quality food, drink specials, and music after a killer day on the slopes. A place for the community to gather as it had done in the previous decades.

“Merc, the former owner of the Mountain Dragon, has been in multiple times and he’s always smiling and told us that he’s handed the legacy parts over from the Mountain Dragon to the Tavern,” said Jeff Moerke. “Affordability is a huge priority. We have 24 beers on top, a happy hour, a local special, and a bar menu, and we also have elevated options like a tomahawk steak and rainbow trout it’s truly a place for everyone.”

Now that Moerke has The Tavern up and running, he’s taken on a new project and is deeply entrenched in making the transition of his latest acquisition, the beloved 35-year-old Snowmass Il Poggio, as smooth as possible for both the employees and customers of the Italian eatery. He said it was a no-brainer to take over the restaurant when he heard that former chef and owner Chris Blachly was ready to move on from the restaurant and retire.

“I think that unofficially our mission is to essentially keep the history of this town together as much as we possibly can,” he said. “Chris didn’t want to see his baby get blasted or changed and we went in and said, ‘Listen, we’re the locals that can keep this legacy alive.’ We’re not changing a thing. We’ve retained the entire staff from the cooks to the bookkeeper and we are humbled by the fact that Chris allowed us to be the people to do it.”

He said long-time patrons of Il Poggio will be happy to know that except for a couple of new additions to the menu and a fresh coat of paint to the dining room come off-season the restaurant will retain what has made it a fixture in the community for over three decades. Fans of the bar menu also need not worry, it’s not going anywhere.

“We’ve heard a lot from customers that they don’t want their favorite items taken off the menu and we have no desire to change a thing,” he said. “The one thing I’ve learned through this process is how tight the community is and how important places like Il Poggio are to retain the history and unique culture of the Valley.”

He added, “There’s no comparison to anywhere I’ve been in the world to this place.”

Sarah Girgis is the Publisher for The Aspen Times. She can be reached at 970-429-9151 or sgirgis@aspentimes.com.