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There is a certain aesthetic to an upscale mountain restaurant. You know it when you see it: Lots of wood balanced out with steel, stone, or leather accents. A fireplace. Perhaps visible flames flickering in the wood-burning stove in the open kitchen. Plenty of natural light during the day. A neutral color palette. There’s just enough to make you think of a cabin or a lodge—but in a modern, cool way.
It works, but it’s also become a bit…ordinary.
That’s why it’s so refreshing to walk into Wayan’s Aspen location. The French-Indonesian restaurant, which originally opened in New York City in 2019, launched its second location, in downtown Aspen, in December after a number of successful pop-ups at the Little Nell.
The space is moody and sexy—and not like a basic high-country lodge at all. There are dark-charcoal, textured walls, wooden tables painted matte black, velvet and leather chairs, and striking red foliage. Instead of depicting skiers and mountains, the art skews Asian, with custom masks from Jakarta and woven lampshades.
“The only mountain touch,” designer and partner Raphael Derly (the former owner of French Alpine Bistro) says, “is the fireplace.”
Well, that and the natural wood bar, the real tree standing nearby, and the 600-pound beam—once part of a bridge—that frames the chef’s counter. The latter two were pulled from the Rio Grande River.
The menu, like the decor, leans heavily toward Indonesia. The couple behind the restaurant, Cedric and Ochi Vongerichten, are French and Indonesian, respectively. (Cedric is the son of esteemed chef and restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten.)
“The food scene [in Aspen] is incredible, and we wanted to add a little Asian addition to the town,” Cedric says. “A lot of the dishes are authentic in terms of flavor, but the technique behind it is French.”
Among the dishes that best showcase the fusion of the couple’s cultures and traditions: the escargot rendang, which tops the snails with a coconut-based sauce, and the steamed black sea bass pepes, in which the fish is steamed in banana leaves (inspired by the French cooking technique, en papillote, where the the food is cooked in parchment paper).
The escargot joins a handful of other dishes on Wayan’s new Apres Ski menu (available from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., daily). Currently, the lineup mimics the dinner menu both in substance and pricing, but Cedric says it will be expanding in the near future with unique small bites. He’s considering dishes like shrimp with sambal matah (a Balinese chili relish) and rendang short rib sliders.
The outdoor patio will also make its debut this month, weather permitting.
The hope, Cedric says, is that Aspen’s global audience is able to taste something new—and enjoy some Asian comfort food after a long day on the slopes.
614 E. Cooper Ave., Aspen
