Colter was also responsible for designing the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, the Awahnee and the Hopi House at the Grand Canyon, as well as many other fine buildings, mostly in a southwest aesthetic with Spanish overtones. It was a popular stop with many celebrities, I pen this post while sitting on my bed in the Carole Lombard room. The hotel has undergone extensive restoration since my last visit.
The current owners, who supplied tons of money and years of dedication to the restoration, are Allan Affeldt and Tina Mion. They are to be congratulated. Mion is a painter who has decorated the hotel with a whole bunch of her own canvasses, too many for me, but what do I know, I'm just an art dealer. A few would go a long way.
My friend Mike and his lovely wife Kathy came back from Santa Fe recently and spent the night here. They are sophisticated food people and were raving about the restaurant, loaning me the cookbook. It had been several years since Leslie and I had stayed in the Howard Hughes suite and the restaurant had been no great shakes at the time but I thought I would take a flyer. After all it is the first day of my campaign and an army can't march on an empty stomach.
I entered the small bar and ordered a vodka cranberry and waited impatiently for my table. The hostess called my name, and when I arose a european couple sort of jammed their way in front of me, taking my table. The hostess apologized and blamed it on the language barrier. I gave her the molten death stare and thought about walking out but I was hungry and nothing else in Winslow, Arizona looked safe so I asked if I could be seated in the bar.
Mike and Kathy were right about the food. After a really promising basket of bread, I started out with a delicious Chino Valley Farms heirloom tomato salad, not to be confused with the Chino Farms in Rancho Santa Fe that supplies the French Laundry. Tomatoes of every hue, with Black Mesa Farms garlic and red pepper feta made from goats milk, beautiful basil and a balsamic vinaigrette. It was a great salad and had just the right number of food tastes, not overdone at all.
For an entree I picked the Native cassoulet with churro lamb, local Papago duck leg and elk sausage. This was accompanied with a homemade cone on a mound of polenta stuffed with greens and served over a Tepary bean, chili spiced concoction with arugula. I had concern about the elk, which the server said was very spicy. Sometimes elk is hard to digest. It was not a problem. The lamb was delicious but a tad underdone. I had asked for medium rare against the server's recommendation of medium and they socked it to me. The elk sausage was fantastic.
According to the menu, the lamb is free range and reared by Ron Gardinez of Shiprock. The antibiotic and hormone free lamb spend the summer months high in the Carrizo Mountains. The Turquoise Room is the only restaurant around serving this rare breed on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, the duck confit was dry and stringy, the nadir of the night's effort. I had initial concerns about such disparate meats working together but it was actually great and I left very contented. No tummy problems. In addition the staff was very nice, personable and most attentive. A very nice meal, I only wish that my wife was here to share it with me.
Mike and Kathy raved about the soup and the squash blossoms and I look forward to trying them next go round. If you ever find yourself standing on that famous Winslow corner, try the Turquoise Room, you won't be disappointed.
