Powder Days and Dogwood Cocktails
Spending the winter in Crested Butte is like living in a snow globe, a magical, isolated bubble of a town found at the end of the road in the middle of nowhere. Known as ‘America’s Last Great Ski Town’, CB has world-class skiing and mountain biking, unmatched beauty, and a lively spirit in which the locals fill their calendars to the max with adventurous costume parties. It’s often a joke that CB is a ‘drinking town with a biking problem’, but it’s hard to abstain from the fun with bars like The Dogwood in town.
A craft cocktail cabin off the main street on 3rd Ave, The Dogwood is tucked away along an alley in an old mining cabin from the 1800s, creating a cozy little hideout in the winter with plenty of nooks to settle in for a drink. They specialize in infusing their own spirits and house-made simple syrups, leading to over fifty unique cocktails on the menu you won’t find anywhere else, like the ‘beetnik’, a beet-infused vodka martini, which gives you the illusion of health as you sip a delicious bright purple, beet, ginger, lemon delight.
The owners, Drew and Sarah Jane can often be found behind the bar. Former raft guides and bartenders, they took over the bar five years ago from their employers, the previous owners. They kept many of the original elements while curating an impressive whiskey/bourbon list and adding new cocktails over the years like the Porch Song (Leopold’s Gin, mint, lavender, with an IPA float) and the Sexy Mama (Madre Mezcal, passionfruit, hibiscus with a charcoal salt rim). Their dedication to crafting well-balanced drinks highlighting and elevating local spirits such as Marble Distillery’s vodka or Family Jone’s earl grey infused gin is impressive, and shows in all of the cocktails.
I started working at The Dogwood in the summer of 2019 before starting grad school. A summer job that quickly became much more for me. The community and friendships of the staff, the camaraderie of surviving the busy ski seasons and chaos of the covid-19 summers, the celebrations and shenanigans once off-season hits. After thinking I would only work there one season, it has actually been my most stable and consistent workplace throughout my twenties and I have learned a lot.
This winter, home from the winemaking life in Spain, it was comforting to come back and work a few nights a week at ‘The Dog’. My days were spent skiing in the mornings, walking my dog, Earl, and coming into the warm cozy kitchen at night. You could count on every shift essentially being the same, but always filled with an unexpected interesting conversation with a customer, or debate on how to solve the world’s most pressing problems in the kitchen. The opening duties of mopping the restaurant, preparing the menus, and setting out the water carafes. The happy hour rush followed by the mid-service lull of everyone going to dinner. Ordering a ‘shiftee’ when I started to get a little bored. Helping with dishes in the back. Clocking out, and walking home in the quiet snow. It was a disconnection from the outside world for a few hours each night and I thrived in the consistency of it.
Now resuming life in Madrid, bottling my wine, dealing with immigration bureaucracy, and trying to figure out my life, I am channeling the inner peace of working in a cozy little cocktail cabin with the best people and already looking forward to having a drink in the courtyard this summer. And if you’re ever passing by, I recommend stopping in for some of the magic.