Circa 1960’s

The Toklat Restaurant, long known for its location up at Ashcroft, south-east of Aspen up the Castle Creek Valley actually was once located in what later became the home of the first Chart House Restaurant.

Stewart Mace, proprietor and local naturalist was also a man of vision and creativity.  The Toklat Restaurant was no exception.  One very innovative, if not somewhat misguided, idea was to suspend the tables on bars from the ceiling.  The concept was quit ingénues on the surface.  If you had a table of four and a group of six patrons came in why not swap out the smaller table for a bigger one?

The tables were attached on all four corners and could easily be swapped out for a larger table top by simply detaching it and replacing it with a bigger one.  Aside from the obvious questions of it swinging wildly at the hands of a youthful guest it made for cutting your steak or chicken a family affair.  The upside was that there were no legs to jam your knees into and playing “footsie” with others at the table was an unobstructed game.  My sisters loved to kick me in the knee whenever I said something they did not agree with and they were deadly accurate without table legs getting in the way.

One evening while at dinner with my family tragedy struck.  I am not sure it was the first time an event of this type took place but it was most
likely the last.  That night and elderly man came in with his family.  Assisted by the use of a cane the gentlemen approached the table and reached out to it to improve his balance.  Without warning, as his hand pressed against the corner of the table it promptly swung out of the
way and the man fell to the ground.  To add insult to injury the table clocked him in the head on its back-swing and down for the count he went.  Faster than a bolt of lightning he was quickly surrounded by family and employees alike.  He was actually good natured about the whole event, if not a bit embarrassed.

Our next dinner at the Toklat was a few months later and one notable difference was the chains attached to each table and tied to the floors.  Gone were the free swinging tables we all knew.  A few years later the Toklat moved to Ashcroft and The Chart House moved in from the old A-Frames over by The Little Nell where it originally started.  The Chart House Remained in that location until the mid-2000’s when it finally closed its doors.