User:Huntgather/Hell's Backbone Grill

Hell's Backbone Grill Hell's Backbone Grill is a restaurant in Boulder, Utah, a town of 180 residents in Garfield County. The restaurant, located on the grounds of the Boulder Mountain Lodge, was opened in 1999 with a mission to grow fruits and vegetables on its own farm, and to prepare and serve them following precepts of sustainability and no-harm organic production. Hell's Backbone Grill was one of the first restaurants in America to operate on the "farm-to-table" model, and has been broadly cited as an early success in local, organic, value-added farming and food service.

The restaurant was started by Blake Spalding and Jen Castle, both of whom had wide-ranging previous cooking experience, most notably for rafting expeditions, traveling movie and television productions, and catering, as well as the more traditional restaurant experience. Spalding's background as a Tibetan Buddhist lay practitioner has shaped the restaurant's no-harm ethics. The restaurant owns a large house for employees from out of town.

The town of Boulder, one of the most isolated in the lower 48 states, lies between Bryce Canyon National Park and Capitol Reef National Park on Scenic Byway 12, and most customers are tourists. Hell's Backbone Grill has attracted sustained attention in national publications and media for its role in representing the Colorado Plateau region with its blend of Pueblo Indian, Northern Mexican, and local food traditions. Many tourists include the restaurant on their itinerary, especially since the publication of articles in the New York Times' travel section extolling the restaurant's food and unique location.

Hell's Backbone Farm grows a very large variety of open-pollinated organic annual crops, and has a young, as-yet unproductive orchard. The farm is located about a mile from the restaurant at 6,400 feet elevation. In this cold climate, with its short growing season and sandy soils, the farm has come to focus on Colorado Plateau varieties, many of which were developed over centuries by the native peoples of the region. Hopi corn, Hopi winter squash, Anasazi beans, and many other high-altitude varieties cover 3 acres of intensive plantings, and less-adapted varieties grow in hoophouses and a new off-grid strawbale greenhouse. The farm received a USDA grant in 2010 for a photovoltaic system that will allow greenhouse heating and energy independence.

Hell's Backbone Grill has received numerous honors and awards, including Salt Lake Magazine's Best Restaurant in Southern Utah award in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, as well as the Green Fork Award in 2010.