Phillips Armstrong is giving mountain-goers a new reason to stop in Steamboat Springs: His brand new restaurant Aurum Food & Wine. A graduate of Colorado State and Temple Universities, Armstrong has a passion for people and how they relate. He created HUSH Concepts, an underground supper club, was behind the opening of Tangerine, a breakfast joint in Boulder, and now he took his culinary touch west to the hills with Aurum, a seasonal new American cuisine restaurant.
Armstrong tapped executive chef Chase Wilbanks, a 2004 Culinary Institute of America graduate and former executive sous chef of Shanahan's Steakhouse in Denver to lead the culinary program.
Named after the standard element gold, Aurum's design reflects the natural landscape with hues of yellow, stone and sable throughout. The restaurant offers three distinct spaces (bar, dining room and PDR) with multiple decks that lend themselves to spectacular views of the surrounding valley.
Menu highlights include the hoisin barbecue pork belly sliders, served with pickled carrot, radish, jalapeño, and cilantro, the Chanterelle mushroom fondue with marinated olives, and grilled bread, and the oven-roasted Boulder natural ½ Chicken with broccolini, crispy Lyonnaise potato, and thyme veloute.
The wine program at the restaurant is led by John Witmer, former sommelier at the historic Stanley Hotel.
Aurum Food & Wine is housed in the former Sweetwater Grill space at 811 Yampa Street and is open daily starting at 4 p.m.
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