Maven Local Eatery is a farm-to-table family affair.
The restaurant, which opened earlier this month at 540 Clinton St. in Ridgway, is owned and managed by a fusion of blood and chosen family.
Two of the owners, Nicole Gales-Jeffress and Adrian Alvarado, are siblings.
Alvarado and the restaurant’s third owner, Joseph Cuadras, the mavens behind the menu, might as well be brothers.
The two classically trained French chefs met 15 years ago in a kitchen in Seattle. They have stayed colleagues and friends for more than a decade, tag-teaming different roles across the restaurant and hospitality industry, most recently in Denver. If one was the food and beverage director, the other was the executive chef. If one was the executive chef, the other was sous chef.
Often, they don’t even need to speak when collaborating in the kitchen.
About a year ago, the duo and their family members started looking for opportunities to open their own restaurant in Colorado. They were considering a location in Colorado Springs, but Alvarado was drawn to Ouray County, where he and his wife were married and his family spends summers.
“This is just kind of where the heart is,” Alvarado said.
His three kids plan to move from Denver to Ridgway schools this fall.
He came across the former post office building on Clinton Street when returning from the Telluride Film Festival, where he has served as its food and beverage director for about a decade. Once Cuadras saw the location, he and the other owners decided that was it.
The team spent months working on their menu and adding their own touches to the space that was rebuilt after a fire at the structure in 2020.
Alvarado and Cuadras’ mission behind Maven’s dishes is pretty simple: They want people to know where their food is coming from, with a focus on farm-fresh meat and vegetables. Right now, they’re working with a Hotchkiss-based distributor, Farm Runner, for their ingredients, but they hope to eventually build relationships with more local ranchers and producers. Alvarado wants to fill a space in the town’s restaurant scene, beyond taco restaurants and bar food.
They’re also aiming for range, serving more approachable sandwich-salad-soup combos for now, while looking to eventually add more upscale items, such as a pre-fixed Wagyu steak and wine pairing once they open for dinner.
For now, the restaurant offers breakfast, brunch and lunch from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. while they gear up to offer dinner.
The menu boasts imaginative combinations, such as a Thai coconut sweet potato soup, and an original take on crispy sweet potatoes, which are smashed, packaged in a wonton wrapper and topped with a pistachio-hemp crumble and whipped blueberry goat cheese.
There are some classic sandwiches, such as a turkey club, and standouts like the menu’s “Havana Half Night,” which is a twist on a cuban with citrus aioli, or a braised short rib sandwich with cherry-apple butter and garlic aioli. All sandwiches are served with a side salad and the option to upgrade to fries, because Alvarado believes everyone should probably be eating a bit more salad.
The restaurant also boasts a large capacity. The team wants to be available for big events, and plans to adjust its menu to align with what the community is looking for.
But at the end of the day, their main focus is good ingredients.
“I think that the food is going to speak for itself,” Alvarado said.
For more information, visit mavenlocaleatery.com.
