Six89, Carbondale, Colo

Nation's Restaurant News, May 14, 2001 by Dina Berta

On any given night at Six89 Kitchen and Wine Bar several "random acts" of cooking occur -- by design.

For a set price, usually around $35, Mark Fischer, the restaurant's owner and executive chef, will deviate from the single-page menu and whip up something special for a guest. The food, which is served family style, comes in five courses: appetizer, salad, a fish course, a meat course and dessert. Customers can opt to have flights of wine accompany the Random Acts menu.

"What I like about it is it starts a dialogue between the guest and the server about the food," says Fischer, who opened the restaurant in 1998.

The menu at Six89 could be described as world cuisine that is seasonal and market driven. Nestled in the Roaring Fork Valley, 30 miles north of Aspen, the restaurant uses produce from farmlands on Colorado's Western Slope during the summer and fall, and it imports product from California and Mexico in the winter.

The winter menu features Colorado lamb osso buco, pomegranate-glazed Sonoma quail and hearty soups and stews, such as the red curry mussel stew.

The summer menu has a lighter feel, making use of in-season asparagus, Colorado tomatoes and wild mushrooms, says Fischer, who recently returned from an evening cooking at the James Beard house in New York with sous chef Shawn Lawrence.

Ultimately, Six89, which was named for its address -- 689 Main Street -- is about having a place to cook, he says.

Fischer has cooked in such places as Le Cirque in New York; Table 29 in Napa, Calif.; and Fog City Diner in San Francisco. For four years he was sous chef and then executive chef at the exclusive Caribou Club in Aspen, which is located up the road from Carbondale on U.S. Hwy. 82.

He decided about three years ago that he could continue complaining about his hour-long commute to Aspen or quit and, with his wife, Lari Goode, open their own place in Carbondale, a ranching community.

They remodeled an old pool hall, restoring the arts and crafts house into a warm and comfortable restaurant with mahogany woodwork, a stone fireplace, soft lighting and fresh-cut flowers.

Fischer can get there from his home in 10 minutes, without hitting a traffic light.

Carbondale also is a less-expensive town to operate in than its famous, ritzy ski-resort neighbor; rent is closer to $10 per square foot rather than $100, so Fischer can sell free-range chicken for $15 rather than $25.

Six89 was a bit of a gamble in the beginning since no one knew how the locals would react to a restaurant that featured foie gras and truffles on its menu.

The locals, however, didn't disappoint. Foie gras flies off the menu. The goat cheese gnocchi salad, sweetbreads and, of course, beef, all are good sellers. And on any given night, at least six tables will choose to experience Random Acts.

"We've done a lot of educating of our clientele since we opened," says Bill Bentley, whose titles vary from general manager to floor king to wine guy.

To help in that education, a lexicon is printed on the back of the menu.

"They are more adventurous than I expected," Fischer says.

Address: 689 Main St.

Concept: Seasonal and market-driven world cuisine

Opened: 1998

Size: 2,000 square feet

Food cost: 28 percent

Labor cost: 28 percent

Seats: 70 inside, 70 on patio

Menu makers: executive chef Mark Fischer

Owners: Mark Fischer, Lari Goode

Best-selling entree: goat cheese gnocchi salad

Slowest sellers: quail, chicken