Condos are well-appointed and comfortable, featuring overstuffed furniture. Granite kitchen countertop and wireless internet access are standard. Full ownership means guests have a home away from home year round. Photo by David Holtzman

The open and well-lit hearth room houses books, two fireplaces, and offers a private dining experience, and is a common area where owners can mingle and relax. Photos by David Holtzman

The rear of Soaring Eagle, above, shows off balconies of the condos. Photos by David Holtzman

Poolside, below, shows off the expansive views from the top of Snowshoe Mountain. Photos by David Holtzman

The e-tini ember's signature drink makes a stunning display on the bar Photo by Drew Tanner

Pamela Pritt
Editor
      Located in the brand new Soaring Eagle Lodge, near Top of the World, ember’s food is fabulous, its atmosphere is appealing and its service is spectacular. ember is one-third of a culinary adventure that is sure to please the palate in many, many ways.

Master Chef Patrick Falbo sits beneath the striking artwork in ember Photo by Drew Tanner

      The restaurant’s grand opening was held in early December with a fundraiser for the Snowshoe Foundation, a charitable organization that provides scholarships and helps non-profit organizations, schools and needy families in the tri-county area from which the resort draws employees.
      Restauranteur Brian Ball, who gained quite a regional following with the Red Fox Inn, moves on up with this endeavor.
      Ball plans to market ember on a national level. Thanks to the cuisine he’s planned with executive chef Patrick Falbo, he’ll have no trouble bringing people back to the restaurant once they’ve tasted Falbo’s fine fare.
      The grand opening featured hors d’oeuvres, fresh fruit and toasted pound cake and chocolate Grand Marnier fondue.
      The serving staff passed gracefully through the crowd of about 250 with trays filled with sushi, five spiced duck with ranier cherry, kobe beef skewers with Thai curry glaze, Moroccan spiced wild coho salmon with carrot ginger coulis and coriander laced tuna tartare with citrus créme fraiche and wasabi chips. All the servers were professional in their explanations of the food and drink offered at the event.
      Duck was indeed a sumptuous choice; the spices were so delicately balanced. Ball and Falbo surely have subscribed to the philosophy that less is more. Even in the appetizers where heavy or heavy use of spices might be expected, the flavor of the meat or fish was never overpowered by the embellishment.
      Ball’s favorite dish on the party menu?
      “Moroccan salmon,” he said without hesitation. It was indeed a treat—the salmon topped lightly by carrot ginger coulis.
      His vision for the restaurant is to be more urban than rural, more quality than quantity, more polished than rustic.
      And while the food is certainly distinctive from typical area fare, there is something of a fusion of those different worlds that is ever-so-subtle and yet, somehow evident in the blended flavors of the food and the warmth of the colors in the restaurant.
      Ball has accomplished that with subtle dark taupe walls accented with brightly colored artwork that reflects the autumnal colors of the surrounding mountains. So the restaurant might be called metropolitan, but it still has a cozy, intimate mood.
      Falbo’s focus with the food has been to update the Red Fox’s wild game menu.

Embracing colors and subtle lighting make ember an inviting place to eat drink and be merry. Video of a crackling fire behind the bar adds to the ambience of the room. Photo by Drew Tanner

      “I’d expect to find this restaurant in Manhattan,” Falbo said.
      The approach, according to Falbo is American cuisine with accents from all over the world—Asian and Moroccan, for instance. But primarily, he said, all the products are local, at least regional, and part of the focus has been to buy local products—desserts, breads and bottled water, dealing with local vendors when they can. “I don’t feel like you have to get three pounds of food on your plate,” he said. “I think it’s better to have quality on the plate. Sometimes to account for a lack of quality, you put quantity. I’d rather have an appropriate amount of really good food than have a lot of average. I don’t want to crowd the plate; I want what’s on the plate to be really high quality and well done.”
      The entrees sound like he’s succeeded—coconut curried chicken with mushrooms, roasted red pepper, scallions, ginger and green tea soba noodles, scallops, fish and shrimp with spinach, tofu, leeks, peppers, shiitake mushrooms and cellophane noodles, maple mustard glazed pork chops with roasted Fuji apples and horseradish mashers, stone braised spare ribs, Thai glazed and cooked tableside on Japanese river rocks, with smoked tomato grits and roasted poblano pepper—and with great flair.
      Don’t think it’s adults only. Ball and Falbo offer a charming kids’ menu called wee plates. Your little one can have comfort food like chicken wings, pizza, spaghetti or even peanut butter and jelly.
      If the portions are just right, there must be room for dessert. And you know you want to.
      Try the trio of créme brulee with Kahlua, Frangelico and Irish Créme or the shake and cake, an espresso milkshake shot and a dark chocolate cupcake, the mile high club, an apple almond tart with whiskey soaked napa cherries or a root beer float with coconut gelato and toasted coconut. ember offers another feature for guests that might be quite surprising.
      Although Falbo says the idea of restaurant guests in the kitchen isn’t “revolutionary,” it’s not commonplace. It mostly happens in big cities like New York and Chicago and sitting in the kitchen has a premium price—up to $300 “just to be able to sit in the kitchen,” he said.
      While it won’t cost that much at ember, Falbo said the benefit of guests in the kitchen works both ways.
      “I think that approach is really beneficial because it keeps my cooks professional. It’s good for their growth, I think,” he said. “They have to stand up straight. They have to talk right. They have to talk clearly. They have to be nice. All the things your mother told you. So it’s good for them. It’s good for their career growth.”
      But it’s also good for guests, he said, to be able to see what goes on in a kitchen. It’s educational, and it’s also entertaining.
      “We’re going to have some fun with it,” he continued.
      Equipped with a programmable combination oven that accepts up to 350 programs for different foods, Falbo and his chefs can cook up to four prime ribs at well done, medium well, rare and medium rare and the “brain” of the oven will cook each piece of meat to perfection, because each probe will be programmed to the correct temperature.
      Falbo supervises 15 cooks between the day and night shift.
      The other two-thirds of the dining experience at ember bring unique experiences to diners, as well.
      The MarketPlace will have gourmet cheeses and deli meats, as well as sauces and convenience food items.
      Ball said this component of the restaurant will also offer uncooked portions of ember’s menu so that guests may cook in their rooms.
      But if you want to go Soaring Eagle’s Hearth Room, a guest or owner you’ll have to be. It’s the exclusive realm of those folks to sip fine wine and sample hor d’oeuvres before heading to dinner at ember.
      To say that the detail-oriented Ball is excited about this new endeavor is an understatement. And it’s no wonder. ember satisfies the senses on several levels. Taste just happens to top the list.

The Messer Cemetery's isolation lends to the eerie air surrounding the circumstances of Granville Messer's murder. Photo by Jaynell Graham-Awad

Grisly 1903 murders remain a mystery