Hooked chef opens new deli in Avon

For restaurateur Riley Romanin, running out of food is a good thing.

“If we run out of a certain type of fish or a certain type of meat for one of our sandwiches, that’s not a bad thing, it means that people liked it and we used up all of our product and don’t need to store it with preservatives because it’s being consumed,” Romanin said. “It’s the way food’s supposed to be, nutritious and delicious. We want people to taste the freshness of our ingredients, not highly processed products.”

That’s the philosophy behind Romanin’s small empire of restaurants and markets. Romanin not only operates Hooked seafood restaurant in Beaver Creek and R Farmers’ Market in Avon, but in July he also acquired Michele’s Bakery in EagleVail, a longtime provider of breads and pastries to area restaurants and most recently opened the restaurant side of R Farmers’ Market, now called R Farmers’ Market & Kitchen, which is housed in the former Columbine Bakery space next door to the market.

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“Yep, I don’t sleep much,” said Romanin, who had woken up at 4 a.m. to drive down to get fish from the airport in Denver earlier that day to bring to Hooked and R Farmers’ Market. “We’re making a trip to Denver on a bi-weekly basis to pick up fish, which is flown in fresh from the fishermen. One of the coolest things is talking to somebody on the dock and he’s telling you what’s being caught versus ordering off a sheet that tells you what they have in a warehouse.”

Romanin is obsessed with freshness and utilizing every part of what is raised or grown on his farm down in Eagle or what he gets from his purveyors in Meeker, Paonia and Palisade.

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“We opened the R Farmers’ Market in the middle of COVID when all the restaurants were closed, and we opened as a grocery store so we could utilize all of our produce from our farm and then keep our beef and pork available to the public so they could still source good, fresh product and also to keep the farmers’ livelihood going,” Romanin said.

When the space known as Columbine Bakery for over 30 years recently became available, Romanin jumped at the opportunity to take it over.

“We saw the opportunity to have a place to cook with all the amazing ingredients we had at R Farmers’ Market and offer a culinary mecca, a gastronomic kitchen for the locals and guests,” Romanin said. “We wanted to create a community where people can know where their product comes from and understand how it’s being prepared and talk to the chefs and really get some inside scoop on the truth behind the product.”

R Farmers’ Market & Kitchen is open daily and serves breakfast from 7 to 11:30 a.m. before it switches to a lunch menu from 11:30 until 3:30 p.m. Past that, stop in for wine, charcuterie and cheese boards until it closes at 6 p.m. Romanin built a coffee nook and many of the coffees are from Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Company’s roastery in Minturn. Grab a coffee or tea to take with you or stay and enjoy a cup with a pumpkin spice Danish from the bakery case.

Romanin refers to it as a world deli because the items on the menu are so diverse.

“We knew the longtime owners of Columbine Bakery, Daniel and Ronda Niederhauser, and we wanted to pay homage to them and their legacy. We can never be Columbine Bakery, but we have some nods to them.” Romanin said. “Growing up here and knowing what was great throughout the valley, now I’m trying to revive some of these great items that were such a part of the European heritage of our area.”

Romanin also added, “It sounds kind of selfish, but it’s truly what I want to eat and what I can’t find locally. So, a lot of these menu items have come from me really doing this to have good food to eat for myself and my family and then having the rest of the community enjoy it, too.”

From lamb gyros and falafel pitas to the schnitzel or Italian beef sandwich, the menu has an international feel, but is sourced close to home. Some of the look and feel of the deli has been sourced close to home, too. The reclaimed wood from an old cabin in Red Cliff lines the entrance and large window outside while the antique furniture inside is from the old Wildflower Farm in Edwards.

“So, standing true to the sustainability of all of our spaces, we’re trying to reuse and repurpose great things that don’t need to go to the dump and look beautiful in their own right,” Romanin said of the décor.   

For the Romanins, this is a true family affair. He met his wife, Valerie in middle school and they both graduated in 2002 from the old Battle Mountain High School in EagleVail, and she is very hands-on in all aspects of the business. His 19-year-old daughter and niece both work at Hooked and his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Kyne, helps out at all locations. The family spends time tending to their poultry and livestock, planting and harvesting their garden and working in the restaurants and markets. His 10-year-old son can’t wait to be able to work at the market.

“He’s really learning the agriculture and the farming aspects of things now and doing 4-H. He loves his ducks,” Romanin said. “But he can’t wait to come and work with all of us.”

Romanin also credits his success to the good people he surrounds himself with.

“It’s really just having great people around you to keep this dream going because there’s not enough time in the day to try to do everything we’re doing. So, we really try to build a staff and a family of people that love what we do and really love cooking and building things from scratch. One of our sayings is ‘trust the unprocessed’ and we really try to do things the old-fashioned way.”