The collaborative has taken strong positions opposing genetically modified food product and warning the food industry of the depletion of world fisheries. His personal response to agribusiness is to support local farmers and to plan his menus using seasonal produce. Food is politics. Van Dyke pays local kids to gather chokecherries for his Braised Buffalo Short Ribs. Foragers come by the back door with mushrooms.
Local purveyors provide goat cheese and trout.
His menu changes daily, but not dramatically. Noriko, a talented chef herself, often contributes a Japanese-influenced dish such as Smoked Salmon Sushi Roll to a menu studded with Elk Chili, Colorado Rainbow Trout, and Smoked Pork Chops. Van Dyke says that he judges restaurants on their soup. Here's the cafe's Japanese-inspired onion soup. Cut onions in half from root end to tops.