Rocky Mountain high for local brewers.

Dory Ford had a plan. Plenty thought it would fail. Six years later, it has him a mile high.

Ford had enjoyed a nice run on the leading edge of sustainable and local sourcing with Monterey Bay Aquarium, then he left to do something stylish at the landmarkVentana Inn & Spa in Big Sur. Only clashes with ownership led to an early, even acrimonious, exit and he was suddenly going nowhere fast.

With a small constellation of stars from his Aquarium team – namely right-hand-man/chef Estevan “EJ” Jimenez and operations dynamo Allison Cady – he decided to launch a catering company.

Only he insisted it wasn’t a catering company. Aquaterra Culinary, he continues to reiterate today, was more open and versatile – in keeping with the name – “anything on land and sea,” with a fierce dedication to sustainability.

Last Friday, we sat at the bar near the dueling pianos at his relatively new Baur’s Restaurant and Listening Lounge in Denver, Colorado. And there is a whole lot of anything and everything on his plate.

I’m not talking about the tasty steak breakfast tacos, Reuben salad and bacon-lobster deviled eggs in front of us. (“You know how I like to take the ordinary and flip it around,” Ford says of the food.) Aquaterra does way more catering volume than any other outfit in Monterey County, often partnering with hotels, venues and goliaths likeSafeway. It runs two of the more scenic and underappreciated gems on the coast, Point Pinos Grill at the Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Course (with dishes like a Southwestern grilled steak salad and pan-fried sand dabs) and Taste of Monterey Wine Market & Bistro on top of the water along Cannery Row (with bacon-wrapped meatloaf sliders and garlic shrimp with cheesy grits). It does the food programs for Stevenson’s Carmel campus and Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

As Aquaterra boomed, Ford started looking at other markets. L.A. and San Francisco were saturated and cost prohibitive. As he visited friends in Denver – a short flight away – he observed the exploding foodie scene and encountered a listing for a historic space. Now that Baur’s, after two years, is cooking in a strategic spot, he’s ready to leverage the 5,000-square-foot basement to give the Rockies a “catering” force it hasn’t experienced.

He’s not the only local finding success in Denver. After brunch at Baur’s, it was over to the Great American Beer Festival at the Colorado Convention Center and its ocean of beer – as in 3,800 beers from 780 breweries overflowing 400,000 square feet, with 10,000 attendees creating a steady and surreal roar. There brewer J.C. Hill led a fullAlvarado Street Brewery contingent to taste festival goers on ASB’s Mai Thai P.A., sour Tayberry Gose, single-hop Eureka IPL, Contains No Juice imperial IPA and Best Part of Waking Up milk stout. After a gold medal in the International-style Pale Ale category last year, the bright, nuanced and Mosaic-hopped Mai Thai P.A. took a silver, besting 89 other entries in that category.

“The medal doesn’t really change what we’re gonna do,” Hill says. “We’re still going to work hard and try to push the envelope, but it is a nice pat on the back.”

Even with 1,752 breweries submitting entries, other relatively local breweries also showed well with the 264 expert judges. Firestone Walker from just over our county border drew some of the largest lines in the arena, and a gold for its flagship Double Barrel Ale (aka DBA). Central Coast Brewing Co. of San Luis Obispo and its Monterey Street American pale ale won silver over 156 others (after gold a year ago) and gold for its General Schwarz German-Style Schwarzbier.

All sorts of other discoveries presented themselves. Chicago Tribune reporter Josh Noel put it well: “While it is impossible to draw any terribly broad conclusions from a series of 1-ounce pours during a 4 ½-hour session – you’d be surprised how fast the time goes – it’s impossible to leave Denver without at least a few memories.” (One of his less broad conclusions: Hollister’s Grillin’ and Chillin’ Brewery qualifies for his list of “Five breweries that prove all the good brewery names have been taken.”)

The memories include daring successes like a Scratch Brewing chanterelle bierre de garden, Mikkeller Brewing’s smoked pilsner and Sibling Rivalry’s lavender wit Belgian; the rise of beers with trace amounts of CBD, the body-relaxing part of marijuana; and a brewer from Loveland, Colorado’s, Verboten Brewing who sculpted and hair-sprayed his beard to read “BEER.”

The biggest discovery, though, was hearing from industry insiders that another artisan brewery is coming to our area. The as-of-yet-unnamed operation is a product of a partnership between two beer lovers with local ties and Kevin Brown, cellar master/assistant brewer for San Diego’s Alpine Beer Co., which won a GABF medal for its American-style strong pale ale. The group is on the hunt for a Sand City space; the same outfit that designed Hill’s first system (BrewBilt) will assemble a 15-barrel set-up. Conservative open date: end of next year. Defense Language Institute instructor/homebrewer Michael Nevares of Monterey is one of the partners.

“We want to create a great experience around beer,” he says. “Because beer is made out of magic.”

~ QUICKBITES ~

• Signs out front indicate former Taste of Vietnam on Fremont in Seaside will become a third location for popular Vietnamese/boba restaurant Chopstix.
• The Weekly team test-piloted delivery service from Boardwalk Sub Shop (264-1171) on deadline night. The northeast and Philly cheesesteaks were hot and meaty, the Jersey Italian with Genoa salami, cappocolla, mortadella, ham and provolone as fresh as in the store. Ordering online at www.boardwalksubshop.com or by phone is as easy as advertised, with $25 minimum order and $3 delivery charge.
• Tarpy’s Roadhouse (647-1444) launched a fun new wave of seasonal menu items this week, including popcorn prawns with crispy okra and harissa jam, and a 12-hour Wagyu brisket with espresso dry rub. More on the blog.
• The outdoor gear gods at Patagonia have added the first beer to its Patagonia Provisions lineup: Long Root Ale.
• Hellam’s Tobacco Shop (373-2816) on Alvarado will close through Thanksgiving to (hopefully) wrap its remodel, which includes a new lounge.
• The Original Stonie’s in Northridge Mall now does Mexican-style eloté ($3.50) – to go with the XL baked potatoes and deep-fried Twinkies and such.
• Life hack: Ask for the ginger garlic fried rice at Jim’s Chinese (394-5117) at 1584 Del Monte in Seaside.
• Epsilon Fine Greek (655-8108) has a new owner. Stay tuned on what it means for the downtown Monterey spot.
• Lucia Restaurant & Bar (658-3595) at Bernardus does a Champagne brunch with live music weekends and goodies like roasted king salmon salad and a brunch burger with bacon and fried egg.
• River Road Wine Trail Group has thrown down a “roving” tasting pass ($45) that allows for a flight at each of RR’s eight wineries. Look for our annual Food + Drinkmagazine, out next week, for maps of the area’s wine trails.
• Brad Briske, formerly of la Balena in Carmel, is zeroing in on opening his new concept Home in Soquel at 3101 N. Main Street. In fact, he just finished butchering his first Fogline Farm pig.
• Abraham Lincoln: “The point is to bring [the people] the facts, and beer.”