Becoming unable to possibly once again hoist that sweet, soup contest trophy was a tough swallow for this Aspen restaurant.

A cozy concoction of tomato soup and cheese sticks nabbed Pepperjack’s Cafe — The Gant’s on-property eatery — Wintersköl’s 2023 Soupsköl title. Emblematic of culinary achievement and recognition, the hardware was proudly displayed on a Pepperjack’s counter all year long.

The restaurant, of course, wanted to compete again this past January but could instead only focus on business operations since that month has become too busy. It was then decided to bow out of the 2024 Wintersköl soup contest and leave the bragging rights on the table.

“It was something that we were really excited about winning, and we would’ve loved to have done a two-peat, to come back and repeat that win,” Lou Eppelsheimer, director of sales and marketing for The Gant, said of the soup contest. “Unfortunately, we were just so busy serving guests and taking care of the visitors coming to Aspen. That’s first and foremost when you’re running a hospitality business, and this was extracurricular to some degree.”

The Aspen Chamber Resort Association (ACRA), Wintersköl’s organizer, made an historical announcement on Wednesday: After more than 70 years of hosting Wintersköl in January, it is now shifting to Dec. 13-15.

“We were kind of in the prime season, and I think no one in this valley is immune to the shortage of staff. It’s a hard community to have a full staff,” Eppelsheimer said. “We were allocating our resources at the moment, so I think moving it to December gives us a little more bandwidth.”

It might take a village to host a festival, but it also takes a slightly smaller village to prepare soup for thousands of hungry festival goers. He said it’s an all-day endeavor that requires at least 4-5 employees tasked with setting up, breaking down, and, of course, serving the soup.

ACRA data shows, even though Wintersköl typically sees about 10,000 visitors throughout the multi-day festival, Soupsköl alone prompts each participating restaurant to prepare 30 gallons of soup for just one day of serving. Which is why event organizers saw seven prospective participants — including Pepperjack’s — drop out of the January 2024 Wintersköl soup contest, according to ACRA Senior Director of Events Julie Hardman.

Other years, there are as many as 12 restaurants competing in Soupsköl.

“We had seven restaurants cancel the week of this past January because it was just too stressful for them,” she said. “They didn’t have the staff, they were burnt out, they didn’t have the resources to pull it off.”

Rekindling the energy

Community stakeholders, like the City of Aspen, Aspen Skiing Company, and the Town of Snowmass Village, began discussing the possibility of filling a commercial/activity lull between Thanksgiving and year-end holidays several years ago, Hardman said. The exacerbation of January’s soup contest cancellations then prompted ACRA to release a community survey, asking what locals wanted to see done with Wintersköl.

“That’s kind of the energy we want to garner again from the locals,” she said. There were 100 survey takers, with about 70/30 in favor of shifting Wintersköl to December.

Wintersköl was established in 1951 by the late Jack dePagter, a former lodge owner and Hotel Jerome bartender. At the time, Aspen’s ski culture was still in its infancy, and after the future Aspen Hall of Famer noticed a lull in business while slinging cocktails, he spearheaded an effort to create the auspicious winter festival, according to his online biography.

But nowadays, January in Aspen is complete with major events like X Games and Gay Ski Week, which can overshadow the truly community-oriented event Wintersköl boasts.

“I do feel like we’re getting back to the roots of the event and why it began to start with,” Hardman said. “I think that’s lost a little bit in the time period it sits in.

“This event represents the locals; it really represents our winter and mountain lifestyle, and part of the struggle with the event being 73 years old is that we need community participation to make it what it is,” she added.

She said, however, some arguments in favor of keeping Wintersköl in January are that December is just as busy and that the holiday season turns everything into a frenzy.

“Definitely one thing I want to mention as part of our chamber strategic goal is, we definitely want to continue to do this event for the locals. But we also welcome visitors to come, as well,” she said. “And the best part about this date change is it does shift to include our preseason rates. So flights are less expensive, hotel rooms and rates are less expensive.”

Local vibe

Spotting locals at this winter festival is easy. You might have seen Aspen Mayor Torre gripping a fresh beverage and, as a judge, slurping soup during this past Wintersköl, a festival furnished with beer vendors and distillers, local craft vendors, ice sculpting, live music at Wagner Park, a luminous torchlight parade carried out by a procession of adults skiing down Aspen Mountain with flares, a fireworks show booming above the rugged landscape, and the immensely popular soup contest of course.

Torre said has been a happy participant of Wintersköl almost every one of the 30 years he’s lived in Aspen.

“Because the focus of it is truly targeted and aimed at the locals,” he said. “It is a celebration of winter and all things Aspen, as opposed to other holidays or events that have a different aim. This one is very much for and by the locals.”

He said shifting Wintersköl to December will not only bolster participation in Soupsköl, but also everything else, as well.

“I also think it affords us the opportunity for maybe other things like perhaps pie baking or dessert competition. Maybe there’s room for a cocktail competition,” he said. “And by doing it at the beginning of the winter, that would give these outlets and businesses the opportunity for bragging rights all winter long. So I think he could really play well with our businesses.”

For Eppelsheimer, in addition to winning that sweet soup contest trophy, he remembered people asking about Pepperjack’s while they served festival goers their soup in 2023. What’s that restaurant, where is it, people asked. It was a great marketing strategy.

“For us, it was definitely an opportunity to get our name out in the community,” he said. “Not only with our guests, but also people that live here.”