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Milly Chalet a place to be on a bluebird ski day
Brighton » New day lodge completes $6 million upgrade
By Mike Gorrell
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 01/20/2009 12:01:42 AM MST
Click photo to enlargeSnowboarders and skiers line up to ride the Milly... (Jim Urquhart / The Salt Lake Tribune)«12345»Brighton » Being a bluebird day above the inversion, two garage-style bay doors were rolled up to the ceiling Monday to let warm, clear mountain air into Milly Chalet.
The new day lodge, part of Brighton Resort's $6 million investment to upgrade the Millicent side of its mountain, was doing a thriving lunch-hour business on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Every table on the deck was full of snowboarders and skiers basking in unfiltered sunshine. Most of the 30 tables inside were in use, too, reflecting the size of the crowd that packed the parking lot.
A year ago, the dilapidated old Milly Chalet could not have accommodated one-fifth as many people.
"We can hold three times as many people inside, about 175 now, and the porch seats another 75 to 100," said Nick Van Quill, who became Milly Chalet's manager this season after 12 years at Brighton.
"A lot of the quirks in the old building are definitely gone," added his predecessor as lodge manager, Jimmy Foreman. Six feet tall, he then leaned sideways and scrunched down to show how he had to stand by the sink, where the old roof slanted down to within five feet of the floor.
Customers also like the new lodge, constructed a season after Brighton upgraded Millicent lift to a high-speed detachable quad.
"It's great. It's wide open. It's simple. And I love the doors," said Liz Brown, 28, of Salt Lake City.
"A huge improvement," chipped in her husband, Devin, 31, as they ate a pizza lunch.
Out on the deck, tall-boy beers accompanied pizza at a table where Aimee Evans, 30, of Sugar House, was entertaining a half-dozen friends.
"I was born and raised on this mountain and this place is awesome, a really good addition," she said. "It was needed -- and we deserve it."
Ron Steele, who winters in Utah now that he has retired from the U.S. Postal Service, bragged about the chalet to Jennifer Xie, a former work colleague in Washington, D.C., visiting for a ski vacation.
The tables are much nicer, Steele said, and the wire baskets under chairs allow helmets and gloves to be stashed during meals. "It really looks upscale now," he added. "I love their chili. I hate the prices, but I can't resist their chili from time to time."
mikeg@sltrib.com
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