Try climbing Chilkoot Hill in Stillwater, and you'll start to feel the burn around your fourth or fifth step. The hill has a 24 percent grade (rising 100 feet over a distance of 700 feet), which makes it treacherous enough to be closed off in wintertime. It's far too steep for cars. Cyclists, on the other hand, love the vertical challenge, as do the owners of the newly opened Chilkoot Cafe & Cyclery (826 S. 4th St., Stillwater, www.chilkootcc.com), located a few blocks from the epic climb.
Tucked into one of Stillwater's South Hill residential pockets, the Chilkoot Cafe offers counter-service dining (breakfast, lunch and dinner), coffee and pastries, as well as bike repairs and maintenance in its adjoining bike shop. The cafe held its grand opening in mid-June, in tandem with the Stillwater Nature Valley Grand Prix bike race, whose director Lee Stylos is also the owner of Chilkoot Cafe & Cyclery. (Just across the street from the cafe is the Bikery, another quaint bakery/bike shop.)
Stylos started working with chef Michael Moore in December to create that ideal neighborhood cafe. While Stylos is famous at home for his "Italian peasant"-style pot roast with porcini mushrooms over polenta, the restaurant industry is still entirely new to him. It's a good thing he's taken on Moore, who has experience at a number of cafes and upscale restaurants including the Lowry Cafe, the Loring Cafe and Auriga.
"I've always had a good aptitude for working with food," says Moore. "I started at the bottom washing dishes when I was 14, and I've done a lot since then, working as a server, as a cook and as a kitchen manager."
He's done even more in the creation of Chilkoot Cafe -- everything from reupholstering the chairs to designing his kitchen's layout and researching the local farms from which he wants to source his meat, produce and eggs. The work from Stylos' and Moore's 15-hour days has finally amounted to a place where locals can relax over chicken sandwiches and craft beers, where cyclists can find quality espresso and a good bike mechanic.
Looking forward, Stylos and Moore will brew three craft beers in-house. They're working with Steve Streitz (who has the working title of "beer geek") to create their beers under the name Velo Brewing. Once they've got their license, Chilkoot Cafe will start developing an IPA, a porter and a stout.
Moore says he and Stylos were looking for simple, fulfilling sandwiches for the menu, made with quality ingredients that speak for themselves.
"I don't know; I'm kind of a purist," says Moore. "I know people like turkey sandwiches, but I can't just get some processed turkey." Instead, Moore calls Wild Acres Game Farm near Pequot Lakes, Minn., eight days in advance to order smoked turkey (it takes at least a week to smoke and deliver the meat).
