Enter into Tiny Pine Bistro, located in a humble Victorian just blocks from Main Street in Carbondale, Colorado, and you will immediately be transported to a century before. Constructed in the late 1800s and previously occupied by The Beat, two Chicagoans found their grove in the historic space, vegetable wallpaper, custom bar top, gas fireplace and original wood floors.

Photos by Julie Bielenberg

Leslie Lamont and Charles Ford opened up Tiny Pine Bistro in February 2022. The duo originally relocated to the Roaring Fork Valley in autumn 2020 to escape the Windy City heavily impacted by COVID and to try their talents in Aspen. After a year, the duo was ready to branch out on their own.

Ford grew up with generational cooking. “My mom’s parents, my grandparents, had a mom-and-pop Italian restaurant in Iowa called Rocky’s Pizza. Growing up, we spent a lot of time there. I didn’t know at the time, but I was growing quite an admiration for the restaurant business watching my grandparents, Rocky and Beth, make pizzas and kind of do it all in their shop. We have an old menu from Rocky’s Pizza hanging next to the bar, and it’s wild to look at it from time to time.”

Together with his wife Leslie, they honed in on their favorite dishes and drinks — comfort and locality as a focus — and set the menu with a dozen staples, including housemade pasta with Dooley Creek eggs. Ford started going to the Wednesday Carbondale Farmers Market in late spring 2022 to meet vendors and scope out the regional goods to create his nightly specials. “Whatever the crunchiest veggies are, I’m buying them,” he shares.

Lamont, who runs the front of house for the 26-seat upscale eatery, invested early on into the community and now organizes wine dinners, comedy nights and live music in the backyard.

“We are so fortunate to have such a unique space in our backyard. We’ve got a little stage tucked in the back next to
the gardens and a full bar set beneath twinkle string lights. I love how it feels comfortable, like your neighbor’s backyard, where you can sit with friends, sip on a frozen drink and chill out at the end of a long day,” says Lamont.

During the warmer seasons and days, even in winter, Tiny Pine Bistro opens up their tiki bar in the backyard that doubles their seating capacity in the yard and on the deck.

Tiny Pine Bistro and the tiny tiki bar in the backyard are open Wednesday through Sunday, 5-9 p.m. Happy hour at the tiki bar, inside bar and front porch are 5-6 p.m. each day the restaurant is open. The bistro began opening for lunch Wednesday-Friday this past fall. “Once we get into the rhythm, we’ll open up full time,” adds Ford.

CHARLES FORD OLIVE OIL POACHED TUNA SALAD
Perfect for Post-Workout Protein or on Crusty Bread in Front of the Fire

Serves 4
1 pound tuna, cleaned and cooked
(Ford likes to poach the tuna in olive oil, but
you could also use a nice canned tuna, or the
tuna in a bag isn’t that bad either, he says.)
½ cup Castelvetrano olives, chopped
½ cup red pepper, chopped
½ cup fennel, thinly sliced
½ cup celery, thinly sliced
½ cup tomato, diced
½ cup red onion, diced
(can be substituted with a shallot)
½ cup white beans, or whatever beans
you prefer. (Ford likes fava beans.)
Handful of capers
Juice of two lemons
2 Tbsp local honey
2-4 sprigs of fresh thyme
(pick flowers, discard stems)
2-4 sprigs of fresh oregano
(pick leaves, discard stems)
Fresh ground black pepper, optional
Big flaky sea salt, optional
Olive oil
1 loaf of your favorite sourdough
1 cup mayonnaise
(It’s fabulous if you make your own, Ford
believes, but Hellman’s will do it in a jiffy.)
8-10 lemon wedges

Instructions:
1. Combine all of your contents together, leaving out the tuna, mayonnaise and lemon juice. Once everything is in the bowl, season it to your desired taste.
2. If you taste it here and think you need more seasoning (salt & pepper), now’s the time to do it.
3. Add the tuna, break it up into thumb size chunks and mix well into the vegetables.
4. Add mayonnaise, lemon juice and olive oil.
5. Slice sourdough to about an inch thick, and coat each side with olive oil. Toast it in a toaster, on a cast iron or in the oven (400 degrees for about 10 minutes on each side).
6. Serve with a few lemon wedges and a bottle of nice olive oil, along with an Italian white wine if desired.

Originally published in Winter + Spring 2023-24 issue of Well.