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Before his drive to work in Lenado on Tuesday, Aspen resident Frank Peters grabbed his morning brew at Jour de Fete, which has been part of his daily routine for the last six or seven years.
Olivier Mottier, owner of the French-style cafe with homestyle food, was there too, checking on Peters and other customers, which has been part of his daily routine for the last few decades.
The multi-tasking Mottier, working in the kitchen one moment and in the seating and check-out area the next, spotted Peters waiting and knew what he wanted: a 16-ounce latte with three shots. It would be right out.
Jour de Fête’s final day of operation is Jan. 26, something Mottier and his family members regularly hear about from customers breezing in and out of the cafe’s doors: They’re bummed to see it go but appreciate the run it made. Though the Mottiers’ three daughters and son helped make the operation a family affair, they all have other career plans. Combined with the restaurant’s 20-year lease expiring at the end of January and new lease terms that were not attractive to Mottier, he decided it was time to close.
“I think they are going to miss us,” Mottier said. “A lot of people are saying we are the only one of this kind.”
Jour de Fête is a block from the gondola and even fewer steps from City Market. Serving breakfast and lunch, it also has an outdoor dining area that opens when weather permits.
Like some of Aspen’s locally owned and operated restaurants from the 2000s, 1990s and before — Red Onion, Main Street Bakery, L'Hostaria, Mezzaluna, Jimmy’s, Little Annie’s and others — it built a loyal local following over the years. And soon, like those before it, it will close.
“There is a sweet and highly social aspect about it, and seeing people you know,” said Peters, who started prepaying his tab at Jour de Fête every three months after the COVID-19 global pandemic struck in March 2020. With public health orders limiting the services restaurants could provide, Peters bought his latte and wife’s coffee ahead of time to eliminate over-the-counter exchanges. That practice has stuck since then.
To Mottier, Jour de Fête has stayed afloat during Aspen’s economic ups and downs and challenging business climate largely because of the hands-on ownership.
“I am an owner-operator,” he said. “I never trusted anybody else but my family members to run this place because, I don’t know why, I just never trusted somebody else to do the job. And because of that, I’ve been operating the place instead of paying someone to do my job, so that’s one, and also, I’m kind of the face of the business.”
There are the quaint aspects of Jour de Fête that can neither be bought nor manufactured — such as some of its menu items named after its customers, like Jerome Hatem, the former president of Aspen Rugby who died in 2019. The Jerry Special is a croissant stuffed with spinach and feta coming scrambled eggs, spinach, tomato, sauteed onions and bacon — ingredients on Hatem’s custom-made meals.
“He was a regular and we created the sandwich after his death,” Mottier said. “We put his name on it. He was one of the only guys back in the day that we’d let behind the counter; that’s when we had lines in both directions, and whenever we saw him, he was a breath of fresh air.”
Customers relax Tuesday morning in the dining area inside Jour de Fête, which is closing at the end of January.
Rick Carroll/Aspen Daily News
That is just one of the many relationships Mottier and his Woody Creek family have built through Jour de Fête, which also is how Amy met Olivier. Shortly after moving to Aspen from Houston in 1989, Amy was introduced to Olivier by a friend. It was “coup de foudre.” She called her family home to report she had a beau and planned to live in Aspen permanently.
Fastforward 36 years later to the high holidays in December: The family of six — Mom, Dad, daughters Daniele, Gigi and Mia, and son Preston — were dutifully serving the steady streams of customers.
“We’ve had cousins on both sides, Olivier’s mom from France, and of course, Olivier and Amy’s kids behind the counter and in the kitchen,” says a post on Jour de Fête’s Instagram page.
Amy, however, has not been tied to the restaurant like her husband, who said he has averaged working 60 hours a week over the years As a full-time real estate broker with a retail background, she has led a professional life in Aspen but pitches in like everybody else.
“I always helped, but I also had a big job,” she said.
Sisters Gigi and Daniele Mottier take a photo break between ringing up and serving customers on Tuesday at Jour de Fête. The cafe’s last day of business is Jan. 26.
Rick Carroll/Aspen Daily News
Oliver Mottier, who grew up in France, had no desire to take over his family business there, he said. Even so, he established a business similar to the one his parents ran, he said.
“It’s kind of ironic, because my parents had the same type of business, in a small business in the French Alps, and they always wanted me to take over the business but I said no. I had to get out,” he said.
Mottier and a business partner opened the French-inspired Jour de Fête in October 1988 at the same location it is now, 740 E. Durant Ave. Mottier bought his partner out four years later and sold the business in 1998. The new ownership floundered under a different name and closed roughly six months later. The spot was empty for about three years, before Bagel Bites made a brief stay. After Bagel Bites closed, Mottier re-opened Jour de Fête in 2005, signing a 20-year lease.
“We had two lives,” he said.
With the help of some longtime employees and his wife, Amy, and their four children, Mottier’s Jour de Fête will have operated during five different decades — the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s.