Meet Connie Ruel | Chef and restaurateur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Connie Ruel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Connie, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
It was the logical next step. Being that my father owned restaurants for 40 plus years, it is all I really knew. I had drained all I could from holding a plethora of positions in the food and beverage and hospitality industry and knew I was ready to make a successful go at it.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
When I decided to retire from my career in the food and beverage industry, my sights turned to the one thing I had always dabbled in. I have been passionate about art for as long as I can remember! My first formal art class was doing watercolor on muslin at 10 years of age, winning 1st place at a student art show. I spent 12 years abroad where I could experience the work of the masters in renown museums, sketching and doing art studies while continuing my career in the food, beverage, and hospitality industry. After returning home, I utilized this growing talent and passion to design my restaurants and create plated food art.

A lifetime of being a restaurateur left little time to hone my painting skills but in 2017 after selling my fifth and last restaurant, releasing my memoir cookbook, and appearing on the Food Network’s “Chopped” and “Guy’s Grocery Games,” I was able to dedicate all my time to art.

In following my relationship with food, I have done many still life paintings with food themes, but my real interest lies in figurative and portrait. I work primarily in oil but dabble in acrylic, egg tempera and multimedia.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Wow, Where would we start? There is just so much to do in our grand state. I, of course. would love to take them to mountain towns for hiking or skiing etc depending on the time of year. Or down south to Manitou springs or Garden of the gods or to the many things in Colorado Springs. But if we were staying close to home, which for me is Niwot, I would start by taking them to the many events in our town like Rock n Rails, Why not Niwot, first Fridays, Dancing under the stars. House Blend on 2nd ave etc..there is just so much going on in our little town.. Then we would head to Boulder and the Pearl Street Mall. First stop for a drink on the Roof top of Avanti or Rosetta Hall to take in the sights of the flat irons. We could go for some carpaccio at Sforno then go for live Jazz and happy hour at the St Julien Hotel.,,,, Dinner? If I really want to impress them, I would take them to Flagstaff house to have the best service and food Boulder has to offer. I would insist that they plan another trip … I have so much more to show them!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
In the restaurant/ wine world I would say Susan Sokol Blosser, and Mary Arnstad were women mentors that empowered me as I was growing in knowledge of the industry and in discovering how to be a successful women in a mostly man’s world. In the art world it would definitely be Robin D’Amore. She inspires, empowers, supports and guides me to become the best painter I could be.

Website: https://www.followtheruel.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connieruel

Facebook: www.facebook.com/connieruel www.facebook.com/followtheruel