Meet Robin Humble | Free Range Kitchen, Owner

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

Hi Robin, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
After going thru breast cancer treatment, including 14 rounds of chemo and a dbl mascectomy, my husband and I decided to open our restaurant Free Range Kitchen (7.5 years ago) I cant think of a bigger risk, looking back at that decision now. We wanted to make a difference, serve cleaner food without added hormones and antibiotics, and as local as possible. I learned alot about the affect processed foods, what we spray on our produce and how we inject meats has on our health. But regardless that close to 90% of restaurants fail in the first year, we forged ahead with our plan regardless of the risk. We definitely went with our gut vs our head. Restaurants are alot of work but it has been such a joy to see how much our customers love and appreciate our commitment to them and our small town.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We opened Free Range after 25 years or working in the hospitality industry in the Aspen Area. We knew what we wanted it to be a place where people could get “cleaner” food but also somewhere that we and our employees enjoyed coming to. So much that is showed to our customers. An environment that was full of smiles and good energy. My first round of hiring was more about peoples smiles than it was their experienceZ

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.
The outdoors in our area is our reason for living where we do. My husband and I love to climb, hike, ski, run and bike. We take people skiing on our mountains as well as backcountry to huts in the wilderness in the winter. We love to paddleboard at Reudi Reservoir and take “duckies”down the colorado in glenwood canyon in the summer as well as hiking on one of our amazing hiking trails in our valley

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband has always been my rock. During my cancer treatment, he refused to let me go to any appointment alone if humanly possible.
Our kids were 12 and 14 at the time and they were absolutely incredible too. I watched my autistic son leaving for school one day (from my bed on one particularly hard morning)
Dressed in his JROTC uniform, carrying his lunchbox, school backpack, trumpet, cross country skis (his after school sport) and another bag of clothes to ski in. He gathered it all himself and off he went.
If there was ever a time I thought, “He will be OK no matter what happens, it was then”. Many days I was so worried but that day I was so proud of him, in awe and it helped my anxiety a lot.
And my 12 year old daughter was so brave. We are best friends, so close.
I know that experience must have terrified her but she never let me see it, bless her. All of My family has worked at the restaurant since it opened.

Website: Freerangebasalt.com

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