Restaurant owners Dick Carleton and Alexandra Storm have bowed out of the Breckenridge food scene after selling the Hearthstone Restaurant in January. 

Carleton and Storm created the Hearthstone Restaurant in Breckeridge’s historic Kaiser Home in 1989, around eight years after Carleton began working for Storm at one of her other restaurants, Mi Casa Mexican Restaurant. Now, the two have passed the torch to Hearthstone’s new owners Kimberly and David Salmon. 

The Salmons, a lawyer duo who raised their family in Florida, said they’ve been coming to Summit County for the last 25 years and moved to Breckenridge around 2022. Kimberly Salmon said they are “no strangers to Hearthstone,” and it’s been their go-to place to celebrate special occasions. Their son, Grant, currently works there as he attends the Colorado Mountain College culinary program. 

The Salmons said they were drawn to the historic aspect of the Kaiser Home, which was occupied by the Kaiser family in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. 

“People love going to that building and feeling like they’re in a different era,” David said. “It’s just a different, unique experience for people that come to Breckenridge. … It fits so well within the notion that this is a mining town.” 

He said they look forward to becoming a part of the “emergent” food scene in Breckenridge and supporting surrounding businesses. 

Carleton said the Salmons are passionate people with a proven track record of running a successful business. He and Storm felt the Salmons were the right fit because of their passion for food and wine and the importance they place on fostering a positive work culture.

Before showing official interest in the restaurant, the Salmons said they first wanted to vet the work culture at Hearthstone. They took the general manager out to dinner and learned about the culture of respect in the fine dining establishment, evidenced by numerous employees having decades-long careers with Hearthstone. 

While Carleton said the restaurant prides itself on being a place people want to work for decades, some of his favorite memories are when employees used the knowledge and ethics they learned at Hearthstone to open their own successful eateries.  

The positive work culture is something the Salmons said will stay alongside many other aspects of Hearthstone, such as beloved menu items like the blackberry elk. Kimberly Salmon said they don’t want their ownership to impact the people who have relied on and loved the Hearthstone for the past few decades, and they plan to continue the tradition supporting the community around them. 

The pair do plan to make one notable new addition: a fine wine program. 

The Salmons journey as oenophiles, or lovers of wine, began when they lived in St. Petersburg, Florida. While working on a property damage case through their law firm, they got acquainted with the DeBartolo family, who formerly owned the San Francisco 49ers and had a lot of ties to wineries in Napa Valley. David said they ended up being immersed in the California wine scene and their love for wine continued to grow with the more vineyards they visited. 

David said he thinks people love fine wine because it creates memories. He said there’s a term in the industry known as the “Cassis effect,” which refers to Cassis, France. The “Cassis effect” happens when someone drinks a wine they’ve had before and is transported to a memory of drinking that wine. It began with people drinking wine from Cassis elsewhere in the world and remembering their experience drinking it on the cliffs of Cassis, he said.

The Salmons plan to roll out the fine wine program around the spring. They are working with the general managers and bartenders at Hearthstone to curate it. 

In addition to a wine program, the Salmons are eyeing new menu items as well. They said those won’t be coming this ski season but possibly in the spring or summer. 

While Storm and Carleton’s final restaurant is in new hands, they will remain business partners on their real estate properties. Carleton said they’ll probably be partners for life, which he feels grateful for. Storm opened the door to business ownership for Carleton, who said he first landed in Breckenridge with “maybe a hundred dollars” in his pocket. He described her as a “quietly awesome” member of the community whose generosity shines through her businesses and her foundation, the Jane Alexandra Storm Foundation. The Hearthstone Restaurant is located 130 S. Ridge St. The Salmons said they plan to be open year-round, but will uphold the restaurant’s tradition of closing for around two weeks in spring shoulder season to address any maintenance items. For more information about the Hearthstone restaurant visit HearthstoneBreck.com.