The Willits Side Street Asking to Stay Open Past Six

"It's not insulated." That was Greg Topper's reason, at the Basalt Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on Oct. 20, for putting the Seoul Kitchen food truck away as winter comes. Topper co-owns the business with Mike Ziemer. "We're not going to be in the parking lot anymore," he told commissioners, according to the town's meeting video. "We're going to create a nice dining room inside for people to sit in during the winter."

Along with the indoor move, Topper and Ziemer asked the town to let a restaurant at 72 Sunset Drive stay open until 10 p.m. That takes a zoning change, because the rules for this light-industrial pocket at the bottom of Willits Lane don't let restaurants operate past 6.

Why the 6 p.m. Rule Exists

Sunset Drive turns off Willits Lane into a cluster of warehouse and office buildings that the town regulates as the Mid-Valley Design Center PUD. Its rules differ from Basalt's standard Industrial zone. Restaurants are a permitted use, but under the current PUD, Planning Director James Lindt told commissioners, "restaurants can't operate beyond 6:00 p.m. in the evening."

That cap explains why the Design Center's food has been built around lunch breaks, takeout and errands. When Seoul Kitchen opened on April 20, 2026, the Aspen Times reported that it would serve lunch and takeaway from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Saturday. In the same story, Ziemer described the area's quick-lunch options this way: "There's a dearth of that kind of thing around here."

The site also suits later hours. Lindt showed the commission a map of 72 Sunset Drive "surrounded by industrial area on all sides," with no homes nearby. Staff saw limited impact from running a restaurant until 10 p.m.

From Parking-Lot Courtyard to Indoor Dining Room

This spring's version of Seoul Kitchen was a summer setup. Topper and Ziemer first tried the menu out of a food truck at Aspen Ruggerfest. They opened in Willits with outdoor dining and takeaway, and Topper built what he called "this cool little dining room courtyard outside." He told the Aspen Times he hoped to catch riders on the nearby Glassier and Rio Grande trails, which the Times spelled "Glacier."

The menu draws on Japanese, Korean, Thai and Chinese street food. Topper named bao buns, the brisket sandwich and the Thai-style fish and shrimp curry as the big hits.

According to the application in the town's Oct. 20 agenda packet, the building used to be a cinder-block warehouse. Aspen Elevated Catering remodeled it into a working catering kitchen within a 3,600-square-foot space. The application says Seoul Kitchen "has been a popular local lunch spot" over the summer and states the plan to bring it inside for fall and winter. Lunch hours stay at 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Topper's TakeAway, the team's prepared-meal business, runs 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The deli case and refrigeration are on wheels, so the room can be rearranged as needed.

The application originally asked for more. Aspen Elevated Catering also wanted to use the roughly 1,000-square-foot dining room as an event space for chef dinners, cooking classes and private parties. Staff proposed capping events at 22 guests because of the 14 parking spaces on site. The applicants withdrew the event-space request before the meeting and kept only the extended restaurant hours.

What the Commission Sent to Town Council

P&Z voted to recommend approval of the 10 p.m. allowance. The motion carried these conditions:

1. Parking lot improvements, including striping, signs on the spaces and a barrier between the westernmost space and an electrical pole at the back of the property.
2. A 10 p.m. closing time.
3. The food truck, which had been operating under a special event activity permit, stops before restaurant operations begin.
4. Requirements from Mid-Valley Metro and the fire district continue to apply.
5. The town planner can approve minor amendments that carry out the approval's intent.

The parking plan has seven spaces in front, three parallel spaces along the side and four in back. Staff said that meets the restaurant standard of one space per four seats.

A P&Z vote is a recommendation, so the item still needs a Town Council hearing. The town calendar lists regular council meetings on Tuesday, Oct. 27, and Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. As one commissioner said when the vote ended, "Hopefully we'll see it on there soon."

Sunset Drive as of This Week

Here is the street as each business currently posts it:

Momo's opened a few weeks after Seoul Kitchen, and its dinner hours make it the street's evening exception. The Aspen Times reported in May that chef Sandy Dee Hall opened it as a takeout restaurant in early May 2026. He told the paper he wanted high-quality seasonal food at an affordable price, with "everything in-house, from scratch."

The Evenings Already Happen at 60 Sunset

The distillery is on the far side of the same PUD from 72 Sunset Drive. Lindt pointed it out on his map. Its tasting room stays open until 8 p.m. four days a week, and its fall calendar shows what an evening inside the Design Center looks like. Woody Creek Distillers says nearly all of its ingredients are grown in Colorado, within 250 miles of the distillery.

Coming up on the distillery's events calendar:

• Trivia Night, Thursdays, 6:30 to 8 p.m., including Thursday, Oct. 29.
• Closed Saturday, Oct. 31.
• Shaken & Salted, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 5 to 8 p.m. A ticket includes two cocktails and unlimited potato snacks.
• Canvas & Cocktails, Wednesdays, Nov. 11 and Nov. 25, 6 to 8:30 p.m., with festive painting themes. Bartender and local art educator Carolyn Stuart is listed as the guide for the Oct. 28 session.
• Create Your Own Gift Crate, Friday, Nov. 27, with holiday packages from $60 to $100.
• Vintage Bottle Sale, Saturday, Nov. 28, with a limited supply of vintage whiskey.

Canvas & Cocktails starts at 6 p.m. and Shaken & Salted runs until 8, both on weeknights, which is past the hour when the Design Center PUD lets a restaurant serve. If council approves the 10 p.m. limit, 72 Sunset could serve dinner on the same nights the distillery runs events. As proposed, Topper's TakeAway would run until the current 6 p.m. cutoff, which would give people heading home up Willits Lane a pickup option.

What to Watch Before Ski Season

There are three things to watch, in this order:

1. Seoul Kitchen's indoor dining room opening, with lunch still 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. once the truck and courtyard are gone.
2. The building permit to convert the catering kitchen into a restaurant, which the staff memo listed as pending.
3. Town Council's decision on the 10 p.m. PUD amendment.

Topper didn't commit to dinner hours at the meeting. He talked about the popularity of Seoul Kitchen and the TakeAway and wanting to "keep moving forward" and "raise the level." The amendment would give the owners the option of serving dinner. It wouldn't require them to.

If you want to talk through what's changing around Basalt's west end, or you want an Aspen native's read on the valley more broadly, Jordie Karlinski is glad to compare notes. Let's Connect.