On any given Saturday at 7 p.m., nearly every table is occupied at 1914 House restaurant in downtown Niwot.
In the kitchen, chef Justin Hirshfield is working multiple orders at the stove, instructing cooks and getting waitpeople ready to deliver to the downstairs and upstairs dining areas.
Hirshfield’s menu ranges from wild mushroom arancini and roasted beet salad to upscaled versions of fried chicken, burgers and mac and cheese.
His focus on simplicity and flavor is on full display in dishes like grilled wasabi-marinated ribeye plated with asparagus, roasted fingerling potatoes, tempura-fried mushrooms and bulgogi sauce.
When the orders settle down, Hirshfield heads to the dining room to joke with regulars about food and life. Then he wheels back to the kitchen to crank out more dinner tickets.
Hirshfield has worked from a wheelchair for more than 22 years. “Everybody sees the wheelchair and wonders why I’m in it,” he says. “It’s the little kids who are the most inquisitive. They come up without any prompt and ask, ‘What happened?’”
The 1914 House is just the latest chapter in a career that led Hirshfield to become one of Boulder’s youngest executive chefs. It started with a meal alongside his parents at Boulder’s legendary Ristorante Laudisio. They sat at the bar looking into the open kitchen.
“I was tasting and watching those guys cook and thinking, ‘Oh, my God, this is the best thing I ever ate. I want to learn how to cook like that,’” Hirshfield says. “They looked like they were having so much fun.”
At that point, the 16-year-old’s cooking experience consisted of a work-study experience as part of a class at Boulder High School.
“My resume was very short, but I went ahead and filled out an application,” Hirshfield says. “When I brought it to the chef, he said, ‘You want to get started?’ I got paid with a bowl of pasta at the end of the shift. I just kept showing up week after week after week and got hired.”
Eventually Hirshfield was sent to work in a restaurant in Italy and when he got back to Boulder, he became a sous chef. At the age of 24, Hirshfield was head chef at Ristorante Laudisio.
The accident changed a few things
On March 31, 2001, Hirshfield broke his back in a motocross accident and was paralyzed from the waist down. He moved to Niwot where he had a strong support system of family and friends.
He talks about the accident in a matter-of-fact way. “After I was finally released from the hospital, I had to take a minute to readjust,” he says. “My injury was low in my lumbar spine. I still had a lot of upper body strength, so I could push myself around in a manual wheelchair.”
Three months after the accident, his daughter Ariel was born.
“Having Ariel was a silver lining,” Hirshfield says. “I just had this beautiful baby and she was a huge motivator for me. As I recovered, I was a stay-at-home dad. I had this awesome amount of time to spend with her one on one.”
Post-accident, Hirshfield went back to school to get involved in the brewing industry, but he found himself at the Niwot Market as a volunteer chef for a benefit event.
“I got in there and realized that the kitchen was serviceable for me and also that I still loved to cook,” he says. “I started working there and everybody in Niwot got used to seeing me rolling around town.”
In the kitchen, Hirshfield did some of his knife work on a cutting board on his lap. “Initially, the regular prep tables were a little bit too high, so we finally rebuilt a table so I could just roll up underneath it,” he says. “You’re in a much more ergonomically correct cutting position. It’s easier and more efficient.”
At the Niwot Market, and now at 1914 House, the only customized adaptive piece of equipment is a table.
The 1914 House is accessible, at least in its first-floor dining room, Hirshfield says. But that’s not the case for all establishments. “If you look at the front door and see steps going into a restaurant, it’s a nonstarter,” Hirshfield says. “A lot of the time, the signage to the accessible entrance isn’t posted. I’ve definitely had experiences where a restaurant is packed so tightly that rolling through it with a wheelchair is impossible.”
And then there are the bathrooms. “Who are the knucklehead engineers who built these ‘accessible’ bathroom stalls with doors that swing inwards so you can’t close them?” Hirshfield says.
A question of attitude
Hirshfield says living with an injury like his requires a shift in perspective. “When you experience something as catastrophic as a broken back, it totally changes your world. I was either bullheaded enough or disciplined enough to not give up. You have to be willing to adapt,” he says.
Hirshfield says embarking on new activities is another key to a healthy life post injury. “I actually have a lot of fun trying new things,” he says. “If it doesn’t work out, it’s not going to ruin my day.”
But in the kitchen, Hirshfield often finds himself returning to familiar cuisine.
“Italian is still my comfort zone and I play around with risotto,” Hirshfield says. “It’s like a beautiful, blank palette every time you start. It brings me back to when I was first learning to cook.” The current menu at 1914 House features crispy-skin branzino served with creamy saffron risotto.
On occasion, Antonio Laudisio, owner of the late Ristorante Laudisio who now operates Laudisio Mobile catering, comes in to dine. “It’s fun to see him enjoying my food,” Hirshfield says. “He and his brothers taught me so much, and gave me some tough love when I needed discipline in my life.”
At the age of 46, Justin Hirshfield has 30 years of cooking experience under his chef’s jacket. “I’m also 22 years post-injury and I’m still figuring it out,” he says.
But Hirshfield says cooking is no longer his whole life. “I have been so fortunate. I’ve been able to continue living in a very similar way to what I imagined it would be anyway,” he says. “Right now, I’m just waiting for the snow. My sport is sit skiing. I’m pretty good but I’ve definitely wiped out and taken some diggers.”
Local Food News: Great Bakery News
A new cafe, Creature Comforts, is open at 1647 Pearl St., Boulder, serving coffee, tea and Japanese-style desserts from Broomfield’s Enchanted Oven.
Rebel Bread, Denver. Credit: Broc Hunter
A few blocks west in Boulder,Bitty & Beau’s, a cafe chain which focuses on hiring people with disabilities, is open at 1468 Pearl St.
Arrive early if you want to grab goodies from an all-star lineup supplying theBaking a Difference Bake Sale, Oct. 7 from 10 a.m.-noon at 311 S. Public Road in Lafayette. Participating bakeries include Bittersweet Cafe, Daily Grains, Eats & Sweets, Enchanted Oven and Shamane’s Bakery. Proceeds benefit Community Food Share.
Taste baked goods from 80 competing home bakers at the inaugural Denver Bake Fest at Denver’s Rebel Bread on Oct. 7. Tickets: rebelbreadco.com/bakefest
Two episodes of Roots So Deep, a new docu-series on regenerative agriculture, are showing Oct. 10 at the Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. A free reception follows at Corrida (1023 Walnut St., Boulder). Registration: thedairy.org
Words to Chew On: Eating the Earth
“The act of putting into your mouth what the earth has grown is perhaps your most direct interaction with the earth.” — Frances Moore Lappé
