As summer draws to a close, Seasons of Durango is also changing.
The restaurant’s previous executive chef, Dennis Morrisroe, has left to become the new general manager of the Sunnyside Farms Market. Replacing him will be Shane Lovelady, who was previously the sous chef at the Glacier Club and Dunton Hot Springs.
Seasons will also be bringing on Ty Weber as its new sous chef and Scott Wells, most recently of The Palace, as its new manager.
“It’s a shame to lose him (Morrisroe),” Weber said, “but through that, we’re going to see a lot of fun and interesting changes.”
Lovelady said he is going to bring fresh ideas based on his background in Southern cuisine and his experience cooking in Australia. “Australia is just a melting pot of cuisines,” he said.
One example of an item Lovelady wants to incorporate into the menu is a beet succotash, featuring local root vegetables. Oysters will also return to the menu, probably on weekends, he said.
Weber’s forte is modern plating and modern dishes, he said. For instance, incorporating local microgreens into dishes will be a nod to modern food, he said.
Weber said the twists the new team plans to put on Seasons’ legacy menu items “will reflect a newer and younger look.”
The restaurant’s fall menu will be coming later this month, and in the meantime, the new team is experimenting with daily specials and values customer feedback.
Karen Barger, Seasons’ owner, said that while many things will be changing at the restaurant, others will stay the same. The oak-fired grill is sticking around, as is the rotisserie associated with it.
“On the days that I work when the rotisserie is going, it is torture all day long,” Wells said. “It smells so good.”
Rotisserie chicken has been on every menu since Seasons opened and will continue to be. The restaurant’s calamari and tiramisu will also stick around, Barger said.
Outside of the kitchen, Wells said he would like to change the way the community approaches Seasons.
“I’d like to make it so it’s less of a special occasion restaurant and more of an everyday couple-times-a-week kind of place to come hang out,” he said.
ngonzales@durangoherald.com
