Mollie Aspen

Mollie Aspen

Opened in December 2023 at the corner of Main and Garmisch streets in downtown Aspen, across from Paepcke Park and a few minutes’ walk from the gondola at the base of Aspen Mountain, MOLLIE is a 68-room hotel built from the ground up, which in a town defined by its Victorian landmarks makes it something of an outlier. It takes its name from the Mollie Gibson, the most productive silver mine in late 19th century Aspen, itself named for the owner’s sister. The hotel is owned, developed and run by HayMax Capital, a local firm whose co-owner Michael Brown also operates Hotel Ketchum and the Tamarack Lodge near Sun Valley, Idaho. The timber-clad building is by the Colorado practice CCY Architects, brick at street level as a nod to Aspen’s commercial blocks and wood above for its houses. The interiors, and the branding, are by Post Company, the Brooklyn studio formerly known as Studio Tack (the Anvil in Jackson, Scribner’s Catskill Lodge), whose Ruben Caldwell skipped the antlers and plaid and went instead to Aspen’s Bauhaus inheritance, the postwar town shaped by Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke and the designer Herbert Bayer. The result is grids of white oak overhead, beige plaster, hand-dyed textiles, a walnut-wrapped café counter and an open fire in the lobby, filtered through a Japanese and Scandinavian restraint. Rooms are quieter still, close to monastic. Michelin gave it a Key in 2025. The hotel opened with Gin & Luck, the group behind Death & Co., running its bars. Since December 2025 the ground floor has belonged to Ludo Lefebvre, the Burgundy-born, Los Angeles-based chef, whose Petit Trois arrived here in its first outpost outside California: breakfast and dinner in the dining room, steak frites, Burgundy escargots and the Big Mec burger with foie gras, and a wine list by Dustin Wilson and Sabato Sagaria that leans French and Californian. The lobby café turns to wine in the afternoon. Upstairs, a rooftop spa pool and terrace look out to Aspen Mountain, Shadow Mountain and Red Mountain, and the terrace becomes a lounge after dark. The lobby is meant to be a local gathering place, and it works, though that means it is often busy and not every guest finds it restful. There is no full spa, no ski-in access, and Main Street doubles as the highway through town. A complimentary shuttle covers the four ski areas and Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, ten minutes away. You should not come if you want the hush of an old mountain lodge, a spa to lose an afternoon in, or skis on your feet from the front door. You should come for a well-made modern room in the middle of town, a rooftop pool facing the mountain, and a French bistro you would cross Aspen for anyway. The short version: A 68-room hotel opened in 2023 on Paepcke Park in downtown Aspen, with Bauhaus-minded interiors by Post Company, a rooftop pool facing Aspen Mountain, and Ludo Lefebvre’s Petit Trois on the ground floor.