Rachael Northup thinks back on all of her childhood family vacations fondly, but one memory in particular stands out. Northup, her three older sisters and their parents were visiting a high-end resort for a conference one winter. The hotel had accidentally double-booked the family’s room, but made up for it by upgrading them to a suite.
Northup, the youngest, remembers being thrilled that she wouldn’t have to share a bed or sleep on the floor.
“We thought it was the coolest thing,” said Northup, who grew up in Sterling.
That memorable brush with hospitality (plus many others) led Northup, now 22, to pursue a degree in hospitality management at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction.
Provided by the Hotel Maverick
In the Devil’s Kitchen restaurant on the hotel’s fourth floor, which offers sweeping views of the campus below from its floor-to-ceiling windows and patio, culinary students spend a 16-week semester learning the ins and outs of both front-of-house and back-of-house roles. (Provided by the Hotel Maverick)Now, as a hospitality intern at the university’s new on-campus Hotel Maverick, she’s able to practice extending that same level of care and personalized service to the mountain bikers, produce-lovers, business travelers and other tourists visiting Grand Junction.
Hotel Maverick, which is owned by the university and managed by Charlestowne Hotels, opened last June during the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to offering 60 pet-friendly guest rooms and suites, a full-service bar and restaurant, complimentary cruiser bikes for guests, an on-site coffee bar and many other amenities, the boutique hotel serves another important purpose: training the next generation of hotel managers, restaurant chefs and other hospitality pros.
The Hotel Maverick is a teaching hotel, where full-time staffers help train student interns from Colorado Mesa University and Western Colorado Community College (which is a division of the university).
Depending on their area of study, students spend up to six months interning at the hotel and the on-site restaurant, Devil’s Kitchen, which offers them a wide window into the fast-moving world of hospitality and culinary arts.
“It’s really eye-opening because hospitality is 24/7. It never goes away; you’re always serving people,” said Tammy Anderson, the hotel’s general manager. “Initially, people think hospitality is just fun — you come and meet all these wonderful people — and that is so true, but the other side of that is that it’s very stressful, the nights, the weekends, the holidays.”
Provided by the Hotel Maverick
The Hotel Maverick is a teaching hotel, where full-time staffers help train student interns from Colorado Mesa University and Western Colorado Community College (which is a division of the university).There are little nods to the scholastic setting and teaching mission throughout the property, too, including historic photographs depicting student council meetings of yore and framed front pages from the university’s (then Mesa College) student-run newspaper, The Criterion. The hotel’s event spaces have fun names like “The Classroom,” and guests can access the university’s recreation center and attend on-campus athletic and performing arts events at a discounted rate.
Many of the drinks on the menu at Devil’s Kitchen are made from recipes provided by the university’s trustees, like the “Bloody Motty,” made with vodka, bloody mary mix, okra, bacon and peppers, courtesy of trustee Stephanie Motter.
“The place is full of energy, being on the campus,” Anderson said.
Sarah Kuta, Special to The Denver Post
The Duck Fat Fries and the Hop and Beet Salad at Devil’s Kitchen, located on the fourth floor of Hotel Maverick in Grand Junction.Hands-on hospitality
The hotel offers two, six-month hospitality management internship positions for students at the university. Upstairs, the Devil’s Kitchen restaurant offers a practicum, or class-based hands-on learning experience, for culinary arts students at the community college.
The hospitality interns, who are usually upperclassmen nearing graduation, work at the hotel 20 hours a week, shadowing front desk employees, housekeeping staff, the general manager, the sales and marketing team, the food and beverage staff and other departments within the hotel.
Northup, who is on track to graduate in December, said the biggest takeaway from the internship so far (she’s in month four of six) is how to adapt and trust her skills and knowledge on the fly.
She experienced that challenge first-hand recently during a reservation mixup. Though a guest had reserved a double-queen room, there wasn’t one available when he checked in. Thinking fast, Northup offered up the hotel’s king bunk-bed room instead, a unique accommodation with two king beds stacked on top of each other, summer camp-style. In the end, the guests were happy and satisfied with Northup’s quick-thinking swap, she said.
“It’s about being able to make decisions like a manager or supervisor would when you have a guest complaint or have a situation that’s out of the norm,” she said. “When you’re on the spot and under pressure, you have to make the best decision that you can at the time.”
Sarah Kuta, Special to The Denver Post
Historic campus photographs and newspapers line the walls of Hotel Maverick in Grand Junction.Savvy service
In the Devil’s Kitchen restaurant on the hotel’s fourth floor, which offers sweeping views of the campus below from its floor-to-ceiling windows and patio, culinary students spend a 16-week semester learning the ins and outs of both front-of-house and back-of-house roles.
They shadow the host or hostess and servers, bus tables and deliver food to tables before transitioning to the kitchen, where they rotate through every position on the line — saute, grill, fry and pantry. They also work as a barista at Betty’s Gourmet Coffee, the hotel’s ground-floor coffee shop. At the end of every rotation, students must write a paper about what they learned, their likes and dislikes, and any interesting experiences or scenarios they encountered.
With her practicum and other work experience under her belt (Devil’s Thumb hired her to work in the kitchen after the practicum ended), Morgan Wallace hopes to move to Telluride to work in hospitality when she finishes her culinary arts program at the community college.
“Working at Devil’s Kitchen has really inspired me even more to be a chef,” said Wallace, a 19-year-old who’s originally from Norwood. “Knowing what’s going in the front and back of the house, that’s really essential when you are the top head chef.”
Interns aside, a majority of the regular employees at Devil’s Kitchen are also students at the university or community college, which brings a fresh, youthful vibe to the hotel — and plenty of teaching and learning moments that go both ways.
“Not only do the students learn from us, but we learn a lot from them, too,” said Tracy Johnson, the hotel’s food and beverage director. “It’s been a very positive thing.”
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