Rapscallions in an Apple Tree

by Darrell Noakes
for Kootenay Business and Kootenay Visitors magazines, 2002

When I was a kid, our family used to pass through New Denver nearly every weekend on our way to camping and fishing trips around the Slocan and Arrow valleys.

Back then, the years following the signing of the Columbia River Treaty, New Denver thrived on mining and forestry.

I moved away from the Kootenays to go to school, then moved to the prairies to build a career. I wasn't able to return to the Slocan valley until 1986.

Things had changed dramatically. The town's economy had shifted to a much greater emphasis on tourism. A new restaurant on Eldorado Street caught my eye. My future wife and I stopped in for lunch and coffee, and the Apple Tree Sandwich Shop has been our regular stopping place ever since.

Since that first visit, I've wondered how the café started, and over the years I've marvelled at it's growth and prosperity. On my last visit, I met with owner Rob Ochsendorf.

Born and raised in Edmonton, Ochsendorf moved to Vancouver in his teens, then to New Denver after university. In 1986, leaving behind a career in social work, he took over the Apple Tree, which by then had been open for about three years.

"When Jim opened the restaurant, it was a great idea," says Ochsendorf. "It was way ahead of it's time."

"When I first moved here, the mine was still open," he says. "It was a shock to the town when the mine closed and people moved away, but New Denver survived."

"New Denver is a great place" he says. "It's a pretty eclectic community. With writers, photographers, sculptors and painters, there's some amazing diversity of talent here."

"It's so quiet here," he says. "To go back-country skiing, it's a 15-minute trip - you're not driving an hour or two. It's five minutes to the marina - hop on your sailboat and you're gone. There's everything you could want to do - kayaking, canoeing, sailing, mushroom picking, walks in the woods, bicycling - it's got it all."

The Tree, as the restaurant is known locally, mirrors the make-up of the community. On any given day, local townsfolk and others from up and down the valley fill the tables inside. When the weather's nice, the garden patio is full. At one end of the garden, a tall, old apple tree provides shade from the sun and gives sanctuary from the street. The tree, of course, is how the restaurant gained its name.

No restaurant in the Kootenays survives without providing a high-quality, healthy menu. The Apple Tree is no exception. For travellers from the prairies, accustomed to endless fares of Denver sandwiches with french fries washed down by a cup of weak coffee, the Tree is a welcome break from routine.

In a community of New Denver's talents and tastes, a restaurant has to offer a good selection, says Ochsendorf.

The Apple Tree Café was the second establishment in the Kootenays to acquire a cappuccino machine (the first was the Vienna Café in Nelson). Ochsendorf still uses the original machine, along with a second identical model, so that there's always a machine in service in case one breaks down. That's an important consideration when spare parts could take a week to arrive.

Each espresso is hand-pulled, the old-fashioned way. There's nothing wrong with modern, automatic machines, but nothing beats the flair and ambience of traditional methods.

In 1998, the Apple Tree published it's first cookbook, Recipes and Rapscallions: Culinary and Other Secrets from The Apple Tree Sandwich Shop. The book is as much a collection of philosophy, stories and legends as recipes.

Like so much of what goes on in The Tree, the cookbook was a community effort. Bill Finley, who owns the hemp store up the street, was publisher and editor. Gary Wright, New Denver's mayor wrote the stories. Patrizia Menton, owner and operator of Chiaroscuro Photographic Gallery in Hills, provided photography and design. Jeff Bustard, co-owner and operator of a bed and breakfast establishment and proprietor of a graphic design business in New Denver, completed the typesetting.

"They (Finley and Ochsendorf) thought it might be fun, rather than just recipes, to have some vignettes and little stories about local people," said Wright.

It's definitely fun. The book offers a glimpse into local life while presenting some of the Tree's favourite recipes. It is currently in its second printing.

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