Hell’s Backbone Grill Raises Over $270,000 With GoFundMe Plea

Hell’s Backbone Grill, the farm-to-table restaurant in Boulder, Utah, has gotten lots of love — and $$$ — from its customers who don’t want to see the 23-year-old restaurant close.

Owners Blake Spalding and Jen Castle, are reeling from the pandemic shutdown and its after-effects: rising costs, staffing, and lower tourism. A perfect financial storm that’s been brewing for awhile. So they made a last-ditch effort, appealing to the public to save their highly acclaimed, James Beard-recognized landmark. Within three days, they already have $271,000, and the donations are still pouring in.

In 2019 I ate at Hell’s Backbone Grill, and interviewed Blake and Jen, and some of their staffers on their farm, known affectionately as “Blaker’s Acres.”

The story, with recipes from the duo’s cookbook, gives a history of the restaurant, the food philosophy in light of Blake’s Buddhist principles, and the exuberance of the young staffers who embraced the physical labor of farming.

I’m only one of MANY food writers who have written about Hell’s Backbone Grill; at the time, someone from the New York Times was also in town. Pretty heady stuff for a restaurant that’s waaaay off the beaten path. Boulder is known as the most remote town in the lower 48 states. I’m thinking the rising cost of gasoline this past year curtailed some people from making as many long-distance drives.

Here’s an excerpt from the GoFundMe campaign:

“A note from Blake Spalding and Jen Castle, co-chefs and founders of James Beard-nominated Hell’s Backbone Grill and Farm, established in 2000 in the most remote town in the lower 48 states, in the heart of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument:
We write to you today with reverence, humility, and immeasurable gratitude.
This past week, as we’ve taken stock of all we’re thankful for, you’ve been at the top of the list. You’ve always been at the top, ever since we opened a restaurant in a tiny town in the extreme middle of nowhere, and wondered if anyone would show up—and you showed up.
We are sorrowful to say that after 23 years, Hell’s Backbone Grill and Farm is at risk of closing our doors. Throughout our 23 years as restaurateurs, we’ve always identified as deeply self-reliant. Even during three difficult and stressful pandemic years — and even when we received threats for advocating for the monuments — we declined offers from friends to help us fundraise for our survival. We were determined to work things out on our own. We had, after all, opened a restaurant in the most remote town in the lower 48 states–we had confidence in our ability to overcome obstacles.
But we’ve finally accepted that we need help. Spiraling costs and a shockingly reduced summer visitation to the whole southern Utah region have turned things upside down, and we now recognize that we can’t move forward alone. So, with the support and guidance of our community, and with the continued aspirations to make people happy with our food and to be of benefit … we have started a GoFundMe.
Our restaurant’s unlikely (ok: damned near impossible) success has had as much to do with your abiding support as with our commitment to the work. Nothing — not one thing — that we’ve accomplished over the decades could have happened without you. And so, as we try to see a path forward, we see that there is no path forward without you.
We remain optimistic for a new chapter that’s brighter than we could have imagined. And we’re hopeful that you’ll walk through those doors with us, hand in hand. But for us to all get there, we need a whole lot of help.
Areas of Critical NeedWe’ve set a goal that addresses three specific areas of need:
Critical need one: Debt paymentWe’ll be direct: we need to address the pandemic-related debt load of more than $500K that the restaurant has taken on in the last three years to weather the pandemic. As with countless other restaurants, we received loans and various relief from the federal government, which enabled us to keep our doors open and pay our staff and vendors—but the hard truth is that the loan money wasn’t enough, and now those loans have come due. And after a shockingly slow summer visitation year, we’re using borrowed money to make payments on borrowed money—which every grown-up knows is a bad idea.
Critical need two: A forever home for HellesWe need to move beyond renting. A down payment on the purchase of a permanent space for Helles here in Boulder would give us a much stronger positioning for a pathway forward. Having rented for 23 years, we need to find a more stable circumstance to feel good about growing older as we do this work. We’re exploring several options, our favorite being the possibility of buying the building that we currently rent on the grounds of the Boulder Mountain Lodge—the same beautiful space you know and love—the building that’s grown along with us.
Critical need three: Infrastructure tune-upsIf you know us, you know we’ve always been scrappy and tenacious. We’re pros at making do and getting by on little (after all, we started HBG with $3,000 and a year’s free rent), but it’s not easy on our staff to work with marginal and broken equipment, and there’s a whole lot that needs fixing—we’re dealing with a hefty amount of deferred maintenance. We’ve outgrown our thrift-shop origins (and the fridges and pots and pans we’ve been using since we opened). Any additional revenue could go to much-needed updates to farm and kitchen infrastructure, so we can continue delivering the quality of hospitality that you’ve come to expect—and maybe even level up a bit.
An Intentional GoalWe’ve set a GoFundMe goal of $324,000, a symbolic starting point. Really, we need a lot more than that. The number isn’t arbitrary—it’s 3 X $108,000. In Buddhism, 108 is an auspicious and sacred number, the completion of a cycle of mantras on a mala of beads. (And as many of you know, Blake practices Buddhism, and we have always run restaurant decisions through a Buddhist filter.) This is also an amount we believe will secure our short-term survival. But to be transparent, we hold tightly in our hearts to a bigger dream than surviving. We have so many new things we want to introduce—new visions and events and experiences we’re eager to create for you.
Immeasurable GratitudeFinally, we want to say it again before we sign off: thank you. No matter what happens, thank you for showing up all of these years, and believing in us, and turning our impossible dream into a reality. Thank you for being the backbone of Hell’s Backbone. For being our family. We can’t express how much you mean to us.
We love you, and we love our restaurant, our monument, the town, and our amazing team. And we love the work we do, growing and preparing and serving beautiful food in a beautiful location to you beautiful people. It’s an honor and a privilege, and we want to continue doing it, for as long as we possibly can.
We hope you’ll share our fundraiser with your community. And if you’d prefer to make a contribution by check to our fundraising efforts, you can do so to Hell’s Backbone Grill, and send it to us at PO BOX 1428, Boulder, Utah, 84716.
With so much love,

Blake and Jen and the Hellionsof Hells Backbone Grill“

On Nov. 29, they posted:

“We are positively overwhelmed by the outpouring of support — from near and far — and the love that we feel from each of you. Well wishes, contributions, and offers of help are filling our cup in ways we didn’t know we needed.

This morning, we woke up here in Boulder with gratitude in our hearts, and for the first time in a minute: a breath of relief. Perhaps this impossible venture is one that we don’t have to do alone, and perhaps the future is brighter than we imagined.

To those asking us how you can help: thank you. The greatest thing you can do over these coming days is to share our GoFundMe, and help tell the story of this restaurant and the amazing Hellions who make it all possible. The pictures of meals and smiling faces that you’ve enjoyed at our restaurant over the years are making our hearts sing.

We’ll continue to be in touch over the course of this fundraiser, but all we can say for now is thank you. Thank you for reminding us once again that we can ask for help, that we can continue, and that we can dream.”

In love and gratitude,

Blake and Jen
Hell’s Backbone Grill & Farm