Getting Hostel

These days, spending time on the slopes and hitting the sack in a nearby hotel can run hundreds of dollars. With unemployment currently over 9 percent, that premium pricing doesn’t bode well for the 2010 ski season. But in Warren, an innovative new property called Hostel Tevere [1] aims to make the outdoor experience affordable for everyone.

Located in a picturesque farmhouse, the family-owned, 24-bed hostel puts up guests for around $30 a night and offers them the option to buy three meals a day. Breakfast is currently open to the public, and dinner will follow once the business is more established. “We’re very budget oriented,” says Chef Jessica Wright, whose sister Sarah runs the place with her boyfriend Giles Smith. “Our most expensive breakfast item is $6.” That’s less than a pack of cigarettes nowadays, but what can you get for it? A burrito with chorizo, cheddar and egg; gingerbread pancakes; and homemade yogurt with granola, to name a few of the a.m. options.

Wright, a 2006 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, has been baking since she was a tyke; she cooked in Las Vegas and San Diego before moving back to help out at the hostel.

“We’re taking the tacky, country-themed B&B and really modernizing it into a funky place,” Wright says. But she insists this isn’t a bid for the hipster tourist market: The spot is “for locals. We don’t want to be a tourist place that jacks up the prices because we know we can.” When dinner is available to non-guests, visitors should expect “modern American comfort food” priced for Vermonters and broke ski bums alike. The bar will feature local beers and select wines under $20.