Classic Times in Colorado
Postcard from the Aspen Food & Wine Classic: Foodie heaven, celebrity chefs, spectacular scenery, and driverless cars
Jul 7, 2017 | 2:31 pm
![Aspen mountain scene](https://houston.culturemap.com/media-library/aspen-mountain-scene.jpg?id=30465976&width=2000&height=1500&quality=65&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0)
A mountain view near Aspen.
Photo by Lonnie Schiller
When Houston restaurateur Lonnie Schiller attended the Aspen Food & Wine Classic he found that everywhere you look is a postcard.
While walking around the little mall area in downtown Aspen between parties we noticed across from one of the many cannabis dispensaries — they're starting to look like Prada stores — was a Tesla showroom. [https: /www.tesla.com/findus/location/store/aspencolorado] I had seen a lot of Teslas in town. We started chatting with showroom owner Nathan Kamens, who said, not surprisingly, that people in Aspen have lots of money and are generally very environmentally conscious. Thus lots of Teslas. He said the Aspen festival is a great way to showcase the new Tesla models with so many people in town. We even went for a test drive down valley and Nathan showed us how the car drives itself. You just push a lever and it takes over. The car reads the yellow lines, knows the speed limit, takes the turns – it really does drive itself. When back in town, the Tesla parallel parked itself. Nathan said you could send it to the pizza place and it would bring your order back (although that’s not yet legal). -------------- Pictured here, Mickey Altman demonstrates no-hands driving while in a new Tesla.
Photo by Lonnie Schiller
While walking around the little mall area in downtown Aspen between parties we noticed across from one of the many cannabis dispensaries — they're starting to look like Prada stores — was a Tesla showroom. [https: /www.tesla.com/findus/location/store/aspencolorado] I had seen a lot of Teslas in town. We started chatting with showroom owner Nathan Kamens, who said, not surprisingly, that people in Aspen have lots of money and are generally very environmentally conscious. Thus lots of Teslas. He said the Aspen festival is a great way to showcase the new Tesla models with so many people in town. We even went for a test drive down valley and Nathan showed us how the car drives itself. You just push a lever and it takes over. The car reads the yellow lines, knows the speed limit, takes the turns – it really does drive itself. When back in town, the Tesla parallel parked itself. Nathan said you could send it to the pizza place and it would bring your order back (although that’s not yet legal). -------------- Pictured here, Mickey Altman demonstrates no-hands driving while in a new Tesla.