For nearly every issue of Aspen Sojourner over the past 15 years, the magazine has compiled a guest list of the half-dozen Aspenites we’d like to invite to a hypothetical dinner party, under the “Community Table” rubric. Sojourner’s rotating A-list has included longtime locals, notable new leaders, and high-profile visiting performers or speakers. The criteria? All would have something fascinating to contribute, making for an evening of lively discussion. 

In fall 2025, we decided to put the concept to the test IRL. On a balmy late-September evening, 10 guests gathered in the spacious riverside studio of fine art photographer Yaron Leshem and his wife and business manager, Jenny. Amid a backdrop of Yaron’s work—black-and-white Roaring Fork Valley landscapes, stylized close-ups of mass-market snack cakes, and 3D photo vignettes of dolls—diners gathered around a long wooden table. On the menu: a mouthwatering four-course Middle Eastern feast prepared by the Leshems. “Middle Eastern food in the US is very Americanized,” explained Yaron, an Israeli native, as he highlighted the authentic flavors of the meal to come. (“He thinks he’s a 95-year-old Yemeni grandma,” quipped Jenny about her husband’s passion for homestyle cooking.)

As guests spooned up kubbeh soup, a flavorful beet broth enhanced by meat-filled dumplings, someone suggested a question everyone could answer: “What brought you to Aspen?” The conversation began flowing as readily as the food and wine.

Jazz Aspen Snowmass head honcho Jim Horowitz discovered Aspen as a child, traveling from Miami with his family in the late 1960s after his mom spotted a magazine ad describing Aspen as a “Rocky Mountain Shangri-La” backdropped with a photo of the town’s namesake mountain. That was all it took to convince Horowitz’s mom to escape the south Florida heat for a family vacation. “It was like Shangri-La on steroids,” said Horowitz of the community that his family discovered and continued to visit and that he would eventually call home.

Jeweler Scott La Du’s experience embodies the boomerang effect Aspen has on so many. After moving here in 1991, he relocated to Greenwich, Connecticut, eight years later to manage Betteridge Jewelers and raise his family. “But my soul was in Aspen,” explained La Du, who moved back after his kids left the nest. 

Guests took a short break to fill their plates with main-course dishes, served buffet style: melt-in-the-mouth brisket; roasted cauliflower tossed with pistachios, dates, and herbs; and couscous with root vegetables. Then, more stories.

Tom Clark Jr., president and CEO of the 11-store Clark’s Market group, and Olympic snowboard medalist and realtor Chris Klug moved to Aspen with their families, Clark at age 3 from Denver and Klug after high school when his father, Warren, became the general manager of the Aspen Square Hotel. Among Klug’s many accomplishments, he said he’s most proud of the global impact of his namesake foundation, which advocates for lifesaving transplants and is based in the Red Brick Center for the Arts. 

That the Red Brick even exists is partly due to the efforts of Aspen mayor—and dinner guest—Rachael Richards, who moved here in 1978 from Silver Spring, Maryland. Richards launched a three-decade career in local politics after chatting with Eve Homeyer one day while shopping at City Market. Homeyer, who became Aspen’s first female mayor in 1970, suggested that Richards should run for public office. “I’d already been thinking of it, and by the time I was one aisle over, I decided I would,” recalled Richards. With Homeyer as her campaign treasurer, Richards was elected to city council in 1991. The first major ballot initiative she participated in was the 1992 decision to convert the Red Brick, a former public school, into a community center for arts and nonprofit organizations. It passed by three votes.

Another guest, Sarah Roy, moved to Aspen after grad school and currently serves as the Red Brick’s executive director; she reminisced about working at the Ute Mountaineer during her first stint in town, and how the outdoor store’s owners, Bob and Ruth Wade, introduced her to the community. Genna Moe, senior director of the Aspen Institute’s Society of Fellows, worked with local arts organizations for a dozen years after moving to the valley to join her now-husband. As former executive director of Basalt’s Art Base, Moe connected with a group of women who were instrumental in starting the nonprofit. “They took me under their wing and told me about the history of the valley,” she fondly recalled.

In 1981, Aspen Sojourner publisher Nancy Mayer arrived from Cleveland as Aspen began to fully blossom as a resort town; she’s been a community doyenne ever since. In 1978, Charles Cunniffe relocated from Massachusetts to work on the renovation and expansion of the Hotel Jerome. As a young architect, he witnessed plenty of Aspen hijinks during side gigs bartending at the hotel, and managing its downstairs nightclub. As he built his own architecture firm, Cunniffe also developed a strong sense of civic duty, designing or renovating many of Aspen’s best-known public buildings (“Civil Service,” p. 90). “It was a gift to get here, so I always thought I had to give back to the community,” he explained. 

The Leshems moved to Aspen five years ago, two months before the pandemic hit. Yaron was ready to escape the frenetic pace of life in New York City, and both were eager to settle into the Roaring Fork Valley’s rural rhythms. As they viewed the property—an eclectic compound built by ceramicist and former Anderson Ranch Arts Center executive director Brad Miller and his wife—two bald eagles perched on trees nearby. “Jenny, this is it,” said Yaron.

They had come home.