Bruce Polich at the Mother Lode building where he opened his popular Aspen restaurant in 1959.
Bruce J. Polich, who among many other endeavors started The Mother Lode restaurant in Aspen in 1959, died earlier this month at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Denver where he had been hospitalized after contracting COVID-19. He was 97.
Bruce moved his young family from California to Aspen in 1959 because he felt “the action was there,” and also fell in love with the beauty of Aspen, according to his son Thomas Polich. Bruce was a freelance writer and filmmaker, pioneering promotional ski films for Sports Illustrated, Aspen Highlands Ski Company, the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies and the Aspen Music Festival.