Don Monette, center, with sons Scott, left, and Mark, right

1138 Flagstaff Road, Boulder, Colo. 80302. (303) 442-4640 OWNERS: Don, Mark and Scott Monette CHEF: Mark Monette OPENED: 1971 CUISINE: American with French and Asian influences CHECK AVERAGE: dinner, with beverages, $95

At 6,000 feet above sea level, the Flagstaff House is well known for its spectacular view of Boulder, Colo., which sparkles at night like gold in a jeweler's case, and, in the opposite direction, of the Rocky Mountains, especially on a moonlit evening.

MENU SAMPLER APPETIZERS Steak and eggs chef's version, crisp "soft" egg, Guinness-braised short ribs, brioche toast $16 Asparagus, morel mushrooms, white-truffle-infused polenta $14 SOUPS Consommé of duck, trio of wild mushrooms $14 Lobster soup, with lobster, shiitake mushroom, sticky rice $14 MAIN COURSES Buffalo filet mignon and foie gras "Wellington," brioche-baked black trumpet mushrooms and sweet onion tart, sauce of black truffles $59 Venison tenderloin, five-spice-rubbed breast of duck, sticky rice, hedgehog mushrooms, two sauces $32 American "gold" Kobe beef New York strip $95 DESSERTS Soufflé of dried cherries and toasted almonds, Frangelico ice cream $12 Hot liquid chocolate cake filled with liquid chocolate ganache, vanilla bean ice cream, berries, pecans $14

The moon, it seems, has been an inspiration for Don Monette, who 33 years ago bought a rustic cabin on Boulder's Flagstaff Mountain and turned it into an award-winning establishment.

"I shot for the moon, the best of the best," Don Monette says describing how he made the place a destination restaurant with the help of sons Mark, who is the chef, and Scott, the general manager.

And while people may come for the view, Don Monette says if they don't eat well and aren't treated well, they won't come back.

"You're only as good as the last dinner you served," he says. "A customer can come here 20 times, but if the 21st time is bad, you will not see him again. We have to be on our toes at all times."

Staying on their toes has brought the proprietors of Flagstaff House a four-star Mobil and four-diamond AAA rating as well as a DiRoNA Award. It also was the first restaurant in Colorado to receive a Grand Award from Wine Spectator magazine. Striving for the best has brought Flagstaff House critical acclaim locally along with an international clientele that has included such luminaries as the emperor and empress of Japan. The Monettes' effort has lasted for three decades, and the family shows no signs of resting on their laurels.

"The food right now is the best it's ever been," says Denver Post restaurant critic Kyle Wagner. "They are really pulling it off, which is not something you can usually say about a restaurant that has been around since 1971."

Often, venerable fine-dining restaurants will get locked into doing the same thing over and over, Wagner says, but Flagstaff House has worked at staying up to date.

"They may try crazy things and abandon them when they don't work," she says. "They dropped the French onion soup, which had been on the menu for ages, to get some different things in there. That is what will keep them alive."

Removing that soup was not easy, chef Mark Monette says. The French onion soup had been the restaurant's No. 1 appetizer for years, and his father always has been one to heed the desires of his customers. Mark Monette finally convinced his father to take a chance and remove the soup three years ago. The chef says the onion soup did not represent the type of food he wanted to serve.

Mark Monette grew up working at Flagstaff House along with his four siblings, but he never planned to make it his career. He wanted to go into business for himself, and so he set off for New York to learn how to cook.

While Mark Monette was working in New York, a fellow chef helped him obtain a cooking position in France. During his time there he worked in several Michelin three-star restaurants. He also went on to cook in Asia. And in the early 1980s, while on staff at La Reserve restaurant in New York, he worked alongside Thomas Keller, now chef-owner of the French Laundry in Napa Valley, Calif., and Per Se in New York.

Mark Monette returned to the Flagstaff House in 1985, after the restaurant's chef had retired.

"He asked, 'Can I be your chef?' " Don Monette recalls. "I said, 'You're just a kid,' not knowing what he [had learned] since he'd been gone. But he came back a classically trained chef."

When Flagstaff House was building its reputation in the 1970s, fine dining in the United States mostly was about prime rib, lobster and steak, chef Mark Monette says.

"When I came back, we had shrimp cocktail, French onion soup, Chateaubriand and lobster tails," he says. "I started taking them all off and changing the menu."

To ease the transition, the restaurant offered two menus — one featuring the traditional dishes and the other showcasing the newer items that Mark Monette wanted to do. Bit by bit, he was able to eliminate items and update the entire menu. For example, instead of serving beef Wellington, this spring's menu offered buffalo filet mignon and foie gras "Wellington" served with brioche-baked black trumpet mushrooms and a sweet onion tart with sauce of black truffles. A salmon and foie gras "Wellington" version also is available.

Writer Claire Walter, in her book, "Culinary Colorado," credits Mark Monette as being one of the first chefs in the state to combine classic French cuisine with Asian accents. The chef also was a leader in embracing the use of seasonal ingredients and often changed the menu daily in order to take advantage of them. He started having fresh fish flown in daily and also ordered locally grown and organic products.

"I have intimate knowledge of Mark's work and his dedication to his craft in the kitchen," Keller says. "And meeting Scott after having met Mark and seeing the dynamic they both create, it's quite unique."

Scott Monette, the younger of the two brothers, left home to study hotel and restaurant management at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. After graduation he traveled the country, working in resorts and hotels in New York; Hawaii; Washington, D.C.; and California. He eventually returned to Boulder to work for a purveyor, until his father and brother called him to tell him that the restaurant's manager had quit.

The brothers met for lunch the next day and agreed that Scott Monette would take over as the restaurant's general manager. That was about 10 years ago.

"Scott brought to the table management skills we didn't have," Don Monette says. "I'm old school, the type to say, 'Get out of here; you're fired.' And Mark [was in] France, where they have the same attitude. But Scott believed there were other ways to do it."

In addition to managing the restaurant, Scott Monette focused his attention on Flagstaff House's wine list. He became a sommelier and then hired four more.

"When I first started, we had Christian Brothers, Paul Masson and a few French wines," Don Monette says. "I knew nothing about wine. We started with about nine wines on our list. We didn't even [list] the vintage dates."

To build the wine list, they once again "shot for the moon," the elder Monette says.

Today the restaurant has 20,000 bottles of wine in a five-room cellar, and instead of nine selections, they have 3,200, he adds. Some wines date back to the 1800s. The restaurant has a complete vertical collection of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild wines from 1945 forward, he says.

Mark and Scott Monette are the only two of five siblings to work as adults at the restaurant. An older brother is a chef in a Branson, Mo., resort, and their two sisters are not involved in the foodservice business.

During the early years Don Monette's wife, Carole, worked at the restaurant. She would answer the phone and take reservations in between feeding and changing her children's diapers.

"Without her support I don't know what I would have done," her husband says.

Don Monette hails from upper Michigan, but he joined the Army and was sent to Leadville, Colo., in order to train with its ski patrol. However, he spent most of his years of military service as a cook. When he got out, he returned to school and supported himself by working in restaurants.

But he couldn't get the beauty of Colorado out of his mind and eventually moved to Denver and then Boulder.

"I could see the potential in Boulder with the University [of Colorado], the high-tech companies and government projects here," he says. "That was in 1963. People were unsophisticated. They didn't know what a scallop was."

Don Monette eventually bought two restaurants in Boulder, and then an opportunity came to purchase Flagstaff House. The restaurant, which began as a cabin in 1929, had had several incarnations as a dining establishment by the time he took it over. But in all that time it never stayed open year-round. Previous owners always closed the restaurant in the winter because snow and ice often made the winding road up the mountain treacherous.

Don Monette, however, needed to make money. He borrowed $2,000 to buy the restaurant and bought a four-wheel-drive Jeep Wagoneer and ferried customers from the base of the mountain up to the restaurant. He sold his other restaurants within two years.

After the Monettes bought the property, the land surrounding it was designated as open space, and so the restaurant never will have neighbors — at least not human ones. Deer often are spotted grazing near it. But Don Monette can tell stories of seeing bears, mountain lions, skunks and raccoons.

Beyond the wildlife, the view, the winding mountain road and the food, when people talk about Flagstaff House, they also are likely to mention the attentive service they receive. The restaurant's servers are considered independent business operators within the restaurant, according to Don Monette. "We give them everything they need to work with, but they are in business for themselves; that's how I put it," he says.

The Denver Post's Wagner recalls once having dinner with a group of women at Flagstaff House, some of whom never had been to a restaurant of its caliber. One of the women wanted a beer instead of wine or mixed drinks. But the restaurant's list of microbrews did not interest her. What she really wanted was a Bud Light, which the restaurant did not carry.

The server, however, had some in the trunk of his car, so he brought her one, Wagner says. "Now that's above and beyond. I've always thought the service was outstanding."

Mark Monette says his father has taught his children that the customer always is king.

Or as Don Monette puts it: "Whatever the customer wants, we'll do. We'll put a chair on the moon if he wants it."