To step into The Penrose Room is to step back in time and step forward all at once. It is to visit The Broadmoor’s past, to taste it even. And it is to perhaps glimpse into the future.

This is indeed a historical space, hearkening to a time when the Colorado Springs resort was growing along with its worldwide fame. One encounters that history upon arrival to The Penrose Room, greeted by old photos and belongings of the namesake man who built the hotel in 1918. Also upon arrival, one encounters a new page in history.

This is The Broadmoor ー always looking back while looking forward.

And this is the hotel’s latest and greatest in dining.

Welcome to the reimagined Penrose Room.

“Unlike anything in the Springs area,” executive chef Justin Miller is proud to say, “and I would be proud to say unlike anything in the Front Range area.”

It is “beyond imagination,” according to one guest review ー the details almost impossible to fully appreciate and fathom. Here atop the nine-story South Tower, the view distracts: a panorama of wide windows showcasing the lake and mountains in one direction, the twinkling city at night in the other.

A suggestion: arrive before nightfall, around sunset, when the golden glow paints the curving room of textured wood, leather and multi-colored velvet. It all appears like a scene from Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby.”

It is not the filmmaker’s imagination to credit, but rather a team that spent years contemplating a new Penrose Room following its closure during the pandemic.

Miller was part of that team. “I absolutely think we did the right thing by taking our time,” he says.

Because like any of the gold-framed paintings hanging around here, a masterpiece takes time. The details took time to identify and refine, everything down to the silverware that is new but looks old with engraved filigree.

Jake Zubrod, The Broadmoor’s director of restaurants and beverage, picked out that silverware ー utensils that look like they could have been here at The Penrose Room’s opulent 1961 beginnings. A 2006 remodel saw the red wine-colored theme swapped for blue and gold. But otherwise, the concept stayed much the same over the years.

“The first concepts were Old World-inspired,” Zubrod says. “We definitely did that with this, too.”

And yet the overall aim was different, he explains, often repeating three words: “Fun, exciting and trendy.”

The dress code from back then remains for guests sitting at linen-draped tables, while guests sitting at the bar and cocktail lounge dress casual. Jazz might have played back then, while more atmospheric synth music fills the air now. And the early years here were captured by bulky cameras of the day, while now young people roam with phones in what might be The Broadmoor’s most Instagrammable dining scene.

The phones follow carts that roll around with vodka, gin and garnishes for martinis that are shaken or stirred by preference. Also tableside, Caesar salad is tossed and cantaloupe is scooped for an appetizer combining Prosciutto imported from a small farm in Italy. Beef Wellington, a staple of the restaurant’s early years, is carved tableside. And then the grand finale: a flame toasts the sweet meringue-encased Baked Alaska.

The tableside service is another nod to the past. “You don’t really see that anymore,” Zubrod says.

You see much more familiar items across the menu, namely sushi from fish that is flown in daily and a burger from wagyu beef that is raised on The Broadmoor’s own ranch.

“I’m super pumped about having a burger on the menu,” Miller says.

Because the burger achieves another aim of The Penrose Room ー still lavish as it’s always been, but somehow more approachable than ever.

There was another aim with the menu: “Worldly cuisine,” Miller says, “and looking at Spencer Penrose’s very worldly view.”

The Broadmoor’s founding father was a traveler. The sushi, Thai-barbecued red snapper and Japanese white miso-glazed halibut recall his trips to Asia. The pistachio- and za’atar-crusted lamb recalls other flings around the Middle East.

Penrose loved Hawaii; maybe he would’ve appreciated the blue, gin-infused cocktail called Seafarer, with hints of coconut. But he was known to be a whiskey man. And so surely he would’ve appreciated the wine cellar here, making space for some of the world’s most sought-after whiskeys.

Surely Penrose would’ve appreciated The Penrose Room, which continued his vision for the hotel in the decades after his death in 1939.

He always had a vision for fine dining, explaining the early line of classically trained chefs from Europe. Upon The Penrose Room opening in 1961, “it was elevated dining the hotel had not seen before,” says Cynthia Leonard, the hotel’s historian.

It would be atop the newly constructed South Tower, the culmination of an expansion that included the International Center. Now The Broadmoor had a venue for major conferences and major entertainment. And now The Broadmoor had a restaurant to wow the presidents, celebrities and royalty to come.

“And the local people came, too,” Leonard says. “It really changed the dynamics of the hotel becoming a social hotel.”

The decades saw singing and dancing under a sparkling chandelier that spanned 12 feet. The decor also featured Italian marble, Puerto Rican carpeting and French murals said to have come from wallpaper commissioned by Napoleon.

“It was extravagant,” Leonard says.

As it was in terms of cuisine. In 2007 and 2008, the restaurant earned the AAA Five-Diamond and Forbes Five-Star ratings ー awards The Broadmoor has consecutively earned more than any other resort in the world.

“We’ve always strived for those accolades,” Miller says, speaking to the new Penrose Room that strives just the same.

At the same time, the accolades “kind of drove you to that traditional experience,” Miller adds. “At the end of the day, we wanted to make sure the guest experience was most important.”

The new Penrose Room would be different ー “fun, exciting and trendy,” Zubrod repeats. And perhaps bucking a trend he sees at other historic hotels.

“There’s a lot out there that look tired and rundown,” he says.

Then there’s The Broadmoor ー looking back while looking forward.