Cedric Gervais is Opening Guest House Aspen on New Year’s Eve in the Former Madame Ushi Space

Aspen’s late nights have a new headliner. Guest House, the social dining concept from RDM Hospitality, will open in Aspen on December 31, 2026, taking over the former Madame Ushi space at 415 E Hyman Ave with a 220-seat restaurant and RSVP, its ultra-lounge, under one roof — and GRAMMY Award-winning DJ and producer Cedric Gervais has joined co-founder and CEO Raj Kumar as a partner in Guest House Aspen.

Photo Credit: Wyatt + Alex

The Aspen debut is the fifth for Guest House, which launched in Austin in 2024 before expanding to Las Vegas in 2025 and Scottsdale in 2026. Dallas opens in November, and Houston follows in the first quarter of 2027, with more markets to come. RDM Hospitality announced the Aspen opening on October 20, 2026; Gervais and Kumar spoke with Haute Living ahead of the news.

For Gervais, it is a homecoming of sorts. “I’ve been living in Aspen for 15 years now,” he says. “So I’m a local in Aspen, as well as Miami.” Madame Ushi, the Japanese restaurant and nightlife spot he opened on Hyman Avenue, was his first project in town, and Kumar was one of its investors. Three years in, with the restaurant doing well, the two bought out the other investors and decided to fold the space into Guest House as part of a remodel already under way.

The partnership traces back to Texas. “When we opened Guest House in Austin, on the opening weekend, Cedric came to Austin, and he DJed the opening party,” Kumar says. Around the same time, Kumar started skiing in Aspen and spending more time with Gervais there, which led to his investment in Madame Ushi. “I would say Aspen is like Austin’s vacation place,” he adds.

Gervais is clear that the Japanese concept isn’t gone for good. “We are going to continue a Japanese concept in the future, but right now, we think that Guest House is going to fit better in Aspen,” he says. “Aspen is a natural next step for Guest House,” said Kumar. “It’s a destination that understands hospitality, energy, and experience, and we’re excited to introduce Guest House and RSVP in a way that feels distinctly Aspen while staying true to what we’ve created with the brand. Having Cedric involved in this location makes it even more exciting as we continue to evolve Guest House and expand into new markets.”

Photo Credit: RDM Hospitality

What sets the Aspen location apart is the building itself. “The location is incredible because you have the restaurant and then you have the club in the same building, which is the lounge, basically,” Gervais says. “We’re going to have an experience for dinner, and then people are going to carry into the lounge later. So we’re going to be a very late-night place.”

The lounge is where the old formula changes most. Madame Ushi was a straight-up club, Gervais says, where guests waited until midnight or later for the DJ to go on. “Now we want to create a lounge, where people can go on a Monday, 10 PM, and have a bottle of champagne at a table,” he says, a nod to Aspen’s members-only Caribou Club. “We want this to be a place that you can come at 10 and have a great time.” DJs will still play, and the night can still run past midnight.

The drinks follow suit, with nightclub bottle service giving way to a high-end martini program. “I think Aspen is a very sophisticated customer,” Kumar says. “So we’re going to focus on martinis, champagne, and wine in the lounge.” As he sees it, the world is moving away from bottle service toward more experiential nights out. “I think we want to be the leaders in ushering people to that area,” he says, and the martinis will be exclusive to Guest House Aspen.

Photo Credit: TJ Perez Photography

The kitchen is in seasoned hands. Corporate chef Todd Mark Miller joined Guest House when it opened in Austin; Kumar credits him with helping usher in what he calls experiential dining, and Miller helped open STK in New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The brand’s theatrical, Alice in Wonderland-inspired cocktail program was built by Carla Lorenzo [VERIFY current title], and the menu leans on signatures like a 40-day dry-aged bone-in ribeye; the Aspen menu has yet to be announced.

Photo Credit: TJ Perez Photography

Hospitality, it turns out, is Gervais’ second act. “I love to actually host people. I found out I have a passion for that,” he says. With DJs, celebrities and VIPs passing through town every season, he has spent the past three years showing them a good time. “I call Aspen my own town now, because I spend half of the year there,” says Gervais, whose house is in Snowmass. He says Madame Ushi hosted David Guetta, who played there, along with Marco Carola, BLOND:ISH and Shaun White.

He has watched Aspen change around him. When he first came to ski 15 years ago, he says, it was “a very small-town kind of thing.” Now, “you see everybody from New York, LA, Miami. It became the St. Barths, Courchevel kind of place,” he says. In season, with Madame Ushi, Belly Up, The Snow Lodge and the town’s other venues all in the mix, the biggest artists in the world perform in Aspen every week, he adds.

The calendar is built around Aspen’s rhythms. A soft opening is planned for around mid-December, followed by a grand opening over two to three nights on New Year’s Eve weekend. After that, Guest House won’t go dark when the lifts close: the plan is to stay open all year for locals, with a summer patio set up for daytime lunch — a smart bet now that so many Miami families spend their summers in the mountains. To staff it, Kumar is offering corporate housing so team members from the other locations can relocate for the season, alongside local hires.

Miami is next on the wish list (I had to ask). “We want to find the right location and the right opportunity,” Kumar says, adding that the team is looking at spaces now and plans to open in Miami in the next one to two years. “Guest House has created something special by bringing together great food, cocktails, music, and energy in a way that feels effortless,” said Gervais. “Aspen is the perfect setting for that experience, and I’m excited to be part of what Raj and the RDM Hospitality team are building and to help bring it to this market.”

With a nightlife partner of Gervais’ caliber and a dinner-to-lounge format that already suits how Aspen likes to spend its nights, Guest House has every chance of becoming the address of the winter.

Guest House Aspen opens at 415 E Hyman Ave, Aspen, on December 31, 2026.

For more of Haute Living’s Aspen coverage, see the hottest new restaurant openings in Aspen and the best luxury hotels in Aspen.