The local tele and hospitality community — and townsfolk in general — was saddened with the passing this spring of longtime local Daryl Newcomb, 59. Newcomb worked as a server at Café Diva for 22 years, and had won town’s Best Waiter and Ski Bum accolades in the Steamboat Pilot & Today’s annual Best of the Boat contest. A longtime fixture in the local dining and skiing scene, Newcomb came to Steamboat in 1985, working at such restaurants as Remington’s, La Montana, the Steamboat Yacht Club and Riggio’s Ristorante before settling in at Café Diva. He was also the ringleader of a ragtag ski group called “The Niners,“ who would meet every day at 9 a.m. at the top of the gondola, tour for fresh turns, and often end up grilling the evening away at a backcountry haunt known as Area 51. “We’re a rudderless group of ski bums without him,” longtime friend Byrne Powers told the paper after his passing.
Daryl can light up any room he enters, but what stand out is the people he brought together through his deep love of skiing and entertaining,” says friend Eric Rentschler. “It was not just the number of people he connected with, but how diverse a group he drew. It never mattered if someone was a ditch digger or a tech executive, they were always welcome to go skiing with Daryl. He’d show them his favorite powder stashes and enjoy seeing their grin afterwards. He was the antithesis of cliquey; the more the merrier. He was a true ambassador of Steamboat.”
