"On the frame it said 'Happy Father's Day from your friends at the Little Nell, '" he recalls.

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But location is far from the only charm at the Little Nell, where the rooms, food and service all excel.

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The mini-bars at the Little Nell in Aspen have something that might surprise the discriminating traveler: Oxia Personal Oxygen dispensers.

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Inside the Five-Star Little Nell in the mountains of Aspen, the elegant Montagna restaurant offers a signature eggs Benedict for breakfast and weekend brunch.

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Consider this curious tale from New York restaurateur Danny Meyer, who literally wrote the book on hospitality. (It's called "Setting the Table, " and it's required reading for anyone in the industry.) Last June -- on Father's Day -- Meyer returned to his room at the Little Nell in Aspen, Colorado, to find a framed photo of his wife and children beside the bed.

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"You watch the news all the time and you see things like this happening up in the bigger states like Texas and California, but here in our little community you would never expect anything like this to have happened, " said Nell Herring, owner of Granny's Country Kitchen restaurant in tiny Kinston, where alleged gunman Michael McLendon lived with his mother, Lisa, whom police say he also killed.

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