Many guests of The View Restaurant in Lake Placid know Caleb Smith as a most ebullient server.
Smith is one who is happy to engage you about some of his favorite interests. They include the disparate topics of becoming a sommelier with his involvement in the Olympic ice sport of skeleton racing. That’s where you lie face down on a sled about the size of a cafeteria tray and negotiate approximately one mile of ice at breakneck speeds.
You can find Smith in The View Restaurant all summer long, touting the AAA Four Diamond establishment’s upscale menu and it’s two-glass Wine Spectator designation. But in the winter, his skeleton duties prevent him from spending too much time here. And as it has recently developed, over the next two winter seasons, he’ll be here even less.
The former slider, who began his athletic career in luge at age 12 in 1995, migrated to skeleton in 2001. Hit the fast forward, please – Caleb has just been hired by Italy as a coach of their national and Olympic skeleton teams through 2026, with the Winter Games on home ice in Milan/Cortina.
Smith’s lengthy racing career saw him top out with a World Cup silver medal on his home track in Lake Placid, here in the Adirondacks, during the 2006-2007 season. It was also at this time that he was developing his knowledge of Italian wines by nearly becoming a local in the region of Barolo.
Fluent in the language, Smith got a call from the Italian National Team in 2011 to become their head coach. Shortly thereafter, Australia came beckoning and he led them through the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
But it was the next coaching opportunity that brought him the most success as Smith joined the United Kingdom’s Olympic program in 2014. By the time the 2018 Winter Olympics were held in South Korea, Smith’s sliders scored an amazing three medals. With just six medals handed out in the two skeleton competitions, the UK’s performance could only be termed astounding.
Just a few months after those Olympics concluded, Smith began taking care of dinner guests in The View, using his knowledge as a sommelier.
As he was coaching these nations, Caleb was pursuing his Master of Wine certification as the Olympic accolades were piling up. However, the team that he represented on the ice as an athlete – USA Bobsled and Skeleton – came calling after Korea.
Starting in 2018, Smith spent the next six years coaching athletes at levels ranging from the development level to the World Cup tour. That affiliation, however, ended in May 2024 when Italy called a second time, asking Smith to join the coaching staff for the next two years through 2026. And the best part of all – Caleb’s wife Eleri will assist the coaches from time to time.
Given the responsibilities of coaching, Smith has placed his certification test on the back burner for now. The temporary decision came from the rigid nature of the exams with the time commitment needed to prepare.
In the meantime, Smith will share his intimate wine knowledge with our dinner guests. He admitted that it would be easy to inundate patrons with all the information that he’s accrued, but that’s not the goal.
“We have a great list of wines here,” he said of the selection that represents most corners of the globe. “I want to know what they’re in the mood for. If they want a pairing, or if they want to know what wine is best with a certain salad, I can help them. It’s their vacation, not mine.”
Lest you think Caleb’s wine interest ends at the Mirror Lake Inn, there’s more. He’s producing a sparkling red and white at his Upstate New York home about 15 miles from Lake Placid.
For most people, all of this would be exhausting. Coaching, working, starting a winery. As Smith likes to chuckle, “I run on momentum. I do this to myself.”
Guests of The View Restaurant are happy he does not only for his skills as a server and knowledge of wines, but after the Milan Olympics, rest assured they will enjoy Caleb’s stories from the Dolomites.