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The Summer 2012 magazine for eating and drinking establishments throughout the Vail Valley featuring restaurant reviews, photo essays, food and lifestyle stories and a restaurant reference section. A product of the Vail Daily.
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EATA N E P I C U R E A N E X P E R I E N C E • S U M M E R 2012
GOT YOUR GOATA look at Colorado’s
creamy, tangy cheese
PERFECT PAIRINGSAlcohol-free options
for the gourmand
WOW FACTORA mouth-watering
photo gallery
CLEAN PLATESThe Vail Valley’s best restaurants
GET TICKETS NOW
vailmusic.org877.812.5700
PACK A PICNIC, BRING YOUR FRIENDS AND ENJOY AN EVENING OF AMAZING MUSIC
DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
JUNE 25 - AUGUST 4
VAIL MUSIC FESTIVAL
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www.mastergalleryvail.com
James Jensen
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vaildaily.com 5
PUBLISHERDon Rogers
EDITORWren Wertin
ART DIRECTORAfton Groepper
PHOTO EDITORKristin Anderson
PHOTOGRAPHERSDominique [email protected]
Justin [email protected]
WRITERSKrista DriscollShauna Farnell
Kim FullerLauren GlendenningBrenda Himelfarb
Traci J. MacnamaraScott MillerKim Nicoletti
Caramie SchnellRandy Wyrick
MARKETING GUYMark Bricklin
CIRCULATIONJared Staber
CONTRIBUTORSLouie AtencioCarrie CalvinCarly HooverRohann Million
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Copyright ©2012Colorado Mountain News Media.
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part without written permission is strictly prohibited.
HEN I VACATION WITH MY DAD, he calls me a week or so before the trip to give me the itinerary. “We’ll go out for Mexican food the night you get in. Monday we’ll eat Italian — I had the best cioppino there last week. Tuesday I think we’ll grill at home; the sunsets have been just glorious from the patio. Thursday we’ll eat downtown. And somewhere in there we’ll work in lunch at Brave.” My dad is an awesome griller, and has never met a steak or lamb rack that he couldn’t handle. But something he is even better at is making reservations. He knows when it’s time to eat where; he has a sixth sense about it.
And when I head home to visit my mom and sister, it used to be the same. The advent of three little boys has changed the eating-out concept, but food is still ever-present. Drinking coffee, watching the sun play against the leafy oaks in the yard, Mom looks at me every morning and asks, “What do you want to do today?” And what she means is, What do you want to cook? This is the woman who introduced me to quinoa before the rest of the world decided it was the last word in good grains; the woman who never told me about boxed mac and cheese and so didn’t quite prepare me for college dorm living.
That’s how we do it in my family — we plan our trips around when and where we’re eating, whether it’s out or in.
Here at the Vail Daily we’ve compiled this issue of EAT to be a companion to your own nights out with family and friends. The chefs and owners of the restaurants we cover in the magazine ask us to come in and see what they’re about. They feed us, talk to us and then send us on our way. We’ve written our stories to offer a snapshot of each place, not an exhaustive essay. And we do this every season so our stories refl ect what’s going on out there right now. But you shouldn’t just take our word for it — go and check it out for yourself.
Cheers,Wren WertinEditor
ILLUSTRATION BY SANDRA BERARDI
editor’s letter
WA N E P I C U R E A N E X P E R I E N C E • S U M M E R 2012
GOT YOUR GOATA look at Colorado’s
creamy, tangy cheese
PERFECT PAIRINGSAlcohol-free options
for the gourmand
WOW FACTORA mouth-watering
photo gallery
CLEAN PLATESThe Vail Valley’s Best Restaurants
Cover photo byKristin AndersonThe Kona kampachi crudo from vin48 comes with ripe watermelon rounds, crisp cucumbers, greens and fennel It’s dusted with a bit of Hawaiian sea salt.
Peace, Back by popular demand
vaildaily.com 7
11 Photo GalleryBefore pleasing the palates, these dishes delight the eyes. BY KRISTIN ANDERSON
AND DOMINIQUE TAYLOR
16 The EAT CompendiumSnapshot reviews of the valley’s best restaurants, from Vail to Eagle. BY EAT STAFF WRITERS
49 Off the SauceGourmet options for alcohol-free pairings with a variety of food, from intricate syrups to basic fl avor profi les. BY SHAUNA FARNELL
52 Great GoatA roundup of some of Colorado’s best artisan cheese makers.BY TRACI J. MACNAMARA
54 Bite SizedFun facts and interesting tidbits to nosh on.BY WREN WERTIN
contents
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EAT summer 20128
contributors
JUSTIN MCCARTYPhotographerCOOKBOOK DU JOUR World Wide Web of Google FAVORITE PICNIC SPOT About 13K ft.FAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCT Twirling Hippie ConfectionsMIDNIGHT SNACK Cookies & Cream Ice Cream with a splash of Coconut MilkCULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKE Thirty-Three Mile Roadhouse, Haines, AKSONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TOWeird Al Yankovic - FatYOU ALWAYS CRAVELobster TacosNEW KITCHEN TOYCast Iron Panini Grill Press
LAUREN GLENDENNINGWriterCOOKBOOK DU JOUR Mobile devices — Epicurious.com is a great recipe resourceFAVORITE PICNIC SPOT By the water somewhere, whether it’s an alpine lake here in the mountains or from the back of a boat in the Florida Keys (my other paradise)FAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCT Lamb, but the corn and peaches are good, tooMIDNIGHT SNACK Popcorn
CULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKE I’d love to eat my way down the Baja Peninsula — I never get sick of tacosSONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TO The sound of wine pouring from the bottle into my glassYOU ALWAYS CRAVE My favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Saigon Bowl, in DenverNEW KITCHEN TOYThis gadget a chef in Vietnam gave me after I ate in her Hoi An restaurant four nights in a row this past May it can dice, peel, mince, slice, smash — you name it
AFTON GROEPPERArt DirectorCOOKBOOK DU JOUR My mom’s 30-year-running collection of notesFAVORITE PICNIC SPOT Big Sur, CA, or anywhere by waterFAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCT Aspen Canyon SausageMIDNIGHT SNACK Salty, cheesy, garlickyhome-popped popcornCULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKE Croatian CoastSONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TO The sound of my friends’ laughter YOU ALWAYS CRAVE CheeseNEW KITCHEN TOY Wireless remote thermometer
DOMINIQUE TAYLORPhotographerCOOK DU JOURTurquoise, a Chef’s Travels in Turkey by Gregand Lucy MaloufFAVORITE PICNIC SPOT A sneaky spot in CordilleraFAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCTPeachesMIDNIGHT SNACK LeftoversCULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKECycle around France with a baguette in my basketSONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TO House musicYOU ALWAYS CRAVE FoodNEW KITCHEN TOY I’ve rediscovered my juicer
KRISTIN ANDERSONPhotographerCOOKBOOK DU JOUR Lately it’s the internetFAVORITE PICNIC SPOT Anywhere outside, especially while hikingFAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCTPeachesMIDNIGHT SNACKCheeseCULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKE Eating through Croatia
SONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TOMy babbling babyYOU ALWAYS CRAVE ChocolateNEW KITCHEN TOYFood processor
KIMBERLY NICOLETTIWriterCOOKBOOK DU JOURI tend to wing itFAVORITE PICNIC SPOTHanakapiai Beach, a beach on Kauai that’s a 2-mile hike inFAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCT18 inches of fresh powMIDNIGHT SNACKPepperidge Farm Chocolate Chunk cookies with organic milkCULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKEEating my way through every nook and cranny of Italy.SONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TO“Pour Some Sugar on Me” by Def LeppardYOU ALWAYS CRAVESweet, thick-crust pizza, made in ChicagoNEW KITCHEN TOYLast week I pulled out my grandma’s heavy-metal, made-in-America, super-duper juicer from the ‘60s and have been juicin’ ever since…
CARAMIE SCHNELLWriterCOOKBOOK DU JOUR Still “Super Natural Every Day,” by Heidi SwansonFAVORITE PICNIC SPOT Next to a lake... Hanging Lake, Piney Lake, Beaver Lake, whicheverFAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCTBhakti ChaiMIDNIGHT SNACKString cheeseCULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKE Three months in Italy SONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TOSometimes silence, so I can clear my brain, other timesThe Black KeysYOU ALWAYS CRAVE The magical trifecta, of course Chocolate, wine and cheeseNEW KITCHEN TOY Microplane grater — not really new, but very well used
MARY KELLEY ZELESKEYWriterCOOKBOOK DU JOURI enjoy the ones that teach you recipes that show how being healthy can be fun and delicious!FAVORITE PICNIC SPOT Right next to any creek or riverFAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCT Peaches
vaildaily.com 9
MIDNIGHT SNACK PopcornCULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKE Spending a summer taking cooking classes in Paris with my sisters and blogging about itSONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TO Pretty much anytime I cook spaghetti (which is often), I always listen to Andrea Bocelli with a glass of red wineYOU ALWAYS CRAVE Tex-Mex Chips and queso with margaritasNEW KITCHEN TOYI have always wanted a Panini maker
KIM FULLERWriterCOOKBOOK DU JOUR “Sunday Suppers at Lucques” by Suzanne GoinFAVORITE PICNIC SPOT Always an aspen groveFAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCT Haystack Mountain Snow Drop Goat Cheese MIDNIGHT SNACK Prosciutto CULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKE Eat and bike my way back through Italy, France and SpainSONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TOFrank SinatraYOU ALWAYS CRAVERed wine and chocolate NEW KITCHEN TOYThe no-longer-intimidating juicer
SHAUNA FARNELLWriterCOOKBOOK DU JOUR GoogleFAVORITE PICNIC SPOT Top of North TrailFAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCT Harry’s Habanero hot sauce MIDNIGHT SNACK Wheat Thins and sharp white cheddarCULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKE Tour the cuisine of renowned creative chefs in AsiaSONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TO Hard rapYOU ALWAYS CRAVE Blueberry pancakesNEW KITCHEN TOY Muddler
TRACI MACNAMARAWriterCOOKBOOK DU JOUR Barefoot Contessa Parties!FAVORITE PICNIC SPOTLac Blanc, Aiguilles Rouges; Chamonix, FranceFAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCT Haystack Mountain Herbes de Provence ChevreMIDNIGHT SNACK Nutella on toastCULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKEPizza tour road trip in Italy with my sisterSONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TO
Miles Davis, “Kind of Blue”YOU ALWAYS CRAVECheeseNEW KITCHEN TOYCandy apple red KitchenAid mixer
WREN WERTINWriterCOOKBOOK DU JOUR“Fresh & Easy” by Jane HornbyFAVORITE PICNIC SPOTBravoFAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCTUgly plumsMIDNIGHT SNACKTons of water, in hopes of staving off the hangoverCULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKE Some wine-oriented bicycle tour with any of my sistersSONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TOAny variation of, “Let me wash that for you”YOU ALWAYS CRAVESpicy fi deos NEW KITCHEN TOYThe mighty VitaMix blender — carrot-ginger smoothie anyone?
RANDY WYRICKWriter (only because we’re not allowed to say bullshitter)COOKBOOK DU JOUR Uncle Randy’s “Fry Me To the Moon” cookbook, featuring Deep Fried TwinkiesFAVORITE PICNIC SPOTMy back porch as the evening sun goes down, which comes from a blues song and might be the best line of iambic pentameter ever written “I hate to see that evenin’ sun go down”FAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCTHighway 24 on a warm afternoon motorcycle rideMIDNIGHT SNACKI’m old — If I’m still awake at midnight it’s because my kids are sickSONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TOFrank Sinatra singing, “Fry Me to the Moon”YOU ALWAYS CRAVE AttentionNEW KITCHEN TOYThe Barb-E-Boss, the ultimate grilling tool
ROSANNA TURNERWriterCOOKBOOK DU JOURHow It All VeganFAVORITE PICNIC SPOT Preferably by a body of waterFAVORITE COLORADO
PRODUCTThe microbrewsMIDNIGHT SNACK ChocolateCULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKE Wine tasting in FranceSONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TO JazzYOU ALWAYS CRAVE ChocolateNEW KITCHEN TOYI just got a blender a few months ago
SCOTT MILLERWriterFAVORITE PICNIC SPOTThe little park near the information center in Eagle It’s close to the river, lovely, and not many people know about it (Dang it! I’ve said too much!)FAVORITE COLORADO PRODUCT Avery White Rascal Belgian Ale (in the summer)MIDNIGHT SNACK I’m never up that lateCULINARY ADVENTURE YOU’D LOVE TO TAKEIt’s a Small World (of bacon)SONG/SOUNDS YOU LIKE TO COOK TOWhatever’s on the “Red, Rock & Blues” music channelYOU ALWAYS CRAVEReally good green chiliNEW KITCHEN TOYI bought a new spatula last week; does that count?
EAT summer 201210
Bunny HopZino Ristorante in Edwards serves risotto embelished with rabbit and baby kale.photography by KRISTIN ANDERSON
EAT summer 201212
Beyond SushiThe Colorado lamb chops at Japanese restaurant Matsuhisa come with a miso-anticuchos glaze. photography by JUSTIN McCARTY
vaildaily.com 13
Five-star State FairHomemade corndogs made with elk sausage are fried
to order at Flame. Everything, including the fancy ketchup,
is made in house.photography by KRISTIN ANDERSON
EAT summer 201214
Flower PowerAn avocado shell is used as
the vessel for crab salad, one of the new menu items
at The Gashouse in Edwards.photography by KRISTIN ANDERSON
VAILDANCE.ORG | 888.920.ARTS (2787) TICKETS: $12-$90 ON SALE NOW
VAIL INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL @VailDance
Sun. July 29 7:30pm NEW YORK CITY BALLET MOVESOPENING NIGHTGerald R. Ford Amphitheater
Mon. July 30 7:30pm NEW YORK CITY BALLET MOVESPROGRAM IIGerald R. Ford Amphitheater
Tues. July 31 7:30pm NEW YORK CITY BALLET MOVESUPCLOSE: STRAVINSKY BY BALANCHINEVilar Performing Arts Center
Fri. August 3 7:30pm INTERNATIONAL EVENINGS OF DANCE IGerald R. Ford Amphitheater
Sat. August 4 7:30pm INTERNATIONAL EVENINGS OF DANCE IIGerald R. Ford Amphitheater
Mon. August 6 7:30pm NOWPREMIERES HOSTED BY DAMIAN WOETZELGerald R. Ford Amphitheater
Tues. August 7 7:30pm DANCE FOR $20.12(ON SALE JUNE 6, 2012)Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater
Thurs. August 9 7:30pm MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANYGerald R. Ford Amphitheater
Fri. August 10 7:30pm BALLROOM SPECTACULARGerald R. Ford Amphitheater
Sat. August 11 7:30pm DANCE TVGerald R. Ford Amphitheater
MARTHA GRAHAM
DANCE COMPANY
VAIL DEBUTCarrie Ellmore-
Tallitsch in Circe. Photo by John Deane.
Damian Woetzel, Artistic Director
EAT summer 201216
Featured Restaurants
AVONCastle Peak Grille ......................... 17Montaña’s Cantina and Grill ........................................ 18Ticino Italian Restaurant ............ 19vin48 .............................................20
BEAVER CREEK8100 MountainsideBar & Grill .................................... 21Beano’s Cabin ...............................22Beaver Creek Chophouse..............23Blue Moose Pizza ..........................38Flying Pig BBQ and Sandwich Shop ............................24
Foxnut Slopeside Sushi ............... 25The Metropolitan .........................26Splendido at the Chateau ............ 27The Osprey Lounge .....................28Toscanini ...................................... 29
EAGLEOld Kentucky Tavern .............. 30
EAGLE-VAIL Route 6 Café ............................ 31
EDWARDSThe Gashouse ...............................32Gobi Restaurant ........................... 33Gore Range Brewery ....................34
Marko’s Pizza and Pasta .............. 35Zino Ristorante ............................36
VAIL Bistro 14 ........................................ 37Blue Moose Pizza ..........................38Elway’s Vail ................................... 39Flame .............................................40Game Creek Restaurant ..............41Kelly Liken ....................................42La Tour ..........................................43The Left Bank ...............................44Lord Gore ......................................45Matsuhisa .....................................46Pepi’s ..............................................47The Tavern on the Square ...........48Vail Chophouse ............................ 23
Eat here now!
vaildaily.com 17
A trip down-valley should take you to a local hot spot, hidden off the highway and offering a taste all its own. Ideally located between residen-tial Eagle-Vail and downtown Avon, Castle Peak Grille serves “elevated comfort food” with seasonal style.
High-tops and an L-angled bar hold stake in the restaurant’s center, as dining tables wrap around a wall of windows and lead to an open-air patio. General manager and certi-fi ed sommelier Matthew McConnell moves in spades between bar space and dining fl oor, giving guests the fl avor of high-end hospitality.
“Good service doesn’t just have to be in a fi ne dining restaurant,” says McConnell. “It should be in an approachable, well-priced, everyday sort of place.”
Burgers and pizzas are simply mouth-watering here, but warmer weather has lightened up menu items to highlight this season’s best produce.
The caprese salad piles mozza-rella, fresh basil, balsamic glaze and extra virgin olive oil between red and juicy heirloom tomatoes, while the summer succotash is a sauté of bright vegetables with garlic and savory bacon.
TWISTS AND TURNSExecutive chef Paula Turner also has added a few twists to classic dishes that McConnell says seem to keep the guests coming. The gringo na-chos are a local favorite and a good dish to share—delicious decadence of homemade potato chips heaped with cheddar cheese sauce, sour cream, bacon and tomatoes.
McConnell says the ahi tuna poke
is becoming one of Castle Peak’s sig-nature dishes. It’s fresh and fl avorful, made in a ring mold over avocado with sesame seeds, sesame oil and nori scallions, served with wasabi greens, crispy wonton chips and a soy glaze.
An impressive and accessible wine list stands tall alongside the spirit of an ever-evolving cocktail menu, choice craft beers and a wide variety of select whiskeys.
“I’ve got a very, almost aggres-
sively-priced wine list as far as value in town,” says McConnell. “We have pretty familiar wines and a diverse selection of bourbon, so there is defi nitely something for everyone.”
As much pride as McConnell takes in the fermented grapes and grains, it’s the restaurant’s signature cocktail—the WUPE (woo-pay)—that he says takes the cake.
The WUPE is a light and sweet tequila drink, and McConnell says the combination of earth and citrus creates a complementary balance in the cocktail. “The oakiness of the reposado really works well with the blood orange,” says McConnell. “It’s really a great year-round drink — not just for summertime.”
Outside tables quickly fi ll for sunny happy hours and summer sunsets. Live music and a brand new patio bar entertain the space every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and McConnell says he wants to start bringing more locals to wind down the weekend with Sunday patio parties.
“It’s all about good people, good food and cold drinks,” says McConnell. “We defi nitely want to be a place for the local crowd to go on Sunday afternoons and enjoy a beautiful patio with great views.” •
Above Tacos on grilled tortillas come with a choice of fi sh or shrimp.Below Ahi tuna poke with sesame, nori and fresh avocado.
TRAER CREEK PLAZA / 970.748.4848 / CASTLEPEAKGRILLE.COM
Castle Peak GrilleBY KIM FULLER PHOTOS BY JUSTIN MCCARTY
Avon
EAT summer 201218
Avon
82 E BEAVER CREEK BLVD / 970.949.7019 MONTANASAVON.COM
Montaña’s Cantina & Grill
BY KIM FULLER PHOTOS BY JUSTIN MCCARTY
Sit on a sun-drenched deck with a margarita in hand. Yes, you’re sipping summer.
Montaña’s Cantina and Grill in Avon has the menu and the view, and it’s hard to overlook the selection of more than 50 tequilas at the extended wrap-around bar. The restaurant has been open for less than a year, and already they are taking a bite out of the local food and nightlife scene.
“This is the best deck and the best view,” says
bartender Jessica Gregg. “We have so much room to really just blow it out here in Avon.”
The open-air space creates a good family atmosphere, allowing kids and parents alike to enjoy afternoons and evenings out.
“It’s open for kids to run-around,” Gregg said. “But the parents can have fun, too.”
Even more inviting is the cantina-style menu, with appetizers to share and entrees to devour. The guaca-mole fl ight offers a generous tasting of freshly made pico de gallo, queso, black bean hummus and guacamole, served with homemade tortilla chips.
Wash it all down with a refresh-ing and unique cucumber margar-ita — the hand-muddled “cucarita” — and sink into the season.
Pay close attention to the “eight great items for eight bucks” menu, because you’ll be able to spend less and try more. Selections include a cheeseburger, grilled chicken sandwich, chicken or beef tacos, Mexi pizza, spicy wings, taco salad, nachos grande and beef, chicken or veggie burrito.
UPSTAIRS…Montaña’s owner Tom Beaver is also excited to offer the area a late night bar menu, serving from 10 p.m. until 1 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
“Some places in the valley say they
are going to serve late and then they don’t uphold their hours,” Beaver says. “We’ll be serving through 1 a.m. three nights a week, and if it works well we are going to expand it.”
Beaver has decided to utilize the 6,000-square-foot space to have a restaurant on the main level and a nightclub upstairs. Montaña’s will be offering events and shows through-out the summer, bringing in crowds to both levels for both food and entertainment.
You may not want to get up and start dancing right after eating a large plate of delicious chili rellenos smothered with a creamy white pep-per sauce, but Beaver says there are a variety of options for all appetites.
“A lot of times Southwest and Mexican food tends to be too heavy, but it doesn’t have to be,” Beaver says. “You can come here and have snack food or come and get some-thing more hearty.”
Ahi tuna lettuce wraps are a light dish that shouldn’t be missed. Cooked to preference, fresh and fl avorful tuna comes on a bed of Bibb lettuce and topped with pineapple cucumber salsa — an in-house specialty.
Finish off with a fl ight of tequila with a side of homemade sangrita (“little blood”), a traditional, non-al-coholic tomato accompaniment to tequila. And, of course, don’t forget to share the cinnamon sugar sopapilla puffs. •
Above Blackened tuna wrap with crunchy accompaniments. Right Chips and salsa; shrimp lettuce wraps.
vaildaily.com 19
Avon
100 W BEAVER CREEK BLVD / AVON CENTER / 970.748.6792 / TICINORESTAURANTAVON.COM
Ticino Italian RestaurantBY KIM FULLER PHOTOS BY DOMINIQUE TAYLOR
Carlo Frey sits loosely on his chair during a warm June eve-ning, swirling a glass of Chianti in the midsummer twilight. Ticino’s outside patio reaches out from the dining room and rests at the foot of Beaver Creek, soaking in the full spectrum of sun rays as they begin to slip over the horizon.
Frey quickly gets up with the sound of sliding chairs, graciously thanking his departing guests and with a motion of acknowledgment and a warm salutation. The Italian owner was not only raised with the good natures of European hospital-ity, he also grew up in a country known for its culinary abundance.
Frey’s son, Sacha, co-owns the restaurant, and family traditions are being served on every table.
Frey says all of Ticino’s sauces are freshly made, like in Italy, and he even attributes his heritage to dishes like the scaloppine di vitello caprese — veal scallopini topped with fresh mozzarella, oven-dried tomatoes, thyme juice and crispy gnocchi.
“I went through the formal training with hotel and cooking school,” says Frey. “But a lot of the items on this menu come from my mother’s recipes.”
Chef Abel Moran is responsible for a lot of the pasta recipes, says Frey, and together the team has created a well-rounded menu.
The quattro formaggi pizza is just one display of Ticino’s magnifi cent and fresh ingredients. Homemade dough is topped with four cheeses — mozzarella, parmesan, gorgon-zola and asiago — and topped with mushrooms and truffl e oil. The pizza is simple and robust, tempt-ing taste buds with its strong and satisfying fl avor.
A few recipes even take on some southwestern spice to incorporate a more local cuisine. The peroncini farcite appetizer offers jalapeños stuffed with sun dried tomatoes, fresh basil and cream cheese, wrapped in prosciutto di Parma, and drizzled with ranch dressing.
HIDDEN GEMThe dining room and bar are quaint and comfortable, but it’s easy to take full advantage of the outdoor seating during warmer months. Take away the tables, and you can imagine you’re spread out on a red and white checkered blanket, with all the simplicity and romance of a perfect picnic.
Osso buco gremolata with mixed veggies, pan-fried polenta and rose-mary sauce. Left Mista salad with mixed greens, artichokes, caper berries, walnuts, fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and bal-samic vinaigrette.
Avon’s very own little Italy isn’t always easy to fi nd, however. Any more turnarounds, sign post-ings and wafting smells and you’d think you were lost in Venice, but Ticino is actually just tucked away in the Lodge at Avon Center, off of West Beaver Creek Boulevard.
Find your way there once and you’ll return without hesitation, especially after you fi nish your evening with an illy espresso and a creamy square of their signature tiramisu.
Stop by for a neighborhood lunch special, and Frey says that if you don’t have your food in ten minutes, it’s on him.
“This is no big show,” says Frey in his native Italian accent. “My philosophy comes from quality of food and quality of service. We have great, home-cooked Italian for a reasonable price.” •
EAT summer 201220
Avon
You can tell a lot about a restaurant by looking around the dining room at the people. At one table, multiple generations dig into their fi rst courses with an apparently mutual glee. At an-other, a young couple grills their server, Anders, who pauses to think before launching into an ex-planation of one of the dishes. And, my favorite, a couple of gentlemen on the patio, leaning back in their chairs, hold their wine glasses casu-ally, familiarly, like old friends. They talk, they listen; they take sips and occasionally sniff their glasses. This is what vin48 is — a neighborhood joint designed for people who want really good food, really warm service and really fun wines.
You can’t fake the kind of effervescent buzz that hums in the restaurant. People here don’t just serve drinks and meals: They serve a
lifestyle. Take a tour out front, and see what’s growing in one of the restaurant’s three gardens: herbs, berries, peas and lettuces. None of the restaurant’s three owners were experienced gardeners before they undertook the project to help sup-plement what the restaurant uses. They’re learning as they go. “The rhubarb is for next year,” explains Collin Baugh, point to the plant. “It takes a couple of years to get established.” But that’s a concept they’re comfortable with at vin48. Baugh and his partners, executive chef Charles Hays and sommelier Greg Eynon, opened the restaurant a couple of years ago and slowly, carefully found their way. A busy dining room, lively happy hour and steady stream of regulars attest to the success.
Chef Hays’ menu is an exercise in seasonal Colorado cuisine with a smattering of imports. The kam-pachi crudo, using a snapper from Kona, illustrates his love of clean
fl avors that like to dance a little. The fi sh is clean and good, as are the watermelon, greens and fennel. But together? Wow. The slivers of fennel and sweet melon boost the fi sh up and smooth out any self-consciousness it might have. Paired with a Domaine Wachau Gruner Veltliner, it’s lovely. Other standouts are the grilled shrimp on a sweet corn polenta cake with a fi nely diced pico de gallo, as well as the black-ened fl at iron steak. This isn’t steak and potatoes but steak and beans — little toothsome nuggets that seem designed for the bright chi-michurri that fl irts with the grilled onions and tender, fulfi lling steak. The vavoom comes from the silky beef jus. “He makes all his sauces from the bones up,” Baugh says. “That’s the only way to do it.”
But this writer’s advice? Go goat. Sourced from a farm next door to one of Colorado’s best makers of goat cheese, there’s a symbiotic relationship between the creamery and the farm. And it’s refl ected in the dish — the menu favorite of both chef Hays and Anders — which has the exuberantly braised goat served with house-made pita and little pillows of goat cheese. The preparation is reminiscent of a gyro, complete with cucumbers, onions and tomatoes. And it is glorious.
For dessert, order any of the tasty treats off the list, or sit back with a house-made limoncello — they make a really exceptional one from scratch — and a contented view of the world. •
48 E. BEAVER CREEK BLVD. / THE BOAT BUILDING 970.748.9463 / VIN48.COM
Vin48
BY WREN WERTIN PHOTOS BY DOMINIQUE TAYLOR
Grilled Gulf shrimp with a polenta cake and pico de gallo. Right Kampachi crudo, watermelon, fennel and cucumbers.
vaildaily.com 21
50 WEST THOMAS PLACE, THE HYATT / 970.827.6600 HYATT.COM/GALLERY/BEAVE8100
8100 Mountainside Bar & Grill
BY RANDY WYRICK PHOTOS BY JUSTIN MCCARTY
Beaver Creek
Nothing is better than fresh food with the most possible fl a-vor lovingly coaxed from it. Chefs sometimes complicate food because they’re working with inferior raw materials.
In executive chef Christian Apetz’s kitchen at 8100 Mountainside Bar & Grill, that’s never the case.
In every dish, everything is fresh. When something crosses your lips, you can identify every ingredient and you understand why it’s combined the way it is.
This is food you want to eat.If you can, pick one of the stunning
evenings we’ve enjoyed this summer and sit outside. Eventually, the wisps of clouds will come alive with eve-ning color. The sun will eventually set, but you’ll be warm thanks to the heaters strategically placed around the spacious deck.
The initial impression at 8100 is of a big room, but not rambling. The low hum of pleasant conversation fl oats on the warm summer air as laugh-ter occasionally rises above it. The acoustics carry conversations to your partner, but not to the next table.
Then there are the smells. You know when you’ve walked into a place where they care about food, and 8100 is one of them.
DOUBLE TEAMED GOODNESSStart with the smoked tomato and watermelon gazpacho. It’s light and fl avorful, refreshing and healthy, just the combination to set your pal-ate on the right path for a delightful evening. Next up, an asparagus and
Dungeness crab salad with roasted Fresno peppers and preserved lemon arrived at the table.
The golden beet carpaccio is served with arugula, ricotta salata, crispy shallots and aged sherry vinegar. The beets are fresh, not soaked, and the combination was a summer dining sensation.
The house-made pork rillettes come with grilled bread, bourbon mustard and onion jam with a celery leaf salad. It’s easy to ruin pork; it’s inspired to cook it this well. Chef Apetz and the delightful sous chef Chase Dewitt prepare the pork in duck fat, double teamed goodness. The North American elk loin is presented with blue cheese grits and bramble balsamic preserves.
Ask them to bring you a side of the signature Brussels sprouts with pan-cetta, served in a cast iron serving dish. If you ask nicely, they’ll bring you the sage-infused creamed corn, as
well as the summer succotash with fresh garden peas and great northern beans. Even the most craven carnivore would eat vegetables all the time if they were prepared like this.
The generous ruby red trout entrée comes with toasted farro, pickled fennel, watercress and lemon-caper butter; the fl avors complement the fi sh at each bite.
JUST PEACHYDessert is a double delight: carrot torte and warm peach pie with homemade peach ice cream. The pie’s crust is so light and fl aky, it’ll give your grandmother an inferiority complex. The fl avor of the fresh peaches isn’t buried under a barrel of sugar, instead the slightly tart fi nish contrasts nicely with the sweet ice cream.
To round things out, try a few of the Liquid Adult Desserts and plan to share, especially the Mad Mixologist Beer Float Sampler. •
Above Ruby red trout with toasted farro. Below Golden beet carpaccio.
EAT summer 201222
Beaver Creek
A fter a full day of playing in the Colorado sunshine, nothing seems more perfect than to re-treat back to the hills, up to Beano’s Cabin. Arrive by horseback in the summer or catch a shuttle ride, but leave your car at the bottom of Beaver Creek where it belongs.
What you may not expect from this mountain recreation oasis is fi ne dining at its best — cu-linary supremacy that is only matched by its actual elevation.
High-vaulted ceilings stand between an open-air kitchen and a wall of windows, spreading entic-ing aromas and soft evening light throughout the dining room.
Courses are crafted with locality in mind, and executive chef Bill Greenwood says Beano’s showcases some of this state’s best fl avors.
Perhaps it’s the spruce branches that he adds to his braises that make everything seem so naturally fresh, although intricate sourcing from local farms and from the Beano’s garden prob-
ably has a lot to do with it. “Chef is really focused on where
we are getting our product,” says general manager Casey Kaut. “He wants to know where the food is coming from, who the producers are and how the animals are raised.”
The restaurant’s growing garden is also a big project for Greenwood. Kaut says it is the chef’s goal to get as much production from the Beano’s garden as possible.
“By the end of the summer, every-thing in the green salad will come from right outside,” Kaut says.
DECISIONSThe fi ve-course menu starts with a soup selection — a chilled strawber-ry, tomato and red-pepper gazpacho or a warm tomato fennel with morel mushroom soup.
Black pepper panna cotta and pacifi c halibut carpaccio offer varied textures and fl avors, all pleasing and tempting to try in the third course. The Berkshire sausage is wood roasted and served with cherries and porcinis — a true representation of Colorado cuisine.
As the night unfolds, darkness falls on the horizon as an intimate glow glides into the cabin. Live acoustic guitar gives taste buds a rest as the movement of strings resonates with listening ears, but smooth wine won’t leave your palette alone for long.
A pinot noir is perfectly paired with the Copper River sockeye salmon with grilled plum, tomato confi t, wild rhubarb, foie gras and roasted fi ngerlings. The fi sh is bright orange and cooked to perfection, savory and fl avorful next to bright summer fruits.
Cut into the wood-grilled elk chop with creamed corn, fennel, peach preserves and porcini mushrooms, paired with a cabernet that is strong enough to stand up to the succulent and dense meat.
Desserts of apple pie with rum ice cream and caramel, and the orange and honey semifreddo on a basil shortbread with vanilla orange syrup are sweet endings to send you back down to the valley with thoughts of decadence for days.
“You’ve got a great view, and you’re in the mountains,” Greenwood says. “But the food we are serving really speaks for itself in freshness and elegance.” •
Halibut with potato medley. Below Ginger-bread-crusted rack of lamb.
BASE OF GROUSE MOUNTAIN970.754.3463 / BEANOSCABINBEAVERCREEK.COM
Beano’s Cabin
BY KIM FULLER PHOTOS BY KIMBERLY GAVIN
vaildaily.com 23
Beaver Creek
BASE OF GONDOLA, LIONSHEAD / 970.477.0555 / VAILCHOPHOUSE.COMBASE OF CENTENNIAL, BEAVER CREEK / 970.845.0555 / BEAVERCREEKCHOPHOUSE.COM
Beaver Creek Chophouse &Vail Chophouse
BY KRISTA DRISCOLL PHOTOS BY NATE AGNINI
I t’s hard to miss the Beaver Creek Chophouse patio, sprawling at the base of the mountain, a sea of tables sitting in the shade of red umbrellas. Croquet balls crack as diners take a break from munching on afternoon appetizers to explore the restaurant’s selection of lawn games, but they are always drawn back to the gastronomic delights served up by Chef Patrick Funk and his capable associates.
Funk is rolling out lighter summer fare this season for those on the go.
The Greens & Grain salad is ro-bust and packed with vitamins, min-erals and protein, Funk says. This healthy option is a mix of faro, kale, oranges and feta cheese topped with an apricot red wine vinaigrette and can serve as a starter or an entrée.
Indulge in Oyster Night at the Chophouse on Thursdays on the mountain-side decks. Each week will feature two types of cold-water oysters, mostly from the West Coast and Canada, Funk says. Challenge a friend to some badminton or bocce on the lawn between bites of fresh-shucked raw and grilled oysters and oysters Rockefeller and sips of wine or Crazy Mountain beer from the lo-cal brewery.
FAVORITES The halibut is popular, fl own in daily from Alaska during the summer months. Another favorite is the Cold Seafood Tower, served with drawn butter and a selection of other sauces, the tower is stacked with Langous-tines, oysters or green lip mussels,
snow crab legs, jumbo shrimp, Maine lobster and avocado and blue crab cocktail. You’ll need a half-dozen friends to polish off this dish.
The Seafood Tower pairs well with champagne or a light and fi zzy Mountain Spritz Venetiziano. This sunny-day cocktail (a mix of aperol, prosecco and club soda, garnished with an orange slice) was fi rst
The Chophouse patio. Below Oyster Night at the Chophouse is every Thursday.
introduced to the Chophouse crew by friends in Beaver Creek’s sister city of Lech, Austria, Funk says.
Patio palatables are all well and good for a quick bite, but you can’t escape the lure of the traditional 18-ounce, bone-in rib eye married with a side of roasted garlic mashed potatoes or bleu cheese tater tots — morsels of potatoes fi lled with bleu cheese and fried. Or go for one of Funk’s new favorites, the pork three ways. Braised pork shank, grilled slab bacon and a petit pork chop are served with mashed potatoes and buttered horseradish apple sauce and drizzled with a natural pan reduction.
And for a twist on comfort food, try the Chop-house’s gourmet crab cake mac and cheese.
“Crab cakes historically have been synony-mous with the Chophouse,” Funk says. “We incorporated them into one of our most popular dishes. It’s unique.” •
EAT summer 201224
Beaver Creek
122 THE PLAZA, BEAVER CREEK VILLAGE / 970.845.0333 / FLYINGPIG970.COM
The Flying Pig BBQ & Sandwich ShopBY ROSANNA TURNER PHOTOS BY NATE AGNINI
One can try and charm their way into obtaining the recipe for the Flying Pig’s barbecue sauce, but General Manager Chris Mayer likely won’t budge.
“I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” Mayer says jokingly. “It’s our secret recipe our chef created.”
With the right combination of sweet and spicy, getting The Flying Pig’s signature sauce all over your face is worth the cleanup. Mayer says the sauce has impressed even their toughest customers.
“The Texas people, who claim to know all about barbecue, tell me they really like our sauce,” Mayer says.
Opened in November 2010, the Flying Pig looked at the other offer-ings in Beaver Creek and tried to fi nd the missing ingredient, so to speak.
“What would Beaver Creek need?” Mayer says. “Something affordable, good and fast is what we were aiming for, so we opened up a sandwich shop.”
By combing white or honey-wheat bread, which they bake fresh daily, with quality deli meat, the estab-lishment has created a staple that will fi ll one’s stomach before, or
after, an active day on the moun-tain. All hot and cold sandwiches are named after Colorado peaks. Soups are simple yet satisfying and regularly vegetarian. There are also veggie-friendly sandwiches and a build-your-own option for meat-free eaters and those with allergies.
Last year, the Flying Pig added a smoker so the eatery could make its own barbecue. According to Mayer, fi nding that great mesquite-smoked fl avor is all about timing.
“We slow cook it for about fi ve hours and then smoke it until it’s about to fall off the bone,” Mayer says. “You don’t want to cook it too long, but not too short, either.”
Popular items for barbecue lovers include the Chopped Brisket, BBQ Pork Ribs and the Pork Wings. During happy hour, one can “pig out” and get wings for $1 per bone or ribs for $1.50 per bone. The restaurant’s seven TVs make it a perfect spot for the sports-watching crowd. For those on the go, The Flying Pig won’t make you wait long. Patrons order at the counter and food is delivered to their table, speeding up the process. When asked what the key to the Flying Pig’s success is, Meyer summed it up suc-cinctly: “Good food,” he says.
One might think the Flying Pig’s name refers to pork that’s so popular it soars off the counter. It’s actually a reference to restaurant’s inspira-tion, a place called When Pigs Fly located in York, Maine beloved by co-owner Brian Nolan and his family. The bakery is renowned for serv-ing delicious, freshly baked breads, prepared with only the fi nest natural ingredients available. Creating a concept that prides itself on daily preparation of fresh, homemade breads, sauces and ingredients, The Flying Pig is a slight twist on a great inspiration •
A custom sandwich made with a pile of deli meats, cheese and veggies on freshly-baked bread.
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Beaver Creek
broth for its Vietnamese Pho. The result is a hot and hearty consommé served with Kobe and rice noodles — perfect for when the dark thunder-clouds roll in. For lunch, there is no better deal than the Bento Boxes.
Which brings us to this: The raw
The Firecracker Roll with tuna, cucumber, wasabi tobiko and cilantro. The Sushitini with tuna poke, spicy tuna and avocado.
fi sh at Foxnut is among the freshest in Colorado. In fact, chef Brendan McCue has a freshness fetish. The vibrant colors of the deep-red tuna and bright-orange salmon speak to this, whether they are wrapped around a specialty roll (the Kodiak is the go-to for salmon lovers, fi lled with spicy salmon, avocado, cucumber and shiso leaf, while the Tango Roll is the tuna standout, fi lled with spicy tuna, tempura shrimp and avocado, wearing a juicy blanket of mango and seared tuna) or on celebrity display in a martini glass.
If there were one item to make other customers stare and possibly drool from across the restau-rant, it’s a Sushitini. Boasting three varieties, the Tinis are not just a rainbow sculpture guaranteed to elicit an admiring “what is THAT??” from onlookers, but a fresh mountain of tuna, crab, avocado and cucumbers cut so thin you can see through them. Not bad knife work.
“Some people walk in and say, ‘Hey, there’s nobody Japanese or Asian here,’ and they assume it can’t be good,” McCue says. “I can’t tell you how motivating that is to me.” •
BASE OF CENTENNIAL, BEAVER CREEK / 970.845.0700 / BCFOXNUT.COM
Foxnut Slopeside SushiBY SHAUNA FARNELL PHOTOS BY J. NELSON
A ttention sushi people and non-sushi people: There are a couple of very important truths regarding Foxnut.
First, for the sushi people … when you saddle up to your tray of rolls and sashimi, leave the soy sauce and wasabi on the table. They abso-lutely aren’t necessary. Each item is adorned with just enough trimming and house-made sauce to make the fresh fl avor explode on its own.
For the non sushi people … don’t write off Foxnut as just a sushi joint and wander along to fi nd another lunch or dinner stop that serves something heartier or less raw. Half of Foxnut’s whole motif is hot dishes, sandwiches, hot dogs and salads.
A message to both groups … you’d better act quickly. This summer, Foxnut, located at Beaver Creek’s prime spot at the base of the mountain directly in front of Centen-nial lift, is only open through July and August.
So, if you’re wrapping up a hike, or need to fuel up beforehand, you’re not going to fi nd a better option. The Foxdogs — you should know — are not made from foxes. They are 100 percent Kobe beef, come with either mustard and relish for the purists, Sirracha, kabayaki and sesame seeds or avocado, jalapeño and cilantro for the spice hounds.
Of the six hearty salads, the sum-mer standout is the Mango Tango, piled high with tender chicken, snow peas, cucumber and mango and mixed with a mouth-puckering mint-citrus vinaigrette.
Foxnut also serves the most succulent Korean BBQ pulled-pork sandwich in town and capitalizes on the rich juices of its slow cooking for beef and veggies in extracting the
EAT summer 201226
Beaver Creek
210 OFFERSON ROAD SUITE 201C, BEAVER CREEK / 970.748.3123 / THEMETBC.COM
The MetropolitanBY TRACI MACNAMARA PHOTOS BY KELSEY MCMASTER
Beaver Creek’s newest restaurant, The Metropolitan — or The Met — is hip, fresh and fun. With a layout that creates a variety of social spac-es, guests can sit grouped together on couches in seating enclaves, stand around tall tables or sit in a more traditional dining arrangement by the windows and watch the outside world pass by.
The Met is known for its coffee, tapas and wine, and the space is set up nicely for sharing these things with friends. Pour yourself a bit of fun with The Metropolitan’s Enomatic Wine Dispenser, which is like the sleek adult version of a vending machine that holds eight white wines and eight reds. Swipe your prepaid card, and hold your wine glass under the spout to get the perfectly sized portion you’ve chosen. Now that you’re smil-ing, add some food to your plates.
Top The charcuterie plat-tera. Below The enomatic wine-dispensing system.
SMALL IS BIG“In having a small menu, we’re able to execute quality consistently,” says The Met’s bar manager Alexis Gruczkowski. Even though the menu fi ts on a single page, and even though the items come in small or shareable portions, this summer’s menu at The Metropolitan is big on taste.
“Throughout the year, we like to stick with what’s in season, what’s fresh and what’s sustainable,” says Gruczkowski. The summer menu re-fl ects these ideals and The Metropol-itan’s environment-friendly ethic.
The Met serves its high-quality staple charcuterie platter overfl ow-ing with cured meats and artisan cheeses. But if you’re beyond the snack stage, go for the lobster tacos, which are new on the menu this summer. They come out bursting with color and taste: Pink butter-poached Maine Lobster gets folded into a soft corn tortilla with bright-green avocado, Ancho chili cream and rajas. Served three on a plate, this small dish can be shared or eaten alone as a meal.
Add a fl avorful pop to any snack or meal at The Met by choosing a few other small plates to share. The stuffed Piquillo peppers are a good pick. They’re tangy at fi rst bite and then spicy, but they’re a balanced combination of sweet and spicy with goat cheese and dates stuffed inside. The Espanola Cocas, one of their Catalan fl at breads, is another savory option. It comes with chorizo, goat cheese, peppers, artichokes and cilantro spread on top of a thin fl at-bread with a crispy crust.
If you’ve managed to stick to The Metropolitan’s small-pate, small-portion style, you’ll hopefully have enough room left to try its petit strawberry shortcake for dessert. This pile of white cake, fresh vanilla cream and macerated strawberries pairs so perfectly with a glass of Prosecco that you’ll be tempted to come in for it alone. •
vaildaily.com 27
10 ELK TRACK LANE / 970.754.7400 / ROCKRESORTS.COM
The Osprey LoungeBY SCOTT N. MILLER PHOTOS BY DOMINIQUE TAYLOR
The Osprey is a small hotel with a small dining area, but it packs a lot of fl avor into those small spaces.
Just down the hill and across the street from the Beaver Creek Chapel, The Osprey bills itself as the closest lodge in North America to a chairlift — the Strawberry Park lift. Not far from that back door is the restaurant, a combination of cozy and modern, with a small staff, most of whom end up doing a bit of everything. And there’s a little bit of a number of fl avors and textures on the menu.
In the kitchen, chef Michael Wilganowski has created a “small plate” menu with fl avors that will delight virtually any taste. He’ll also throw a little twist into tradi-tional dishes.
The grilled organic breast of chicken is served on a bed of mashed potatoes with plenty of butter and cream, and then topped with a truffl e essence. It’s a stunning combination of comfort food and high class.
DECADENT BITESIf you even think you might like Brussels sprouts, you’re obligated to try Wilganowski’s version with toasted butter and shaved asiago cheese.
But bar manager Jarrett Davis — our host on this visit — said if The Osprey has a signature dish, it’s the fried asparagus. The spears are chilled in cold water overnight before being coated with an almost-tempura batter, and then topped with a balsamic reduction and a lemon aioli sauce. It’s delightful and a bit decadent. If you had enough, you could munch these crispy spears like popcorn at a movie.
There’s plenty of Wilganowski’s native Texas in the menu, too. The grilled fl ank steak with green chili sauce is served with a potato and cheese. It has just a bit of kick, but mostly it’s bursting with fl avors from just north of the border.
Then there are the desserts. The tres leches cake is soaked in three kinds of milk overnight, then topped
with caramel, cocoa powder and whipped cream. It’s delicious — and as delicious as it sounds. Even the chocolate chip cookies are special, made to order for each diner. They take about 20 minutes to prepare. If you order after dinner, you’ll have time for another cocktail or glass of wine.
All the small plates are served in either a “tapas” or “entree” size, so it’s easy to sample a good part of the menu in one visit.
But one visit probably won’t be enough. Jarrett said The Osprey’s diners these days are mostly local residents. That means the place stays busy during the high seasons.
“Reservations are strongly recommended,” Jar-rett said. And those reservations are well worth making. •
Above Red chile beef nach-os with lime crema fresca and cotija cheese. LeftFried asparagus with a balsamic reduction and lemon aioli.
Beaver Creek
EAT summer 201228
17 CHATEAU LANE / 970.845.8808 / SPLENDIDOBEAVERCREEK.COM
Splendido at the ChateauBY LAUREN GLENDENNING PHOTOS JUSTIN MCCARTY
There’s a reason Splendido enjoys the kind of local acclaim that more ostentatious restaurants strive for — you can’t deny excellence. And owner David Walford has created it.
Walford has been the executive chef at Splendido since 1994. His passion hasn’t faltered in those 18 years, leaving a restaurant that might be old in terms of years, but that age only shows in Walford’s confi dence and rapturous love of cooking.
His staff clearly shares his joy. Chef de cuisine Brian Ackerman has been with Splendido since 2001, sommelier Patrick Mildrum since 2005 and dining room manager Brian Rhodes has been with the restaurant for about eight years.
“I can’t put my fi nger on that, but it’s an honor to me to have employees stay for so many years,” Walford says.
Walford feels it’s his job to keep them excited and challenged, while also putting a certain amount of pressure on them. And with Walford as their mentor, it’s easy to see why his staff does so well. Passion is inspiring.
“I have passion for what I’m doing — I’m not tired of what I’m doing,” Walford says.
Walford doesn’t reinvent Splendido every season because, well, he doesn’t have to. The menu changes with the seasons, but about half of the menu always remains because those are the dishes that lay the foundation for the restaurant’s greatness — that and because some of the regulars might revolt if Walford ever removed them. The list includes items such as the whole Dover sole a la meuniere — a luscious piece of fi sh in a beautifully rich and complex parsley
brown butter sauce. Or the wood oven-roasted Colorado lamb rack, a sophisti-cated plate of succulent lamb enhanced with pomegranate jus. This rack of lamb has been on the menu for 12 to 15 years, says Walford, laughing, but he can’t deny his following of guests some of the dishes they yearn for. “People are not tired of them,” Walford says.
But the other half of the menu will change seasonally and according to Walford and Ackerman’s whims and what’s in season.
But there are classics that tran-scend all seasons. Things such as steak tartare with prime Angus beef and quail egg or the seared La Bella Farms duck foie gras with straw-berry mostarda, honey, rhubarb and pistachio toast.
You’ll also fi nd surprises such as the Hawaiian kampachi sashimi, made with Asian fl avors like shiso, ginger and hot sesame oil and a beauti-ful seared shishito chili. And there’s
the pork — oh, the pork — done two ways with a roasted Berkshire pork loin and belly. The loin is sliced so you can see the lovely color of the meat, an ever-so-slight pink, sitting next to the glistening belly from the soy-cara-mel glaze. Even the accompaniments are mouth-watering — sprouted mung beans, black rice, edamame, snap peas and hon-shemji mush-rooms. It’s one of those dishes where you could eat each thing separately, or pile it all onto your fork for one glorious bite. Either way, it’s bliss.
To eat this kind of food in this kind of setting — there’s live piano music nightly and views of both the open kitchen and Beaver Creek mountain — is simply one of the quintessential Vail Valley dining experiences.
Try it any way you like, too, as Splendido offers a bar and lounge set-ting, patio seating or the more formal dining room. From wherever you sit, you’ll fi nd the joy that is Splendido. •
Above Roasted Berkshire pork loin and pork belly. Below Hawaiian kampachi sashimi with a grilled shishito pepper.
Beaver Creek
vaildaily.com 29
Beaver Creek
60 AVONDALE LANE / 970.754.5590
ToscaniniBY KIMBERLY NICOLETTI PHOTOS BY JUSTIN MCCARTY
When people hear the word “Toscanini,” they sometimes confuse it with “Tuscany,” thinking the Italian restaurant only serves Tuscan-style cuisine. And while the chefs do pre-pare succulent veal, grilled meats, fresh vegetables, home-baked breads with extra-virgin olive oil and mellow cheeses, Toscanini offers a variety of tastes inspired by many Italian regions.
The restaurant’s namesake, Arturo Toscanini, inspires chefs. Toscanini, a virtuoso conductor of the early 1900s, garnered a reputation for “bringing exquisite symphony music to life.” Toscanini has carried his legacy for perking up the senses into the dining realm by creating superb dishes and serving them with Old World cordiality.
RICH, BALANCED CUISINEThe chefs at Toscanini — and their fi ve culinary apprentices — have a particular knack for combining ingredients in delightful ways. Each dish comes out rich and fl avorfully balanced, without overwhelming diners with one predominant taste. So, as you enjoy an entrée such as the petini del mare, you’ll experience a delicate sweetness in the truffl ed white-wine sauce the pan-seared scallops sit upon, while still relishing the herbed spice of the corn risotto and sautéed spinach. Likewise, the shrimp scampi’s garlic white-wine sauce comes across subtly, so you won’t bowl over your neighbor with garlic breath.
Nearly everything is homemade, which is why the amatriciana sauce on the breaded veal loin is so pleas-ing to the palate and why the fusilli
pasta, with its arugula, goat cheese, lemon and pancetta is so memorable.
SPECTACULAR ITALIAN WINESBut it’s not just the food that makes Toscanini stand out. As recipient of the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for the past 13 years, it provides a wine list of more than
350 Italian wines selected from every corner of the country.
In fact, it is often one of only a handful of res-taurants in the United States that obtains a specifi c case of wine, due to its close relationship with its distributors. It offers wines by the glass, half bottle and large-format bottle, including organic wines. If you love reds, Toscanini is the place: Its summer red wine list fi lls out nine pages.
SPECIAL ENDINGSThe restaurant, located next to the ice rink in Beaver Creek, is also a popular place for desserts and cocktails. It is well-known for its limoncello, a sweet and sour lemon-lime Italian after-dinner drink made from Everclear. While people come to Toscanini especially for the limoncello, it packs quite a punch, so order accordingly.
For a sweet night’s end, try the chef’s selection of house gelato and sorbet, the hazelnut waffl e with cherry gelato or an assortment of artisan cheeses and fruits. Toscanini makes amazing tiramisu, chocolate crème brulee and espresso semifreddo with Bailey’s Irish Cream, but like the limoncello, they’re zingy — this time with caffeine. •
Above Petini del mare with pan seared Georges Bank scallops, corn risotto, sauteed spinach and truffl ed white-wine sauce. Below Mediterraneo salad with baby iceberg lettuce, roasted tomatoes, kalamata olives, white beans, pepperoncini, caper berries, feta cheese and a red-wine vinaigrette
EAT summer 201230
Eagle
223 BROADWAY / 970.328.5259OLDKENTUCKYTAVERN.COM
Old Kentucky Tavern
BY KRISTA DRISCOLL PHOTOS BY KRISTIN ANDERSON
Growing up in Kentucky a stone’s throw from the Maker’s Mark distillery gave Monica Mattingly a taste for everything Southern, and she and Steven “Juice” Morrison, co-owners of the Old Kentucky Tavern in Eagle, have created a menu that takes a creative shot at traditional Southern fare.
The restaurant opened, appropriately, during the Kentucky Derby this year and has been serving up Hot Brown sandwiches and mint juleps in a laid-back, fun atmosphere ever since.
“You can have a date here,” Mattingly says. “But it’s for families, too. … We have a lot of fun.”
The menu runs the gamut from vert to surf to
turf, with a little something for every palate. The starters and small-plates section features shrimp and grits and crispy-sweet fried pickles, but choose The Trifecta, a plate laden with veggies and toasted pita chips and three styles of dip in which to send them swimming. The Kentucky beer cheese is sharp and smooth, while the pimento cheese and Bene-dictine adds some chunky texture. The light and creamy cucumber spread goes perfectly with a carrot stick or a cherry tomato.
For an aperitif, try the Kentucky bomber, a drink made with apple moonshine, amaretto and sour with hints of cinnamon. The Old Kentucky Tavern has taken as much care with its drink menu as it has its food, featuring nearly 50 beers and more than 40 bourbon selections, and the drink mixes — from Bloody Mary to fresh mint-infused simple syrup — are made in house.
Trot your cocktail out onto the
large outdoor patio and enjoy the Colorado sun and weekly live music, or choose a table in the spacious restaurant, decorated with nostalgic remnants of the South — a rural charm makes its last stand on the dinner menu.
TRUE SOUTHAt the top of the dinner list is the Tavern Chicken ‘n’ Waffl es. The chicken is battered in a blend of spices and love, fried up and paired with a thick, fresh-made waffl e topped with a pat of maple but-ter and a side of syrup for dipping. Other austral additions include the Bardstown country fried steak, smothered in home-style country gravy; and the Kentucky fried rice, a vegetarian stir-fry blend of fi ve powerhouse grains, marinated tofu and fresh vegetables.
Still hungry? Order a Colorado grass-fed buffalo ribeye or the basil gorgonzola pesto-topped Angus beef tenderloin, an 8-ounce, tender fi let seated on a bed of sautéed Brussels sprouts and ringed with sweet potato fries. If you missed dinner, come back for brunch. The chocolate-chip waffl es are “off the hook,” Juice says. “It’s dessert for breakfast.” Brunch also features classics such as eggs Benedict and chicken fried steak, and novelties like Kentucky berry blue corn pancakes and candied bacon. Wash down your morning feed with a Rocky Mountain Head Helper, a salt-rimmed eye opener made with spicy Clamato, lime and Coors Light. •
Above Tavern Chicken and Waffl es with maple but-ter. Right The Kentucky Wedge salad with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and bacon.
vaildaily.com 31
Eagle-Vail
41290 U.S. 6 / 970.949.6393 / VAILROUTE6CAFE.COM
Route 6 CaféBY KRISTA DRISCOLL PHOTOS BY JUSTIN MCCARTY
You don’t have to look any further than the beautiful new front patio to tell that a lot of changes have been made to the old Paddy’s location on U.S. Highway 6 in Eagle-Vail, and the physical transformation was just the beginning for Route 6 Café when it moved into the space earlier this year.
The restaurant, which previously catered exclusively to the breakfast and lunch crowd, has hired a new chef, added a dinner menu and tacked on a late-night happy hour for those with the midnight munchies.
Chef Peter Millette, formerly of Sapphire Restaurant in Vail, has taken over the kitchen, bringing with him some of the signature dishes from his previous gig, while still keeping with the classic style of Route 6 Café.
“It’s comfort food but a little dif-ferent from a diner,” Millette says. “That’s the challenge — good food but keep the price down.”
A SPICY KICKStart your dinner adventure with deep-fried calamari, served with a Thai chili sauce spiced with lime juice, hot sauce and a dash of fi sh sauce,
or the poblano chili relleno or tuna nachos, both of which made the trek from Sapphire’s menu to Route 6. The tuna nachos are not your typical cheese-covered mess of chips. Mil-lette layers avocado and seared ahi tuna atop a fried wonton drizzled with a sweet red chili sambal aioli. The mix of textures, from the crunch of the wonton to the tender tuna, is pleasing to the palate, and the sambal gives each bite a spicy kick, something that
Above New York Strip with a pistachio-poblano crust and roasted tomato and chili sauce.Below Ahi tuna nachos with avocado, red chili sambal aioli and wonton crisps.
is present in many of Millette’s dishes.For the main course, dive into a pile of coco-
nut Thai curry. Try the gluten-free dish — soft rice noodles topped with peanuts and tossed in a spicy, creamy coconut milk and curry sauce — vegetarian style, or add chicken or shrimp. Or get your hands on a Colorado staple, the grilled Rocky Mountain trout. The fi sh is served over sautéed spinach, bacon, red onions, tomatoes and potatoes, briefl y tossed in maple-mustard vinai-grette. The grilled pork tenderloin is Millette’s twist on a traditional German dish: Spiced pork is paired with potato pancakes and topped with cinnamon-green apple chutney and a rivulet of sour cream.
LATE-NIGHT CRAVINGSIf you get a craving for something besides pub food and pizza late night, head into Route 6 for ahi tuna poke, bay scallop-and-shrimp ceviche or a garden burger with basil aioli. Happy hour is from 3 to 5 p.m. and again from 10 p.m. to midnight during the week and 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Route 6 also boasts a full bar — grab a beer or cocktail and walk out the new French doors onto the patio to sip and enjoy, surrounded by a shady sea of summer fl owers. •
EAT summer 201232
34185 HIGHWAY 6, EDWARDS / 970.926.3613 / GASHOUSE-EDWARDS.COM
The GashouseBY WREN WERTIN PHOTO BY KRISTIN ANDERSON
When The Gashouse decides to update the salad menu, they don’t mean a house salad with your choice of ranch or vinaigrette. They mean salads Gashouse-style: something sump-tuous for people who grab life with both hands — something real for folks who want something a little lighter than wild game for lunch. Case in point : the crab and avocado salad.
Until now, those who wanted crab on their salad had one choice — add a crab cake. And who wouldn’t want to add one of the restaurant’s famous crab cakes to anything? Made with jumbo lump crab and almost nothing else, they’re made from co-owner Connie Iron’s grandmother’s recipe. They show up in surf and turf combina-tions, stand-alone apps or sandwich fi llings. They are worth ordering again and again. But for the summer, they’ve got some competition.
Served in a scooped-out avocado shell, the crab and avocado salad is tossed with a citrus dress-ing, a tangy counterpoint to the crab’s inherent sweetness. It is, perhaps, more feminine than the menu’s mainstays of carved-to-order steaks and wild game galore, but men seem to enjoy it as much as women. And it, like the outside seating area, embraces the season.
“The patio is kickin’,” agrees Jay Beacham, manager and bartender. “It’s beautiful of course,
with all of the fl owers. And the weather is perfect.”
ROCKY MOUNTAIN STYLEIt’s not just the patio that’s heating up. The log-cabin-style restaurant, complete with elk and deer mounts, historical photographs and jack-alopes on every wall, is introducing a host of special nights that should liven things up for folks who want a little more action than, say, live lobsters and elk tenderloin. Monday is Aloha Night, with a mahi mahi/pork one-two punch. Fresh fi sh and a pork chop with a citrusy chutney epitomize Irons’ recent fascination with living Aloha-style. “And we’ll have drink specials for those who dress up,” Beacham promises.
Other specials in the mix include mussels on Tuesdays, a New Eng-land Clam Bake on Wednesdays and prime rib on Fridays. Local musician
Dave Perron will be there every Sunday.
Opened in 1983 when there was nothing surrounding it, The Gas-house is Edwards’ oldest restaurant. From the get-go, it focused on the epitome of Rocky Mountain cuisine — wild game and fresh fi sh. There are some real gems on the menu, such as a lamb porterhouse and the bison carpaccio. They’ve got oysters of all kinds, including Rocky Mountain. The wine list has been newly invigorated, and the seafood keeps getting better. And all of that is extremely important. But so is the restaurant’s vibe — it’s soul.
“Living in the Vail Valley, there’s a lot of great restaurants — but you could be anywhere,” says Andy Guy, co-owner. “When you’re at the Gas-house, you know you’re in Colorado. It feels like the mountains.”
And it tastes like it, too. •
Above The crab and avo-cado salad with a citrus dressing. Below The oyster selection changes daily, but it’s always fresh.
Edwards
vaildaily.com 33
Edwards
69 EDWARDS ACCESS RD., NO. 6 / 970.926.6628 / GOBIRESTAURANT.COM
Gobi RestaurantBY TRACI J. MACNAMARA PHOTOS BY DOMINIQUE TAYLOR
A t Gobi Restaurant, food is a family affair. Owner Susan Wang and her family —including her mother, aunts and cousins — serve up much more than their specialty Mongo-lian barbecue. They add heaps of hospitality to each dish and create a friendly atmosphere at Gobi, where the menu includes traditional Asian wok-fi red cuisine, rice and noodle dishes, build-your-own Mongolian bowls and much more.
With a menu that’s constantly evolving, expect exciting things from Gobi this summer. Individual volcanic rocks will debut for an at-your-table culinary adventure, and the Mongo-lian grill is fi red up all day long.
FRESH SUMMER PICKSAfter a long, hot summer day, start your meal at Gobi with Aunt Sherry’s Ginger on Ginger cocktail (yes, named after Wang’s Aunt Sherry), which includes ginger liquor, a house-made ginger simple syrup, rum and a splash of soda. The ginger margarita is equally refreshing, and the Gobi bartenders also like to get creative with strawberry-basil mojitos and chili-infused vodka cocktails, if you feel like trying something new.
Gobi’s Thai beef salad is a light and fresh starter that includes thinly sliced beef layered over lettuce and other colorful veggies. Mint and ci-lantro give the salad a fl avorful pop. The Vietnamese spring rolls are also stuffed with fresh vegetables and served with dipping sauces that will pique your taste buds for the main course to follow.
THE GRILL IS THE THRILLGobi’s menu includes all of the tra-ditional Asian wok-fi red and noodle
dishes you’ll likely recognize: Kung Pao chicken, beef and broccoli, pad Thai. But the feature — and the most fun — is the Mongolian grill. Person-alize your food by picking up a big, empty bowl and taking a trip to the bar to fi ll it up with the thinly sliced meats, fresh vegetables and sauces you choose. The chef will cook it up over the Mongolian grill while you watch, or you can return to your table and have it brought to you when it’s grilled to perfection.
For those with a hearty appetite, ask for the Gengis Khan, which al-lows you unlimited trips to the grill so that you can create a different bowl each time and explore your full range of options. And if you’re not too full for dessert, you’ll be tempted
to try the fried bananas, which come out covered in a crispy tempura drizzled with honey and dotted with sesame seeds. For a lighter ending to your meal, have a refreshing Thai iced tea, or turn it into a dessert cocktail by asking the bartenders to create the Gobi version of a White Russian. The creamy, spicy taste of either is a nice ending to a healthy summer meal. •
Right Chicken lettuce wraps and Thai iced tea.Below Braised tofu and vegetables with a ginger -pomegranate cosmo-politan.
EAT summer 201234
Above Soft shell crab sandwich with a vegetable side. Right Grilled salmon atop a frisky Asian slaw.
Edwards
0105 EDWARDS VILLAGE BLVD. / 970.926.BREW (2739)GORERANGEBREWERY.COM
Gore Range Brewery
BY KIM FULLER PHOTOS BY JUSTIN MCCARTY
Colorado is no stranger to microbrews, but it’s not so often that the home-grown hops are paired with a true style of “bon appetit.” Gore Range Brewery in Edwards has taken a culinary turn in the past year, with French chef and owner Pascal Coudouy leading the local revolution.
“The menu is very simple,” Coudouy says. “It’s a brew-pub concept, like a brew-pub is sup-posed to be.”
For the French, “simple” must mean the founda-tion of craft cuisine. Coudouy’s menu is far from plain. Rich courses and varied fl avors outweigh the modest price point, making the trip to the brewery a simple pleasure for all palates.
“Everything is fresh, and I make everything from scratch,” Coudouy says. “We change the menu three or four times a year, and there’s a special every day.”
CASUAL AND COMFORTABLEGood food and brews make it easy to settle in here, and a summer evening on the GRB outdoor, pet-friendly patio makes for a memorable experience.
“We want to keep it casual and very comfortable,” says Jeremy Pluck, brewmaster for GRB. “Both chef and I are also adamant about our quality, and there is no reason why we can’t have both.”
Go in with a pint in mind, and you’ll easily be enticed with at least an appetizer. Coconut shrimp and scal-lions come with a sweet-and -sour cilantro sauce — a crisp dish that pops with the light and refreshing GRB Lager and bacon and shishito-wrapped scallops are savory and satisfying, matched perfectly with the versatile and balancing Powder Day Pale Ale.
The dry and citric Saison shouldn’t be left out this season — a perfect complement to many of the brew-ery’s summer dishes.
The Colorado goat-cheese pizza brings sweet and salty to the plate, with roasted tomatoes, dried cran-
berries, pistachios and basil, and the ranch chicken fl atbread sandwich is a Euro-Western treat, encasing delicate brie and greens with hearty bacon, ranch and guacamole.
BEYOND BREWPUBEntrees are the most impressive for the price, however, made even more satisfying with a balanced and accessible wine list.
Grilled salmon with broccoli, raison slaw, roasted almonds and orange-bourbon glaze is zesty and light against a smooth Cali-fornia chardonnay, and the grilled, marinated lamb sirloin with barley, cucumber, tomato and mint salad with peach chutney melts past your tongue with a sip of rich zinfandel.
Sides can help to mix up the menu as well. Brussels sprouts sautéed with pancetta and honey are a year-round staple for the menu, and cream of corn with fresh rosemary and goat cheese could hardly bring more sum-mer farm fl avors to the table.
You may be full, but don’t skip dessert. Cobbler fans will sink into a seasonal berry treat, and you may just have enough room to pair it with an oak barrel-aged bourbon porter.
“It’s a place you can come three or four times a week if you feel like it, and you’re always going to fi nd some-thing interesting and fresh and always for a good price,” Coudouy says. •
vaildaily.com 35
Edwards
EDWARDS PLAZA / 970.926.7003 / MARKOSPIZZA.COM
Marko’sBY KRISTA DRISCOLL PHOTO BY DOMINIQUE TAYLOR
Bottom Garlic knots with marinara dipping sauce. Below Raina Esteppe, the Marko’s Mascot.
Mark Esteppe, owner and operator of Marko’s Pizza and Pasta in Edwards, has found the key to restaurant longevity.
“Consistency” he says. “We have the most consistent food in the valley.”
When Mark and his wife, Kathy, opened Marko’s, there were no options for pizza in Edwards. In fact, there were only four restau-rants in the whole town. Mark says they had to meet delivery drivers from Domino’s or Pizza Hut at the gas station on Highway 6 because they wouldn’t drive all the way out to their home in Lake Creek. Mark and Kathy recognized this void, and Marko’s was born.
“We’ve been here for 18 years,” Mark says. “People come from all over the world who say they love our pizzas.”
Now there are no fewer than 28 options for a meal in Edwards, Mark says, but people keep coming back to Marko’s for the homemade sauces, fresh salads, dough and desserts.
Marko’s makes its own marinara, a thick, lively red sauce with chunks of tomato and onion and 11 herbs and spices, and its own alfredo, which is made from scratch in indi-vidual batches for every order.
“It’s out of this world,” Mark says.Two of Marko’s salad dressings
are also homemade, the balsamic house dressing and the Caesar. Kathy makes the house dressing, and Mark encourages diners to dip everything in it — from pizza to sandwiches to Marko’s famous garlic knots — and the creamy, tangy fl avor means everyone is willing to comply.
“I used to cook Italian at home all the
time,” Kathy says. “The meatballs are my mom’s recipe. It’s a family effort.”
Through trial and error, Mark and Kathy took those recipes and found ways to multiply them — by a lot, Kathy says. And the results are evident in the lick-your-plate fare and the always-growing base of loyal customers.
PIZZA IS THE ANSWERAbove all else, Marko’s is a pizza joint, and the secret to its fantastic pizza lies in the crust. Marko’s crust is so popu-lar that they have even added dough balls to their carry-out menu, so cus-tomers can try their hand at their own homemade pizzas. Mark says the thing that separates Marko’s from other pizza places is its pizza oven.
“We cook all of our pizzas straight on an au-thentic brick pizza oven,” he says.
The restaurant also offers a gluten-free pizza crust, made with rice fl our. Also on the menu is the pizza sub, a 10-inch pizza cooked without sauce, cut in half and stuffed with all the things that make a great sub sandwich — Canadian ba-con, Genoa salami, lettuce, tomato and red onion. The fi nal product is hot and toasty on the outside, with cool, fresh meats and veggies on the inside.
“It’s like having a sub, but it’s a pizza,” Mark says. “It’s nice for hot summer nights.”
Enjoy a pizza sub and a beer or one of Marko’s daily lunch specials — a huge pasta and a drink, enough for lunch and dinner — on the patio in the summer, or sit inside at the black and white tiled bar and take in the funky, casual atmo-sphere of the establishment. And don’t forget to bring your kids.
“Kids love Marko’s,” Mark says, also mentioning that the restaurant partners with schools to get kids in the kitchen tossing their own dough and making their own pizzas.
Because after all, Marko’s is and always will be a family affair.
“Our whole family is here,” Kathy says. •
EAT summer 201236
27 MAIN ST. / 970.926.0777 / ZINORISTORANTE.COM
Zino RistoranteBY CARAMIE SCHNELL PHOTOS BY JUSTIN MCCARTY
Within earshot of the Eagle River, the Zino Ristorante deck screams summer. With a bocce-ball court, twinkling lights and bright fl owers, the modern Italian eatery easily wins the award for best patio in Edwards. Even though the lively res-taurant is in the center of Edwards, the outdoor eating area feels tucked away, private.
Zino has a long history in Edwards. Started in the ’90s as Edwards’ fi rst upscale dining option, the restaurant took a seven-year reprieve before returning in 2010, to the delight of many longtime residents who’d been craving the restaurant’s sig-nature Cozze: skillet-roasted mussels with lemon butter. Year-round those mussels and other signa-tures — such as the house-made burrata cheese with grilled ciabatta and tomatoes or the funghi pizza with wild mushrooms, truffl e oil, arugula and shaved Parmigiano reggiano — can be found on the menu.
But strike out beyond and be rewarded. The raviolo with ricotta cheese, hen’s egg, truffl e “pearls” (caviar lookalike bits of black truffl e) and brown butter is a dish executive chef Nick Haley calls “rich” and rightfully so. Use a piece of the house-baked bread to soak up the golden egg yolk and brown-butter goodness.
Then try the anguria insalate, a salad that Hal-ey’s been playing with for a decade. Rife with lush
watermelon chunks, goat cheese, thinly shaved fennel, mixed greens and a cumin-balsamic vinaigrette, the light dish is the perfect foil to the decadent raviolo.
SUSTAINABLE DELIGHTSHaving lived (and cooked) in North-ern Italy for a year, Haley lights up when he serves his braised rabbit risotto dish, which he calls “peasant food but elevated.” The tender, white meat might be mistaken for chicken, except for a hint of sweetness about it. The toothsome arborio rice is studded with portobello mushrooms and baby kale and draped in a vivid orange-colored carrot saffron broth. Since rabbit is being touted as the successor to the backyard chicken craze by sustainable living folks, Haley is clearly out front on this could-be trend.
Haley, who has been with Zino
since the restaurant reopened and at the executive chef helm for a year now, uses sustainable and local products whenever possible; for instance, the charred Palisade peaches that crown the top of the fettuccine with slow-cooked pork ragu dish, as well as the pesche e prosciutto pizza, a sweet-and-savory combination of gorgonzola cheese, thinly sliced cured meat, ricotta cheese, fresh sage and aged balsamic. The sustainable gulf snap-per, which come to Haley whole, with a serial number that allows him to trace exactly when and where the fi sh were caught, are served seared with pancetta red potato hash, sweet corn relish and basil butter.
Dessert lovers take note, all the desserts — including sorbet and ge-lato — are made in house by pastry chef Molly Harrison, which means you can’t go wrong. •
Pizze carbonara.Below Braised rabbit risotto with portobello mushrooms and baby kale.
Edwards
vaildaily.com 37
Vail
EAGLE’S NEST, VAIL MOUNTAIN / 970.745.4530 / VAIL.COMBY MARY KELLEY ZELESKEY PHOTOS BY JUSTIN McCARTY
Bistro Fourteen
I f the view is not enough to attract you to Bistro Fourteen, take one look at the diverse and detailed menu and you will be headed their way. From the shredded pork let-tuce wraps to the jumbo lump crab cake sliders, this restaurant has it all. According to executive chef Webster Lee, Bistro Fourteen has an eclectic style of food. The casual American dining is fun with family or friends after an activity-fi lled day at Adventure Ridge.
The second you walk through the door, you are greeted by a positive vibe. There is just something about dining at Bistro Fourteen that will put you in a good mood.
Whether you choose to sit inside or out on the patio, you have a breathtaking view of the 14er Mount of the Holy Cross. What more could you ask for?
This is Lee’s third summer as the chef of Bistro Fourteen.
“I like to use as much local prod-uct as I can and try to incorporate Colorado produce, as well as lighten it up a little bit,” Lee says.
FRESH AND FILLINGFor starters, the smoked trout and salmon appetizer tastes so fresh, you will be convinced that they just caught it with their bare hands right after you ordered it, and the spinach artichoke crab dip is the perfect way to start off your meal if you’re looking for a lot of fl avor. The Bistro Fourteen salad, with its strawberries and sliced prosciutto, is great on a summer day.
“We do a lot of stuff from scratch, and it’s a small little operation,” Lee says. “I think that
is something people don’t really expect up there.”
As for the main courses, anyone can make a classic BLT, but Bis-tro Fourteen’s fried green tomato BLT with house-made horseradish mayonnaise has fl avors that won’t be forgotten. The BLT was defi -nitely a highlight next to the Bistro tacos, with your choice of pulled pork, steak or shrimp. The tacos are served with guacamole, pico de gallo, black beans and Spanish rice, adding even more diverse fl avors to the menu.
DESSERTSEach dessert on the list is impeccable. Pastry chef Anne Armstrong truly does have a gift and a way of making you feel like every dessert was made specifi cally for you. The bacon-caramel popcorn served with brown butter and Marcona almond ice cream is one of the most creative desserts ever made. The blueberry turnover with blueberry cardamom gelato and Orangecicle sauce tastes just like a blueberry pie that your grandmother brought to you fresh out of the oven.
For all of the chocolate lovers, the chocolate fudge cake is a great choice, but the Nutella-fi lled doughnut with strawberry ice cream is a complete knockout. A bite of any of Armstrong’s desserts is a bite of heaven, guaranteed. •
Pork lettuce wrap with all the traditional accoutre-ments: lettuce, cucumber, peppers and an Asian dipping sauce.
EAT summer 201238
Vail
“L ife is short, eat more pizza,” reads the slogan on Blue Moose’s iconic T-shirts. The people who’ve tasted Blue Moose’s signature slices know that phrase is easy to subscribe to. One bite, and you’ll fi nd yourself wanting to eat more. Blue Moose’s philosophy follows four F’s: fun, family-friendly and fresh. But there’s one F-word you won’t fi nd in their kitchen: frozen.
“All our food here is (made) in-house,” says Ben McNair, general manager of Blue Moose’s Beaver Creek location. “We make our own dough; we make our own sauces; we cut our own cheese; (it’s) all natural, fresh ingredients.”
Since opening in Beaver Creek in 1995, Blue Moose has become its own vacation destina-tion for tourists and locals alike. Both the Beaver Creek and Lionshead Village location in Vail are packed on any given night of the week. The res-taurant specializes in “hand-tossed, East Coast-style pizza,” McNair says.
While Blue Moose’s menu hasn’t changed much in 17 years, they’ve added some lighter and healthier items for the summer season. There are four new salad pizzas: Mediter-ranean Salad Pizza, Chicken Caesar Pizza, Italian Salad Pizza, and the BLT Salad Pizza. The salad pizzas are made with a whole-wheat crust and topped with fresh vegetables after they’re cooked. The restaurant also offers gluten-free crust. Blue Moose is trying to change pizza’s unhealthy reputation.
“Pizza is good for you if you don’t cover it in sausage, pepperoni and tons of cheese,” McNair says.
Blue Moose’s big draw is the house sauces, which include pesto, hummus, ranch, olive oil, green peppers and
Above A vegetarian pizza with mushrooms, peppers, onions and olives. Right The Blue Moose dining room can accommodate large parties.
barbecue. The restaurant’s effort to extend beyond the typical marinara and cheese offering makes it appeal-ing to those customers who want to give their taste buds a surprise.
“When (people) are on vacation, they want to do something different, something out of the norm,” McNair says. “(Our pizza) is something you can’t just get at your local hometown pizza place.”
McNair describes the ambiance as “unpretentious” and great for a family outing. Kids can draw on the paper tablecloths, which means adults can relax about inevitable spills. Blue Moose also offers sal-ads, sandwiches, Italian entrees and calzones. But most people come for a slice at the place where both the healthy eater and the meat lover can be satisfi ed. Whether you’re a Colorado native or vacationing from the Far East, “pizza” is a word everyone understands.
“It’s a comfort food,” McNair says. “Everyone has their own version of what pizza is, but we offer a menu that gives you a lot of choices, a lot of variety. It may not be like pizza where you’re from, but it’s still a (food) that everyone loves.”
Additional info: During the sum-mer Blue Moose offers pizza-tossing parties during Friday Afternoon Club at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek and in Lionshead Square on Saturdays. Also, Tuesday night is Family Night, where you can get a large one-top-ping pizza, house salad and a pitcher of soda for $25. •
LIONSHEAD VILLAGE / 970.476.8666BLUEMOOSEPIZZA.COMBEAVER CREEK PLAZA / 970.845.8666
The Blue Moose
BY ROSANNA TURNER PHOTOS BY SHANE MACOMBER & NATE AGNINI
vaildaily.com 39
174 E. GORE CREEK DR. / LODGE AT VAIL / 970.754.7818 / ELWAYS.COM/VAIL
Elway’sBY SCOTT MILLER PHOTOS BY JUSTIN McCARTY
ohn Elway was famous for making footballs fl y, but he
didn’t win two NFL champion-ships until he had a great ground game, with beefy offensive line-men. Which might — or might not — explain why Elway’s serves great steaks.
Elway’s was already one of the Denver area’s top steakhouses when the company opened a location late last year in the Lodge at Vail. The combination of prime beef, mouth-watering side dishes and great service has quickly made Elway’s a mainstay of Vail’s dining scene.
Manager and sommelier Jim Lay says the restaurant would turn out as many as 300 dinners a night over the winter. The pace slowed as spring turned to summer, but the place was still busy on a mid-June visit.
Most of the diners picked the modern-looking dining room, where the sounds and smells from chef Shawn Cubberley’s kitchen make anticipation of the meal even more keen. But on this night, Elway’s patio was the place to be. The night was clear, calm and warm, as hum-mingbirds buzzed through the plaza behind the Lodge.
It would have been a great night for just a couple of cocktails and good conversation. But then we would have missed the food.
TRUE HIGHLIGHTSWe started our evening with cala-mari — served with slices of pep-peroncini pepper and bleu cheese-stuffed and lightly fried olives. You
don’t get cocktail sauce with this, just a hunk of fresh lemon. That’s all it needs.
The mild, but fl avorful, cocktail sauce is reserved for the shrimp cocktail. Some call this the “king of appetizers,” and the people work-ing for the Duke of Denver deliver on that promise. The shrimp are huge — think of a seven-foot man’s thumbs and you’ll have an idea of the size — fresh, and perfectly prepared and presented.
But the main course, of course, is the steak. Pick a couple of side — we chose the asparagus and creamed corn — then get ready to enjoy some USDA prime beef. And make no
mistake: You can taste the difference in beef that’s earned the government’s top grade.
Everyone — everyone — we asked for an opinion recommended the ribeye, which was, sadly, unavailable this night. So we “settled” for a fi let and a New York cut.
The fi let was astonishingly tender and fl avor-ful — “it may be the best I’ve ever had” — one diner said. The New York, cut thick and served in a lineman-sized portion, was equally delicious. Both were served crusted with Elway’s signa-ture seasoning. You can buy a jar, and it’s great on everything from burgers to pork chops, but without the prime beef, the zillion-degree grill and a master chef’s touch, you’ll be hard-pressed to replicate what Cubberley’s kitchen creates.
But there’s no need — getting the real thing is as easy as a trip to Elway’s. •
Clockwise Heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad. The 22-ounce rib-eye. A fully loaded baked potato.
Vail
EAT summer 201240
ONE VAIL ROAD / FOUR SEASONS RESORT970.477.8600 / FOURSEASONS.COM/VAIL
Flame
BY LAUREN GLENDENNING PHOTOS BY KRISTIN ANDERSON
Vail
When a restaurant’s chef is there because he really, really wanted the job, you can taste that desire and passion in the food. Flame’s Jason Harrison puts his love for his job into the food he makes — it’s what distinguishes a good chef from a remarkable one. (Harrison is the latter.)
He remembers preparing a 12-course tasting menu for some of the Four Seasons, top execu-tives a couple of years ago for his job interview. Harrison already had a fantastic job as the execu-tive banquet chef at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, but he wanted to relocate to the mountains with his wife.
He would soon be named the executive chef at Flame, at one of Vail’s most posh hotels with some
of the best mountain views in town. And what he’s done with the place in the past two years is nothing short of genius.
HAVING FUNHarrison is a chef who likes to have fun in the kitchen. Just because he’s a chef at a place like the Four Seasons doesn’t mean he can’t put something like corn dogs on his menu.
Rocky Mountain Elk “Corn Dogs,” that is. He makes a luscious elk sausage in house and surrounds it with a light cornmeal batter and fries it on a stick. They’re served with house-smoked tomato ketchup and grainy mustard, both in miniature squeeze bottles that make you feel like you could be at a ballpark or a county fair. And then you taste them, and you quickly realize that these are possibly the most sophisticated, majestic corn dogs ever created.
There are plenty of fun dishes on the menu like them — including the signature bison potstickers, a duck confi t pierogi and a plate of broiled bone marrow that’s almost profuse — but the menu is surprisingly ap-proachable for such an elegant restaurant.
Soups like chilled cucumber peach
with Colorado goat cheese or the fennel bisque with Meyer lemon and Maine lobster set your expectations high at the beginning of the meal, and Harrison doesn’t disappoint with any course thereafter.
A garden Panzanella salad of tomatoes grown in the chef’s own garden at the hotel pops with color, fl avor and freshness.
A slow-braised pork belly is served sitting atop a Carolina-style house truffl e barbecue sauce that is just mind blowing — that smoky barbecue fl avor balanced by a slight essence and fl avor of truffl e. You’ll likely fi nd yourself sliding the pork belly up and down the plate in order to pick up every last drop of sauce.
And then there’s the steak. Flame is a mountain steakhouse, and the menu of steaks is impressive. Harri-son offers everything from 6-ounce fi let mignon to a 42-ounce cow-boy porterhouse for two. There’s venison, bison ribeye, Kobe fl at iron, dry-aged Tomahawk — the list goes on.
And when you taste that perfect medium-rare, succulent meat and fi nd yourself enthralled by it, you’ll know why Flame is a restaurant quickly climbing Vail’s culinary ladder to glory. •
Above Panzanella salad with ripe tomatoes and fresh buratta. Below 12-ounce bone-in filet with accoutrements.
vaildaily.com 41
GAME CREEK BOWL, VAIL MOUNTAIN / 970.754.4275 / VAIL.COM
Game Creek RestaurantBY KIMBERLY NICOLETTI PHOTOS COURTESY OF VAIL RESORTS
Dining at Game Creek Res-taurant rivals a chalet experience in the Alps. It begins with a ride up Vail Mountain’s gondola, followed by a hike or shuttle to the restaurant for dinner or a Sunday brunch at 10,300 feet.
Though traditional European ski culture inspired Game Creek Restaurant, the cuisine is hardly old-fashioned.
Executive chef David Clawson strives to exceed guests’ expecta-tions with his three, four and fi ve courses, as well as his Chef’s Table Menu.
Clawson’s drive to take French cuisine to the next level led him to New York City, where he worked at La Caravelle Restaurant and the Ritz-Carlton, and then accepted his fi rst executive chef position with Hotel Nikko Atlanta, a top 100 hotel. Since 2008, he has been refi ning his fl air for globally infl uenced fu-sions at Game Creek Restaurant.
CREATIVE CUISINEStarters range from pork belly con-fi t with watercress, lemongrass and apple compote to shrimp dumplings with mustard, green curry, kohlrabi and micro shiso. The soups and salads are anything but ordinary, based on primary ingredients such as jicama, crab and duck.
Clawson transforms tofu into an extraordinary vegetarian dish with yuzu pudding and coconut anise broth and cooks vegetables in broth rather than butter, in order to deliver succulent fl avors without adding fattening calories.
He also focuses on sustainable cooking by researching the sources
of food — from where it was har-vested to how it was transported.
Clawson enjoys pairing main entrees, such as sea scallops, elk or venison, with surprising ingredients that complement and bring out the fl avor of main protein. For example, he combines celery root, truffl es, sherry vinegar and porcini with sea scallops and blends pomegran-ate, hominy and chipotle with the venison T-bone.
Desserts include a composition of bananas, butter pecan, rum and chocolate shortbread or aged gouda cheese, almond, melon, arugula and a root beer glaze.
The Chef’s Table Menu offers an even more adventurous dining experience, featuring fi ve courses created by the passionate and dedicated culinary team.
A BRILLIANT BRUNCHFrom 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday
brunches please both the taste buds and the eyes: Guests can settle into comfortable chairs indoors and gaze out the huge windows, or they can soak in the vast mountain environment on the deck.
The buffet is a foodie’s dream. One side features breakfast, with everything from apple-wood-smoked bacon, custom omelets to French toast stuffed with bananas, chocolate chips and mascarpone cheese. Another station highlights the best of lunch and changes every week.
DRINKING IT ALL INOf course, no authentic mountain dining experi-ence is complete without wine. Game Creek’s sommelier helps guests pair the perfect vintage with each course, from a sweet Riesling to a white Rioja.
The restaurant is also known for its mimosas and its signature Bloody Marys.
Even after 14 years, Game Creek Restaurant is still one of Vail’s best-kept secrets — an exclu-sive dining experience combining rustic mountain charm with innovative cuisine. •
The view from Game Creek Restaurant is stun-ning all summer long.
Vail
EAT summer 201242
Vail
The abundance of summer’s fresh fruits and vegetables is exactly what Kelly Liken wants to share with her guests.
“I always get really excited when the summer’s coming because we’ve always been very com-mitted to using local produce,” says Liken, chef and owner of Kelly Liken in Vail Village. “It’s just always a pleasure to show customers everything that Colorado has to offer.”
The restaurant holds hospitality and service throughout, but the intimate atmosphere only sets the tone for the true “American seasonal cuisine” for which it is known.
The watermelon tomato gazpacho topped with Maine lobster panzanella salad, shaved radish, garlic chips and balsamic must is a true summer-meets-summer dish. It’s even better when paired
with a cucumber rose martini signa-ture cocktail or a glass of Schrams-berg’s crisp sparkling wine.
Rocky Mountain elk carpaccio with bulgur tabouleh salad and whole-grain mustard aioli is a savory and silky, and server Rachel Zehms pairs each course with complementing wine selections.
Roasted Colorado lamb loin with pearl onions, baby potatoes, haricots verts, charred scallions, strawberry aigre-doux and lamb jus is heart-ily satisfying and softened with the strawberry fl avor and delicate root
vegetables. It’s the toasted corn and sea bean hash that makes the seared salmon a perfect dish. Garnished with pickled apricot and chili salad, and livened with an apricot and lob-ster reduction, it’s sweet meets sa-vory, as the apricot fl avors brighten the fi let in every bite.
Save room for some decadence with dessert (black pepper ice cream, anyone?), or try one of the restaurant’s daily wine fl ights to get a taste of its well-rounded varietals.
SEASONAL AND FRESHChef Liken says summertime becomes very creative for her as she is surrounded by farm-to-table inspiration. She says that each summer brings more farmer-chef relationships.
“I am so proud to be a part of a movement in Vail that is truly sup-porting local farmers and artisans,” Liken says.
As the seasonal varieties of produce get more interesting, Liken and her team have more opportunity to change up the menu according to what the restaurant gets from the markets and farms.
Sous chef Tyler Hansen says it’s always a pleasure to work with Liken and the other sous chef Matt Lim-baugh, along with the farming com-munity, to showcase Colorado’s best. “Once you start getting those local products, it seems easy to make the dishes delicious,” Hansen says.
Every Sunday evening, the restau-rant offers a special harvest menu that features produce directly from the local village farmers market. Live jazz music accompanies the evening into the night.
Zehms says she loves the conti-nuity that the restaurant brings in — both new and familiar faces that keep the restaurant alive. “I always just hope to have every guest want to come back,” Zehms says. “You can go out for so many nice meals, but I just want them to remember.” •
Above Roasted Colorado lamb loin with baby po-tatoes, pearl onions and strawberry aigre-doux. Below Watermelon-toma-to gazpacho with lobster panzanella salad.
GATEWAY BUILDING / 970.479.0175 / KELLYLIKEN.COM
Kelly LikenBY KIM FULLER PHOTOS BY JUSTIN MCCARTY
vaildaily.com 43
Vail
122 EAST MEADOW DRIVE / 970.476.4403 / LATOUR-VAIL.COM
La TourBY WREN WERTIN PHOTOS BY JUSTIN MCCARTY
I’ve been eating at La Tour for 15 years. It used to be our place for special occasions: birthdays, an-niversaries, family visits. But over the years it’s evolved. I go with my soul sister and sit on the patio, drink-ing wines by the glass and eating off one another’s plate. I go with my husband and we formulate a plan of attack as we split a bottle of wine, making sure one of us orders the latest incarnation of lamb (some-times it’s an herb-crusted rack, other times — now for instance — it’s more inventive: lamb rack chop with a ride-along ravioli stuffed with braised lamb and ricotta. King trum-pet mushrooms, a husky parmesan broth and a glorious slice of house-made lamb bacon fi nish the dish.)
In fact it was Paul Ferzacca, La Tour’s chef-owner, who fi rst taught me that some French restaurants are simply about classical technique and training and not particular dishes on the menu. And so, like any chef who is smitten with fl avors and keeping it fresh, Ferzacca’s infl uenc-es come from around the globe. I’ve watched Mexico, Vietnam and Hawaii stop by and pay their respects. Right now Italy’s handmade pastas peek out from two menu items: the above-mentioned ravioli and a fresh pea tortellini crowned with poached lobster and a, believe it or not, feather-light cream sauce. There’s also plenty of Colorado on the menu: greens, veggies, herbs and more Centennial State products. This sum-mer, La Tour’s menu goes above and beyond. It’s just plain fun.
SEASONAL SPECIALTIES“This is my summer salad,” Ferzacca says casually, placing it on the table.
A complete reinterpretation of cap-rese, pickled fennel and rosemary croutons embellish crunchy-ripe watermelon and clouds of burrata cheese. “I got a hankering for water-melon,” he explains. There’s some-thing magical in the combination, and the olive oil and dusting of salt make everything pop along with a glass of Dr. Loosen Riesling, a study in minerality.
Sommelier Paul DiMario is excel-lent at pairing for the table or by the course. Heads up: He has a new Champagne Grower’s list. “In the past, champagne has been domi-nated by the big houses,” he says. “But now the people who’ve been growing the grapes for years are making the champagne.” He’s got a dozen or so crus on the list, and he’s priced them to make sure they move.
Above Grilled Colorado lamb rack chop, lamb ravioli and pickled ramps. Below Haystack Moun-tain, Snowdrop goat cheese with watermelon and basil.
“Champagne is very versatile. We should all be lucky enough to drink more of it.”
General manager Chad Russell’s favorite dish is the pork tenderloin, served with caulifl ower roasted to sweetness, then tossed with pine nuts and raisins. It sounds demure, doesn’t it? Restrained even. But when you order pork ten-derloin, you’re really ordering pork three ways. Crispy chunks of pork belly stud the dish, which is fi nished by a generous scoop of bacon jam. Eat a little of everything with some of the grilled endive. Heaven. And for the sweet tooth? Try the banana bread pudding with banana fosters sauce and candied walnuts.
“We talk a lot about showcasing natural fl a-vors,” Russell says. “Oliver (Philpott, the execu-tive chef) is serious about that. He invests a lot of time here.” So does Russell. The service is imbued with warmth and knowledge, and a fi ne attention to detail. It’s a fi tting complement to the delicious food, intriguing wine list and a patio surrounded by edible plants. •
EAT summer 201244
Vail
183 GORE CREEK DRIVE / 970.476.3696LEFTBANKVAIL.COM
The Left Bank
BY KIM FULLER PHOTOS COURTESY THE LEFT BANK
“Sometimes classic is just classic,” says Kimberly Chelain as we look into the dining room of The Left Bank. Twinkle lights line the awning above a row of intimate tables on the right side of the restaurant — soft space set off by a burst of color from the fuchsia fl owers centered on the mirrored sill.
This indoor terrace that Chelain has created is almost as coveted as the selection of window seats facing Gore Creek, she says, but it’s truly a pleasure to fi nd yourself in any inch of this Vail institution.
The Left Bank has been in the hands of chef and
owner Jean-Michel Chelain since 2006. With Kimberly, his wife, Jean-Michel has upheld a true tradition of French cuisine here, and year after year customers return to fi nd the culinary mastery and local heritage they know and love.
“You can never forget the taste of the customer,” says Jean-Michel. “They come to The Left Bank for one unique reason — it has always been quality and it will always be fresh.”
SIGNATURES, OLD AND NEWThe menu does hold true to its signature dishes. Steak au poivre blanc, a fi let of beef rolled in white peppercorns with a cognac cream sauce actually seems to melt in your mouth. Gigolette d’agneau is a fresh lamb shank and garlic, cooked in and served on its own natural jus.
You can’t forget French frog legs, battered and fl ash-fried for fl avor and succulence. In anticipation that guests may want to lick their fi ngers, lemon water is brought tableside to rinse the delicious juices.
Jean-Michel says that although the menu will always have its classics, he is creative with the new and sea-sonal items he incorporates.
“Every year we try to go higher and
Above A fresh souffl e with creme anglaise. Right Bouillabaisse de crustacés au fenouil with lobster, shrimp, scallops and mussels.
higher in fi nding new product,” says Jean-Michel. “We are creating new dishes to perfection and fi nding new ingredients to make them fresher.”
A chilled avocado soup with lobster, and bacon-wrapped cod with a pesto sauce are new additions to this year’s summer prix-fi xe menu. Guests are offered three courses—the best of what the restaurant has for the season.
INVIGORATED SCENEBut it’s the bar area that may provide an intrigue for new and returning guests. Bar manager Jason Lamb has handcrafted a new whiskey wall to highlight the best scotches and bourbons, and the bar menu is being developed to give guests a varied taste of the chef’s offerings with a selection of small plates.
Lamb says he and the Chelains have begun to see fresh faces in the restaurant—new generations that have come to get their own sense of Left Bank taste and tradition.
“There are nights when we see those people who have been coming here since the 1970s,” says Lamb. “But a transition is starting to hap-pen, and now it’s their kids who are starting to come in.” •
vaildaily.com 45
Vail
SOPHISTICATED YET RELAXED The summer menu at Lord Gore continues to represent its distinctive infl uences, and it offers something for all types of diners. Petrie says he’d pick the refreshing spiked wa-termelon salad as a starter for any summer meal. This beautiful pink chunk of vodka-infused watermelon comes with pickled red onion and watercress that’s drizzled with a balsamic reduction.
For the main-course traditional-ist, the lamb sirloin, served with roasted new potatoes and a smooth, smoky yam butter drizzled on top, is a favorite of Lord Gore fans. But for more of Petrie’s Southern style, smoked barbecue ribs are also a main-course option, served with unforgettable sides: Low Country slaw and an Andouille sausage mac ’n cheese that will tempt your neigh-bors. No worries: The mac ’n cheese
Above Lamb sirloin with roasted potatoes and a smoky yam butter. Below Vodka-infused spiked watermelon salad.
can be ordered as a side along with any of the other plates, which include jerk half duck, trout paupiettes and buffalo chopped steak.
While you’re dining, don’t forget to look forward to the house-made ice creams, which are turned, unsurprisingly, into some pretty creative concoc-tions. Whether you choose mini ice cream cones or a dessert called Elvis’ Demise, you’ll fi nd a sweet ending to any summer evening at Lord Gore. •
595 VAIL VALLEY DRIVE, MANOR VAIL / 970.476.5000 / MANORVAIL.COM
Lord GoreBY TRACI J. MACNAMARA PHOTOS BY JUSTIN MCCARTY
You’ve got to like a place that knows its history and bucks tradi-tion all in one bite. The Lord Gore Restaurant, in Manor Vail Lodge, is such a place. The namesake of both is none other than Sir St. George Gore, a wealthy Irish nobleman and baronet of Gore Manor in County Donegal, who came to the Vail area on a hunting expedition in the 1850s. Vail’s signature skyline Gore Range peaks are also named after Lord Gore, who hunted buffalo, elk, deer and various game birds and fi sh.
“We stand out from other fi ne-dining restaurants by being known for our creative American cuisine with a Southern fl are,” says Adam Lewis, Manor Vail’s food and bever-age director. Lewis enthusiastically credits chef de cuisine Matt Petrie for all of the creative transformations that come out of the kitchen. “Matt has created the identity of this res-taurant by drawing upon his North Carolina roots,” he says.
It might be diffi cult at fi rst to imagine how Lord Gore’s heritage and Petrie’s Southern roots could be honored at the same time, but in reality, the results are quite strik-ing. Instead of eschewing its various infl uences, Lord Gore Restaurant embraces them by serving traditional staple dishes that Lord Gore himself might have liked, such as elk or quail, but then giving them a twist. Petrie transforms elk into a thinly sliced, chimichurri-seasoned elk carpaccio and quail into a fi nger-licking-good chicken-fried quail that’s plated with wild rice salad and red eye gravy.
EAT summer 201246
Vail
141 EAST MEADOW DRIVE / 970.476.6628 / MATSUHISAVAIL.COM
Matsuhisa BY SHAUNA FARNELL PHOTOS BY JUSTIN MCCARTY
First of all, if you like protein — namely, tender fresh fi sh that separates from the fi let like juicy snowfl akes — this is your place.
Also, if you like surprises, don’t waste any time laboring over the expansive menu; just put your-self in the capable hands — and heart — of the chef, and simply order the omakase. You will not be disappointed.
According to Matsuhisa mastermind and interna-tional celebrity chef Nobuyuki, omakase is Japa-nese for “from the heart.” So trust in the experts to wow your palate. The taste bud-wooing could be any mixed parade of Nobu’s signature dishes: Yellowtail or blue fi n sushi garnished with the oddly harmonious fl avors of cilantro and jalapeño (inspired by Nobu’s stint in Peru, where these items had to replace his traditional Japanese accoutre-
ments), black cod so tender it liter-ally disintegrates in your mouth, the delightfully buttery king crab tempura or the crispy, wispy mountain of light green delicacies that is the heart of palm salad. In addition, the omakase spread will likely include some very special unadvertised Nobu dishes put together by Vail executive sushi chef Toru Watanabe and hot kitchen chef Brian Busker.
This might mean the uni shiso tempura, a fun dish starring a crunchy, bubbly fried shiso leaf wrapped around a soft pudding of exquisitely warm sea urchin and a trio of dipping squares — a citrusy
yuzu sauce, sea salt and tamarind curry powder. Don’t be shy … drop the chopsticks and use your fi ngers. You may get the omakase version of the supple sea bass, surrounded by a simple but luxuriously fl avorful festival of garnishes: grapes, shiitake mushroom and foie gras, all of which come together in a scrumptious, slightly tart symbiosis on the tongue.
PROGRESSIVE DININGDon’t let yourself become too hypnotized with taste euphoria as you’re devouring the chewy-but-ten-der slices of octopus and crunchy cucumber in the Korean ceviche. You might be so quick and confi dent with your chopsticks you accidentally gobble up the lemon slice at the bot-tom of the martini glass.
Even 11 or 12 courses in, the omakase style of what Matsu Vail general manager Anthony Viera calls “progressive dining” will have you wishing a new small plate master-piece would be placed in front of you for the next 50 hours. It just feels like you can keep on going. But when Busker delivers some dessert piece de résistance such as fresh pine-apple soaked in vanilla, surrounded by crunchy Greek phyllo dough, your trance will come to an end and you’ll resign yourself to wrapping up this particular spree.
Matsuhisa boasts the best loca-tion in Vail — the entire front of the restaurant opens to the view of the vast and green Vail Mountain and an enormous dining deck. The wine list covers the globe and is fl ecked with several obscure varietals highlighted in beverage director Andreas Harl’s bimonthly wine program, but the Nobu YK 35 Sake is a runaway win-ner for summer dining at Matsuhisa. It is served in a traditional wood box, and washes the omakase down like soft, chilled rosewater.
Surprisingly, even after you lose count of your courses, you walk away with a happy, oddly healthy sensation in your belly … and with-out question a bigger heart. •
Above Yellowtail sashimi topped with jalapeño. Below Korean-style ceviche with shellfi sh and seaweed.
vaildaily.com 47
VailVail
231 EAST GORE CREEK / 970.476.5626 / PEPIS.COM
Pepi’s Bar & RestaurantBY KIM FULLER PHOTOS BY DOMINIQUE TAYLOR
Take a walk down Bridge Street and see if the most popu-lar deck in town doesn’t turn your head. Pepi’s has been a Vail institu-tion since it opened in 1964, and it’s still enticing visitors and local alike with its valley roots and Austrian charm.
Pints of Paulaner and glasses of Riesling go down easily while you relax in the afternoon or evening sun, but it’s the food that makes the restaurant stand out in its culinary class.
Executive chef Helmut Kaschitz says that some items on the menu are here to stay, but he is also excited to bring in more seasonal salads and farmers market specials this summer.
“We always have certain items on the menu,” Kaschitz says. “Wiener-schnitzel and apple strudel—that’s what it’s all about.”
The Austrian chef has stayed true to mastering his home cuisine, but says that he is equally excited about the not-so-European dishes on the menu.
Kaschitz says the Thai chicken and watermelon salad has been a summer go-to for guests, served with lemongrass marinated grilled chicken breast on top of sliced watermelon in a Thai dressing, and garnished with cilantro and mint.
According to Kaschitz, summer is a time to move more away from heavy menu items, but the restau-rant still serves the wild game and fi sh that it highlights so well.
The Bunder Teller appetizer is perfect to share and pair with a glass of spicy shiraz or a sweet riesling. The air-dried beef from Switzerland is served with Gruyere
cheese and German rye bread. The meat is savory and salty, balanced by the smooth cheese, spicy mus-tard and small pickles.
A well-rounded glass of Bor-deaux stands up to the Canadian caribou cutlet, served on a rich wild porcini mushroom sauce, alongside creamy polenta, braised red cab-bage and Brussels sprouts.
The local farmers market pro-vides weekly inspiration for the chef, who creates a menu special around in-season fruits and veg-etables that he gets each week.
The international and local delicacies make for a memorable experience, but nothing quite compares to Pepi’s infamous apple strudel. Dense layers of warm, sweetened fruit are piled high between an oval envelope of
Above Canadian caribou cutlet, wild boletus sauce, creamy polenta and braised red cabbage. Below Wienerschnitzel, roasted potatoes and red cabbage.
perfect pastry crust, next to a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a thick pile of creamy custard. It’s the perfect dessert for any evening in Vail—a connection of history and heritage that you seem to taste in every bite. •
EAT summer 201248
Vail
675 LIONSHEAD PLACE / 970.754.7700ARRABELLE.ROCKRESORTS.COM
Tavern on the Square at the Arrabelle
BY LAUREN GLENDENNING PHOTO BY KRISTIN ANDERSON
The quest for that restaurant that has some-thing for everyone is fi nally over — the Tavern on the Square in Lionshead is it.
The Tavern is a restaurant where you can be as safe or adventurous as you want to be. The menu, which has more than 70 items to choose from in the summertime, is the result of a lot of whimsy and creativity in chef Douglas Dodd’s kitchen.
The Tavern has evolved over the last few years since it opened and it seems to have found its niche as somewhat of a gastro pub. It’s tavern-style food, but a lot more upscale, with a phe-nomenal craft beer list to boot. The list is the brainchild of general manager Paul Phillips, a beer afi cionado who wants the Tavern to become Vail’s top beer-drinking establishment.
In what used to be the Arrabelle hotel’s fi ve-star upscale French restaurant, the Tavern is now king. A project last year knocked down a
wall that opened up the Tavern’s original space into the former French restaurant space, making way for an awesomely large and diverse establishment that has a seating area or bar for every dif-ferent taste. There are more casual high tables in the main bar, lower and slightly more formal tables in the newer side, and a bar and seat-ing area overlooking the base of Vail Mountain and the gondola.
MIGHTY MENUWhile the location is arguably one of
Beet salad with pesto-rubbed crostini. Below A variation on pork and beans: pork belly.
the best in all of Vail, it’s the food that keeps the place full.
The small plates menu is colossal with nearly 25 items to choose from, and these aren’t your typical bar food kinds of options, either.
Dodd has a few staples scattered throughout like chicken wings and fried calamari, but his imagina-tion has also run wild with dishes like short rib Asian-style potstick-ers; Brussels sprouts with chorizo and Manchego cheese; baked brie; grilled elk quesadillas; and sugar snap peas with piquillo peppers, hazelnuts and chili.
A grilled bone marrow is served with lush fruit chutney of cherries, raisins, apricots and other fruits and spices and the most delicately sweet onion jam, both of which cut the rich, fatty bone marrow and make it delightfully palatable.
Dodd’s French onion soup is full of beautifully caramelized onions that seem like they’ve been cooking for days. The roasted beet salad is bright and fresh, with interesting accompaniments such as a pesto-rubbed crostini, pistachios and goat cheese.
From there, Dodd jumps all over the place, yet seems focused at the same time. There are burgers and sandwiches ranging from classics to the playful venison fajita sand-wich. There’s veal schnitzel, per-fectly breaded and served bone-in alongside a creamy saffron risotto, and even a pot pie, but this one’s made with lamb shank.Prince Edward Island mussels fea-ture Thai green curry, while a broc-colini small plate has a Vietnamese infl uence with fi sh sauce and chili. “It’s wild, ‘cause it’s sort of every-where, but it all comes back to the central theme of food that’s great with beer,” Dodd said, adding that there’s a great mix of casual and upscale food on the menu. •
vaildaily.com 49
All it takes is melding fruitsand herbs with meats that
carry the same fl avors.BY SHAUNA FARNELL | PHOTOGRAPHY BY THINKSTOCK
Drink and dish pairings
… alcohol not necessary
ust because you don’t drink booze — or can’t — doesn’t have to mean the most fun you can have with your dinner beverage is a lime in your seltzer water.
But sadly, this is what most pregnant women, children and “wagon riders” — no matter how epicurean — often resort to.
Don’t let it be so. Most of the valley’s fi ne-dining establishments offer mocktails for
non-drinkers, and some are explicitly designed as a non-alcoholic beverage rather than simply the virgin rendition of the cocktails.
“We really wanted to have an alternative for people who don’t drink, give them something besides water. We wanted them to have fun with
EAT summer 201250
The syrups — rosemary lemongrass, honey hibiscus, oleo saccharum
“I’d pair it with the salmon, which comes with a pickled apricot and chile salad,” Lockhart says. “They really complement each other. All the fl avors in both the drink and the dish harmonize perfectly and help each other pop.”
As far as popping goes, wine specialists often emphasize how it’s the fruity elements in wine that enliven certain dishes. Cherry goes with duck. Apple or pears with pork. Pineapple with shrimp or fi sh. Lemon with lobster … The secret is concocting a fresh fruit beverage us-ing ingredients that aren’t too sweet or overpowering.
GOURMET SYRUPSAt Larkspur, any of the elaborate cocktails can be made without alcohol, and rather than infusing the booze — as most restaurants do — bar manager Josh Stevenson has become a bonafi de chemist in the concoction (and constant evolu-tion) of his carefully infused simple syrups. The syrups — rosemary lemongrass, honey hibiscus, oleo saccharum, jalapeño, gingerbread,
drinks and their dining experience, too,” says Restaurant Kelly Liken sommelier Lisa Lockhart. “As for pairing non-alcoholic drinks, just like any pairing, you want to think of things that go together.”
This philosophy of palate har-mony — the same that diners go for when matching a wine to their meal — was the impetus behind Kelly Liken’s non-alcoholic cocktails. This summer’s offerings include a Strawberry Fizz, contrived of fresh, house-made strawberry juice, lemon-lime soda and a splash of lemon. There is also the Tiny Tango, rich with fresh mango juice, avocado
puree and a splash of soda. “The strawberry is very light,”
Lockhart says. “I would pair it with the elk carpaccio. I usually pair the elk with rose, so the strawberry pops against the elk in a similar way. The elk is very fl avorful but light, so you don’t want to drink something overpowering with it.”
The Tiny Tango, which is slightly heavier, makes a happy pair with some of the restaurant’s fi sh dishes.
Cherry goes with duck. Apple or pears with pork. Pineapple with shrimp or fi sh. Lemon with lobster … The secret is concocting a fresh fruit beverage using ingredients that aren’t too sweet or overpowering.
vaildaily.com 51
almond and a few others not quite perfected — can be used to make non-alcoholic drinks just as easily as they can be cocktails. They can also be made at home.
“The fl avor profi le of a lot of cock-tails is still almost the same with-out the alcohol,” Stevenson points out. “Vodka is one of those that is fl avorless, so as a pairing, it’s not like you’d miss it anyway. For rum, you could do a little apple juice so you get that sweetness and with the darker spirits like bourbon, you want to add a little extra syrup.”
With Larkspur’s simple syrup, several ingredients in the beverage are what you’d fi nd or what could be easily be added to dish that goes with it. This boils down to instant harmony. It’s typical, for instance, to make a roasted chicken with rosemary, so why not add a little rosemary to your beverage to draw out the fl avor of the meat that much more. The same goes for lemon, which is a classic go-to garnish and accoutrement to poultry, fi sh and meat. Stevenson mixes a small amount of fruit juice and Sprite or lemon-lime soda with his rosemary lemongrass syrup for the complementary mocktail for white fi sh and chicken.
The honey hibiscus syrup, on the other hand, is a simple mixture of honey and dried hibiscus fl owers steeped in hot water overnight, then strained and refrigerated (if you want to experiment at home, keep in mind that the homemade simple syrups have a chilled shelf life of no more than a month).
“If you can’t fi nd the hibiscus fl ow-ers, you can use Red Zinger and it’s got this beautiful, earthy citric acid to it. The honey mellows it and you can start doing more chicken dishes with this, a richer-style fi sh or even veal,” Stevenson says.
The gingerbread syrup is a little more involved, and begins with boiling Guinness to the point that it is devoid of alcohol, along with raw sugar, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom pods, orange peel and ginger. Sound rich? It is! And on the ice with some ginger beer or ginger ale, it goes very nicely with ribeye.
“The gingerbread syrup goes with rich, spicy food,” Stevenson says. “It’s just got the elements that you’d think of for Asian food … ginger. If you’re doing sushi, it goes. A soy-marinated salmon … the ginger goes really nicely.”
Just as cocktails themselves have evolved out of their pigeonholes of basic margaritas or dirty martinis into a parade of fruits and even herbs and vegetables, non-alcoholic drink concoctions can do the same.
“With mocktails, it used to be you had either a Shirley Temple or a Roy Rogers. There wasn’t much to it, so people didn’t order them,” Stevenson says. “Now, cocktails have a lot more going on, and in the same way that we can easily substitute one rum for another in our cocktails, so it’s no problem at all to substitute a little more fruit juice and play around with the non-alcoholic version.”
Also, remember that when it comes down to most types of liqueurs, it is the alcohol that is actually mock-ing the original fl avor.
“Any liqueur has a very obvious fl avor — raspberry, hazelnut, peach, almond … if you make a syrup out of those real fruits and nuts, it’s 20 times better,” Steven-son says. “We also
use house-made preserves to add sweetness to a drink without alcohol. Even straight club soda, if you’re us-ing high quality juices to blend, you don’t really need all that other stuff. To make a beverage with fl avors that match a dish, you don’t really need the alcohol.”
m, jalapeño, gingerbread, almond and a few others not quite perfected
EAT summer 201252
go GOAT
Colorado’s artisanal goat-cheese culture is alive and well BY TRACI J. MACNAMARA | PHOTOGRAPHY BY THINKSTOCK
vaildaily.com 53
t the Avalanche Cheese Company’s farm in Paonia, Colorado, goats have a pretty good life. They spend their days munching grass in a
fertile valley fed by the North Fork River, and
guard llamas sit perched atop the farm’s rolling hills to protect them from lurking coyotes. Two-month-old kids bound over to the fence and bleat out happy greetings when Bob Isaacson, Avalanche’s farm and dairy manager, reaches his hand out to pet their baby-soft coats.
Paonia, also known for its or-chards and farm-friendly community, has a growing reputation as the heart of Colorado’s farm-to-table movement, so it’s not surprising that Avalanche, one of Colorado’s newest artisanal goat cheese producers, is here to take advantage of the area’s rich mountain geography.
In the summertime, Avalanche Cheese Company goats produce a steady supply of fresh milk, which gets trucked over McClure Pass to their creamery in Basalt, where it’s turned into a mild, fresh chèvre (from the French word for goat) and sent out to suppliers within four to fi ve days. Avalanche also produces aged cheeses and raw milk cheeses, known for their probiotic health benefi ts.
The process by which Avalanche Cheese Company crafts its products demonstrates the beauty in a living harmony between animals, land, and people. Luckily, Avalanche is not alone. Here’s a brief look at who’s who in the Colorado artisanal goat cheese industry, along with some advice about how you can enjoy the tangy goodness of goat cheese, from their farm to your table.
AVALANCHE CHEESE COMPANY
970.927.6850avalanchecheese.comLocation: Farm in Paonia; creamery in Basalt
After selling a small restaurant company in Houston, Texas in 2006, Avalanche Cheese Company owner and cheese maker Wendy Mitchell spent a year living in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she traveled around the United Kingdom and learned the skills she now brings to her own cheese-making business.
TRY IT: Avalanche Cheese Company prod-ucts are sold at specialty cheese shops from Butcher’s Block in Aspen to Molto Formaggio in Dallas and at summer farmers’ markets in Aspen and Basalt. Many Front Range loca-tions are also stocked with Ava-lanche Cheese Company’s cheddars, blues, and chèvres. In the Vail Valley, look for Avalanche goat cheese at eat! drink!, a specialty wine and cheese shop in Edwards. HAYSTACK MOUNTAIN GOAT CHEESE
720.494.8714haystackgoatcheese.comLocation: Creamery in Longmont
The pioneers of Colorado’s artisanal goat cheese movement, Haystack Mountain Goat Cheese began producing classic French-style cheeses in 1989 and has expanded its production from traditional chèvres to surface-ripened and raw milk chees-
es. Even though Haystack Mountain is Colorado’s largest artisanal goat cheese producer, it remains com-mitted to producing cheese in small batches to maintain its superior fl avor.
TRY IT:Splendido at The Chateau in Beaver Creek serves Haystack Mountain cheeses on their cheese plate, complimented by rhubarb sauce, apricot jam, fresh fruit, a balsamic reduction, and house-made red wine walnut toast. Haystack Mountain’s cheeses are now distributed in res-taurants and stores in 30 states, so check your local grocery store for the award-winning cracked pepper chèvre and Haystack Chile Jack, a goat cheese which recently won a fi rst-place award from the American Cheese Society topping all other jacks and all other milks.
JUMPIN’ GOOD GOAT DAIRY
719.395.4646jumingoodgoats.com Location: Farm and creamery in Buena Vista
Colorado-native Dawn Jump originally began making goat cheese on her home stove 20 years ago, but now Jumpin’ Good Goat Dairy, located in Buena Vista, makes 250,000 pounds of cheese annu-ally and is dedicated to sustainable agriculture. Jumpin’ Good Goat Dairy produces an incredible variety of goat cheeses including chèvres, cheddars, blues, feta, Brie, ricotta, gouda, and parmesan.
TRY IT: Jumpin’ Good Goat Dairy’s cheeses
are widely distributed, and they can be found for the fi rst time this sum-mer and the Vail and Eagle farmers’ markets. Vail’s Larkspur Restaurant adds Jumpin’ Good’s goat cheese to its Cabra Cheesecake, a traditional New York-style cheesecake with a tangy twist. The dessert is plated with local produce to create a dis-tinctly Colorado treat.
PHILPOTT GOAT DAIRY
719.846.3059greatgoatcheese.comLocation: Farm and dairy in Hoehne
Philpott Goat Dairy got its start more than thirty years ago when the Philpott family decided that the goat cheese business would nicely supplement their farm. Located in Hoehne, ten miles east of Trini-dad, Philpott Goat Dairy produces a creamy goat ricotta and a hard non-pasteurized Italian-style goat cheese. Philpott’s hard goat cheese is produced by cooking the whole cheese product itself. It’s soft enough to slice but when aged, it can be grated over your favorite pasta dishes. TRY IT:Use Philpott Goat Dairy’s ricotta in your own lasagna and manicotti by purchasing directly from their farm, which can also ship via UPS. Philpott sells its cheese at farmers’ markets in Trinidad, Colorado Springs, and Littleton; it can also be found in specialty Italian markets in Denver including Vinnola’s Italian Market, Belfi ore Genuine Italian, and Carmine Lonardo’s Italian Deli.
EAT summer 201254
Bite Sized Did you know...
TV DINNERS were invented in 1953 thanks to 260 POUNDS of surplus turkey, Pan Am’s
SINGLE-SERVING in-fl ight meals and a savvy Swanson & Sons salesman.
Watermelon was fi rst DOMESTICATED
more than 6,000 years ago in southern and central
Africa though it soon spread via trade routes to China,
Vietnam, India and Egypt. It came to the New World via
slave ship in the 16th century.
What do ice lolly, ice block, pop, ice pop and ice pole HAVE IN COMMON?
They’re all popsicles.
Due to the HIGH WATER
CONTENT in the batter, FUNNEL CAKES
are considered a low-calorie fried food.
In Chinese medicine, CELERY SEEDS
are used to calm the body, and help with
dizziness and high blood pressure.
TURMERIC was one of the fi rst ingredients for
temporary tattoos.
Cucumbers are part of the GOURD FAMILY.
In the 1400s, EGGPLANT was thought
TO CAUSE INSANITY in Northern Europe.
Palisade peaches were sent to the ROYAL FAMILY when the BRONCOS played the 49ers in
London in 2010.
vaildaily.com 55
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