DENGuide

The Best Restaurants & Bars In Breckenridge, Colorado

Pancakes before you hit the slopes, a legendary sports bar for after you're done, and more restaurants we love in Breckenridge, Colorado.
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photo credit: Anne Cruz

Breckenridge was once a sleepy mountain town, but now it’s a year-round tourist destination for nearly every outdoorsy pursuit. The restaurants have followed suit and grown up a bit—you’ll still find classic alpine pubs for crisp pints of après-ski beer, and you can also enjoy a cozy evening filled with excellent housemade pasta or bone marrow French onion soup. 

Here’s where you’ll want to hit before, during, and after your day in the snow, regardless if it includes tearing down the ski slopes or lounging in a resort spa after a massage.


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BREAKFAST


photo credit: Anne Cruz

Diner

Breckenridge

$$$$Perfect For:Classic EstablishmentBreakfastLunch
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A perfect day in downtown Breckenridge begins with coffee at Columbine Cafe and ends with video games and beer a few steps away at Eric’s. Columbine is a classic diner that’s walk-in only, so get here early and be prepared to wait a while on a busy Sunday morning. They do all the breakfast favorites right, like eggs benedicts and platter-sized pancakes. Their house-smoked chunky corned beef hash goes great in a scramble over hash browns, as well as inside their Hangover burrito stuffed with scrambled eggs and cheddar jack cheese.

This cozy coffee spot should be your first stop on a lazy morning exploring Breckenridge’s Main Street district. Thaw out from the cold with a rich mocha beside their fireplace, or try to grab a table so you can sit with a bagel sandwich and gameplan how many souvenir shops you want to pop into. Just know it can get pretty crowded here and seating is first come, first serve.

Cool River Coffee House is as close as you can get to a local hangout in a city like Breckenridge. You’ll overhear ski guides chatting up their barista, small business owners planning their next craft circle meetup, and families coaxing their children to eat a housemade pastry so they don’t have a meltdown on the mountain. Make sure to order some breakfast burritos stuffed with eggs, tater tots, and your choice of bacon, sausage, or chorizo, all smothered in pork green chile. Even if you’re not planning to spend the day in the snow, it’s worth starting your day here with an excellent latte and a lovely conversation with the staff.

photo credit: Anne Cruz

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Cabin Juice feels like a renovated hunting cabin—and it’s right across the street from some great rental shops and the free city bus stop. Cozy up next to a date for a picture in one of their ski-lift benches, or thaw out with a hot toddy by their fireplace. Everyday brunch options like brioche french toast topped with lemon yogurt are a great way to start your morning, whether your plan is to tear down the slopes or just lounge around the spa.

Bold is a Mediterranean spot in downtown Breckenridge with a great Happy Hour, but it’s also a solid place to grab breakfast without having to fight your way through crowds you’d find at Columbine or The Crown. The breakfast pot pie is slathered in enough gravy to keep you warm all day in the cold, and the strawberry-topped shortcakes are perfect for your friend who has the sweet tooth of a fifth grader.


ON THE SLOPES

This bar and restaurant is located right next to the base of Peak 8, so you can watch people whizz down the slopes or load onto the Rocky Mountain SuperChair as you shovel loaded fries into your mouth. When it’s nice out, relax next to one of the patio’s fire pits while ripping into their soft Bavarian pretzel sticks.

If you find yourself craving a hot chocolate or a snack halfway down Peak 9, take a quick break with a great view at TenMile Station. The self-serve cafeteria leads to a picturesque log cabin dining room, which is a solid place to warm up a bit, and their barbecue-topped mac and cheese is perfect for maintaining high energy throughout a day on the slopes. There are tons of tall windows for enjoying the view without freezing, but there’s also a huge patio if you want to enjoy a beer on a less frigid day without sweating in your base layers and snow pants.


APRÉS DRINKS & NICER DINNERS

Radicato makes incredible pasta that’ll even impress your cousin who won’t stop talking about the trip to Palermo they took last summer. You’ll want to start your meal with an order of mozzarella-filled arancini, and then fill your table with orders of mafaldine with braised rabbit and chanterelles, a raviolo bathing in sage brown butter, and seared diver scallops with pillowy gnocchi.

Eating at Rootstalk feels like rolling up to a good friend’s house party, if your friends are known for adorning crabcakes with microgreens and topping up your glass of central coast chenin blanc. Their french onion soup is packed with flavor from beef bone marrow, and will warm you up from the inside after being in frigid temps all day. Larger plates like the swordfish schnitzel and pan-roasted duck breast are great for sharing and are comforting without being too heavy.

Consider Aurum the ultimate crowd-pleaser when trying to make dinner plans. There’s a nice wine list for your picky aunt who’s preferential to Rhone Valley reds, grill selections for the meat-and-potatoes person, and excellent cocktails for your cousin who just wants to après. They also have a great Happy Hour—you can easily make a cheap meal out of the fluffy parker rolls and Korean fried chicken bites.

You might not expect a great seafood restaurant in the mountains of a landlocked state, but that’s exactly what you’ll find at the Carlin, which is located inside a luxury inn on Main Street. An epic night here starts with a tower of oysters, shrimp, crab, ceviche, and pickled mussels, and only gets better the more seafood you tack on. Double down on bivalves with an order of wood-fired oysters topped with compound butter, breadcrumbs, and lemon, or dip toasty batons of bread into a bowl of manila clams and chorizo. Finish off your night with an espresso martini, or head downstairs to their cocktail tavern for a nightcap.

Hearthstone is the type of steakhouse where you’re equally likely to spot a couple celebrating their 40th anniversary and a guys’ trip kicking off their weekend in the mountains. Dinner here is one of the harder tables to get in town (you’ll want to call about a week in advance), but it’s worth it to dig into a Colorado rack of lamb crusted with rosemary and parmesan. If you can’t snag a reservation, their walk-in-only Happy Hour is a solid bet for refreshing strawberry serrano mules and beef tip bao snacks.

Breckenridge Distillery doesn’t just make the official bourbon and vodka of the Denver Broncos—it’s also the world’s highest distillery at 9,600 feet, and sells bottles you can't find anywhere else. You could spend an entire day trying different kinds of gin, vodka, rum, and whiskey here, but they also have a tasting room downtown if you don’t have time to catch the free bus to the north side of town. If sipping on high-proof whiskeys from a tiny glencairn glass doesn’t sound like your idea of a good time, they also have a cocktail list with plenty of boozy (and tasty) nods to pop culture icons. Make sure to try the Obi-Wan Old Fashioned with port cask whiskey, barrel-aged bitters, brandied cherry, and raw simple syrup.


AFFORDABLE EVENING SPOTS

You’ll find lots of places in Breckenridge that serve pizza and other comforting bar food, but the pies here are good enough to impress cynical East Coasters who are suspicious of any pizza made outside of their tristate area. The crust is equally crisp and chewy, and the rounded cups of pepperoni add explosions of saltiness. An 18-inch pie and an order of cheesy garlic knots are large enough to satiate a small crowd, but you can also get a single 24-inch super slice that comes with its own pizza cutter if you want weirdly specific bragging rights that only come with eating outsized pizza portions.

Breweries and ski towns go hand in hand, and Broken Compass is the perfect spot for decompressing with a few IPAs. There are two locations—the original brewery at the northern end of town that hosts bingo and weekly trivia, and the taproom on Main Street—and both allow you to bring pets or food from nearby restaurants. The list offers everything from an easy-to-drink kolsch and hefeweizen, to juicy pale ales and sours. It’s also worth trying their funkier options like the fresh ginger pale ale and tropical coconut porter.

Going to Eric’s is synonymous with going to Breck at this point, so it’s worth checking it out at least once. Stop by the legendary sports bar where you can eat wings and catch a game while your kids play skee ball and Mandalorian-themed pinball. If you go later in the evenings, most of the kids clear out, so you can spend a few hours playing Big Buck Hunter amongst other people who pay taxes.

$$$$Perfect For:Day Drinking

Mi Casa is where you should go when you’re craving stiff margaritas and short rib birria tacos. Their Happy Hour runs from 3-5pm, and is one of the better deals in town with two tacos for $8 and a platter of chips, guac, and queso for $9. Mi Casa is also a solid bet for the gluten-free crowd—there’s a dedicated menu full of enchiladas, fajitas, and soups.

A tropical bar semi-hidden off a snow-covered bikeway might seem out of place in a ski town, until you realize that the Venn diagram of people who enjoy surfing, snowboarding, and drinking is largely a circle. Once you find your way inside, you’ll be greeted with the smell of fruity drinks and one of the best burgers in town. The rice bowls are piled high with poke, avocado, and housemade pickles, and everything from the rice to the teriyaki sauce can be swapped with alternatives like udon noodles and pineapple honey. You can’t go wrong with anything here, but you should make it a point to get a tiki cocktail sampler for $10, as well as the excellent smashburger with a side of fries or mac salad.

The only time we haven’t seen a line at Crepes a la Cart is when it’s closed or it’s 20 degrees below freezing, but it’s worth the wait for ham and cheese crepes stuffed into a glove-friendly cardboard sleeve. The portable snack is perfect for wandering and window shopping down Main Street, so it’ll keep you warm and toasty enough to resist the allure of buying $5 hand warmers.


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