VAILGuide
The Best Restaurants In Beaver Creek, Colorado
photo credit: Kim Fuller
Beaver Creek is a ski resort town in the Colorado mountains that lives up to its (unofficial) tagline of: “Not exactly roughing it.” Located up the mountain from nearby Avon and Vail, this alpine village is all about comfort and luxury—think more grandiose chalet vibes than dark and draft cabin in the woods.
Expect something similar when it comes to the restaurant scene. The best spots are places for fancy dinners, where you’re just as likely to see famous country singers sipping dirty martinis or retired Denver Broncos digging into plates of elk.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Kim Fuller
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Even if you’re not staying at The Ritz-Carlton, you should make time to eat at Wyld, the hotel’s restaurant that’s basically one big twinkle-lit mountain chalet. Head to the cozy horseshoe bar on the edge of the dining room for a fireside après-ski cocktail or a pre-dinner glass of champagne. Try and snag a seat for dinner right by the windows, which look out onto the ski slopes, and order some spicy tuna aguachile with charred serrano and the hearty oxtail tortellini in a savory broth that tastes like the best french onion soup ever. This is the type of place that you want to settle in and stay a while, so stick around for a turmeric ginger tea toddy in the lounge.
Mirabelle, located in a charming farmhouse near the entrance of Beaver Creek, has been around for over 40 years and makes some of the best French food in town. Go with the four-course tasting menu, which may include things like a tuna tartare, Maine lobster with savory chorizo sauce, roasted duck with pickled mushrooms, and a smooth vanilla crème brûlée to finish. If the fireplace lounge and candlelit dining area feel like rooms at your wealthy aunt’s cottage, that’s because the chef and his wife actually live upstairs. We think they should turn the whole place into an alpine bed and breakfast, but we’ll settle for coming here to celebrate a successful day on the mountain.
You’ll probably feel as royal as Andy Cohen during BravoCon when you walk into the chandelier-filled Splendido at the Chateau Beaver Creek. Start things off with Vail Valley’s best dirty martini that’s perfectly shaken, comes served at just the right temperature (extremely cold), and has the perfect amount of olive juice. Based on the atmosphere, the menu makes total sense: caviar, foie gras, a Colorado lamb rack, and seasonal specials that are interesting and always good. Leave room for dessert, especially if you like soufflé.
Beyond an excellent supply of river trout, Colorado isn’t much of a fish destination. That doesn’t really matter at Hooked, though, where they’re big on sourcing top-notch sushi-grade fish from Japan, California, New Zealand, Spain, and beyond. Start your dinner off with hiramasa sashimi with serranos, cilantro, and lime, along with some other appetizers like spicy dynamite shrimp nachos. The Hooked burger is also a must, with crispy tempura lobster, salty bacon, and rich béarnaise sauce. Pair it all with some sake or one of their tiki cocktails like an on-draft, barrel-aged Mai Tai.
This spot used to be an early 20th-century trapper’s cabin that, yes, belonged to a man named Beano. But nowadays, this fine dining restaurant is pretty far removed from a place where some dude used to sleep and skin wild animals. During the winter, you can only arrive by a snowcat-drawn sleigh that picks you up at the base of the mountain. Inside, the high-ceilinged space is covered in antler chandeliers, there’s always somebody playing acoustic guitar, and the dining room overlooks the alpine meadow. Unsurprisingly, the five-course tasting menu has a ton of excellent local meats like bison tartare, rotisserie game hen, and elk.
