Aspen Recommendations & Reviews

[Rehovot]

The New York Times just did a story on how to find the middle-class Aspen, which mentions a few bars and restaurants (Jimmy's bar and the Red Onion bar). Their general listing of restaurants for Aspen accompanies the article.

[chappie]

We apparently were going to do Pine Creek Cookhouse, but somehow it got dropped from the 10-person itenerary. Of the five nights, we ate out three and though none were "cheap," we had wonderful food for pretty much a fair price. All said and done, it wasn't much more expensive than eating out here in Easton and St. Michaels, Md. at the better restaurants. We don't go out too often here, but, hey, what's vacation for?

So, here's where we ate: Wild Fig, which was excellent. Our host knows the owners, so we were gifted with a bunch of appetizers on the house to start. I rarely order "The Chicken" off a menu, but this one promised my favorite veggie, broccoli rabe, so I did. Wow. Perfectly juicy "airline cut" chicken, crisp skin, with the aformentioned rabe but even better — the most delicious polenta I've ever had. It made its way around the table and we went home with an extra order, which didn't make it until 8 a.m. All said and done it was about $45 a head, quite reasonable for a memorable meal.

Next big dinner was Campo de Fiore. Pricier ($75 a head) and not quite as good as Fig. Smoky charred calamari were nice, and I had a pasta with lamb and goat cheese over vegetable ragou. Best dish on the table was the osso bucco, also the costliest. We didn't have dessert here.

Final dinner was Takah Sushi, and since we brought 10 people we got the private room. It was definitely expensive, but I never feel bad buying quality sushi even if it's not world-class. Fun dinner, and we ended it with a sexually explicit fried ice cream and banana dessert. Hilarious and quite good.

Aside from the big meals, we stopped at the Red Onion, where I had a couple of their $2 "shooters" (mini-burgers, or sliders) and loved them. My wife and I went snowmobiling one day and stopped on the way back at the Woody Creek Tavern, which was perhaps my favorite place there aside from the Fig. The atmosphere reminded me of dives back here, and the Limosin beef burgers were so good my wife — who almost never eats red meat — finished her surprise order before I did!

I skiied two days, both at Snowmass but on different sides of the mountain, and reenforced the truth that I am out of shape. Still sore! But beautiful skiing nonetheless. Hadn't done it in five years, and will try snowboarding next time.

Overall, I thought Aspen was beautiful, expensive in general, a little pretentious yet somehow also quite relaxed and welcoming. It was a great trip.

[achevres]

Chappie, I obviously had the wrong idea about your budget, but I'm glad it was higher than I thought and you guys went to some great places and had a good time.

Wild Fig is one of our favorite also.

Apart form the places I already mentioned earlier, my other favorites are Matsuhisa Aspen (blow-out $$$$) and L'Hosteria.

Jimmy's has been a huge disappointment on 2 occasions and I'm not going back.

[John Talbott]

I have duly noted the two new topics posted here and here and wonder if since ski season any place of note has opened. Thanks.

[John Talbott]

Aspen 07 – Four new places

At first, I thought that Aspen had gone back to its horrible pre-post-Modern food era; by this I mean that in the good old days it was steak and fries, then LA/LV-influenced, complicated, fusiony, over-the-top dishes, then back to Alice Waters basics with good simple food, but now has reverted to its twenty years ago, pushing-the-envelope, self.

At R Cuisine, (in the old Range space at 304 East Hopkins Avenue), Chef C. Barclay Dodge has returned from his internal exile and from the old defunct El Bulli-inspired and sometimes wonderful Mogador and set up a place that his website says serves ”Casual Elegant Cuisine: Contemporary American, Continental” food, whatever that means. The guy is talented and Stewart Oksenhorn, the most informed of food critics in Aspen, in the Aspen Times quotes Dodge as saying “You're not going to get a better meal in town.” Even if that were true, it’s sad, since the bar is so low. Quoting Oksenhorn/Dodge again about the Mogador, "I was experimenting enormously. Eighty-five percent of it went over with flying colors. But some dishes bombed horribly. But what can I do - I didn't have the time to go home and experiment." I guess. But not on me, please. We tried to test his inventiveness at his new place and see if he’d truly changed his tune by essentially sampling the kitchen, ordering four starters: braised artichoke with olive oil, aioli and toast that was very, very strange-tasting; burned, crusted watermelon with watercress, feta and curried almonds; cold, cold pink trout topped with a couple of old, tough sliced carrots; and crisp-skinned pork with a side of parmesan and celery. While each dish was interesting and very nice looking, the combination of startling temperatures, strange tastes and failed ideas (for instance, the pork skin was like that of a suckling pig cooked for hours over an open spit, but the pork meat underneath was blah-tasting) made me suspect that R Cuisine was going to go the route of his last two places. I know some of the chefs trained at El Bulli, and paraphrasing Senator Lloyd Bentsen, “this is no El Bulli." Finally, another sour note: I ordered the Talmar wine (e.g., cheapest red in sight) and they were out of it (heard that before?); but they scrambled up a decent Grenache at the same-price. Our bill = $90.14 before tip.

And then we had lunch at the second new place in town, a taqueria called Sayulita at 415 E. Hyman St in the place that at night is the Club Chelsea. We had good salsa and taco chips followed by a mediocre-to-blah beef burrito and a so-so chicken quesadilla. With two Coronas but without tip it was $25. Go again? Nope. P.S. We were the only gringos there for about 30 minutes - it’s authentic alright.

Number three was China Thai in the old Little Ollie’s space at 308 S. Hunter St. About four months ago, the space was renovated, the menus revised and a bunch of 18-month Thai “interns” from the Little Nell hired as incredibly nice servers. This meal was the unexpected positive surprise of the year. We shared a chicken satay, where the fine-quality chicken was both moist and crispy (a great combination) and the peanut sauce full and spicy. Our “main” was beef with ginger sauce and bok choy, again good product, well-prepared, although the chef is too sensitive about Americans’ taste-tolerance (I added some home-made hot sauce until it was spicy enough for my liking.) With a bottle of red plonk and some Chateau Ireland water that had lemon, lime and Thai basil in it, not counting the tip, the bill was $46.93. Go back? You bet.

Finally, largely because, in the aforementioned article on Barclay Dodge and R Cuisine, he had stated that "….what goes into [the menu], the final product, is not what you get at Lulu Wilson, D19, The Little Nell" we tried two of these three, one of whose chefs we hadn’t tried before.

#4. Lulu Wilson, 316 E. Hopkins St, 970-920-1893, only open PM’s. WOW! Is Barclay Dodge (see above R Cuisine), one sore loser and poor prognosticator. When we went at 5:45 PM to reserve, they said they were fully booked ‘ til 9 PM or so; I said gosh, we really wanted to eat here, since Dodge slammed you guys so much; they said, oh, we do have a table in ½ hour and take a look at whose restaurant a few feet away is empty. We went off to chat with chef Mikey Wexler at the Snake Pit, whoops, the Steak Pit and then returned to Lulu Wilson. This place has a menu that has all sorts of opportunities: bar and patio food, small dishes, regular plates, cheese (what looked to be a glorious assortment for $18), desserts, grappa’s, etc. Once again we tried to test the kitchen with four firsts/small plates/etc. Colette started with halved shrimp, baby pink beets, avocado and ginger, olive oil, lemon, paprika drizzles; I with a huuuuuge leg of confit de canard that was as good as it comes in the Mother country (and having a French waiter didn’t hurt) with goat cheese on toast. Incredible! Then Colette had a tuna duo (tuna and yellow tail) presented as a microtomed collage/montage, sprinkled with lavender and sesame seeds and I the pork belly with kale and an assertive (e.g., good) sauce and splendid beans (did I mention that all the food is “organic”)? There must be something wrong with this picture; yes, the pork was over-salted for me; otherwise, this picture was perfect, save the over-priced wines. We finished with three lovely tiramisu rounds with different toppings. No bottled water or coffee, a bottle of wine and the bill (without tip) was $115.10 - NY/LA/LV prices for sure, but hey, for the best meal of the week, OK. As we left C. said – “reminds me of Ze” (that is, Ze Kitchen Galerie in the 6th in Paris); not bad praise!

And then for our last meal we went to a place that has never disappointed us for maybe 50 years (hummm, 1948-2007, about that) – the restaurant at the Little Nell, now called Montegna and now chef’d by Ryan Hardy, who, did I mention upthread, grows some of the food (tomatoes, lettuces) on his nearby farm? The food was spectacular, comme habitude. We started with an amuse bouche of a watermelon “gazpacho,” then I had the “menu” of heirloom tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette, cheese, etc; fowl with sauce; and a financier of great Colorado peaches infiltrated with almonds and accompanied by crème fraiche – and Colette had pan-fried Caribbean snapper with potato puree. A five-star, if such existed, meal. So, so, so, John, what’s the problem here? The problem was the “service.” First, we were seated upwind of Cubano-cigar-smoking gringos in a supposedly-non-smoking venue; Second, it took forever to take our order; Third, dishes arrived after great gaps; and Fourth, to hail a wait-person one recalled George S. Kaufman’s “Epitaph for a Dead Waiter” “God finally caught his eye.” Were these problems the responsibility of the chef, the kitchen, the server, or the maitre d’ (who offered to recompense us with an extra dessert for Colette, but did not make good on that offer)? Who knows. Conclusion: a very good meal, horridly served.

Finally, a note about other “old places” - we continue to like Plato for dinner and Gusto’s for lunch.

[Gareth]

John,

Just to say, by happy coincidence, I will be celebrating my 40th Birthday week after next at the Montagna in Aspen, before repeating the celebrations this side of the pond at L'Ambroisie. So I very much hope to be posting on both 'your' boards !

The plan is a cunning one. I wake up on the morning of my 40th Birthday and decide then whether life is still worth living. If it is, I drink a glass of champagne whilst admiring the mountains; if it isn't I throw myself off one.

Having the booking at L'Ambroisie for 3 weeks later is designed to try and ensure that the answer is "yes, life is still worth living" - if only to prevent an unseemly fight amongst my relatives over who gets to inherit the reservation in my will.

In the meantime, thanks to you (and the others) for the recommendations on here. I've only been to Aspen once before and the posts have offered up a wealth of new places to try. Didn't get to Takah Sushi last time (was booked out the night I tried) but liked Kenichi which scored major bonus points for offering the option of fresh wasabi.

Gareth

[chardan]

Hi, folks!

I'm visiting Aspen next week for a conference, and was wondering if I could get a recommendation or two. I've never been there before, and would appreciate suggestions for a nice dinner place as well as where to find a good burger. Thanks!!

_Jesse Williamson ;-};

[John Talbott]

I'm interested if anyone has any new observations.

Thanks

John

[John Talbott]

Aspen July-August 08

New blood

The owner of the two Buenos Aires restaurants in Denver opened the Buenos Aires (Fusion) Restaurant in the old Blue Maize space 1 ½ weeks ago and it is now open for lunch and dinner. I thought this place was super, just what the doctor ordered, but Colette found the mound of meat too much. I started out with crispy grilled sweetbreads with chimichurri sauce (there are two here, the classic and the Denver-revisionist with tomato) which must have been the best dish I had this week. Then she had risotto with seafood (shrimp, scallops, clams and calamari) and veggies (green onions, spinach and tomatoes) and I a rack of lamb (musta been 10 of the mothers) dusted with dry chimichurri sauce and cooked the way I asked (nigh-raw) with tender big green asparagus stalks. Dessert was a super flan. With a bottle of wine, no bottled water and no coffee before the tip = $109.69.

39 Degrees in the Sky Hotel (a Kimpton property) is not new but was new to us. Although I go by it every morning on my limpies in Aspen, I’ve never noticed the menu until today. We had a more than alright lunch there. Colette had what they called a menage a trois: OK gazpacho, fine mixed salad and a terrific grilled cheese panini with pesto while I had fried calamari with nice aioli sauce and salad greens with pickled lengthwise sliced carrots that were divine. Our bill with just tap water, before tip = $26.06

Sabra’s Deli, where the old Bagel Bites at Clark’s market used to be, is really misnamed. It’s really a pan-Middle Eastern schwarma/gyros/couscous/salad and pita shop, hardly a deli. It was described as “new, and….real good” by Stewart Oksenhorn, fine food finder for the Aspen Times, and I have to agree. For a hole-in-the-wall place, it has a large menu, three chefs, almost as many front-room folks, and an atmosphere of quiet competence. Colette had the Israeli salad of chopped cukes, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, etc with pita and Baba ghanoush and I the gyros plate (instead of the schwarma) with fries that had an intriguing tang. Our bill was $20.90 without dessert or drinks or coffee.

Tang, which is in the ex-ChinaThai space, which took over Little Ollie’s, changed its sign this summer but has the same crew and food so is not really new. It’s fine Thai and Chinese chow though; a cucumber salad, beer, Pad Thai and a Thai chicken ran us $35.24.

Social, next door and upstairs from Elevation, calls itself an Asian-influenced tapas bar. We wanted to sit outdoors and they have two areas, one on the street, the other upstairs, which are quite nice. The menu is eclectic and interesting sounding. Colette ordered 6 brochettas, 3 of pesto and tomato, 3 of fava with peccarino – all OK. I had as my first course some piquillo peppers stuffed with artichoke mousse – a great idea but its taste was undistinguished. Then she had two double soft tacos with bits of snapper – quite so-so and I had shredded duck confit quesadillas which were barely OK and unfinishable. At this point I had written in my notes: “Alright, no home runs, no need to go back.” Getting the check was dicey since one of the two well-clevaged wait-dames was busily chatting up two friends and the other was d’hors combat. When it arrived I had one of those head-snap-back moments – the wine we’d ordered a bottle of, was $38 a bottle, while it was listed by the carafe (I assume 1 L.) as $34; so by my calculations, I figure it was 50¢ a cl by the bottle, but 34¢ a cl by the carafe – a huge difference - thus here, it pays to order the same wine by carafe. The waitress had the chutzpah to tell me I’d gotten the bargain.

Oldies

Lulu Wilson, which I described last year as an Aspen Ze Kitchen Galerie, wasn’t quite that on this visit; but it was very good. Two local old friends we ran into at the Music Festival asked what was my current resto fave and I said “I think Lulu, we’ll see” and he said “I think so too.” We had 2 appetizers and 2 small plates and there was food left over, so no need to go hungry here. Colette had burrata mozzarella with local peaches, fried capers (that’s right fried), and arugula which we both agreed was superb; I had a Colorado mixed salad with the usual veggies plus shaved turnips, equally good. Then she had gnudi (ricotta gnocchi) with a tomato and artichoke sauce and greens and I had Hickory smoked BBQ short ribs, spicy and scrumptious with a bit of slaw atop and three giant friend curried onion rings. The bread had a super crisp crust, the butter was properly herbed, the wine guy knew how to pour just enough to breathe and be appreciated (a first in Aspen in 60 years) and the welcome was most warm, especially in contrast to last night’s F***You at Social. Our check with one bottle of wine, no desserts or coffee and certainly no big plates = $102.10 before tip.

Plato’s space at the Aspen Institute has been, in one incarnation or another, an acceptable safe harbor when seeking a good meal between events at the Music Tent and Movie Festival. The relatively new chef, who revived the place a year plus ago, seems to have lost interest. Things started out a bit roughly; the music (jazz) in this center of intellectual fervor was blasting, the amuse-bouche of oyster with veggies and parmesan was a nice try but both bad product and execution and the lettuce in my Colorado green salad had browned stalk cuts (no charge after I conspicuously cut them further off and pointed them out to our waitstaff) Since the chef was in the salle chatting up one table of notables while my salad was being prepared, it is possible the salad guy just got lax and he (the chef) did not pass on the final plating, but one of the waiters should have caught it. However, once the chef returned to the piano, things picked up: Colette’s Colorado peach/champagne soup was pretty good, I loved her lamb (short) riblets with mint BBQ rub and tolerated my angel hair pasta with nice pancetta on a bed of “parsley pesto.” Our bill with wine before tip with no coffee or dessert was $66.25.

Takah Sushi has gone very upscale very fast in prices and come down very much in generosity in just 12 months. We’ve been coming since the turn of the century and what a change. Edamame and a bowl of rice are now $4 each, miso soup is $6 and the sashimi combo for $20+ provides only a few miserable slices. I realize that their clients are all rich these days but what happened to the old price-value ratio? For one dish of edamame, a bottle of Muscadet, a sashimi combo and a crab Viet lettuce wrap, no miso, pickles, salad, dessert, coffee, tea or tip, our bill was $105.38. Nice, cross-table-working waitstaff though.

DishAspen is supposed to rest its reputation on fresh product, well prepared, (Slow Food take that!) and has just opened for lunch. Colette had a cup of (good) gazpacho and a salad with 4 ingredients (goat cheese, tomatoes, cukes and fava beans) which came with several possible dressings (none of which she took a cotton to) and I had a chiabata sandwich with blackened fish and a tasteless “tartare” but great chips. Our bill with one glass of wine, no desserts or coffee or tip was $44.95.

[kiliki]

I will be celebrating my 40th Birthday week after next at the Montagna in Aspen

How funny, I was just searching threads here to figure out if my husband and I want to spend OUR 40th birthdays in March (3 days apart) at Aspen, and so far Montagna sounded like the place to go.

Thanks especially to John for keeping this thread updated. We will already be in CO, at Copper Mountain, for a family reunion/ski trip, and I'm just trying to figure out if its worth heading to Aspen after that for our birthday celebration (it's spring break and everything is extra-pricey). My initial feeling was that for the same $$ we could have a weekend in NYC and really eat well, but it sounds like there are quite a few good choices in Aspen (I had figured it would be largely bad touristy food, but it sounds like I'm wrong).