Restaurants in Aspen
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WC3
- Aspen, USA
- Restaurants › Cafe
Next door to the famous tavern in ramshackle Woody Creek, this community center cum cafe is just as groovy but in a different way. Instead of drunken antics and mishmash wallpaper there's local art, a sweet front garden, plenty of indoor seating and healthy, soulful lunch fare.
Choose one of four kinds of curry or tuck into a bowl of gumbo or a panini. The vegetarian soups have earned high praise, and the coffee is tasty too. Plus there's a range of used books for sale. Lots of them. Including a corner dedicated to the Good Doctor himself. We're talking about a terrific selection of Hunter S Thompson's masterworks, including some vintage Rolling Stone issues from the 1970…
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520 Grill
A (mostly) healthy (kinda) fast-food grill, if there is such a thing. Sandwiches are creative, spicy cococtions. The achiote chicken is grilled and piled on the pita with roasted red peppers, avocado and cheese. The Veg Head is an alchemy of roasted portobello mushrooms and garlic, with a pepper medley dressed in balsamic.
It also serves a good-looking much loved kale and quinoa salad along with epic traditional and sweet potato fries. Locals are devoted to it. The best part? It's affordable!
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Pine Creek Cookhouse
Now here's your set piece dining. Think gorgeous log-cabin restaurant serving outstanding, fresh fusion fare, set 11 miles up Castle Creek Canyon past the old mining town of Ashcroft. It does an outstanding shrimp tikka masala, a gorgeous grilled quail served over greens, a terrific house-smoked trout, and tasty buffalo tenderloin. The peaks of Taylor, Star and Cooper loom from the patio.
It's closed in October and May, but stays open all summer and winter, when you can get here from Ashcroft on your cross-country skis or aboard the cookhouse's horse-drawn sleigh! The road is closed at Ashcroft when snow falls.
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Jimmy's
Jimmy's is a soulful tequila-, crab- and steakhouse with attitude that attracts a very A-list crowd. Settle into a booth and check out the writing on the wall in the main dining room. No, we're not being cryptic: Jimmy's idea of decorating is covering the walls with guest graffiti – bring a pen. You're paying a king's ransom to dine with the rich and famous, so you may as well leave your mark.
The perpetually packed bar serves a cheaper menu and 105 types of tequila and mescal. Thursday nights are devoted to the crab, with king crab legs going for a song. It hosts a salsa night on Saturdays.
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Pacifica Seafood & Raw Bar
The newish fish house in town is right on Wagner Park. It has a raw bar and serves creative tapas, such as steamed mussels and elk sausage for light snacks, and eight seafood mains for dinner. The main dishes include classics such as Hawaiian ahi with wasabi mashed potato, grilled ono with black sticky rice, and sea scallops served with white truffle and fava bean purée.
There's a great, albeit a tad preppy, happy-hour crowd in the summer. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Happy hour runs from 3:30pm to 5:30pm.
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Pitkin County Steakhouse
The most popular and down-to-earth steakhouse in town. It does prime dry-aged steaks, prime rib and, to quote one satisfied customer, 'the best fucking crab legs in the world!' Set in the basement of a Hopkins Ave complex, it has an open kitchen with tables scattered about the just-dark-enough environs and an iced-down fish selection for you to check out as you glide to your table.
During the low season the dining room is only open Thursday to Saturday, but its adjacent tavern is always open for business.
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Fuel
- Aspen, USA
- Restaurants › Cafe
This hard-rocking coffeehouse does two things exceptionally well: jet-fueled espresso and world-class breakfast burritos (it has three kinds – Californian, Mediterranean and southwest). It also has protein bars and energy food to keep you going on the slopes and ridgelines, no matter the season, as well as bagels, paninis, wraps and smoothies.
Staff will pack lunches for the slopes if you ask nicely. It's located just off lot 6 in the lower (main) mall.
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Syzygy
Tucked into a basement on Aspen's restaurant row, this elegant dining room showcases the considerable talents of a local chef who's been feeding Aspen Jazz Festival VIPs for years (through his catering company). Think truffle-and-potato-crusted turbot, elk tenderloin, veal cheek with sweetbreads, and buffalo carpaccio.
Yes, this fine-dining house is for the carnivorous gourmand. Translation: beloved by the AARP set, but still a find.
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Butchers Block
- Aspen, USA
- Restaurants › Deli
The depth and breadth of the gourmet spirit of this ski-town deli is striking. Here you'll find gouda, stilton and goats cheese, wild salmon and sashimi-grade ahi, caviar and gourmet olive oil, maple-glazed walnuts, dried mango, incredible deli sandwiches, and terrific roast chicken and salads. It's fair to say that this is the place to get your trail food. It's open until 6pm, but stops making sandwiches at 5pm.
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Lulu Wilson
This one's for the casual gourmet. You'll love the shabby-chic chandeliers, gold-washed chairs and exposed-brick interior, and the marble tables outside. You'll also love the branzino stuffed with lobster and roasted whole, the braised rabbit over pappardelle, the housemade gnocchi and the Colorado-grown lamb. The raw bar offers lobster ceviche, tuna crudo and oysters on the half-shell. Groovy all around.
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Cache Cache
One of two chic eateries cum hot spots on the ground floor of a brick mini-mall set just off Aspen's restaurant row. The stylish modern dining room opens up completely to the colorful courtyard, which features dangling baskets of flowers. The limestone bar and glassed-in wine cellar are also striking, but it's the bistro menu that you'll remember: steamed mussels, escargot, foie gras and osso buco.
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Elevation
Another new favorite among Aspenites, Elevation fuses continental and Asian cuisine. Think ahi pizza, slow-roasted rum-and-coke tacos, pork belly and papaya salad, sea scallops and Brie glazed in truffle honey, and hand-cut pappardelle with lobster bolognese. The bar glows, the chipotle-infused olive oil on the tables is striking, and the flashy, funky art on the walls lends a certain edge.
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Takah Sushi
It's not as celebrated as Matsuhisa, but it's not quite as expensive either and this fun basement and patio sushi bar has tasty cooked small plates too. Think sirloin wrapped asparagus, Kobe beef sliders, atomic lobster (yeah, it's spicy), the usual sushi and some creative rolls, such as the ninja (tempura avocado and crab salad wrapped in tuna).
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Wild Fig
This bright, tiled dining room and patio edged with flower boxes packs plenty of gourmet cheer. It does a nightly risotto, a tender grilled-octopus salad and an enticing fig-glazed pork chop. Its small plates are also worth considering – we loved the marinated figs with pancetta, the pan-seared scallops and the fire-roasted clams with chorizo.
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Red Onion
- Aspen, USA
- Restaurants › Pub
Open since 1892, this saloon has been recently renovated with a certain mountain bistro flair. The fusion menu has a brainy side, starring mango and brie quesadillas, and grilled lamb chops in a habanero preserve, plus you've gotta love a joint that serves chicken and waffles for (late) breakfast. The kitchen stays open well into the night.
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Matsuhisa
The fifth link in Matsuhisa Nobu's iconic global chain that now wraps around the world. This converted house still turns out spectacular dishes such as miso black cod, Chilean sea bass with truffle, and flavorful uni (sea urchin) shooters. You'll want to keep ordering until you can eat no more.
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Brexi Brasserie
Fans of traditional French cooking and crisp brasserie style will like it here, where the halibut is basted in thyme-spiced broth, the New York strip crusted in peppercorn, and the half chicken coated in herbs and roasted to perfection. The tuna Niçoise and bouillabaisse are also popular.
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Campo de Fiori
Authentic Italian cooking and festive Mediterranean flair have been the mainstay of this mini-mall kitchen off Aspen's restaurant row for more than a decade. The menu mimics its Vail sister. It's seasonal, the gnocchi house made, and the seafood – especially the calamari – is excellent.
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Su Casa
According to locals this is the best Mexican food in Aspen proper, which doesn't mean a whole lot, but it does mean decent fajitas, burritos, enchiladas and five kinds of fish tacos. It stocks good tequila and the margaritas are popular from happy hour until closing time.
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Mezzaluna Aspen
Known for its delicious wood-fired pizzas and serious Italian grub, Mezzaluna is a favorite with Aspen's locals. The après-ski happy hour - from 15:00 to 17:30 - is usually packed. While you munch at the marble bar, check out more than 100 pieces of art on the walls.
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Ute City
A much more laid-back and less expensive Hopkins option compared to some of the others. It serves up ainteresting fare such as elk meatloaf or pulled-duck confit on spinach. The ale-braised beef shortrib looks good, and the menu also features a range of pasta dishes.
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Boogie's Diner
- Aspen, USA
- Restaurants › Diner
Part Urban Outfitters-ish clothing boutique, part All-American diner, it's got the 1950s-set-piece thing working in the upstairs diner, where kids love gorging on burgers and shakes and parents grudgingly play along. Don't sleep on the root-beer floats!
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Escape
- Aspen, USA
- Restaurants › Cafe
Set on the top floor of Explore Booksellers, this gourmet (mostly) veggie cafe serves up tofu stir-fries, veggie sandwiches and flatbreads. It also has and a toe or two in the sea: po'boy, shrimp et al. Also makes tasty omelets.
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Main St Bakery
Main St Bakery is a hit, especially at breakfast time, for its range of sweet and savory goods - from granola and pancakes to chicken pot pie - in its convivial room and leafy back patio.
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