What We Tell Our Guests

Not everyone who comes to Vail can afford to hire a private car to and from the airport. That's fine. We still want you to have a good time while you're here.

This is the advice we give from the front seat of a family-owned Vail limo service, eleven winters in.

Vail is a place we helped build, and a place where our children were born and raised. The more people who come here and have a great experience, the better off all of us are. Including the next generation of this town.

So when guests ask us where to eat, beyond the famous names every concierge already steers them toward, here's what we actually tell them.

The obvious picks are obvious. Sweet Basil. Mountain Standard. Matsuhisa. Game Creek. They're all good. Every concierge in town already has those names ready. We're not retreading that ground.

This is the Vail you find when you ask a local.

A note before we start: you'll notice a pattern. We tell you about the people who run these places more than we tell you about the food. That's because in a town this small, after this many years, the food's only as good as the person making it. We know these people. We've watched them work. That's why we're vouching for them.

The Little DinerConcert Hall Plaza

The best restaurant in Vail you've probably never heard of.

Not a Michelin five-star. Not on every concierge list. Just a small diner tucked into Concert Hall Plaza that serves some of the best food we've eaten anywhere in Colorado.

Brian and Peg Little run it. They're good friends of ours, live close by, and we've watched their two kids grow up. That's the kind of restaurant The Little Diner is, the kind owned by people whose kids you know.

The breakfasts are unbelievable. The Taxi Driver is on the menu. Out in front of you in a matter of minutes. And, here's the Jersey kid in me talking, where else in Colorado can you get a real pork roll, egg, and cheese? Frank? (Ween fans will catch the reference. Everyone else, just trust me.)

The BLT is the best one I've ever had. Every single time. Not just "good for Vail." Best one I've had, anywhere.

If you only get one breakfast in Vail and you've already been to the obvious spots, go to The Little Diner.

Tell Brian and Peg that George and Kyla sent you.

La CantinaVail Village Parking Structure

Yes. The parking structure. That's where one of the best Mexican restaurants in town is.

If you've never been told to look there, you'd never look there. Most visitors walk right past it on their way to the gondola without ever knowing it exists. That's part of the charm.

The food is great. The chips and salsa bar is no joke, they have a help-yourself salsa station with a real range, including some that'll wake you up. The kind of salsa where you taste-test before committing.

Half the reason to go is the bar. You'll sit next to a colorful cast of characters every time. Locals, lifers, people who've been coming here for decades. The kind of cross-section of Vail you don't see on a Sunday brunch line at a hotel restaurant.

Tucked into a parking structure. Hot salsa. Real characters at the bar. That's the kind of place we're talking about.

Tell the bartender that George and Kyla sent you.

Rocky Mountain TacoMinturn

My go-to. I'd eat here every day.

Chris and Dan run it. I remember when those two were slinging pizzas at Pazzo's down in Avon. Now they own one of my favorite places in the valley. That's the kind of trajectory I love, guys who started in the kitchen, learned the work, and built their own thing.

Everything on the menu is dialed in:

• The Peppe Burger, yes, a burger in a taco joint. Top notch. Don't overthink it.
• The Torta, outstanding.
• Fish tacos on Tuesdays, you'll know.
• The chicken bowl, solid, every time.
• The Hippy Crack Burrito, the name is the truth.

Everything fresh. Everything good. No throwaway items on the menu.

If you find yourself anywhere near Minturn at lunch, go.

Tell Chris and Dan that George and Kyla sent you.

The Minturn SaloonMinturn

Owned by Anthony and Connie Mazza. They also own Village Bagel.

The Saloon is a piece of Vail Valley history, older than the town of Vail itself by half a century. The building dates to 1901, part of Minturn's recovery after a fire tore through the downtown commercial section in the 1890s. The town goes back further than that, Minturn was a railroad and mining town in the 1880s, decades before anyone had the idea for a ski resort up the road.

Over the years the building has housed a restaurant, a bar, a pool hall, a boxing hall, and a gambling joint. These days it's still a restaurant and a bar, and the kind of margarita that gets ordered by people who've been ordering them there for decades.

If you want to feel the older Vail Valley, the one that existed before the resort got polished, the Saloon is one of the last places you can.

The traditional way to arrive is to ski the Minturn Mile down to it. The Minturn Mile is a backcountry ski-out from the top of Vail Mountain that drops you into town. It's been a rite of passage for Vail skiers for decades.

A serious word of caution: the Minturn Mile is backcountry. Not patrolled. Avalanche terrain in spots. People have been hurt on it. Don't ski it without a local who knows the route, the current conditions, and how to read the terrain. Check the avalanche forecast. Bring the right gear. Bring the right partner.

Done right, with the right person, on the right day, it's one of the great Vail traditions. Done wrong, it ends badly.

If you're not sure, just walk in through the front door like everyone else. The margarita is the same.

Tell Anthony and Connie that George and Kyla sent you.

El SegundoVail Village

Right on Gore Creek. (Not the only one on this list, see below.)

Ron's the GM and he runs it the right way. He'll work to make sure everyone in the place is taken care of, that's not a given anymore, even at good restaurants. When someone's actually paying attention to whether you're having a good time, you can feel it the moment you walk in.

Good food. Good service. Right next to the water. Hard to beat.

Tell Ron that George and Kyla sent you.

Bart and Yeti'sLionshead

One of the last old-school ski-bum bars in town. Founded in 1975. Famous for the Normy Wings, named after the longtime cook who made them, and you should order them.

The bar is named after two local dogs: Bart, a golden retriever, and Yeti, a scrappy mountain mutt who became something of a Lionshead mascot back in the day. Half a century later, the place still feels like the kind of bar where the dog's name on the sign means something.

The bar is run by the Foley Brothers. Dennis owns it. Kevin is a longtime member of the Town of Vail Council, he's been re-elected eight times without ever, as far as I know, printing a single yard sign for himself. That tells you something about how the community feels about the Foleys.

The Foleys are woven into Vail. The gym at Red Sandstone Elementary is named Foley Field House. They've been here, working, for a long time.

If you sit at the bar, ask for Kev Bra. Legendary bartender. Friendly, sharp, and always has a good story for you. He's the kind of bartender who makes a bar feel like a bar.

The place itself is exactly what an après-ski bar should be. Sunny deck. Log-stump bar stools. Colorful characters around the bar trading stories only Vail locals have. Nothing about it has been "concepted", it's been built, over fifty years of long shifts, busy seasons, slow seasons, and more long shifts.

One of our kids worked there for a stretch growing up. It was our go-to after-ski stop for years, through every era of our family. Onion Park is right there in Lionshead, a great little playground for the kids to run around at while the parents grab a drink. (Full disclosure: I poured some of the concrete pads at Onion Park back in my construction days, as part of a job for the Town of Vail. Small part of the bigger project, but yes, I'm recommending a bar with a playground out back that I personally worked on. That's how small this town is.)

Bart and Yeti's is what happens when good people work hard at the same place for a long time. Order the Normy Wings. Sit at the bar. Find Kev Bra.

Tell the Foleys, or Kev Bra, that George and Kyla sent you.

Vendetta'sVail Village

Forty-plus years and counting. The pizza bar that's been at the center of Vail Village since 1983. (Locals call it the V-Bar. Now you know.)

Run by John "Popeye" Brennan, Dave "Bone" Chapin, Shawn Meineke, and Popeye's daughter Jennifer Riddle, who's been behind that bar since she was four years old asking the bartenders for cherries. Now she's the GM. That's how the V-Bar works.

Bone is also a former Mayor of the Town of Vail and currently serves on Town Council. Worth noting: between Bone at Vendetta's and Kevin Foley at Bart and Yeti's, two of the best old-school bars in this valley are run by current Town Council members. The people who built this town and the people governing it are largely the same people. That's not the case in most resort towns.

The story of the place is layered. Vendetta's started downstairs in the early '80s, was Valentino's for one winter until a trademark fight forced a name change. The pizza bar upstairs only got built in 1994, when they took over the space from Donovan's Copper Bar. John Donovan still walks in like he owns the place. They treat him like royalty.

One Donovan-era tradition the V-Bar has carried for forty years: every Vail Ski Patrol member gets a free beer at the end of their shift, a "raise," they call it. Donovan started it in the 1980s when patrol was negotiating with the resort and tensions were running hot. He told them: "I got an idea. I'll give you a raise. I'll give you a free beer every day if you come in." Vendetta's still pours that beer four decades later.

If you're at the bar and a patroller's clocked out and pulled up a stool, buy them a shot too. They earned it. The men and women on Vail Ski Patrol are why the rest of us get to ski.

The pizza is the move. Every pizza on the menu is named after someone who built this place: Popeye's Passion for Popeye himself. The Boneyard for Bone. Knight Moves for Jen Riddle (her maiden name + the Bob Seger song + a long history of late-night karaoke on the bar, ask her about the soda gun). Billy Bob's Brain. Willy's White Room. Ray Jay's Wave. And the two you really can't miss, the Jack Attack and the Snow Pig. The Snow Pig is sometimes called "ski patroller crack" by people who would know. The menu is the staff list.

Wear a Vendetta's t-shirt anywhere in the country and someone will stop you to talk about Vail. Scottsdale, South Carolina, doesn't matter. That's how deep this place goes.

Out back: a great deck, sunny on the right afternoons, and right behind it is Cloud Park, the village playground. From the deck you can see your kids playing while you're sitting with your drink. We did that for years when ours were little. Few après spots in Vail Village are actually built for families with young kids. This is one of them.

Independent. Family-owned. Forty-plus years deep. Get the pizza. Tip the patrol.

Tell Popeye, Bone, or Jen that George and Kyla sent you.

Up the CreekVail Village

Right on Gore Creek. Fine dining with a casual atmosphere. Great lunch spot too.

Opened by Peter Stadler in 1988, now run by his sons Mikey and Patrick Stadler, another Vail family-restaurant succession story. They've been doing this for nearly forty years.

Up the Creek is in the same quality tier as the famous fine-dining names everyone's heard of in Vail Village. But it doesn't get the same automatic concierge push that some of those places do, which is great news for you. Easier reservations, less crowded, just as good. One of the best fine-dining spots in Vail, and most visitors never make it there.

Don't sleep on lunch here. Sitting on the deck with the creek running right past you, in the sunshine, with food this good, that's a Vail afternoon at its best. And the lunch menu lets you experience the kitchen at a more accessible price point than dinner.

Personal note: Kyla worked here for years. Long before Vail Powder Cars existed. She knows that kitchen, knows that team, and stands behind the food. When my boss is telling me where to take her on an anniversary, this is one of the places on the short list.

Reservations recommended in season. Worth the effort.

Tell Mikey and Patrick that George and Kyla sent you.

Russell'sVail Village

I saved my favorite for last.

Russell's is fine dining right on Gore Creek. Serious wine list. The kind of room where you can hear yourself talk. Out of every restaurant in Vail Village, this is the one Kyla and I choose for my birthday every year. That's not a small endorsement.

Some places are good. Some places are great. Russell's is my place. The one I take Kyla to mark another year. The one that's never let us down, not in food, not in service, not in the feeling you walk out with.

The patio sits right on Gore Creek. You can hear the water from your table. Same water that runs through our property in West Vail. Same water that's run through every chapter of our life in this valley. The fact that my favorite restaurant is on that creek too, that's how you know we're home.

If you only get one fine-dining night in Vail Village, this is the one to book.

Tell them that George and Kyla sent you.