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Best of Food 2007
August 28, 2007
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Best Restaurant in Summit
Keystone Ranch
Keystone Resort touts the Ranch as its best restaurant, and locals agree. Set in an
elegant log and leather atmosphere, guests savor a six-course meal. Each appetizer and entrée is a unique, gourmet experience worth every penny. To relish dessert, guests retire to the historic great room, where they can relax in front of the massive stone fireplace and sip coffee or kick back with an after-dinner drink.
2. Blue Spruce Inn
3. Hearthstone Casual Dining & Catering
Best Restaurant Service
Keystone Ranch
Part of what has earned Keystone Ranch so many Best of Summit awards is its
consistently solid service. Knowledgeable servers practically glow with professionalism and personality. If you’ve resigned yourself to less-than memorable service in the High Country, spend an evening at the historic Keystone Ranch, and see what earning your tip is really about.
2. Hearthstone Casual Dining & Catering
3. Blue Spruce Inn
Best Restaurant in Breck
Hearthstone Casual Dining & Catering
If you’re looking for a quaint, Victorian restaurant away from the hustle and bustle of Main Street, step into Hearthstone Casual Dining & Catering. The multilevel restaurant offers a cozy, rustic atmosphere. Locals and visitors alike have come to rely on the restaurant for consistently succulent, hand-cut steaks and seafood favorites, as well as supreme service. The Hearthstone has won the Wine Spectacular Award of Excellence since 1997 and the Zagat Survey Award of Recognition since 1999.
2. Blue River Bistro
3. South Ridge Seafood
Best Restaurant in Copper
JJ’s Rocky Mountain Tavern
Three things are important to JJ’s Tavern: great food, great service and a reasonable
price. From the salmon and New York fi let dinners to ham and cheese sandwiches and pizza for lunch, JJ’s delivers the best Copper experience. During the season, Moe Dixon — who has been performing at Copper for about 25 years — draws guests and local groupies in with his après ski covers and sing-alongs.
2. Endo’s Adrenaline Cafe
3. Salsa Mountain Cantina
Best Restaurant in Dillon
Arapahoe Cafe
Doug Pierce bought the Arapahoe Café after working at some of Keystone’s best
restaurants and eventually being the director of food and beverage. Now, customers
benefi t from his knowledge and talent.
Aside from Pierce’s experience, the log building comes with a history of its own. It
moved from where the Dillon Reservoir sits today to its present location, and the menu tells you the story. The rustic atmosphere, combined with great food, makes this little Dillon gem a favorite. On a summer morning, the patio’s gorgeous, and on a winter day it’s the perfect way to warm up before a day on the mountain.
2. Dillon Dam Brewery
3. Jersey Boys Pizza & Deli
Best Restaurant in Keystone
Keystone Ranch
The elegance of Keystone Ranch blends with the historic great room, which was
originally a ranch house centered around a massive stone fi replace. But it’s the sixcourse meal and impeccable service that keeps locals voting the Ranch as a favorite, year after year. The restaurant has garnered the AAA Four Diamond Award since 1990 and the Wine Spectator Award since 1996.
2. Ski Tip
3. Alpenglow Stube
3. Snake River Saloon
Best Restaurant in Frisco
The Boatyard
From appetizers like tempura prawn cocktail and sesame seared ahi to soups, sandwiches, pizzas and pasta, Boatyard Pizzeria & Grill satisfi es. Try the homemade meat lasagna or the sesame crusted salmon for a treat, or warm up with French onion soup or tortilla soup. Pizzas range from rock shrimp, pesto and roasted tomatoes to Mount Royal — loaded with pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms, olives, fontina, cheese and sauce.
2. Blue Spruce Inn
3. Silverheel’s at the Ore House
Best Breakfast
Sunshine Cafe
There’s just something very feel-good about a place called Sunshine Café, but that’s not the only reason locals keep voting it best breakfast restaurant. Tucked into Silverthorne’s Summit Place strip, the Sunshine Café has been making people smile every morning for 27 years. The cooks prepare every meal fresh, so the consistency of the food, as well as fast and friendly service, keep locals coming back. Known for its healthy and more unique entrees, Sunshine offers the ever-popular trout and eggs, enchiladas and eggs and chicken and fried steak eggs. It serves breakfast until close, at 3 p.m., every day. There may be a line on weekends, but it’s worth the wait.
2. Mountain Lyon Cafe
3. Daylight Donuts
Best Brunch
Arapahoe Café
The Arapahoe Café isn’t just a cute little cabin nestled near Dillon Reservoir. It also
happens to serve the best brunch. From 7 a.m. until noon on weekends (11 a.m.
on week days), it serves such favorites as roadhouse corn beef hash, ruby red trout
fi lets with eggs, Denver omelets and El Paso scramblers. If you’re looking for a meatier dish, go for a burger at lunch or one of its many sandwiches.
2. Sunshine Cafe
3. Swan Mountain Inn
Best Restaurant in S’thorne
Sunshine Café
If you’re looking for healthy food that’s actually tasty, stop into the Sunshine Café. Its
huge menu provides more than just your ordinary fare, and the daily specials are always a treat. A local favorite is the grilled salmon plate served over rice, wilted spinach and tomatoes. The café offers something for everyone, from burritos and enchiladas to an array of salads.
2. TiAmo Ancora
3. Mountain Lyon Café
Best Coffee House
Abbey’s
It’s locally owned, offers free wireless and has great coffee and teas to satisfy even the most finicky tastes. Plus, Abbey’s is right on Main Street, and it has a tempting selection of ice cream and baked treats.
2. Blue Moon Bakery
3. Clint’s Bakery & Coffee House
Best Sandwich
Jersey Boys Pizza & Deli
Craig and Russ Sikorsky import their bread from New Jersey, then sandwich in topquality meats, including Boar’s Head cold cuts. They’ve been in Dillon for almost three years, but they haven’t lost any of their taste for the good old days of Jersey – they serve it up fresh, daily.
2. Butterhorn Bakery
3. Blue Moon Bakery
Best Burger
Moose Jaw
If you want straight-up beef grilled to perfection, the Moose Jaw’s plump, juicy
burgers will satisfy any carnivore. The secret: buying high quality meat from the
same source. “We care about every burger,” said bartender Jimmy Jacox. Just about
everything at the Jaw costs less than $10, and for years, its specialty has been the Jaw Burger. So why buy a fast food burger when you can head up to Frisco’s Main Street and take a seat at the rustic roadhouse — complete with plenty of beer to go with that burger.
2. Downstairs at Eric’s
3. Empire Burger
Best Pizza
Jersey Boys Pizza & Deli
Never mind about Chicago-style pizza: The boys from Jersey know how to get it done. Owners Craig and Russ Sikorsky have only been in Dillon for about three years, but they bring generations of traditional Italian cooking to the mountains.
“It’s your home-style, back-East style cooking,” Craig Sikorsky said.
And it includes specialty pizzas like shrimp parmesan, penne vodka and “Away from the Norm,” which is just the way their mom Norma makes it, prepared in a square pan with the cheese under the sauce and topped with fresh basil leaves.
2. Giampietro’s
3. Wild Bill’s
Best Steak
Steak and Rib
Steak and Rib has been voted best steak in Summit County since 2000, and it’s no
wonder. The restaurant has perfected the art of cooking a steak to its fi ne pink or red.
Enjoy your juicy slab while sitting on the huge deck, fi lled with fl owers in the summer, and soak up the friendly atmosphere of one of Breckenridge’s most popular restaurants.
2. Pug Ryan’s
3. Blue Spruce Inn
Best Bakery
Tie for 1st
Blue Moon Bakery
Butterhorn Bakery
Most people don’t even attempt to bake cookies from scratch in the High Country,
but pastry chef and Blue Moon Bakery owner Ben Reil wouldn’t consider selling
pre-packaged chocolate chip or oatmeal favorites. From wedding cakes and sticky
buns to chocolate mousse torte and blueberry sour cream tarts, Blue Moon in
Silverthorne will satisfy any sweet tooth.
But Blue Moon isn’t the only game in town; it ties for fi rst place with Butterhorn
Bakery, on Main Street in Frisco. Stroll into the store, and you’ll fi nd treats, baked fresh every day. The café offers unique sandwiches on homemade breads, from
multigrain and jalapeño cheddar baguettes, plus it’s specialty, banana bread. And if
you’re looking for huge cinnamon rolls, soft cookies, chocolate éclairs and brownies,
look no further than Butterhorn.
2. Clint’s Bakery & Coffee House
3. Cool River Coffee House
Best Health Food
Alpine Natural Foods
Alpine Natural Foods is under new ownership, and voters are reacting to the many new improvements that are underway. Staff and owners are devoted to their community and to creating a friendly shopping environment. The deli provides a variety of freshly made sandwiches, salads and desserts – and most, if not all, is organic. Plus, customers can enjoy a relaxing meal indoors or out on the patio on a nice day.
2. Sunshine Café
3. Amazing Grace
Best Dessert
Blue Moon Bakery
Bread pudding, chocolate peanut butter bars, chocolate mousse torte, lemon poppy
seed bread, fresh fruit tarts, cream pies — all baked fresh by pastry chef and owner
Benjamin Reil. That’s why Blue Moon has made our No. 1 spot for the second year in a row. Plus, the owner specializes in wedding and all occasion cakes.
2. Keystone Ranch
3. Cafe Alpine
Best Sushi
Mountain Flying Fish
Mountain Flying Fish provides the fi nest sushi dining experience – it’s where culinary excellence meets amazing Breckenridge views. Owner Tetsuo Shimoda worked as a sushi chef in Japan and New York City for 24 years before coming to Summit County. He provides the freshest fi sh and best customer service, whether you’re ordering a dragon roll, rainbow roll or a California roll.
2. Silverheels at the Ore House
3. Wasabi’s
Best Asian Restaurant
JJ Chinese Cusine
JJ Chinese Cuisine in Silverthorne has the best Cantonese and Mandarin cuisine in the county, and they serve a lot of it hot and spicy. From war wonton soup and General Cho’s chicken to happy family and volcano shrimp, JJ has it all.
2. My Thai
3. Bamboo Garden
Best Italian Restaurant
Tuscatos Ristorante Italiano
Tuscato Ristorante Italiano boasts an affordable collection of Italian cuisine, as well as an affordable, extensive wine list. But this isn’t just your regular pasta and pizza place. It offers garlic rosemary rotisserie chicken, eggplant parmesan, ossobuco, duck confit with tart cherry compote and salmon francese. Top that off with crème brulee or chocolate caramel grande cake, and you’ve got yourself one buon dinner.
2. Giampietro’s
3. Ristorante Al Lago
Best Mexican Restaurant
Hacienda Real
Hacienda Real in Frisco calls itself the “fi nest in authentic Mexican cuisine,” and locals agree. It offers great lunch specials from $6.95, and happy hour with 15 fl avors of margaritas from 3-6 p.m. daily. Check out its supremo burrito, expresso burrito, fajitas, or meat, chicken and seafood dishes.
2. Fiesta Jalisco
3. Mi Casa
Best Bartender
Aaron Forgues
Blue River Bistro
Before he moved to Wisconsin, Aaron Forgues worked at the Blue River Bistro.
Sad news is, he isn’t in Summit County anymore to bask in the glory of being
voted best bartender.
2. Mike Anderson - Pug Ryan’s Brewery
3. Darryl Birger - South Ridge Street Seafood Grill
Best Caterer
Hearthstone Catering
Hearthstone Restaurant and Catering’s staff and entrees are what set it apart. Whether it’s goat cheese lollipops, bacon wrapped scallops, unique wraps or gourmet boxed lunches, Hearthstone continues to update its menu so its repeat business is always satisfi ed. “And the staff all has a lot of fun; it’s a great team that works really hard,” said Jen Cawley, managing partner of Hearthstone.
2. Gilchrist
3. Blue Moon Bakery
Best Bar
Moose Jaw
One look at the tables will show you how much locals love the Moose Jaw. They
take the time to send postcards from their travels, near and far. And the staff cares
about its customers just as much, because as bartender Jimmy Jacox would say,
“We all live and work in the same place,” meaning, we all understand the beauty,
and some frustrations, of working in a resort town. So, after businesses close, locals
drag their weary — or often energized — bodies into the Jaw to unwind and gab
about their day.
2. Snake River Saloon
3. Burke & Riley’s Irish Pub
Best Brew Pub
Dillon Dam Brewery
Get your own dam beer — because it’s so good, according to 154 of our voters.
Whenever the Dam Brewery has a wait (which is often because it’s so popular), just
put your name on the list; you’ll be seated shortly, and it will be worth it. Meanwhyle,
check out the bird’s eye view of the brewery process from the second fl oor. But the consistency of the food and the beer is what really keeps people coming back
(that, and the bar has wifi , oh, and the T-shirt slogans are so cool that we ripped
it off to write our fi rst sentence). And, it’s quite probable that you’ll fi nd brewmaster
Matt Luhr sitting at the bar, ready to tell you all about his passion for making the
ever-so-popular Lager Pale Brown or any of the seasonals. As brewmaster Jim Larson put it: “It’s just the love and care that goes into our beer (that makes it so great).”
2. Pug Ryan’s
3. Breckenridge Brewery
Best Lunch
JJ Chinese Cuisine
How can you beat an all-you-can-eat buffet that has sushi? JJ Chinese Cuisine
was voted best lunch in Summit County because of its reasonable priced Cantonese
and Mandarin cuisine. And, it’s conveniently located in Silverthorne.
2. Jersey Boys
3. Mi Zuppa
Best Martini
Blue River Bistro
Blue River Bistro in Breckenridge had to scale down its martini list, because it had so many to choose from. But that didn’t stop it from winning this year’s Best of Summit. Favorite martinis include the dirty jalapeño, the mango, strawberry and cucumber, champagne dreams and the pomegranate martini. The chill atmosphere offers live blues and jazz everynight and two-for-one martinis every night from 10 p.m. until close.
2. Blue Spruce Inn
3. Cecilia’s
Best Bloody Mary
The Boatyard
“It’s peppery, man.” That’s a direct quote from our roaming photographer, who
knows his Bloody Marys. The Boatyard’s spicy, peppery taste — and it’s big stick of
celery — make this one the best.
2. Dillon Dam Brewery
3. Kenosha Steakhouse
Best Margarita
Mi Casa
Fresh-squeezed limes make Mi Casa’s house margaritas the best. Plus, the
restaurant and cantina has 80 different tequilas to choose from. All of the margaritas
are hand shaken (not stirred) and made fresh to order.
2. Fiesta Jalisco
3. Rita’s
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