Vail: A Tasty, But PRICEY, Town!

Ahhhh, back in Denver. It was so nice to get out of here for a few days, and thanks so much to Jamie and Andy for letting me crash at their place! I had such a great time with you! It was a much needed vacation, and what's better to do on vacation than eat- a lot!!

We had some really good stuff, and, of course, some not so great. But no matter what the food tasted like, it seemed like it made Denver seem incredibly reasonable, price wise. I know, I know, they gotta truck the food up there and all, but geesh!

I got up there late on Wednesday night, and Thursday was treated to a morning of knee high powder. It was incredible, but so cold out! We called it a day after about two and a half hours, and went to get our nails done. I was on vacation!! We picked up a half bottle of Moet to sip on during our nail time and to start toasting Jamie being another year older.

After that, we were starved, so we headed for the newly opened MarketPlace Restaurant, a goofy space that is a mini restaurant and joins up to a creperie on it's East side. I think the bar took up more space than the 8 tables, or so, that is has. Anyway, we both ordered a glass of wine, same one, at $11 each. The waitress asked if we wanted a bottle, and thankfully, we thought it best to not over indulge. It was some of the worst wine I've ever had. It was so dry, it kinda burned going down, and the taste wasn't good. Stupidly, we didn't send the glasses back, but just waited for the food to help wash it down. And, I totally forgot to write down the name, and they've got no website. So, if you head there, don't buy the $11 glass of red wine. Ugh. The food somewhat redeemed the wine, though we only tried out two appetizers. The Truffle Fries has a light drizzle of a mayonnaise-y truffle sauce over fries that definitely came from a bag. Jamie said they used to be hand cut, and I wish they still were. The sauce was good, the fries mediocre. We had wanted the Portobello Mushroom appetizer, but they were out of it, as well as mussels, so the waitress had us to try the Ahi Tuna. It came diced super fine with avocado pieces the same tiny size, and big deep fried Gyoza chips. The flavor was good, by far the best choice there.

Thankfully, we had saved room for dinner that night, because it was delicious! We went to Avon for Vin 48. I was put in charge of wine, and after asking the very nice sommelier for a recommendation, we with the La Spinetta, a Langhe Nebbiolo from Piedmonte, Italy. It was delicious, and we went on to order a second bottle. For food, we started of with the Antipasti, which had a nice mix of olives, pistachios, a goat cheese wrapped in philo dough, and some pate. The pate, in everyone's mind, resembled Spam a bit too much, but the taste wasn't bad. Following that was the really tasty Vin Mix salad, with greens, Cremini Mushrooms, some onions, a few cherry tomatoes, and some unnecessary potatoes. They seemed so large and heavy in the light vinaigrette dressing. Still, it was really good. Jamie and I both had the Ribeye dinner, which came with Kale and Cauliflower. The piece of meat was so outrageously large, we wished that we had shared it!! This left no room for dessert, so we were off to enjoy the amazing BB King concert. If you ever get the chance to see him, DO IT!! Incredible.

Friday lunch was an overpriced meal at Galileo Restaurant in the newly opened Vail Plaza Hotel. An unattractive dining room with mediocre food and help. I had the Onion soup. It was Onion soup, and nothing like my incredibly yummy Guinness-based soup from Maxwell's a few weeks back. We also ordered a Truffle pizza. I had one slice. It had some wacky truffle concoction on top that was mixed with cheese. Jamie and Anne also ordered Chicken Wings. They loved them; I thought they were greasy.

But, that left plenty of room for our all out feast of fondue that night! 10 people, 3 pots- 2 beef broth and one cheese- 4 bottles of wine and 1 bottle of champagne! It was awesome. Shrimp, chicken, steak, veggies, baguettes, and then a great low cal chocolate fondue that Rachel made. It may not sound good, but it was gobbled up by all of us. Check out the recipe and give it a try. You won't be sorry! (It's chocolate, how can you be??)

The food on Saturday was 5 cheeses that I brought up from Whole Foods. I should have kept the labels, as they were all great, but I'll try and hunt them down again and let you know. I was already one Red Bull Vodka in on my night! So, crackers, cheese, a delicious Spiced Cherry fruit spread, and numerous drinks later, and we were off to see Ben Harper.

It was a great weekend, and again, I can't thank Jamie, Andy, and the rest of the Vail crew enough!

Oh yeah, and on another note, please feel free to start commenting about these posts. I'd love to hear from you, and what you think. And start passing my link around to others!