Food

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Nestled in the charming streets of Breckenridge, the French Bistro Breckenridge exudes an authentic ambiance that transports diners straight to the cobbled lanes of Paris. From the moment you step inside, you’re greeted by the tantalizing aroma of French cuisine and the warm, welcoming atmosphere.

The menu is a delightful blend of classic French dishes and innovative creations. Chef Yvan showcases his mastery of traditional techniques and inventive flair. From the rich, velvety texture of a perfectly executed Coq au Vin to the delicate balance of flavors in a vibrant Nicoise salad, each dish is a testament to the restaurant’s commitment to quality and authenticity.

The attention to detail extends beyond the cuisine to the impeccable service and elegant decor. The staff is knowledgeable and attentive, ensuring that every aspect of your dining experience is nothing short of exceptional. The cozy, sophisticated ambiance sets the stage for a memorable meal for a romantic evening or a gathering with friends.

No visit to the French Bistro Breckenridge would be complete without indulging in one of their decadent desserts. From the classic Creme Brûlée to the dark chocolate mousse, each sweet treat is a sublime finale to an unforgettable experience.

In a town known for its outdoor adventures, the French Bistro offers an escape to the culinary delights of France. Whether you’re a Francophile or simply seeking an exquisite meal in Breckenridge, this charming bistro is sure to delight your senses and leave you longing for more.

Our recommendations for dinner at the French Bistro Breckenridge:

• Charcuterie and Formages
• Special of the day
• Boeuf Bourguignon
• Creme Brûlée

Looking for other restaurant suggestions? Check out our dining page here. And don’t forget to reserve a place to stay so you can walk to the French Bistro Breckenridge!

Carboy Winery is our favorite winery at altitude! There are a few other options in town – Continental Divide being the closest to our condo – but we think that Carboy wins out and is worth the short walk down Main Street. Plus, what’s not to love about walking Breckenridge, burning some calories, and indulging in a second glass of wine. Or third… we’re not judging.

Carboy is next to the Gold Pan Saloon just north of the stop light on Main Street. It’s not massive, but charming in every way – updated to be comfortable, with hints of the original 1800s construction.

Carboy offers a few different flights, all of which are excellent. The red wine, white wine, and the mixed featured wine flight change with the seasons and availability. At $15 per flight, you get a nice taste of three different wines. Wines by the glass and the bottle are available, plus a few beer and cider choices for the non-wine drinkers.

We highly recommend the following from Carboy:

• Chardonnay – one of the best we’ve ever had
• Rose
• Viognier
• Cabernet Franc
• Sangiovese
• Syrah

A big plus for Carboy is that they offer food made on site (Continental Divide does not have food). They have several meat and cheese boards – our favorite is the Summer of ’92, which is a meat-free option. Four rotating cheeses piles with arugula, nuts, dates, and other accompaniments pair perfectly with your favorite wine or wine flight. We have not tried their other menu items (we like cheese and wine!). However, friends and family have tried many items and loved them all.

I would say that Carboy and Continental Divide are comparable on wine quality. The chardonnay at Carboy is a little better, the Cabernet at CD is a little better. Carboy wins on price every time, sometimes by a $1, sometimes by $20.

We joined Carboy’s wine club in 2020 because we wanted to support this small family owned business through the pandemic. And partly because we needed to self-medicate during Covid! We spread our dollars around at Continental Divide Winery and several breweries in town, too. But Carboy is the only membership we bought and continue to be part of.

Service is friendly every time we have been in. In fact, we were the very last table that they served prior to in-person dining closing in Nov 2020 due to Colorado pandemic regulations. Even in the face of them losing their business and the server losing her job, they were still awesome, friendly, upbeat, and super helpful.

Map of Carboy Winery:

Looking for other restaurant suggestions? Check out our dining page here.

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Dinner time for adults at Ember!

We left the kids at home in late July to visit Ember. Irony of ironies, the head chef and owner is from the same town my wife graduated from in Texas! Ember is another restaurant that we have walked past for years, meaning to stop in and just never did until this summer. After leaving dinner, we kicked ourselves all the way home for taking so long to make it through Ember’s door.

Ember is smaller, but certainly high-end, restaurant in Breckenridge. In keeping with many of the nicer restaurants the menu is fairly limited, choosing to do a few things outrageously well at the expense of doing many dishes half-heartedly. The menu rotates items fairly frequently with a partial menu refresh several time per year. The refreshes allow Ember’s chef to move away from dishes that are not as popular, add new inspiration to the menu, and tweak the formula for an excellently paired menu.

We all opted for the 3-course meal, which consisted of a starter, main course, and dessert; this ran us at $60/person. A slightly less expensive option at $50/person gets any two courses if your appetite isn’t as large. The waiter also said we could each order the 2-course and share two appetizers and two desserts. We all wanted different apps and desserts, so we turned down that offer.

If we have the chance to meet for dinner one night, you’ll quickly realize I am not an adventurous eater… and by not adventurous, I mean I pretty much live on chicken wings, french fries, and beer. So when I ordered Ember’s lamb cheeks for an appetizer, there was an audible gasp from my wife and parents. I’m glad I got out of my box – that’s not to say I really enjoyed the lamb cheek (I didn’t… too fatty for me), but it the presentation was phenomenal and it was an interesting experience. My dad and my wife each had scallops which were prepared wonderfully. My mom had the crab and phyllo and raved about it… sweet crab on flaky phyllo with several additional flavors made her’s the most interesting appetizer on the table.

For dinner, my wife and I each order the buffalo steak served on a green papaya salad and other accoutrement. The steaks were cooked perfectly… her’s slightly under medium, mine slightly past medium. There was no need to “cut in and check them” because they were both perfect. My dad continued his seafood journey with the black cod; his declaration was it was the best fish he had ever had. He literally grew up on the coast of the North Sea and ate fresh caught fish multiple times per week, so that is quite a compliment. Granted, the Ember kitchen staff probably has more training than my grandmother, but still. Mom had the pork and proceeded to rave about the cauliflower and chutney that it was paired with. Mom likes veggies. A lot.

For dessert we were entirely unoriginal; three of us had the espresso brownie and my wife had the lemon stuffed french toast. when first served, I looked at the plate and my first thought was “where’s the rest of it?” The desserts are small. That said, the Ember brownies were some of the most rich and decadent desserts I have ever tasted, and honestly if there had been more I think it would have been too much. I paired my espresso brownie with an espresso coffee (as did my dad) and my mom had a cup of coffee with hers. They paired perfectly. My wife devoured her french toast and looked sheepishly at me when I reminded her that she was supposed to give me a bite. “Oops.” Needless to say, desserts were amazing and perfectly sized.

We enjoyed a few cocktails before dinner… a Negroni, an Aviator, a Blueberry Crush, and an Alpine Meadow. We lucked out as the bartender (Parker) was also our waiter; he poured the drinks strong, and we tipped accordingly! A low point for the meal was a fairly disappointing wine list. We struggled to find anything that was on our go-to list of wines (Caymus, Stag’s, and Silver Oak are our go-to dinner wines). We ended up settling on a red blend that was just okay. It was so okay that I don’t remember the name of it, and have no particular desire to drink it again (barring someone else picking up the tab, of course).

Service was exceptional, as should be expected at any high end restaurant. Parker was present and insightful to the menu, while also being measured with the amount of time he spent with us. Courses came at the perfect time… we were never rushed, even though we were a fairly late seating (8pm on a Thursday night).

All in all, Ember was excellent. It was NOT cheap, but we also didn’t go in with a budget so that is to be expected. For a high end, 3-course meal at $60 this can be an affordable night out with your date. Opt for cocktails, bottles of wine, after dinner drinks, and the rest and you are looking about $125/person after tax and tip.

Looking for other restaurant suggestions? Check out our dining page here.And don’t forget to reserve a place to stay so you can walk to Ember!

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Blue Stag is one of our regular go-to places on Main Street. A new chef came to the restaurant in 2019, changed the menu, and eliminated some of our favorites. But the food remains among the better choices on Main Street. Blue Stag does put on an absolutely exceptional Thanksgiving meal – we just wish they would offer reservations for it (even if we have to pre-pay) and the kid’s meal doesn’t come with dessert… what kid on this planet doesn’t want pie!?!?

The bar remains one of the better places in Breck, especially for a late evening drink; I often stop at Blue Stag after I finish our evening dog walk. Lots of locals that work at the nearby restaurants tend to gather here for a nightcap, so it can be an interesting place to meet new people and hear local stories. Live music can be found here on occasion, but multiple other bars have much more frequent live bands. The Stag’s Main Street patio is great for people watching.

All in all, we personally prefer the old menu vs. the new menu. From 2016-2019, we ate here every few weeks (plus maybe 2-3 times per week for a night cap). Now we come once or twice per season… plus my nightcaps after walking our goldendoodles!

https://www.bluestagsaloon.com

Looking for more restaurant recommendations? Check out our food page! And don’t forget to reserve a place to stay so you can walk to Blue Stag!

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Sadly, we can NOT recommend Hearthstone. The owner of Hearthstone sits on the Breckenridge Town Council and is actively attempting to close down short term rentals in town. He has voted in favor of onerous taxes and fees that is aimed at slowing tourism dollars and penalizing families that own a second home; under his tenure, fees on condo owners have increased upwards of 13,000.00% (that’s not a typo… that is thirteen thousand percent!). We ask that you not spend your money at Hearthstone, Mi Casa, or Eric’s Downstairs as the owners of those establishments actively do not want you to visit Breckenridge.

The old review

It took us a few years to make our way to Hearthstone, and when we finally tried it out in the summer of 2021 we kicked ourselves for waiting. Hearthstone is absolutely exceptional, and possibly our favorite upscale restaurant in Breckenridge!

Hearthstone is NOT an inexpensive restaurant, but service, food, and ambiance made it worth our while. We left the kids at home for this dinner on a beautiful mid-July evening, but my in-laws joined us in their place.

Starters

We started with excellent drinks; G&T for me, lemon drop martinis for my wife and mother-in-law, and a daily special for my father-in-law. We followed with the cheese tray which was the only low point of the meal, at it was really only “low” because of how exceptional the rest of the meal was.

Dinner

We had two orders of Blackberry Elk, a Creekstone Ranch Prime Beef Fillet, and a Duroc Pork Chop. Everything on each plate was exceptional, from the main to the sides; there were no left overs. Between the four meals, we had medium-rare, medium, and medium-well – all were cooked exactly as expected. The sides varied per the main course; we didn’t ask for any substations, and we all had to refrain licking our plates at the end.

Dessert

To finish the evening we ordered the Hearthstone Creme Brûlée and English Sticky Toffee Pudding. The two were plenty to share between the four of us after our meals, the former being the favorite of the two.

The wine list was fairly limited by our big-city standards, but not outrageously marked up. A bottle of Caymus was marked up about $40 from the wine store’s $100 price point.

We highly recommend Hearthstone for a date night or special occasion. If the weather is nice, ask for a table on the front patio – the views are absolutely stunning. Do bring a jacket for when the sun sets. There are gas heaters on the patio if you forget your sweater.

https://www.hearthstonebreck.com

Looking for other recommendations? Check out our food page!

Ahhh, the tried and true Blue Moose! In all fairness, no one in our family can be classified as “morning people.” And yet the Moose drags us out of bed several times per year, well before our normal natural alarm clock goes off. If that doesn’t speak volumes to their food, I don’t know what does!

Blue Moose has a somewhat eclectic breakfast menu… everything from traditional fare of pancakes, eggs, and bacon to southern steak and potatoes to tex-mex influenced burritos. We have enjoyed every item we have ever eaten from Blue Moose – pancakes are light and fluffy (and HUGE), bacon is perfectly cooked to order, eggs are obviously high quality, and even their tex-mex is very good.

I absolutely love their coffee – I don’t often drink coffee, but nothing beats a cup of coffee from a Blue Moose mug on a cold morning. The kids really like the smoothies and fresh juices, and kids meals are big enough for even my teenager and pre-teen. Heck… they are big enough for me!

We live in a credit card world, and Blue Moose final is too. For many years, Blue Moose only accepted cash or check. But the new owners now have credit and debit card terminals, so you can skip the ATM on your way to breakfast!

Getting to the Blue Moose (i.e. walk there)

Parking at Blue Moose is a little bit of a nightmare. Before the pandemic they had one of the smallest parking lots in Breckenridge… six cars was a crowd, and heaven forbid someone in anything bigger than a Corolla showed up. Post-pandemic the parking lot was made even smaller to fit more patio tables! All of that is to say… “just walk.” It is a very quick walk from the condo.

Finally, do arrive early. Blue Moose is no well kept secret – everyone in town knows it and loves it. So grab a Summit Daily newspaper and head over to get your name on the list – you will not regret it.

Looking for other restaurant suggestions? Check out our dining page here.

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Giampietro Pizza and Italian is one of our favorite spots in town. Growing up in Philly, we know good Italian food when we see it (eat it), and this is some of the better Italian food west of the Mississippi River.

Service is generally above average, especially for a resort town. The hosts and hostesses are great, and they have a text alert when your table is ready… so walk in, give your number, explore the town a little, and they’ll text when they are ready for you. Like any restaurant, there are good servers and not-as-good servers; most fall into the former category

Food is all around excellent. The calzone is big enough for at least two people with a hearty appetite. One pizza can serve a family of 4 pretty easily, too. We have never – and I mean never – failed to bring home at least something in a doggy bag.

Family favorites:
Appetizers: Stuffed olives
Main: Calzone, Pizza, Cheese Manicotti (ask for it with their bolognese meat sauce!)
Desserts: Cannoli is the best dessert on the menu, but it is not exceptional. I’d recommend skipping dessert and hitting an ice cream shop afterwards (if you have room!).
Drinks: It’s not an impressive wine list, but the house wines are not terrible. Peroni is on tap, which is a little unusual anywhere outside of Italy.

https://www.giampietropizza.com

Looking for other great spots to try? Take a peek at our food page! And don’t forget to reserve a place to stay so you can walk to Giampietro!

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The Canteen Breckenridge is one of our favorite spots in Breckenridge, consistently serving up great food and drinks on one of the better patios in town. They have an on-again / off-again relationship with Open Table, so reservation availability is sporadic. This can make the wait time – especially for groups of 4 – a bit long. But, it is definitely worth the wait.

Situated on the North side of Breck, The Canteen has a decent sized bar, two floors of tables, and a large front-side, mountain-facing patio (which is even larger when they block of the parking lot for additional tables). Unfortunately they don’t have heaters on the deck, so winter seating is limited to indoors. During the summer, the indoor seating can get a little warm – the windows all seem to have trouble opening enough to get a breeze flowing. But in the winter, it is a welcome relief from the snow.

Service is always very good at The Canteen – we’ve never had a single issue, problem, or complaint in the many years we’ve been going here.

Family favorites:
Appetizers: We love the charcuterie board, although it has been off the menu since the start of Covid. I ask when it will be back every time we are there, and the unanimous answer is “hopefully soon!” The smoked-then-fried chicken wings are very good too.
Mains: Mac & Cheese is exceptional; personally I do not like it with the added barbecue meat they offer as an add on, but chicken is a great addition. Whatever you do, make sure it has the Cheez-It crackers. Our favorite burger – The Cuban – was taken off during Covid, but it is possible they might be able to pull one together for you if you ask.
Drinks: All of their tin-cup drinks are poured strong; my personal favorite is the Big Ladrewski. They also do shotskis, which is a fun way to enjoy a few shots off a literal ski… multiple different ski lengths available depending on your groups size.

https://thecanteenbreck.com

Looking for other restaurants? Check out other reviews on our food page! And don’t forget to reserve a place to stay so you can walk to The Canteen!