Matt R.
Yelp
Fantastic dining option in Aspen. We'd go again.
I'll start with the negatives, and finish on the positives, but they far outweigh the downsides.
Only 2 gripes, one of which can't be realistically solved by the restaurant....b/c money talks.
1) At the prices of restaurants in Aspen, infants/toddlers really shouldn't be ruining the dining experiences of people paying hundreds of dollars to dine out. The parents are at fault, but a bold restaurant would ask the parent to take their child outside until they can properly behave.
2) I shouldn't have to get out of my seat to pour myself wine from the cooling stand.
Now, the positives.
They have a great wine selection and the sommelier knows her stuff b/c she had a story for the wine I chose, and it's not a common wine. They opened the wine and we tasted with approval. They put it on ice next to the table, but out of reach, while we finished our cocktails and enjoyed the appetizers. Unfortunately they did not come back to actually pour the wine until after our main/pasts dishes had been delivered. Just as I was ready to pour ourselves a glass, the waitress finally noticed our table and came over to pour the wine. They were busy, but not overly so that they shouldn't notice this on a modestly priced bottle of wine. Modest for this establishment anyways...they did have screaming eagle on the list. ooooph. A minor oversight on their part but it didn't really take away from the stellar food.
The appetizers were delicious and perfectly balanced. Burrata of good quality is pretty hard to mess up, but they found a way to enhance every part of that dish. The artichoke bruschetta was simply outstanding. Don't skip this item in the starter section.
For the mains we went of the house made pasta. We couldn't pass that up, and I was surely glad of that decision. Of the two pasta dishes we ordered, the Black Pepper Fettucini* pancetta, poached egg, parmigiano cream and Ricotta Cavatelli asparagus, prawns, tomato, garlic white wine, lemon breadcrumbs, the Fettucini dish was the clear winner. Just enough black pepper in the pasta to make it pop. The pancetta was some of the richest I've ever tasted. It's a very rich pasta dish, and I'd recommend a good white wine to compliment.
We were both so full from everything that we couldn't even consider dessert.
Honestly they earn a 4.75*rating. If the staff had been just a tiny bit more attentive I'd give them a 5. The screaming infant/toddlers? I give the parents 1* for being inconsiderate of others.