April 29, 2020 • 30 mins
In our final installment of Traveling Eats, we visit the Alpine wonderland of Veil, Colorado, take in the German-inspired architecture and more importantly, the food and drink, both traditional and modern.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This is part Glandia,
a production of I Heart Radio. We sold our loft
in Chicago, moving into an RV. Now we're traveling in
the country full time with our dog Finn, exploring America's
national parks. And today we are doing another episode of
Traveling Eats with Matt. Matt, what are we talking about today?
(00:28):
This is a good one. This is kind of my
dream place. We're talking about Veil, Colorado, literally a dream,
dream place. This is the type of place where if
I win the lottery, I almost said when I win
the lottery, right, So if I win the lottery, I
would totally buy like some serious property here because it's
like Mountaintown Paradise. That really doesn't get much better than this.
(00:50):
So Veil is like what a couple of hours drive
from Denver into the mountains. Yeah, it's not too bad.
It's a couple of hours, like two and a half maybe,
So as long as you're not going like on a weekend,
like at the height of weekend traffic to Veil, you'll
you can get there. We had a rental car for
this trip, so we didn't we didn't drive the air
(01:11):
V up here either. Yeah, so I've been to Veil
a couple of times, both in the summer, so I
have not been here in the winter for skiing or anything.
And this is primarily known as I think, like a
bougie skiing mecca people. It's right up there with Aspen
and breck and Ridge and Park City and whatnot. And
I would absolutely love to be here in the winter
(01:32):
and do some of that, But my two experiences with
the Veil have been in the summer, and this is
a mind blowing the beautiful place in the summer, and
it's also incredibly delicious with really specific and interesting history.
Although short a pretty recent history. It's not nearly as
old as like Asthmen or Park City or most other
(01:54):
kind of iconic skiing mountain pounds. Yeah, it's kind of
funny like that between like as Been Veil and Breckon Ridge. Um,
it's like that Disney movie Johnny Tsunami, like when we
were kids, Like the snowboarders were like the Breckenridgers and
then the skiers were the Veil like crowd. But even
like above that, I guess, like Aspen, like they all
like talked down each other. It's crazy so weird. Yeah
(02:17):
I never saw that movie or TV show or whatever,
but yeah, they do have an interesting relationship. And what
makes Veiled so distinct and so fascinating is compared to
those two and a lot of other places that originated
as like mining towns, like hundreds of years ago, this
is much more recent. This was never a mining town.
It kind of blossomed fresh from nothing in the in
(02:41):
the nineteen sixties because it was envisioned as a great
location for more skiing and potential resorts and stuff like that.
And the town's founders wanted to create something reminiscent of
Bavarian culture and the Alps in Austria, and it just
the location and in the atmosphere here just really fit that.
(03:02):
And that's what they did. They envisioned it, and they
constructed this town to echo that. And it's that's why
it's so beautiful and so unique, is it's a little
slice of the Alps in the rocky mountains and it's amazing.
I love it so much. I could just wander around
here in awe and that's exactly what I do. So
my first time here in Vale was a couple of
(03:23):
years ago in September, like early September, nice and warm,
perfectly sunny, and it was a lot of out plenty
of outdoor activities. Still, the hiking is amazing on Vale Mountain.
Lots of trails you can do, fly fishing in rivers
and Gore Creek which runs right through Vale and Vale
Village beautiful, such a beautiful creek, yes, And other water
(03:46):
activities like rafting and kayaking, canoeing, stuff like that. Really
anything in great leaf peeping in the fall to September October,
the aspen trees are so beautiful, like bright yellow. So
the thing that I wanted to talk about and focus
on today, obviously this is traveling eats, is the food
culture here and the delightful restaurant and bar steam that
(04:09):
Vale has because for a town that's not very big,
it certainly has a lot in the restaurants I think
are world class. Yeah, there's restaurants right right, so a
lot of them reminiscent or in line with this kind
of Bavarian theme of the whole community. They have, unsurprisingly
(04:32):
a lot of restaurants that are like Austrian or German
or you know, serving things like fun do and schnitzel
and nice hardy like alpine mountain food, which is so wonderful.
We kind of rarely eat stuff like that because it's
not very common place. We don't see it on the road.
But this is one of those places where not only
you can find it, but it's in abundance, much to
(04:55):
our delight. So I wouldn't like I think my favorite.
And I've been here twice. I was here on my
own first for my work trip, and then we went
back together when we were here in I think it
was June, and it's this restaurant called alm Resi A
L M R E s I. It's in Veil Village,
(05:16):
So Veil is first, is kind of divitd into two
main sections. There's Veil Village and Lion's Head Village, and
there's other other parts of it too, but those are
the two main hearts of Veil, and that's where most
of the restaurants and businesses are. So am Rezi is
in Veil Village. It's this like heartwarmingly cozy restaurant run
(05:37):
by a family of um a German family who moved
here because they were so smitten with the rocky mountains.
While they're vacationing here, which is understandable but that's also yeah,
they were they uprooted their life and they came here
and they wanted to bring a taste of home with them,
and they're sharing their culture and their recipes with us
(05:58):
at this restaurant, which is located on the second floor
of a building like right and Veil Village, so you're
kind of you're going up there. It's the like snuggist, warmest,
most welcoming little place. It really kind of feels like
an alpine cottage or something. It has lots of dark
wood paneling and a paste a huge pastry counter filled
(06:20):
with things like strudles, and then there's a ton of
cuckoo clocks to which are a real trade. You don't
see those very often. Yeah, like intricate, intricately carved cuckoo
clocks of all shapes and sizes. And then they even
have like when if you do shots here, they have
these cute little glass boot shaped shock classes that are
(06:43):
specifically designed for doing shots of like snops. I love
it so much, and there's no yeah, that's a whole
another thing, but you should by all means do shots
of snaps out of little boots because it's as tasty
as it is adorable, and the food here is just really,
really good. It's the most soulful food that I've had
(07:06):
in a while, and you can really taste like the
family legacy of these recipes. They're clearly like time worn
and made with love. As cliche as that sounds, but
it really fits. And there are things like cheese fund
of course, these big buttery pretzels, Swiss potato pancakes. They
can get topped with things like smoked salmon and then
(07:27):
gigantic like dinosaur sized porchanks. And for the desserts, you
absolutely have to have some desserts or share it or
something make room because they're wonderful, like those strudles I mentioned.
Or Their signature is something that's kind of hard to pronounce.
It's called kaiser schmarn. It's an Austrian pancake dessert. Essentially,
(07:49):
it's not one big pancake. They're kind of like little
tiny pancake morsels and they're all dusted with powdered sugar
and served with this tangy tart cherry compot, a nice
counterbalance to the sugar and like kind of doughy sweetness
of the pancake. It's really good. The drinks are also
really amazing, Like this is littal place you go to
(08:11):
have mald wine or glue winus is called, or something
like what you had which was so cool and really different.
I've never seen anything like it. It was called another
another really long, hard to pronounce word, faer zangain bell
I don't even that just sounded like dibberish. But it's
look on the menu for something that is described as
(08:32):
spicy mould wine with a rum soaked piece of sugar,
and that sugar is kind of perched on top of
the mug, so it's dangling over the spiced mald wine.
And what that does is, once split on fire, it'll
gradually steadily kind of dripped down into the wine and
enrich it and sweeten it a little bit. And it's
quite a spectacle and fun to instagram. But be careful
(08:56):
to drink it cautiously. You don't want to like plunge
your face into a flaming sugar cube. Then they also
have things like hot chocolate with rum or black tea
with from lots of Austrian beers, so plenty of things
to sip on and saber here. And we could just
come back like easily. Yeah. Another good example in Veil
(09:17):
in Veil Village is this place called alpin Rose. This
place has been around for a long time, since nineteen
seventy four. But you know what's really fun about this
is that the al Morezi owners, Um the father, he
came here in four and that's where he went and
(09:38):
he's loved alban Rose ever since. And so just this
past year they were like alpin Rose was selling it
and guess who bought it? People absolutely, And that's such
a fascinating thing because it's like he got inspired so
much so that he came and opened up his own
restaurant and now he's buying the one that or his
(09:59):
family is buying the one that Um was inspired. Yeah.
I mean that's like such a beautiful full circle, Like
you were saying, that's the dreams. It's like, I just
love that that's the community that this restaurant tour and
this family has. It's like they want to make sure
that they continue to sell that legacy. That's a great thing.
That's a fantastic like that just warms my soul. But yeah,
(10:22):
so often Rose clearly very inspiring, and it's been around
a lot longer than most places here. This has been
an operation, like you said, since nineteen seventy four, which
is close to the inception of the whole town in general.
And it's just this well worn, rustic dining room. It honestly,
it feels like something out of Frozen. This movie pro
It has that kind of vibe, almost Nordic and really
(10:45):
dark wood and like, because what's the town of Frozement,
Like I didn't Arabell or something. I don't don't well,
I'm just recently getting I'm recently getting into Proson. I
only saw it for the first time like a few
weeks ago, but allly in before Frozen two came out,
right yeah, and then we saw Frozen two and no,
I'm obsessed with it but still kind of piecing things together.
(11:07):
But it did remind me of that, and it reminded
me of like the Frozen redded upcot. So this is
all very fresh and I obviously love anything that reminds
me of a Disney movie, especially Frozen, and Alpin Rose
is really great. The food totally matches that ambiance too,
with rich things and meaty things like brought worst and
sauerkraut and cheesy spait ceil lots of German beer, and
(11:30):
of course you can get German beer served in those
huge overwhelming Stein's great for cheers ing and chugging. Yeah.
And then another like Veil classic that's been around for
a long time is this place called Peppi's Bar and Restaurant.
And this is another decades old place with all those cozy,
(11:52):
charming vibes. And this one is named for an Austrian
skier named Peppie Graham Shammer, which great name, my gosh. Yeah,
And so he was an international racer on the Austrian
ski team in the fifties and that's who inspired the
name of this restaurant. So today and ever since its inception,
it's been family run. It's one of those places where
(12:15):
the walls are pretty much lined with taxidermy, and then
the dishes are basically also filled with taxidermy, because there
are things like cariboo with sweet potato puree, oven roasted duck,
and then lamb with smashed potatoes. So it's very meaty.
They have a lot of game meat here especially, and
altogether it's a very like kind of woodsy current verse vibe.
(12:38):
I love it. It was such an amazing place about
because I've been like dreaming of going here, and of
course you're describing it, and I'm like, can we go back?
I need to go here. That's exactly the type of food,
especially in winter, because it gets cold here, it gets snowy.
And that makes sense why all this food, all these
(13:00):
restaurants are so hardy, because in meaty, Because that's exactly
the type of thing you should be eating or craving
when it's the forecast is as frightful as it gets here.
Not to sound too much like your Christmas Carol, but
that's what it is. You are listening to park Landia
from my Heart Radio. Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad.
(13:28):
This park Landia. Um So not everything in Veil is
Bavarian or Austrian. Of course, the architecture all looks like that,
But like the restaurants and breweries and bars and coffee
shops like they do some really contemporary creative things as well,
which is very on par with things we've seen in
big cities. Yeah, like Veil Brewing Company, my favorite. I've
(13:49):
been here a few times. Anytime I'm in Valle I
need to go here, perfect after like a high or
tripped down the slopes. It's just the perfect placed online
no matter at the time I've year. It's very casual,
very a very welcoming tap room. The people who work
here are very informative, great at like providing suggestions, giving
you like sample pores, stuff like that, and also like
(14:12):
I've brought my laptop here and gotten some work done too.
So it's it's one of those like chill tap rooms
that I just love to hang out in and have
a couple of beers because they do some really interesting things.
They have the classics and they have like a handful
of beers that are always available. But then they do
really fun things with seasonal bruise as well, Like they
do something called pour some syrup on me or pour
(14:34):
some syrup on me whatever. Yeah, and that's they call
that their French toast out, so like notes of like
maple and cinnamon and a little sweet rich. It sounds
great like breakfast in a pine class I love it.
And then they do this is kind of more up
in my alley. They do something called soul Blossom stays On,
(14:55):
which is brewed with orange blossom, honey and alderflower. So
I love things that are like kind of lighter and
floral hint of sweetness, and then they have the tourist
tourist trap double tap. Yeah, that is very much on
my alley because I mean I love apias, especially love
double I pa s, and I love tourist traps, so
(15:16):
all of it it's like speaking my language. And I
would highly recommend going here and sampling the warest because
it's all really good. But if you want a coffee
to start off your day or a cocktail the end
your night, you have this beautiful place. We have one
place that solves all those cravings, and that's this place
in Veil Village called Two Arrows Coffee, the one to
hit a Veil great. Yeah, I love a place. I
(15:38):
love any type of place that's like coffee shop by
day and then it morphs into something else like wine bar,
cocktail bar, tapas bar, whatever. And in Veil this is
like the spot for that. It's a very like contemporary
chic space. It's kind of small and snug with a
little bar not too big, which is great, like probably
people could fit in right. It's intimate and I love that.
(16:01):
And in the mored I think my favorite is in
the morning when it's kind of bustling a little bit.
People like kind of streaming in and out getting their
coffee or latte's or like avocado toasts and stuff. And
I like to just perch myself at the bar sip
on a turmeric latte, which they have here. I can
never say no to a termeric latte and have something
like Keno breakfast bowl or a pastry or something they do.
(16:23):
You know, they have a cud of toast, which is
always great. Yeah, totally, and then come back a few
hours later in the afternoon or evening and this. We
love places where we can just like chill out and
have a drink or two and then snack as opposed
to like a robust meal. And yeah, they had like
hummus cheese kurds with country ham olives always always a hit.
(16:48):
Just give me a plate of olives and I'm excellent compliment.
The blood tenders are knowledgeable. Um like I ordered off
many of cray and oh my gosh, I'm always so embarrassed.
You like whenever you order off many of them? Just
like I always like, no, no, look, I love my
vook raze. It's like if an old fashioned in a
Manhattan had a baby, you got a booky, but it's
like one of those off my new drinks that you
(17:11):
have to be wary of where you're ordering because some
people have no idea what you're talking about. Just kidding,
I'll like, some people know exactly what you're talking about
them whip it up, no problem. Other people are just like,
what like because it doesn't sound super popular, it's not.
But this is the type of place where you can
safely order off menu and they will not only know
(17:33):
what you're talking about, but they'll be able to do
it justice all the classics. You know, I really loved
our hotel. Oh yeah, so this was the dream I
guess staycation or whatever, because living on the road, we
have quote unquote staycations in random places because all of
a sudden, the countries just are you know, rambling home
(17:54):
and and so we just sometimes like bigger spaces, new spaces,
and so, you know, once a month or every other month,
we'll just get a hotel for a couple of nights
and just treat ourselves. Yes, and it feels really good,
especially in a place like Veil, and especially at a
place like the hotel to Lisa, which was everything and
more because this sort of a place where like the
(18:17):
bed is the size of our RV and it's super
dog friendly. Finn was on cloud nine because he's very
pampered there. They do dog room service. They bring treats
and toys and even full blown meals. We don't do
room service much, but we definitely did some service and
damage and into like our robes and just had Finn
(18:39):
and like ordered room service and realized that we spent
way too it's money and it was it was ridiculous
excited and I'm like, oh, I can't wait for room
service and bathrobes. And then like two dollars later, I'm like,
well that was the most expensive lunch. But you know what,
like we don't do this off now. It's not like
we're all the time, but in a while in Rome
(19:01):
or when in Veil, yeah do it. And this is
also my favorite aspect of this hotel is the champagne
vending machine. That was, Yeah, that is a real thing
and that exists here and it's in the lobby. It's
this vending machine. It looks like a sort of it
like you know, kind of fancier. Yeah, so mini bottles
(19:22):
of Moa and Shandon champagne. They come in both Brute
and Rose and you get it. Bet we got one
of each of the multiple times, so you get it.
It's like not a traditional vending machine as you might
have guests. So you go to the bar, the main
lobby bar, and what you do is you get a
token of some sort from the bartender, so you essentially
like pay there, get a token, and use that token
(19:44):
to redeem in the vending machine. I just look, it's
like so crazy and wonderful to do something like this.
It's I've never and it's the only champagne vending machine
of its kind in Colorado, one of the only a
few in the entire country. So it's a rare treat.
And it's just it was beautiful because, um, the gore
(20:07):
rivers right behind it, right that another favorite aspect of
that hotel. And there's like definitely different restaurants and um,
like there's even some like outfitters, Um good stuff shopping,
amazing fun unique stuff. Right, So this is not your
stuff that you canna find in like every store, No,
of course not. So this is like I'm obsessed with
(20:29):
Bale because of reasons like this, where trails, walking trails,
hiking trails are so omnipresent like this made me so
happy to walk out the back of our hotel. There's
the paved biking walking trail right there that runs the
length of Gore Creek into a Lion's Head Village, through
Allion's Head Village and then all the way through Bale Village.
(20:49):
And it's not terribly long, it's probably like a mile
and a half or a couple of miles, but it's
so convenient and so pretty. The creek is the most
beautiful thing, lined with like the green tallest trees. And
then you can also use this trail to like branch
off into hiking trails up the mountain and stuff like that.
Plenty of those, So whether you want to wander into
(21:09):
town and go to restaurants or bars, or the farmer's market,
which is great. Yeah, the farmer's market is wonderful. Um.
That's actually what brought us up there for this weekend
was I was training some people for Burton's Mapewood Farm
because they sell at the local farmers market there. Um,
And that's when I first met Brad Markinson. He's a
Colorado Native and really awesome human being in person, and
(21:32):
so he's been representing the farm and that worked out
really well. You know. UM, so if you need some
pure or barely it's maple syrup, you know where to
go when you're in bale, and believe me, they'll give
you samples so you can try it. And it's wonderful.
But there's so many great things and that Farmer's market
like our friends, uh great fruit which is uh, you're sorry,
(21:53):
great roots, which is a horse radish. Um. Matt isn't
the biggest fan of horse radish, but even this one
that he loves in speciates and it's just wonderful. So
there's so many different aspects to veil UM. So outside
of even restaurants, you know, you can get your all
year old local ingredients and make your own meals, you know,
if you wanted to. And you know, I think it
(22:15):
runs every Sunday UM throughout the warmer months. It's not
really a winter market. It's not a good place for that.
It gets really and you don't want to be like
slopping and sliding through the Farmer's Market. And when you
went you uh, the first time you went to um
October Fest and you were killing it, loving it so much,
(22:37):
involved in that and I was like you were telling
me about it, and I'm just like, stop, Well, I
got the most amazing the variant hat that I was
rocking throughout october Fest, and I wish I could wear
that on a more regular basis without looking like a cartoon.
But it's it's great. It's good for you to well.
October Fest is a really big deal in veil as
(22:59):
you might imagine from it's all that's like Bavarian alpine
inspirations and German restaurants and whatnot. So every September it's
this big blowout in both in lions Head Village and
veil Ville. Is there's like endless events and food specials
and special vendors and great live music from German bands.
They have the yodelers, like real life yodlers, not from movies.
(23:23):
And then yeah, with that, well we got to go
back to and then they have all kinds of like
brought Worse are a big deal during October Fast and
then some of the best like people watching, because folks
come fully prepared to embrace the festivities with like let's
(23:43):
just say, Germans know how to drink. They know how
to drink. They have gigantic steins, all of them and
then they there's so many people I saw so much
like really nice lavish like Bavarian hats and letter hosen
and just all of it. Liked the ninth it was
really inspiring, and like again, like I like the look
(24:04):
of it, and I wish that I could just dress
like that without looking really bizarre and completely out of place.
But it is what it is. But that's part of
the reason why I am so infatuated with Veil and
all of its restaurants and traditions and festivities like this,
because it's got everything that I love. It's like all
(24:24):
the outdoors, the activities and beautiful scenery, and then as
soon you're doing with that, you can just like bop
around and eat fondue and pretzels and sauerkraut and look
at taxi. To me, another place you can go and
hang out, which we loved is this place called Tenth
Mountain Whiskey. And Tenth Mountain Whiskey that's that wear the time,
(24:49):
I wear far too often. Yeah, So I bought a
red flannel here and it's this really snug distillery in
Veil Village and they do amazing things with like a
full life. They have bourbon they have rye, they have
different cordials, they have vodka, they have moonshine. Even so
there's a lot, and my favorite thing to do. You
(25:10):
can get cocktails and mixed drinks here, but my favorite
thing to do is go and sit. They have like
a couch like nice company lounge chairs. So favorite thing
to do is go there, snag one of those and
do like a flight and just kind of sample these
small pores of their spirits because they're so well made
that they're good sipping spirits. Even the moonshine, which is
(25:31):
kind of shocking because normally think of moonshine is so
abrasive and intense. This one is great. Like I could
just simple not a lot, but like it's nice to
have a little sample of it and really appreciate the
precision in work that they put into their products because
it really moonshines through. Yeah, and definitely like I can't
(25:53):
recommend their swag enough. They have shirts, hats just like
sweaters and jackets, and they have damage. They have skis.
I think they even have shot skis, which I'm really
depressed that we didn't get shot. So in case you're
wondering shot skis are this kind of mountain town Western
(26:14):
tradition where it's like it's basically group friendly shot where
there's a ski, um, a ski that has like shot
glasses four shot permanently attached because you don't want them
to fall off. Because what you do is you grab
that ski with four other friends and you put your
(26:34):
shots in there, and then you all like say one
to three, and you shoot them all together, and most
like more than likely like one of you are just
gonna get your shot poured on you versus in your
mouth because unless you really care less, but you're all
that's meant to be wild and crazy. So it's fine, right,
I know there's no like delicate, like fancy way to
do a shot ski, but yeah, while you're at tenth
(26:55):
Mountain Whiskey, just be mindful of how much you drink
because you could I could go nuts and that like
swag area and just like buy everything and I think
you did time, probably did um. But yeah, and also
you do have to remember that when you're in the mountains,
you know your tolerance is going to be a lot lower.
Another thing, if you're used to drinking two cocktails, like
(27:17):
start with one and just let it sit in because
you're not. You're not like you're gonna get a little tipsy,
a lot quicker. Yeah, Veil is very high up and
especially so if you go to the top of the mountain,
whether you hike up there or take the gondola or something.
So and think that's another thing. When you're hiking or
coming up or down, even just like a four foot elevation,
(27:40):
you do have to think about your hydration and your everything.
There's so much to think about it. So it's like
all the normal necessities but like times five. So just
become overprepared with all that stuff. And then but if
you had to wrap up Veil and tell everyone what
it is that you love the most about it, what
(28:01):
the thing I love most about it? I think, And
it reminds me almost of like Epcot or something in
this sense where like it's this community that had this
bold vision, this very specific vision, and they honed in
on it so well and created something very distinct, like
the you know, the initial developers of the town wanted
(28:21):
to bring this like alpine culture and motif to the
Rocky mountains, and it's astonishing how they're able to succeed
with that, and it maintained it's maintained ever since, and
it continues to do that. Whenever there's not a ton
of new construction here that's such a kind of confined,
controlled community, but whenever new things do develop, whether it's
(28:42):
a restaurant or a new hotel or whatever, like everything
fits into that and just builds upon that, so it
only gets better and better. And I love that so much,
how transformative it is and immersive. When you go here,
it really feels like nothing else, Like brack and Water
is not that far from here, Aspen's not toubly far,
and Vail sets itself apart with this specific feel, and
(29:06):
as you can, you'll quickly be a little toe from
the restaurants, this very specific caste that is really enriching
and the most some of the most soulful food, often
by families. A lot of these businesses our family owned,
and so it all kind of ties together to this big,
like warm hug of a of a town, a hug
(29:27):
that costs a lot of money, but it's a hug.
You've been listening to park Landia, a show about national parks.
Parkland is a production of My Heart Radio created by
Matt Carrouac Brad Caro wac and Christopher has e otis
produced and edited by Mike John's. Our executive producer is
Christopher Hasiotis, our researchers Jescelyn Shields. Special Things goes out
(29:50):
to Gabrielle Collins, Crystal Waters and the rest of the
Parklandia crew and Hey listeners, If you're enjoying the show,
leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other
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parkl India Rangers. From our podcasts my Heart Radio, visit
(30:12):
the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows, and as always, thank you for listening.
Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This is part Glandia,
a production of I Heart Radio. We sold our loft
in Chicago, moving into an RV. Now we're traveling in
the country full time with our dog Finn, exploring America's
national parks. And today we are doing another episode of
Traveling Eats with Matt. Matt, what are we talking about today?
(00:28):
This is a good one. This is kind of my
dream place. We're talking about Veil, Colorado, literally a dream,
dream place. This is the type of place where if
I win the lottery, I almost said when I win
the lottery, right, So if I win the lottery, I
would totally buy like some serious property here because it's
like Mountaintown Paradise. That really doesn't get much better than this.
(00:50):
So Veil is like what a couple of hours drive
from Denver into the mountains. Yeah, it's not too bad.
It's a couple of hours, like two and a half maybe,
So as long as you're not going like on a weekend,
like at the height of weekend traffic to Veil, you'll
you can get there. We had a rental car for
this trip, so we didn't we didn't drive the air
(01:11):
V up here either. Yeah, so I've been to Veil
a couple of times, both in the summer, so I
have not been here in the winter for skiing or anything.
And this is primarily known as I think, like a
bougie skiing mecca people. It's right up there with Aspen
and breck and Ridge and Park City and whatnot. And
I would absolutely love to be here in the winter
(01:32):
and do some of that, But my two experiences with
the Veil have been in the summer, and this is
a mind blowing the beautiful place in the summer, and
it's also incredibly delicious with really specific and interesting history.
Although short a pretty recent history. It's not nearly as
old as like Asthmen or Park City or most other
(01:54):
kind of iconic skiing mountain pounds. Yeah, it's kind of
funny like that between like as Been Veil and Breckon Ridge. Um,
it's like that Disney movie Johnny Tsunami, like when we
were kids, Like the snowboarders were like the Breckenridgers and
then the skiers were the Veil like crowd. But even
like above that, I guess, like Aspen, like they all
like talked down each other. It's crazy so weird. Yeah
(02:17):
I never saw that movie or TV show or whatever,
but yeah, they do have an interesting relationship. And what
makes Veiled so distinct and so fascinating is compared to
those two and a lot of other places that originated
as like mining towns, like hundreds of years ago, this
is much more recent. This was never a mining town.
It kind of blossomed fresh from nothing in the in
(02:41):
the nineteen sixties because it was envisioned as a great
location for more skiing and potential resorts and stuff like that.
And the town's founders wanted to create something reminiscent of
Bavarian culture and the Alps in Austria, and it just
the location and in the atmosphere here just really fit that.
(03:02):
And that's what they did. They envisioned it, and they
constructed this town to echo that. And it's that's why
it's so beautiful and so unique, is it's a little
slice of the Alps in the rocky mountains and it's amazing.
I love it so much. I could just wander around
here in awe and that's exactly what I do. So
my first time here in Vale was a couple of
(03:23):
years ago in September, like early September, nice and warm,
perfectly sunny, and it was a lot of out plenty
of outdoor activities. Still, the hiking is amazing on Vale Mountain.
Lots of trails you can do, fly fishing in rivers
and Gore Creek which runs right through Vale and Vale
Village beautiful, such a beautiful creek, yes, And other water
(03:46):
activities like rafting and kayaking, canoeing, stuff like that. Really
anything in great leaf peeping in the fall to September October,
the aspen trees are so beautiful, like bright yellow. So
the thing that I wanted to talk about and focus
on today, obviously this is traveling eats, is the food
culture here and the delightful restaurant and bar steam that
(04:09):
Vale has because for a town that's not very big,
it certainly has a lot in the restaurants I think
are world class. Yeah, there's restaurants right right, so a
lot of them reminiscent or in line with this kind
of Bavarian theme of the whole community. They have, unsurprisingly
(04:32):
a lot of restaurants that are like Austrian or German
or you know, serving things like fun do and schnitzel
and nice hardy like alpine mountain food, which is so wonderful.
We kind of rarely eat stuff like that because it's
not very common place. We don't see it on the road.
But this is one of those places where not only
you can find it, but it's in abundance, much to
(04:55):
our delight. So I wouldn't like I think my favorite.
And I've been here twice. I was here on my
own first for my work trip, and then we went
back together when we were here in I think it
was June, and it's this restaurant called alm Resi A
L M R E s I. It's in Veil Village,
(05:16):
So Veil is first, is kind of divitd into two
main sections. There's Veil Village and Lion's Head Village, and
there's other other parts of it too, but those are
the two main hearts of Veil, and that's where most
of the restaurants and businesses are. So am Rezi is
in Veil Village. It's this like heartwarmingly cozy restaurant run
(05:37):
by a family of um a German family who moved
here because they were so smitten with the rocky mountains.
While they're vacationing here, which is understandable but that's also yeah,
they were they uprooted their life and they came here
and they wanted to bring a taste of home with them,
and they're sharing their culture and their recipes with us
(05:58):
at this restaurant, which is located on the second floor
of a building like right and Veil Village, so you're
kind of you're going up there. It's the like snuggist, warmest,
most welcoming little place. It really kind of feels like
an alpine cottage or something. It has lots of dark
wood paneling and a paste a huge pastry counter filled
(06:20):
with things like strudles, and then there's a ton of
cuckoo clocks to which are a real trade. You don't
see those very often. Yeah, like intricate, intricately carved cuckoo
clocks of all shapes and sizes. And then they even
have like when if you do shots here, they have
these cute little glass boot shaped shock classes that are
(06:43):
specifically designed for doing shots of like snops. I love
it so much, and there's no yeah, that's a whole
another thing, but you should by all means do shots
of snaps out of little boots because it's as tasty
as it is adorable, and the food here is just really,
really good. It's the most soulful food that I've had
(07:06):
in a while, and you can really taste like the
family legacy of these recipes. They're clearly like time worn
and made with love. As cliche as that sounds, but
it really fits. And there are things like cheese fund
of course, these big buttery pretzels, Swiss potato pancakes. They
can get topped with things like smoked salmon and then
(07:27):
gigantic like dinosaur sized porchanks. And for the desserts, you
absolutely have to have some desserts or share it or
something make room because they're wonderful, like those strudles I mentioned.
Or Their signature is something that's kind of hard to pronounce.
It's called kaiser schmarn. It's an Austrian pancake dessert. Essentially,
(07:49):
it's not one big pancake. They're kind of like little
tiny pancake morsels and they're all dusted with powdered sugar
and served with this tangy tart cherry compot, a nice
counterbalance to the sugar and like kind of doughy sweetness
of the pancake. It's really good. The drinks are also
really amazing, Like this is littal place you go to
(08:11):
have mald wine or glue winus is called, or something
like what you had which was so cool and really different.
I've never seen anything like it. It was called another
another really long, hard to pronounce word, faer zangain bell
I don't even that just sounded like dibberish. But it's
look on the menu for something that is described as
(08:32):
spicy mould wine with a rum soaked piece of sugar,
and that sugar is kind of perched on top of
the mug, so it's dangling over the spiced mald wine.
And what that does is, once split on fire, it'll
gradually steadily kind of dripped down into the wine and
enrich it and sweeten it a little bit. And it's
quite a spectacle and fun to instagram. But be careful
(08:56):
to drink it cautiously. You don't want to like plunge
your face into a flaming sugar cube. Then they also
have things like hot chocolate with rum or black tea
with from lots of Austrian beers, so plenty of things
to sip on and saber here. And we could just
come back like easily. Yeah. Another good example in Veil
(09:17):
in Veil Village is this place called alpin Rose. This
place has been around for a long time, since nineteen
seventy four. But you know what's really fun about this
is that the al Morezi owners, Um the father, he
came here in four and that's where he went and
(09:38):
he's loved alban Rose ever since. And so just this
past year they were like alpin Rose was selling it
and guess who bought it? People absolutely, And that's such
a fascinating thing because it's like he got inspired so
much so that he came and opened up his own
restaurant and now he's buying the one that or his
(09:59):
family is buying the one that Um was inspired. Yeah.
I mean that's like such a beautiful full circle, Like
you were saying, that's the dreams. It's like, I just
love that that's the community that this restaurant tour and
this family has. It's like they want to make sure
that they continue to sell that legacy. That's a great thing.
That's a fantastic like that just warms my soul. But yeah,
(10:22):
so often Rose clearly very inspiring, and it's been around
a lot longer than most places here. This has been
an operation, like you said, since nineteen seventy four, which
is close to the inception of the whole town in general.
And it's just this well worn, rustic dining room. It honestly,
it feels like something out of Frozen. This movie pro
It has that kind of vibe, almost Nordic and really
(10:45):
dark wood and like, because what's the town of Frozement,
Like I didn't Arabell or something. I don't don't well,
I'm just recently getting I'm recently getting into Proson. I
only saw it for the first time like a few
weeks ago, but allly in before Frozen two came out,
right yeah, and then we saw Frozen two and no,
I'm obsessed with it but still kind of piecing things together.
(11:07):
But it did remind me of that, and it reminded
me of like the Frozen redded upcot. So this is
all very fresh and I obviously love anything that reminds
me of a Disney movie, especially Frozen, and Alpin Rose
is really great. The food totally matches that ambiance too,
with rich things and meaty things like brought worst and
sauerkraut and cheesy spait ceil lots of German beer, and
(11:30):
of course you can get German beer served in those
huge overwhelming Stein's great for cheers ing and chugging. Yeah.
And then another like Veil classic that's been around for
a long time is this place called Peppi's Bar and Restaurant.
And this is another decades old place with all those cozy,
(11:52):
charming vibes. And this one is named for an Austrian
skier named Peppie Graham Shammer, which great name, my gosh. Yeah,
And so he was an international racer on the Austrian
ski team in the fifties and that's who inspired the
name of this restaurant. So today and ever since its inception,
it's been family run. It's one of those places where
(12:15):
the walls are pretty much lined with taxidermy, and then
the dishes are basically also filled with taxidermy, because there
are things like cariboo with sweet potato puree, oven roasted duck,
and then lamb with smashed potatoes. So it's very meaty.
They have a lot of game meat here especially, and
altogether it's a very like kind of woodsy current verse vibe.
(12:38):
I love it. It was such an amazing place about
because I've been like dreaming of going here, and of
course you're describing it, and I'm like, can we go back?
I need to go here. That's exactly the type of food,
especially in winter, because it gets cold here, it gets snowy.
And that makes sense why all this food, all these
(13:00):
restaurants are so hardy, because in meaty, Because that's exactly
the type of thing you should be eating or craving
when it's the forecast is as frightful as it gets here.
Not to sound too much like your Christmas Carol, but
that's what it is. You are listening to park Landia
from my Heart Radio. Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad.
(13:28):
This park Landia. Um So not everything in Veil is
Bavarian or Austrian. Of course, the architecture all looks like that,
But like the restaurants and breweries and bars and coffee
shops like they do some really contemporary creative things as well,
which is very on par with things we've seen in
big cities. Yeah, like Veil Brewing Company, my favorite. I've
(13:49):
been here a few times. Anytime I'm in Valle I
need to go here, perfect after like a high or
tripped down the slopes. It's just the perfect placed online
no matter at the time I've year. It's very casual,
very a very welcoming tap room. The people who work
here are very informative, great at like providing suggestions, giving
you like sample pores, stuff like that, and also like
(14:12):
I've brought my laptop here and gotten some work done too.
So it's it's one of those like chill tap rooms
that I just love to hang out in and have
a couple of beers because they do some really interesting things.
They have the classics and they have like a handful
of beers that are always available. But then they do
really fun things with seasonal bruise as well, Like they
do something called pour some syrup on me or pour
(14:34):
some syrup on me whatever. Yeah, and that's they call
that their French toast out, so like notes of like
maple and cinnamon and a little sweet rich. It sounds
great like breakfast in a pine class I love it.
And then they do this is kind of more up
in my alley. They do something called soul Blossom stays On,
(14:55):
which is brewed with orange blossom, honey and alderflower. So
I love things that are like kind of lighter and
floral hint of sweetness, and then they have the tourist
tourist trap double tap. Yeah, that is very much on
my alley because I mean I love apias, especially love
double I pa s, and I love tourist traps, so
(15:16):
all of it it's like speaking my language. And I
would highly recommend going here and sampling the warest because
it's all really good. But if you want a coffee
to start off your day or a cocktail the end
your night, you have this beautiful place. We have one
place that solves all those cravings, and that's this place
in Veil Village called Two Arrows Coffee, the one to
hit a Veil great. Yeah, I love a place. I
(15:38):
love any type of place that's like coffee shop by
day and then it morphs into something else like wine bar,
cocktail bar, tapas bar, whatever. And in Veil this is
like the spot for that. It's a very like contemporary
chic space. It's kind of small and snug with a
little bar not too big, which is great, like probably
people could fit in right. It's intimate and I love that.
(16:01):
And in the mored I think my favorite is in
the morning when it's kind of bustling a little bit.
People like kind of streaming in and out getting their
coffee or latte's or like avocado toasts and stuff. And
I like to just perch myself at the bar sip
on a turmeric latte, which they have here. I can
never say no to a termeric latte and have something
like Keno breakfast bowl or a pastry or something they do.
(16:23):
You know, they have a cud of toast, which is
always great. Yeah, totally, and then come back a few
hours later in the afternoon or evening and this. We
love places where we can just like chill out and
have a drink or two and then snack as opposed
to like a robust meal. And yeah, they had like
hummus cheese kurds with country ham olives always always a hit.
(16:48):
Just give me a plate of olives and I'm excellent compliment.
The blood tenders are knowledgeable. Um like I ordered off
many of cray and oh my gosh, I'm always so embarrassed.
You like whenever you order off many of them? Just
like I always like, no, no, look, I love my
vook raze. It's like if an old fashioned in a
Manhattan had a baby, you got a booky, but it's
like one of those off my new drinks that you
(17:11):
have to be wary of where you're ordering because some
people have no idea what you're talking about. Just kidding,
I'll like, some people know exactly what you're talking about
them whip it up, no problem. Other people are just like,
what like because it doesn't sound super popular, it's not.
But this is the type of place where you can
safely order off menu and they will not only know
(17:33):
what you're talking about, but they'll be able to do
it justice all the classics. You know, I really loved
our hotel. Oh yeah, so this was the dream I
guess staycation or whatever, because living on the road, we
have quote unquote staycations in random places because all of
a sudden, the countries just are you know, rambling home
(17:54):
and and so we just sometimes like bigger spaces, new spaces,
and so, you know, once a month or every other month,
we'll just get a hotel for a couple of nights
and just treat ourselves. Yes, and it feels really good,
especially in a place like Veil, and especially at a
place like the hotel to Lisa, which was everything and
more because this sort of a place where like the
(18:17):
bed is the size of our RV and it's super
dog friendly. Finn was on cloud nine because he's very
pampered there. They do dog room service. They bring treats
and toys and even full blown meals. We don't do
room service much, but we definitely did some service and
damage and into like our robes and just had Finn
(18:39):
and like ordered room service and realized that we spent
way too it's money and it was it was ridiculous
excited and I'm like, oh, I can't wait for room
service and bathrobes. And then like two dollars later, I'm like,
well that was the most expensive lunch. But you know what,
like we don't do this off now. It's not like
we're all the time, but in a while in Rome
(19:01):
or when in Veil, yeah do it. And this is
also my favorite aspect of this hotel is the champagne
vending machine. That was, Yeah, that is a real thing
and that exists here and it's in the lobby. It's
this vending machine. It looks like a sort of it
like you know, kind of fancier. Yeah, so mini bottles
(19:22):
of Moa and Shandon champagne. They come in both Brute
and Rose and you get it. Bet we got one
of each of the multiple times, so you get it.
It's like not a traditional vending machine as you might
have guests. So you go to the bar, the main
lobby bar, and what you do is you get a
token of some sort from the bartender, so you essentially
like pay there, get a token, and use that token
(19:44):
to redeem in the vending machine. I just look, it's
like so crazy and wonderful to do something like this.
It's I've never and it's the only champagne vending machine
of its kind in Colorado, one of the only a
few in the entire country. So it's a rare treat.
And it's just it was beautiful because, um, the gore
(20:07):
rivers right behind it, right that another favorite aspect of
that hotel. And there's like definitely different restaurants and um,
like there's even some like outfitters, Um good stuff shopping,
amazing fun unique stuff. Right, So this is not your
stuff that you canna find in like every store, No,
of course not. So this is like I'm obsessed with
(20:29):
Bale because of reasons like this, where trails, walking trails,
hiking trails are so omnipresent like this made me so
happy to walk out the back of our hotel. There's
the paved biking walking trail right there that runs the
length of Gore Creek into a Lion's Head Village, through
Allion's Head Village and then all the way through Bale Village.
(20:49):
And it's not terribly long, it's probably like a mile
and a half or a couple of miles, but it's
so convenient and so pretty. The creek is the most
beautiful thing, lined with like the green tallest trees. And
then you can also use this trail to like branch
off into hiking trails up the mountain and stuff like that.
Plenty of those, So whether you want to wander into
(21:09):
town and go to restaurants or bars, or the farmer's market,
which is great. Yeah, the farmer's market is wonderful. Um.
That's actually what brought us up there for this weekend
was I was training some people for Burton's Mapewood Farm
because they sell at the local farmers market there. Um,
And that's when I first met Brad Markinson. He's a
Colorado Native and really awesome human being in person, and
(21:32):
so he's been representing the farm and that worked out
really well. You know. UM, so if you need some
pure or barely it's maple syrup, you know where to
go when you're in bale, and believe me, they'll give
you samples so you can try it. And it's wonderful.
But there's so many great things and that Farmer's market
like our friends, uh great fruit which is uh, you're sorry,
(21:53):
great roots, which is a horse radish. Um. Matt isn't
the biggest fan of horse radish, but even this one
that he loves in speciates and it's just wonderful. So
there's so many different aspects to veil UM. So outside
of even restaurants, you know, you can get your all
year old local ingredients and make your own meals, you know,
if you wanted to. And you know, I think it
(22:15):
runs every Sunday UM throughout the warmer months. It's not
really a winter market. It's not a good place for that.
It gets really and you don't want to be like
slopping and sliding through the Farmer's Market. And when you
went you uh, the first time you went to um
October Fest and you were killing it, loving it so much,
(22:37):
involved in that and I was like you were telling
me about it, and I'm just like, stop, Well, I
got the most amazing the variant hat that I was
rocking throughout october Fest, and I wish I could wear
that on a more regular basis without looking like a cartoon.
But it's it's great. It's good for you to well.
October Fest is a really big deal in veil as
(22:59):
you might imagine from it's all that's like Bavarian alpine
inspirations and German restaurants and whatnot. So every September it's
this big blowout in both in lions Head Village and
veil Ville. Is there's like endless events and food specials
and special vendors and great live music from German bands.
They have the yodelers, like real life yodlers, not from movies.
(23:23):
And then yeah, with that, well we got to go
back to and then they have all kinds of like
brought Worse are a big deal during October Fast and
then some of the best like people watching, because folks
come fully prepared to embrace the festivities with like let's
(23:43):
just say, Germans know how to drink. They know how
to drink. They have gigantic steins, all of them and
then they there's so many people I saw so much
like really nice lavish like Bavarian hats and letter hosen
and just all of it. Liked the ninth it was
really inspiring, and like again, like I like the look
(24:04):
of it, and I wish that I could just dress
like that without looking really bizarre and completely out of place.
But it is what it is. But that's part of
the reason why I am so infatuated with Veil and
all of its restaurants and traditions and festivities like this,
because it's got everything that I love. It's like all
(24:24):
the outdoors, the activities and beautiful scenery, and then as
soon you're doing with that, you can just like bop
around and eat fondue and pretzels and sauerkraut and look
at taxi. To me, another place you can go and
hang out, which we loved is this place called Tenth
Mountain Whiskey. And Tenth Mountain Whiskey that's that wear the time,
(24:49):
I wear far too often. Yeah, So I bought a
red flannel here and it's this really snug distillery in
Veil Village and they do amazing things with like a
full life. They have bourbon they have rye, they have
different cordials, they have vodka, they have moonshine. Even so
there's a lot, and my favorite thing to do. You
(25:10):
can get cocktails and mixed drinks here, but my favorite
thing to do is go and sit. They have like
a couch like nice company lounge chairs. So favorite thing
to do is go there, snag one of those and
do like a flight and just kind of sample these
small pores of their spirits because they're so well made
that they're good sipping spirits. Even the moonshine, which is
(25:31):
kind of shocking because normally think of moonshine is so
abrasive and intense. This one is great. Like I could
just simple not a lot, but like it's nice to
have a little sample of it and really appreciate the
precision in work that they put into their products because
it really moonshines through. Yeah, and definitely like I can't
(25:53):
recommend their swag enough. They have shirts, hats just like
sweaters and jackets, and they have damage. They have skis.
I think they even have shot skis, which I'm really
depressed that we didn't get shot. So in case you're
wondering shot skis are this kind of mountain town Western
(26:14):
tradition where it's like it's basically group friendly shot where
there's a ski, um, a ski that has like shot
glasses four shot permanently attached because you don't want them
to fall off. Because what you do is you grab
that ski with four other friends and you put your
(26:34):
shots in there, and then you all like say one
to three, and you shoot them all together, and most
like more than likely like one of you are just
gonna get your shot poured on you versus in your
mouth because unless you really care less, but you're all
that's meant to be wild and crazy. So it's fine, right,
I know there's no like delicate, like fancy way to
do a shot ski, but yeah, while you're at tenth
(26:55):
Mountain Whiskey, just be mindful of how much you drink
because you could I could go nuts and that like
swag area and just like buy everything and I think
you did time, probably did um. But yeah, and also
you do have to remember that when you're in the mountains,
you know your tolerance is going to be a lot lower.
Another thing, if you're used to drinking two cocktails, like
(27:17):
start with one and just let it sit in because
you're not. You're not like you're gonna get a little tipsy,
a lot quicker. Yeah, Veil is very high up and
especially so if you go to the top of the mountain,
whether you hike up there or take the gondola or something.
So and think that's another thing. When you're hiking or
coming up or down, even just like a four foot elevation,
(27:40):
you do have to think about your hydration and your everything.
There's so much to think about it. So it's like
all the normal necessities but like times five. So just
become overprepared with all that stuff. And then but if
you had to wrap up Veil and tell everyone what
it is that you love the most about it, what
(28:01):
the thing I love most about it? I think, And
it reminds me almost of like Epcot or something in
this sense where like it's this community that had this
bold vision, this very specific vision, and they honed in
on it so well and created something very distinct, like
the you know, the initial developers of the town wanted
(28:21):
to bring this like alpine culture and motif to the
Rocky mountains, and it's astonishing how they're able to succeed
with that, and it maintained it's maintained ever since, and
it continues to do that. Whenever there's not a ton
of new construction here that's such a kind of confined,
controlled community, but whenever new things do develop, whether it's
(28:42):
a restaurant or a new hotel or whatever, like everything
fits into that and just builds upon that, so it
only gets better and better. And I love that so much,
how transformative it is and immersive. When you go here,
it really feels like nothing else, Like brack and Water
is not that far from here, Aspen's not toubly far,
and Vail sets itself apart with this specific feel, and
(29:06):
as you can, you'll quickly be a little toe from
the restaurants, this very specific caste that is really enriching
and the most some of the most soulful food, often
by families. A lot of these businesses our family owned,
and so it all kind of ties together to this big,
like warm hug of a of a town, a hug
(29:27):
that costs a lot of money, but it's a hug.
You've been listening to park Landia, a show about national parks.
Parkland is a production of My Heart Radio created by
Matt Carrouac Brad Caro wac and Christopher has e otis
produced and edited by Mike John's. Our executive producer is
Christopher Hasiotis, our researchers Jescelyn Shields. Special Things goes out
(29:50):
to Gabrielle Collins, Crystal Waters and the rest of the
Parklandia crew and Hey listeners, If you're enjoying the show,
leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other
people like you find our show. You can keep up
with us on social media as well. Check out our
photos from our travels on Instagram at parkla India Pod
and join in on the conversation in our Facebook group
parkl India Rangers. From our podcasts my Heart Radio, visit
(30:12):
the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows, and as always, thank you for listening.
Parklandia News
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Brad Kirouac
Matt Kirouac
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