The Lodge at Vail boasts two of the valley's best restaurants
and one of the country's top piano bars



By Eric O'Keefe

Dining at the Wildflower Terrace is a summertime tradition in Vail

It has served as workers quarters as well as the western White House. It has hosted Ute Indians, sundry royals, and countless world class athletes. Rooms once went for as little as $10 a night (including dinner, breakfast, and a gondola ride). Book the palatial Presidential Suite these days and you're out $3,500 a night in season. (Don't fret: The tariff drops down to three grand during the summer months.)

The Lodge at Vail has gone from out of the way to in style, thanks to a recently completed $17 million expansion and renovation. Located literally at the foot of North America's largest ski mountain (the Vista Bahn is 30 yards from the property's eastern edge), The Lodge has come a long way from the summers when workers at the fledgling resort cut trails and constructed lifts by day and bunked at the property each night. The European-style chalet is Vail's sole listing with Preferred Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, and according to the Zagat Survey, guests at The Lodge and visitors to Vail have named it the valley's top dining.

The Lodge at Vail actually offers three different dining experiences.

"Letting the flavor of great ingredients come through" is the culinary philosophy of Tom Gay, executive chef at The Lodge and chef de cuisine at the Wildflower. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, his American cuisine with strong Mediterranean overtones favors simple, straight forward food and emphasizes Colorado's incredible array of fresh produce, beef, fish, and fowl. The menu not only takes advantage of the different ingredients available during different seasons, but also takes into account the different dining habits of each season. "People prefer lighter meals during the busier, more active summer season. That's when I might go from serving a veal chop to veal medallions, use lighter sauces, and more vinaigrettes," he says.

Working side by side with Chef Gay is sommelier John Vitale. According to Vitale, the inventory of 14,000 to 20,000 bottles covers every continent and all price points. Vitale updates the Wildflower's wine lists several times a week including the 50 to 75 wines by the glass. Despite the fact that many of his patrons request specific dishes and the same wines from, say, California or France, he exuberantly extols the virtues of little known labels from atypical regions like Michigan, for instance, or Lebanon. Of course, major wine producing regions like France, Italy, Spain, South America, and Australia are represented.

Over at the Cucina Rustica, Pittsburgh native and chef de cuisine Tom Hays keeps busiest during ski season when the Cucina serves a sumptuous breakfast buffet followed almost immediately by a hearty lunch buffet for skiers. So many of The Lodge's guests book extended stays that both services change daily. At dinnertime, Hays wears a third hat: overseeing an authentic Italian kitchen, routinely staffed by Italian chefs visiting the Vail Valley on temporary work visas.

Part of the Cucina's all-Italian experience, according to sommelier Willem Johnson, is to take wine aficionados who rarely stray from a single country or style and to introduce them to the Italians. "I've got all kinds of Italians to open their eyes-- and their palates," says Johnson. With several dozen wines by the glass, it need not be a big jump-- at first.

No doubt the best known member of the staff doesn't serve food; Mickey Poage cooks up mayhem and mirth at his signature piano and wine bar on The Lodge's mezzanine level.

Copyright ©1999 Cowboys & Indians


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