Beaver Creek: Grouse Mountain Grill

After we arrived and settled into the hotel, we wanted to grab a quick bite to eat since we were hungry from flying all day. The hotel lobby has Grouse Mountain Grill, which was close, has seasonal and local ingredients and had an open reservation. We sat down by the windows and had a great view of the mountains while we were dining. The menu is very fresh, using ingredients they get from local farmer’s markets when possible – we started with some bread and three different types of butters and dipping sauces:

As an amuse bouche, they gave us each a beef short rib lettuce wrap:

The meat was very lean, braised in local coffee, and topped with micro cilantro and pickled jalapeno. The butter lettuce made it perfectly bite-sized for us – Ken and I were saying it would be great to have it as an appetizer at our wedding!

For our first course, we ordered the seafood crudo, which was tuna and yellowtail wrapped with cilantro and radishes:

Very delicious – they also used yuzu and soy sauce, which added a nice fresh citrusy flavor.

For Ken’s entree, he ordered the pan roasted Florida grouper:

The grouper was topped with cippolini onions, savoy cabbage, and white beans. Ken thoroughly enjoyed the hearty dish that he paired with a glass of wine.

And I didn’t see anything I wanted on the menu so I asked if they could prepare something protein-based – they were able to make chicken breast with carrots and green beans:

The chicken breast was very delicious (why isn’t it on their regular menu?) and the carrots and green beans were very fresh and sweet.

We finished dinner and retired to our rooms because we were getting ready for a full day of skiing. I had taken Diamox earlier in the week after being scared into calling in a prescription by my coworkers, but was so glad that I did because after skiing in the morning, I completely lost all of my energy and felt drained while we were skiing down a run – I can’t even imagine what it would’ve been like if I hadn’t taken the medication! The one side effect that got to me was that carbonated beverages started tasting very different and some foods tasted a little weird – luckily, none of the foods at Grouse Mountain Grill tasted weird because of the medication!