Favorite ski bars

[ski diva]

In my new Ski Diva mystery, FADE TO WHITE, there's a bar called "The Broken Binding." The main character, Stacey Curtis, works there. It's where skiers and locals gather to eat, have a beer, and trade lies. I love the backstory for the place:

From FADE TO WHITE:

The restaurant was a long, low-slung place spread out along the main drag from Connecticut, just at the edge of town. Like every other ski-town eatery in the Green Mountain State, it had a past. It had gone up in the sixties with barnboard paneling everywhere and a moose head mounted over the fireplace, and it was called the Broken Binding until a group of German investors arrived and gutted it and jammed it with corny Bavarian décor and rechristened it the Edelweiss. That didn’t last, and when the Deutschmark went into a slump against the dollar for just a little bit too long the bikers moved in to destroy whatever progress the Prussians had made. The bloom, in other words, was off the Edelweiss. Locals who knew what they were talking about shortened the place’s name to the ‘Weiss and pronounced it with a V and stayed away, until one winter night when a snowplow finally took the sign down and nobody even noticed.

But now the old Binding was back, thanks to an infusion of cash and kindness from a retired investment banker named Pete Hardwick, the finest export that New York had sent to Vermont in a long time. The look of the place passed for retro these days although the barnboard paneling was new, and even the original moose head—discovered in an attic crawl space stinking of beer and cigarette smoke and a pungent old hint of sauerbraten—had been restored to a place of honor above the mantle.

Do you have a favorite ski bar? Where is it and what makes it special?

 

[Jilly]

We enjoy two places at Tremblant. Fat Mardi's and Le Diable. And its not the furniture, its the people. We know the staff by name.

After that - the bar at Owl's Head. So much fun. Haven't been in a few years, but some of the chair are triangular in shape, only 3 legs. You know when you've had too much!

The Dam Brewery in Dillion was alot of fun last spring.

 

[LilaBear]

The Gold Pan in Breckenridge. Touts it's fame as the oldest bar in town, and it sure looks that way. If you pass by in the daytime it looks like a boarded up dusty old building, but at night it often has live music and room to dance. I love to hear good live music anywhere, and if it's danceable .... well I'm there once Friday or Saturday each weekend. It's not a great drinking bar though, a little too loud and crowded.

 

[dloveski]

Molly Green's, Brighton, Utah.

It's been around forever. I partied there in the early '70's with ski patrol and during the 90's and 2000's, it was my kids' bar of choice :-0

It hasn't changed much. And it is really like home. It's the place where the locals (canyon residents/workers) convene on any given night.

https://www.cityweekly.net/utah/view-place-3543-molly-greens.html

 

[gardenmary]

I don't know if it's technically a "ski bar" but there's an Irish pub on the main street in Park City called Flanagan's where we hung out one night last year, and had some of the best food of the whole trip. We were only in town one night so DH & DS could do the skeleton at the Utah Olympic Park. They made the best shepherd's pie I've ever had, and DH had something called a "boxty" that was awesome. Fun place, nice folks, great service!

 

[Jilly]

At Whistler-Blackcomb - the Longhorn on the Whistler side. And Monk's on the Blackcomb side!

 

[Skisailor]

Matterhorn - on the Mountain Road between Stowe village and Mt. Mansfield . . . eveything from sushi to wood-fired pizza, and a fantastic beer selection to boot!

The apres ski bar at Mad River Glen (don't know the name!). It just has the absolutely perfect apres ski ambience. Small and cozy but not too dark. Great beers. Lots of wood. I can't quite describe it, but I could sit in there all damn day . . . . :D

 

[Slidergirl]

Park City Mt. Resort:
Corner Store - at PCMR. $2 PBRs. Where the lifties hang.
Legends - where the "over-30" employees hang.

now, at Deer Valley, we also have the bar up at the St. Regis. Haven't been yet, but I've heard it is now a place to go.

In town: Doolan's. where the lifties hang after The Corner Store closes...(some of them took me there one night!)

Jackson: Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. Gotta go at least once. Also used to go to the Cadillac, but I don't know if it's still there.

 

[SkiPow]

Steamboat: Tugboat (Great music and a fun crowd!)

Jackson Hole: Mangy Moose (1st went to this bar in 1979; Still one of my all-time faves!)

 

[AltaBird]

The Elephant Bar in St. Anton, located on the mountian. Party till late at night then ski down in the dark.