Forty miles of valley, five towns, one question: where is the best restaurant in the Roaring Fork? Not decided by an editor, a critic, or anyone flown in for the weekend — decided by the cooks, servers, bartenders and neighbours who eat here all year.
Every guide to this valley is written by someone looking in. A critic comes for a weekend, eats four dinners, and files a ranking. A magazine lists the rooms with the best photographs. Neither of them has ever worked a double here, or driven Highway 82 in February, or eaten somewhere on a Tuesday because it was the only place open and left genuinely happy.
The people who have done all three are the ones who live here. Cooks, servers, bartenders, dishwashers, and the neighbours who eat out every week of the year. They know which kitchen is consistent in March, which one quietly got better, and which one coasts on a reputation it earned a decade ago.
So this award has one electorate: them. One title, one winner, and the whole valley eligible — Aspen, Snowmass, Basalt, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs. A taqueria on Main Street in Carbondale starts exactly level with a tasting menu on Mill Street, because to the people voting, it always was.
Sixty-odd restaurants splitting a few hundred votes would crown a winner with twenty-five of them, and a title like that is not worth putting in a window. So it runs in two rounds.
Write in one restaurant. Anywhere in the valley, any price, any size. Counted, not curated.
The eight most-nominated restaurants go through, published here with their nomination counts.
Eight names, one vote each, head to head. This is where the title is actually decided.
One restaurant, the full count published, and a seal for their window.
The ballot unlocks on Wednesday, October 7 at 9am. Until then the form below is locked — have a look at what it asks, and come back when the clock runs out.
Takes thirty seconds. Write-in, no shortlist — a shortlist decides the answer before you do.
Thank you — it is counted. The final eight go up on this page on October 15, and we will email you when voting opens.
We write about these restaurants all year and we have opinions about every one of them. But an editor's verdict on the best room in a valley full of people who cook for a living is worth less than what those people would tell you after service. So this one is not ours. We built it, we will count it honestly, and we will publish every number — and then we will get out of the way.
If you work in a kitchen or behind a bar here, yours is the vote that matters most.