It’s cold outside.  Very cold.  So cold that no matter how many silk layers or how nice your down jacket is, you can still feel the chill penetrate your bones.  Solution?  Go inside.  In Aspen, there’s little else to do about the high elevation weather.  Sure, you can deck yourself out in the latest mountain cat furs or drink yourself silly with locally fermented alcohols but in the end, the temperatures will still be freezing.  So take that well dressed arse to your nearest locavore-friendly establishment and warm up where the eats are good.

Examples?  How about a lunch at Escape and dessert at Ink?  Escape is the recently refurbished “veggie-centric” restaurant on the second floor of Explore Booksellers.  Though I’ll openly admit that I would’ve voted to keep the old version alive as long as possible in the stead of this more swanky addition, the food is decent and the tree-top view worth the walk over.  For your après-meal, try Ink! Coffee, just around the bend.  The small shop is physically connected to a sporting goods store, which makes sitting down for a treat and warm drink a little bit more exciting.  Plus, the coffee beans there are roasted by the company itself, allowing for a much richer cup.  To top it all off, the crumb-topped coffee cake and gooey brownie at Ink! are both more flavorful and satisfying than most coffee house snacks.  Overall?  Yet another memorable mark has been made in my foodie-based notebook.

-Serena

I found this ad for Escape at Explore Booksellers while reading edible Aspen.

Tags: buy local, colorado, eat local, local foods, locavore

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 7:00 am and is filed under Buy Local, Eat Local. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.