Looking for the best restaurants in Breckenridge? Check out all these places to eat in Breckenridge, Colorado for the ultimate foodie vacation!
This year has been rough, but one of the handful of highlights was the opportunity to take a week-long end of summer vacation to Breckenridge. I feel so blessed to have had this opportunity as it really was a much-needed break from many challenges we faced this year.
While Breckenridge, Colorado is typically known as a mountain ski town, it has so much to offer other times of the year, especially summer! We absolutely loved the cool and crisp mountain air, beautiful green scenery, the rich history of this small tourist town and even all the cliché touristy stuff.
Of course, being foodies, we wanted to check out as much of the local food and drink scene as possible. The only problem was that we were kind of on a budget and so took advantage of the full kitchen in our vacation condo, preparing and eating most breakfasts, and some lunches and dinners at our condo.
Even though we were on a budget and prepared a lot of meals at home, we were still able to take advantage of various happy hours and splurged a little to try several different restaurants around town.
It’s weird because even though we were on vacation, preparing a few simple meals, like breakfast sandwiches, burgers and hot dogs and even a simple slow cooker dinner didn’t seem like work. In fact, it was nice to be able to sleep in and have breakfast foods right there in our condo, rather than having to run out and pick something up first thing in the morning. And after a long day of hiking and exploring the mountains, coming back to our condo with dinner in the slow cooker and just relaxing on the patio was much nicer than worrying about going out.
If you visit Breckenridge, I highly recommend staying in a place with a kitchen. Since Breckenridge is a small town they only have a couple of grocery stores. City Market (400 North Parkway, Breckenridge, CO 80424) is a small, but typical grocery store. It’s actually owned by Kroger, so if you have a Kroger (or Kroger brand store) card you can use it there! The more “Mom and Pop” grocery store in town is Breckenridge Market and Liquor (311 S Ridge St, Breckenridge, CO 80424). The food selection here is not quite as big as the City Market, but since in Colorado, you can only buy beer 3% or less ABV at the grocery store or gas station, this is where you want to go if you want to take home a bottle of wine or choose from a large selection of premium craft beer. Note: As of January 1, 2019 you can now get full ABV beers at grocery and convenience stores in Colorado.
Below are the restaurants we dined at while vacationing in Breckenridge. Since Breckenridge has a large selection of highly rated locally owned restaurants, I heavily researched the options available. This included asking friends who have visited Breckenridge, asking locals and researching online by reading various reviews and scrutinizing the online menus.
Places to Eat in Breckenridge, Colorado:
Downstairs at Eric’s {111 S Main St, Breckenridge, CO}
This causal pizza and burger joint came highly recommended by several locals. And no wonder, it’s been a popular Breckenridge hang out for almost 30 years! The vibe is like you are hanging out in your best friend’s basement (there are a ton of arcade games, TV’s and an assortment of posters, sports memorabilia and street signs that line the brick walls).
The menu consists of your favorite bar food, but better. Wings, burgers, sandwiches, soup and salads, nachos and pizza. We landed here when we wanted pizza one night and every local we asked where to get good pizza, recommended this place.
We got the “Badly Mountain Pizza” – house made crust (they have gluten free available) with olive oil, bacon, artichoke hearts, caramelized onions, spinach and goat cheese. As well as a Sausage and Pepperoni Calzone.
In addition to having a pretty impressive food menu, Downstairs at Eric’s has 30 beers on tap and over 50 different bottled beers.
We were there at the end of the summer, so the end of the peak summer travel, but this was still a super busy place with a small wait, so I’m sure during ski season it is even busier.
FYI, they serve lunch and dinner and do to-go orders.
Breckenridge Brewery & Pub {600 S Main St, Breckenridge, CO 80424}
This local brew pub has a pretty impressive list of house made beers and beer cocktails. They have a traditional line of beers (oatmeal stout, vanilla porter, IPA, lager, etc.) but also have seasonal beers, like a summer pilsner and pumpkin beer) as well as a line of nitro beers.
We took advantage of their happy hour ($2 off draft beers and ½ off appetizers) and sampled some of their beers and appetizers (I actually sipped on a blackberry cream beer cocktail). We got Beer Cheese Fries (so good), hot wings (typical) and the Agave Shrimp (loved) with chorizo, an agave wheat beer sauce and buttered toast points.
The regular menu looked pretty impressive too (think upscale bar favorites), with Ruby Red Trout, Elk Meatloaf and Turkey Apple Sandwich (with brie, bacon, pomegranate reduction served on a flaky croissant).
Broken Compass Brewing {68 Continental Ct, Breckenridge, CO 80424}
Broken Compass Brewing is a local brewery that all the locals and tourists LOVE to hang out at. When we went, early evening, it was busy with little room to sit. They have about 12 beers on tap, with classics like an Irish Red and Double IPA, but they also had some specialty flavors, like a Coconut Porter (pictured above) which had great flavor and I l really enjoyed. Other specialty beers they offer include a chile pepper pale ale, a peach bourbon barrel hefeweizen and ginger pale ale. Of all the local Colorado beers we tried while on vacation, Eric (the beer connoisseur) said Broken Compass was his favorite.
Insider tip: Broken Compass offers a FREE shuttle service around Breckenridge on the weekends. They also have a full calendar of special events like live music, trivia night and a community potluck, etc.
Breckenridge Distillery {1925 Airport Rd, Breckenridge, CO 80424}
Of all the places we dined or sipped on drinks, Breckenridge Distillery was probably our favorite. They offer a free tour and tasting (which included sampling of 3-4 of their basic liquors ie: vodka, gin and bourbon), but you can pay $10 to get samples of 3 of their specialty liquors and spirits, like their spiced rum and their pear vodka). Tours are every day between 11am-6pm on the hour and half hour.
In addition to tours, the distillery offers a full restaurant (only open Tuesday – Saturday in the evenings) and bar (open Tuesday – Saturday, 11am to 9pm) featuring craft cocktails using the house made, award winning spirits.
While we heard amazing things about the restaurant here, we only ordered cocktails and took the tour. We tried the Perfect Mule (Breckenridge pear vodka, brown sugar/cinnamon simple, apple juice, ginger beer and lime.) and the Farmers Market Bourbon Smash (Breckenridge bourbon, fresh Colorado peaches, lemon, Orgeat.).
My husband and I agreed that the Perfect Mule, really was perfect and was the best Moscow Mule we’ve ever had. I think part of what made the mule so great was the Breckenridge pear vodka which they make using fresh pears; so no artificial flavors, just a refreshing, crisp pear flavor. The pear vodka was also good mixed with soda water and lime.
I think we liked this place so much, not because we are big drinkers, but because the patio was so nice and inviting. The patio is dog friendly and has yard games and big comfy yard furniture. We simply enjoyed hanging out in this space on a cool summer afternoon.
Inside Tip: They also offer a FREE shuttle service, which will pick you up and drop you off all over Breckenridge and is available all week long, from open to close. They also have a daily happy hour with half of the house spirits (served as a shot or mixed with soda).
Kava Café {209 N Main St, Breckenridge, CO 80424}
Kava Café lured us in with the smell of freshly fried, melt in your mouth doughnuts! This small cozy cafe sells hot, made to order mini cake doughnuts tossed in powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, and a maple brown sugar. You can also get hot melted Nutella or caramel for dipping. Since we love doughnuts this is the *only* place in Breckenridge to get freshly made doughnuts. There is another “traditional” doughnut shop in town, but it is a chain and their doughnuts are not made to order.
In addition to doughnuts, Kava Café can make a variety of specialty coffee drinks as well as other breakfast items like breakfast burritos.
FYI, since this place is small there is only a few seats available inside the café and a mall outdoor patio. They are also only open in the morning.
Higgles Ice Cream Food Truck (available summer only)
Y’all, Higgles Ice Cream was my favorite food (besides the fresh local peaches from the farmer’s market) we ate! Since this was our end of summer shebang, the one treat I wanted was ice cream. I dreamt those two perfect scoops on top of a crisp waffle cone for weeks leading up to our vacation. But when did my research, and looked for local ice cream shops in Breckenridge all I found were local bakeries, coffee shops, etc. that sold ice cream, and all that ice cream wasn’t made in house.
Then one day when we were walking around main street I saw the Higgles Ice Cream cart parked in front of a local park. We walked by I when I learned their ice cream was homemade and saw all the amazing flavors, I knew this was the place for my perfect scoop!
We got Sweet Corn and Blackberry Swirl ice cream, which was flavorful, creamy and not overly sweet! a.k.a dreamy and perfect. Other flavors they had were lemon buttermilk, cookie butter, root beer and chocolate stout with chocolate chips.
Blue River Bistro {305 N Main St, Breckenridge, CO 80424}
This was another spot recommended by locals. It is a martini bar and upscale restaurant with live music. It has a great bar happy hour with buy one get one martinis and appetizers. We tried the Snickers Martini (Skyy vodka, irish cream, Kahlua, hazelnut) which really tasted like a Snickers candy bar as well as the Gin Blossom (Edinburgh gin, muddled basil, lemon simple syrup) which was refreshing.
We ended up not eating anything here, because we thought we were going to go back another night and didn’t, which is something I regret as the menu items looked so good.
Some of the appetizers we saw at our neighbors tables that looked good was the Honey & Cashew Encrusted Brie and Diver Scallops. And if we were to go back to eat, I was going to get the roasted beet and goat cheese salad and the Tortellini Carbonara.
Clint’s Bakery & Coffee House {131 S Main St, Breckenridge, CO 80424}
We ran into Clint’s on a cold rainy afternoon to get a cup of coffee. They serve a variety of hot drinks, including cider, hot chocolate, tea, flavored milk steamers and of course specialty coffee drinks. I highly recommend the Almond Joy Mocha and the Salty Caramel Latte.
Clint’s also sells a variety of baked goods that looked fabulous and included vegan and gluten free options.
My only complaint about this coffee house was the poor customer service we received, as the first barista to “help” us was more concerned about talking to a family member that walked up as we were trying to place our order. It is also a very small coffee house with limited seating inside.
Hearthstone Restaurant {130 S Ridge St, Breckenridge, CO 80424}
The Hearthstone Restaurant has a rich history, as was a family home built in the 1800’s. It’s been a favorite local restaurant, dishing up local, seasonal menu items for almost 30 years. It is another place that comes highly recommended and one we wanted to try because we wanted to enjoy a meal of local lamb, elk, trout, etc.
Unfortunately, the wait time was long and they didn’t quite have the items we were looking for. My husband wanted elk (which they had) but I really wanted trout, so we decided to take advantage of the happy hour and sit on the beautiful patio and watch the sunset over the mountains.
We got the peach caprese salad with fresh local peaches and heirloom tomatoes (seriously, the peaches in Colorado are the best I’ve ever had!!!), Colorado lamb meatballs (with roasted garlic tomato sauce), sesame beef wontons and strawberry serrano mules.
For sticking to a budget we ate pretty darn well in Breckenridge and yet, there were so many places we didn’t make it to. Since we had such a great time on our trip, we definitely want to go back; so I want to know, what are your favorite places to eat in Breckenridge, Colorado?
This post is part of my special travel series: Kitchen Adventures… when life takes me outside the kitchen! For more travel ideas, click here or visit my Travel Pinterest board!
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