Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This is part Glandia,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. We sold our loft
Speaker 1: in Chicago, moving into an RV. Now we're traveling in
Speaker 1: the country full time with our dog Finn, exploring America's
Speaker 1: national parks. And today we are doing another episode of
Speaker 1: Traveling Eats with Matt. Matt, what are we talking about today?
Speaker 1: This is a good one. This is kind of my
Speaker 1: dream place. We're talking about Veil, Colorado, literally a dream,
Speaker 1: dream place. This is the type of place where if
Speaker 1: I win the lottery, I almost said when I win
Speaker 1: the lottery, right, So if I win the lottery, I
Speaker 1: would totally buy like some serious property here because it's
Speaker 1: like Mountaintown Paradise. That really doesn't get much better than this.
Speaker 1: So Veil is like what a couple of hours drive
Speaker 1: from Denver into the mountains. Yeah, it's not too bad.
Speaker 1: It's a couple of hours, like two and a half maybe,
Speaker 1: So as long as you're not going like on a weekend,
Speaker 1: like at the height of weekend traffic to Veil, you'll
Speaker 1: you can get there. We had a rental car for
Speaker 1: this trip, so we didn't we didn't drive the air
Speaker 1: V up here either. Yeah, so I've been to Veil
Speaker 1: a couple of times, both in the summer, so I
Speaker 1: have not been here in the winter for skiing or anything.
Speaker 1: And this is primarily known as I think, like a
Speaker 1: bougie skiing mecca people. It's right up there with Aspen
Speaker 1: and breck and Ridge and Park City and whatnot. And
Speaker 1: I would absolutely love to be here in the winter
Speaker 1: and do some of that, But my two experiences with
Speaker 1: the Veil have been in the summer, and this is
Speaker 1: a mind blowing the beautiful place in the summer, and
Speaker 1: it's also incredibly delicious with really specific and interesting history.
Speaker 1: Although short a pretty recent history. It's not nearly as
Speaker 1: old as like Asthmen or Park City or most other
Speaker 1: kind of iconic skiing mountain pounds. Yeah, it's kind of
Speaker 1: funny like that between like as Been Veil and Breckon Ridge. Um,
Speaker 1: it's like that Disney movie Johnny Tsunami, like when we
Speaker 1: were kids, Like the snowboarders were like the Breckenridgers and
Speaker 1: then the skiers were the Veil like crowd. But even
Speaker 1: like above that, I guess, like Aspen, like they all
Speaker 1: like talked down each other. It's crazy so weird. Yeah
Speaker 1: I never saw that movie or TV show or whatever,
Speaker 1: but yeah, they do have an interesting relationship. And what
Speaker 1: makes Veiled so distinct and so fascinating is compared to
Speaker 1: those two and a lot of other places that originated
Speaker 1: as like mining towns, like hundreds of years ago, this
Speaker 1: is much more recent. This was never a mining town.
Speaker 1: It kind of blossomed fresh from nothing in the in
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties because it was envisioned as a great
Speaker 1: location for more skiing and potential resorts and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And the town's founders wanted to create something reminiscent of
Speaker 1: Bavarian culture and the Alps in Austria, and it just
Speaker 1: the location and in the atmosphere here just really fit that.
Speaker 1: And that's what they did. They envisioned it, and they
Speaker 1: constructed this town to echo that. And it's that's why
Speaker 1: it's so beautiful and so unique, is it's a little
Speaker 1: slice of the Alps in the rocky mountains and it's amazing.
Speaker 1: I love it so much. I could just wander around
Speaker 1: here in awe and that's exactly what I do. So
Speaker 1: my first time here in Vale was a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago in September, like early September, nice and warm,
Speaker 1: perfectly sunny, and it was a lot of out plenty
Speaker 1: of outdoor activities. Still, the hiking is amazing on Vale Mountain.
Speaker 1: Lots of trails you can do, fly fishing in rivers
Speaker 1: and Gore Creek which runs right through Vale and Vale
Speaker 1: Village beautiful, such a beautiful creek, yes, And other water
Speaker 1: activities like rafting and kayaking, canoeing, stuff like that. Really
Speaker 1: anything in great leaf peeping in the fall to September October,
Speaker 1: the aspen trees are so beautiful, like bright yellow. So
Speaker 1: the thing that I wanted to talk about and focus
Speaker 1: on today, obviously this is traveling eats, is the food
Speaker 1: culture here and the delightful restaurant and bar steam that
Speaker 1: Vale has because for a town that's not very big,
Speaker 1: it certainly has a lot in the restaurants I think
Speaker 1: are world class. Yeah, there's restaurants right right, so a
Speaker 1: lot of them reminiscent or in line with this kind
Speaker 1: of Bavarian theme of the whole community. They have, unsurprisingly
Speaker 1: a lot of restaurants that are like Austrian or German
Speaker 1: or you know, serving things like fun do and schnitzel
Speaker 1: and nice hardy like alpine mountain food, which is so wonderful.
Speaker 1: We kind of rarely eat stuff like that because it's
Speaker 1: not very common place. We don't see it on the road.
Speaker 1: But this is one of those places where not only
Speaker 1: you can find it, but it's in abundance, much to
Speaker 1: our delight. So I wouldn't like I think my favorite.
Speaker 1: And I've been here twice. I was here on my
Speaker 1: own first for my work trip, and then we went
Speaker 1: back together when we were here in I think it
Speaker 1: was June, and it's this restaurant called alm Resi A
Speaker 1: L M R E s I. It's in Veil Village,
Speaker 1: So Veil is first, is kind of divitd into two
Speaker 1: main sections. There's Veil Village and Lion's Head Village, and
Speaker 1: there's other other parts of it too, but those are
Speaker 1: the two main hearts of Veil, and that's where most
Speaker 1: of the restaurants and businesses are. So am Rezi is
Speaker 1: in Veil Village. It's this like heartwarmingly cozy restaurant run
Speaker 1: by a family of um a German family who moved
Speaker 1: here because they were so smitten with the rocky mountains.
Speaker 1: While they're vacationing here, which is understandable but that's also yeah,
Speaker 1: they were they uprooted their life and they came here
Speaker 1: and they wanted to bring a taste of home with them,
Speaker 1: and they're sharing their culture and their recipes with us
Speaker 1: at this restaurant, which is located on the second floor
Speaker 1: of a building like right and Veil Village, so you're
Speaker 1: kind of you're going up there. It's the like snuggist, warmest,
Speaker 1: most welcoming little place. It really kind of feels like
Speaker 1: an alpine cottage or something. It has lots of dark
Speaker 1: wood paneling and a paste a huge pastry counter filled
Speaker 1: with things like strudles, and then there's a ton of
Speaker 1: cuckoo clocks to which are a real trade. You don't
Speaker 1: see those very often. Yeah, like intricate, intricately carved cuckoo
Speaker 1: clocks of all shapes and sizes. And then they even
Speaker 1: have like when if you do shots here, they have
Speaker 1: these cute little glass boot shaped shock classes that are
Speaker 1: specifically designed for doing shots of like snops. I love
Speaker 1: it so much, and there's no yeah, that's a whole
Speaker 1: another thing, but you should by all means do shots
Speaker 1: of snaps out of little boots because it's as tasty
Speaker 1: as it is adorable, and the food here is just really,
Speaker 1: really good. It's the most soulful food that I've had
Speaker 1: in a while, and you can really taste like the
Speaker 1: family legacy of these recipes. They're clearly like time worn
Speaker 1: and made with love. As cliche as that sounds, but
Speaker 1: it really fits. And there are things like cheese fund
Speaker 1: of course, these big buttery pretzels, Swiss potato pancakes. They
Speaker 1: can get topped with things like smoked salmon and then
Speaker 1: gigantic like dinosaur sized porchanks. And for the desserts, you
Speaker 1: absolutely have to have some desserts or share it or
Speaker 1: something make room because they're wonderful, like those strudles I mentioned.
Speaker 1: Or Their signature is something that's kind of hard to pronounce.
Speaker 1: It's called kaiser schmarn. It's an Austrian pancake dessert. Essentially,
Speaker 1: it's not one big pancake. They're kind of like little
Speaker 1: tiny pancake morsels and they're all dusted with powdered sugar
Speaker 1: and served with this tangy tart cherry compot, a nice
Speaker 1: counterbalance to the sugar and like kind of doughy sweetness
Speaker 1: of the pancake. It's really good. The drinks are also
Speaker 1: really amazing, Like this is littal place you go to
Speaker 1: have mald wine or glue winus is called, or something
Speaker 1: like what you had which was so cool and really different.
Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like it. It was called another
Speaker 1: another really long, hard to pronounce word, faer zangain bell
Speaker 1: I don't even that just sounded like dibberish. But it's
Speaker 1: look on the menu for something that is described as
Speaker 1: spicy mould wine with a rum soaked piece of sugar,
Speaker 1: and that sugar is kind of perched on top of
Speaker 1: the mug, so it's dangling over the spiced mald wine.
Speaker 1: And what that does is, once split on fire, it'll
Speaker 1: gradually steadily kind of dripped down into the wine and
Speaker 1: enrich it and sweeten it a little bit. And it's
Speaker 1: quite a spectacle and fun to instagram. But be careful
Speaker 1: to drink it cautiously. You don't want to like plunge
Speaker 1: your face into a flaming sugar cube. Then they also
Speaker 1: have things like hot chocolate with rum or black tea
Speaker 1: with from lots of Austrian beers, so plenty of things
Speaker 1: to sip on and saber here. And we could just
Speaker 1: come back like easily. Yeah. Another good example in Veil
Speaker 1: in Veil Village is this place called alpin Rose. This
Speaker 1: place has been around for a long time, since nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy four. But you know what's really fun about this
Speaker 1: is that the al Morezi owners, Um the father, he
Speaker 1: came here in four and that's where he went and
Speaker 1: he's loved alban Rose ever since. And so just this
Speaker 1: past year they were like alpin Rose was selling it
Speaker 1: and guess who bought it? People absolutely, And that's such
Speaker 1: a fascinating thing because it's like he got inspired so
Speaker 1: much so that he came and opened up his own
Speaker 1: restaurant and now he's buying the one that or his
Speaker 1: family is buying the one that Um was inspired. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean that's like such a beautiful full circle, Like
Speaker 1: you were saying, that's the dreams. It's like, I just
Speaker 1: love that that's the community that this restaurant tour and
Speaker 1: this family has. It's like they want to make sure
Speaker 1: that they continue to sell that legacy. That's a great thing.
Speaker 1: That's a fantastic like that just warms my soul. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so often Rose clearly very inspiring, and it's been around
Speaker 1: a lot longer than most places here. This has been
Speaker 1: an operation, like you said, since nineteen seventy four, which
Speaker 1: is close to the inception of the whole town in general.
Speaker 1: And it's just this well worn, rustic dining room. It honestly,
Speaker 1: it feels like something out of Frozen. This movie pro
Speaker 1: It has that kind of vibe, almost Nordic and really
Speaker 1: dark wood and like, because what's the town of Frozement,
Speaker 1: Like I didn't Arabell or something. I don't don't well,
Speaker 1: I'm just recently getting I'm recently getting into Proson. I
Speaker 1: only saw it for the first time like a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago, but allly in before Frozen two came out,
Speaker 1: right yeah, and then we saw Frozen two and no,
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with it but still kind of piecing things together.
Speaker 1: But it did remind me of that, and it reminded
Speaker 1: me of like the Frozen redded upcot. So this is
Speaker 1: all very fresh and I obviously love anything that reminds
Speaker 1: me of a Disney movie, especially Frozen, and Alpin Rose
Speaker 1: is really great. The food totally matches that ambiance too,
Speaker 1: with rich things and meaty things like brought worst and
Speaker 1: sauerkraut and cheesy spait ceil lots of German beer, and
Speaker 1: of course you can get German beer served in those
Speaker 1: huge overwhelming Stein's great for cheers ing and chugging. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then another like Veil classic that's been around for
Speaker 1: a long time is this place called Peppi's Bar and Restaurant.
Speaker 1: And this is another decades old place with all those cozy,
Speaker 1: charming vibes. And this one is named for an Austrian
Speaker 1: skier named Peppie Graham Shammer, which great name, my gosh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so he was an international racer on the Austrian
Speaker 1: ski team in the fifties and that's who inspired the
Speaker 1: name of this restaurant. So today and ever since its inception,
Speaker 1: it's been family run. It's one of those places where
Speaker 1: the walls are pretty much lined with taxidermy, and then
Speaker 1: the dishes are basically also filled with taxidermy, because there
Speaker 1: are things like cariboo with sweet potato puree, oven roasted duck,
Speaker 1: and then lamb with smashed potatoes. So it's very meaty.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of game meat here especially, and
Speaker 1: altogether it's a very like kind of woodsy current verse vibe.
Speaker 1: I love it. It was such an amazing place about
Speaker 1: because I've been like dreaming of going here, and of
Speaker 1: course you're describing it, and I'm like, can we go back?
Speaker 1: I need to go here. That's exactly the type of food,
Speaker 1: especially in winter, because it gets cold here, it gets snowy.
Speaker 1: And that makes sense why all this food, all these
Speaker 1: restaurants are so hardy, because in meaty, Because that's exactly
Speaker 1: the type of thing you should be eating or craving
Speaker 1: when it's the forecast is as frightful as it gets here.
Speaker 1: Not to sound too much like your Christmas Carol, but
Speaker 1: that's what it is. You are listening to park Landia
Speaker 1: from my Heart Radio. Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad.
Speaker 1: This park Landia. Um So not everything in Veil is
Speaker 1: Bavarian or Austrian. Of course, the architecture all looks like that,
Speaker 1: But like the restaurants and breweries and bars and coffee
Speaker 1: shops like they do some really contemporary creative things as well,
Speaker 1: which is very on par with things we've seen in
Speaker 1: big cities. Yeah, like Veil Brewing Company, my favorite. I've
Speaker 1: been here a few times. Anytime I'm in Valle I
Speaker 1: need to go here, perfect after like a high or
Speaker 1: tripped down the slopes. It's just the perfect placed online
Speaker 1: no matter at the time I've year. It's very casual,
Speaker 1: very a very welcoming tap room. The people who work
Speaker 1: here are very informative, great at like providing suggestions, giving
Speaker 1: you like sample pores, stuff like that, and also like
Speaker 1: I've brought my laptop here and gotten some work done too.
Speaker 1: So it's it's one of those like chill tap rooms
Speaker 1: that I just love to hang out in and have
Speaker 1: a couple of beers because they do some really interesting things.
Speaker 1: They have the classics and they have like a handful
Speaker 1: of beers that are always available. But then they do
Speaker 1: really fun things with seasonal bruise as well, Like they
Speaker 1: do something called pour some syrup on me or pour
Speaker 1: some syrup on me whatever. Yeah, and that's they call
Speaker 1: that their French toast out, so like notes of like
Speaker 1: maple and cinnamon and a little sweet rich. It sounds
Speaker 1: great like breakfast in a pine class I love it.
Speaker 1: And then they do this is kind of more up
Speaker 1: in my alley. They do something called soul Blossom stays On,
Speaker 1: which is brewed with orange blossom, honey and alderflower. So
Speaker 1: I love things that are like kind of lighter and
Speaker 1: floral hint of sweetness, and then they have the tourist
Speaker 1: tourist trap double tap. Yeah, that is very much on
Speaker 1: my alley because I mean I love apias, especially love
Speaker 1: double I pa s, and I love tourist traps, so
Speaker 1: all of it it's like speaking my language. And I
Speaker 1: would highly recommend going here and sampling the warest because
Speaker 1: it's all really good. But if you want a coffee
Speaker 1: to start off your day or a cocktail the end
Speaker 1: your night, you have this beautiful place. We have one
Speaker 1: place that solves all those cravings, and that's this place
Speaker 1: in Veil Village called Two Arrows Coffee, the one to
Speaker 1: hit a Veil great. Yeah, I love a place. I
Speaker 1: love any type of place that's like coffee shop by
Speaker 1: day and then it morphs into something else like wine bar,
Speaker 1: cocktail bar, tapas bar, whatever. And in Veil this is
Speaker 1: like the spot for that. It's a very like contemporary
Speaker 1: chic space. It's kind of small and snug with a
Speaker 1: little bar not too big, which is great, like probably
Speaker 1: people could fit in right. It's intimate and I love that.
Speaker 1: And in the mored I think my favorite is in
Speaker 1: the morning when it's kind of bustling a little bit.
Speaker 1: People like kind of streaming in and out getting their
Speaker 1: coffee or latte's or like avocado toasts and stuff. And
Speaker 1: I like to just perch myself at the bar sip
Speaker 1: on a turmeric latte, which they have here. I can
Speaker 1: never say no to a termeric latte and have something
Speaker 1: like Keno breakfast bowl or a pastry or something they do.
Speaker 1: You know, they have a cud of toast, which is
Speaker 1: always great. Yeah, totally, and then come back a few
Speaker 1: hours later in the afternoon or evening and this. We
Speaker 1: love places where we can just like chill out and
Speaker 1: have a drink or two and then snack as opposed
Speaker 1: to like a robust meal. And yeah, they had like
Speaker 1: hummus cheese kurds with country ham olives always always a hit.
Speaker 1: Just give me a plate of olives and I'm excellent compliment.
Speaker 1: The blood tenders are knowledgeable. Um like I ordered off
Speaker 1: many of cray and oh my gosh, I'm always so embarrassed.
Speaker 1: You like whenever you order off many of them? Just
Speaker 1: like I always like, no, no, look, I love my
Speaker 1: vook raze. It's like if an old fashioned in a
Speaker 1: Manhattan had a baby, you got a booky, but it's
Speaker 1: like one of those off my new drinks that you
Speaker 1: have to be wary of where you're ordering because some
Speaker 1: people have no idea what you're talking about. Just kidding,
Speaker 1: I'll like, some people know exactly what you're talking about
Speaker 1: them whip it up, no problem. Other people are just like,
Speaker 1: what like because it doesn't sound super popular, it's not.
Speaker 1: But this is the type of place where you can
Speaker 1: safely order off menu and they will not only know
Speaker 1: what you're talking about, but they'll be able to do
Speaker 1: it justice all the classics. You know, I really loved
Speaker 1: our hotel. Oh yeah, so this was the dream I
Speaker 1: guess staycation or whatever, because living on the road, we
Speaker 1: have quote unquote staycations in random places because all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the countries just are you know, rambling home
Speaker 1: and and so we just sometimes like bigger spaces, new spaces,
Speaker 1: and so, you know, once a month or every other month,
Speaker 1: we'll just get a hotel for a couple of nights
Speaker 1: and just treat ourselves. Yes, and it feels really good,
Speaker 1: especially in a place like Veil, and especially at a
Speaker 1: place like the hotel to Lisa, which was everything and
Speaker 1: more because this sort of a place where like the
Speaker 1: bed is the size of our RV and it's super
Speaker 1: dog friendly. Finn was on cloud nine because he's very
Speaker 1: pampered there. They do dog room service. They bring treats
Speaker 1: and toys and even full blown meals. We don't do
Speaker 1: room service much, but we definitely did some service and
Speaker 1: damage and into like our robes and just had Finn
Speaker 1: and like ordered room service and realized that we spent
Speaker 1: way too it's money and it was it was ridiculous
Speaker 1: excited and I'm like, oh, I can't wait for room
Speaker 1: service and bathrobes. And then like two dollars later, I'm like,
Speaker 1: well that was the most expensive lunch. But you know what,
Speaker 1: like we don't do this off now. It's not like
Speaker 1: we're all the time, but in a while in Rome
Speaker 1: or when in Veil, yeah do it. And this is
Speaker 1: also my favorite aspect of this hotel is the champagne
Speaker 1: vending machine. That was, Yeah, that is a real thing
Speaker 1: and that exists here and it's in the lobby. It's
Speaker 1: this vending machine. It looks like a sort of it
Speaker 1: like you know, kind of fancier. Yeah, so mini bottles
Speaker 1: of Moa and Shandon champagne. They come in both Brute
Speaker 1: and Rose and you get it. Bet we got one
Speaker 1: of each of the multiple times, so you get it.
Speaker 1: It's like not a traditional vending machine as you might
Speaker 1: have guests. So you go to the bar, the main
Speaker 1: lobby bar, and what you do is you get a
Speaker 1: token of some sort from the bartender, so you essentially
Speaker 1: like pay there, get a token, and use that token
Speaker 1: to redeem in the vending machine. I just look, it's
Speaker 1: like so crazy and wonderful to do something like this.
Speaker 1: It's I've never and it's the only champagne vending machine
Speaker 1: of its kind in Colorado, one of the only a
Speaker 1: few in the entire country. So it's a rare treat.
Speaker 1: And it's just it was beautiful because, um, the gore
Speaker 1: rivers right behind it, right that another favorite aspect of
Speaker 1: that hotel. And there's like definitely different restaurants and um,
Speaker 1: like there's even some like outfitters, Um good stuff shopping,
Speaker 1: amazing fun unique stuff. Right, So this is not your
Speaker 1: stuff that you canna find in like every store, No,
Speaker 1: of course not. So this is like I'm obsessed with
Speaker 1: Bale because of reasons like this, where trails, walking trails,
Speaker 1: hiking trails are so omnipresent like this made me so
Speaker 1: happy to walk out the back of our hotel. There's
Speaker 1: the paved biking walking trail right there that runs the
Speaker 1: length of Gore Creek into a Lion's Head Village, through
Speaker 1: Allion's Head Village and then all the way through Bale Village.
Speaker 1: And it's not terribly long, it's probably like a mile
Speaker 1: and a half or a couple of miles, but it's
Speaker 1: so convenient and so pretty. The creek is the most
Speaker 1: beautiful thing, lined with like the green tallest trees. And
Speaker 1: then you can also use this trail to like branch
Speaker 1: off into hiking trails up the mountain and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Plenty of those, So whether you want to wander into
Speaker 1: town and go to restaurants or bars, or the farmer's market,
Speaker 1: which is great. Yeah, the farmer's market is wonderful. Um.
Speaker 1: That's actually what brought us up there for this weekend
Speaker 1: was I was training some people for Burton's Mapewood Farm
Speaker 1: because they sell at the local farmers market there. Um,
Speaker 1: And that's when I first met Brad Markinson. He's a
Speaker 1: Colorado Native and really awesome human being in person, and
Speaker 1: so he's been representing the farm and that worked out
Speaker 1: really well. You know. UM, so if you need some
Speaker 1: pure or barely it's maple syrup, you know where to
Speaker 1: go when you're in bale, and believe me, they'll give
Speaker 1: you samples so you can try it. And it's wonderful.
Speaker 1: But there's so many great things and that Farmer's market
Speaker 1: like our friends, uh great fruit which is uh, you're sorry,
Speaker 1: great roots, which is a horse radish. Um. Matt isn't
Speaker 1: the biggest fan of horse radish, but even this one
Speaker 1: that he loves in speciates and it's just wonderful. So
Speaker 1: there's so many different aspects to veil UM. So outside
Speaker 1: of even restaurants, you know, you can get your all
Speaker 1: year old local ingredients and make your own meals, you know,
Speaker 1: if you wanted to. And you know, I think it
Speaker 1: runs every Sunday UM throughout the warmer months. It's not
Speaker 1: really a winter market. It's not a good place for that.
Speaker 1: It gets really and you don't want to be like
Speaker 1: slopping and sliding through the Farmer's Market. And when you
Speaker 1: went you uh, the first time you went to um
Speaker 1: October Fest and you were killing it, loving it so much,
Speaker 1: involved in that and I was like you were telling
Speaker 1: me about it, and I'm just like, stop, Well, I
Speaker 1: got the most amazing the variant hat that I was
Speaker 1: rocking throughout october Fest, and I wish I could wear
Speaker 1: that on a more regular basis without looking like a cartoon.
Speaker 1: But it's it's great. It's good for you to well.
Speaker 1: October Fest is a really big deal in veil as
Speaker 1: you might imagine from it's all that's like Bavarian alpine
Speaker 1: inspirations and German restaurants and whatnot. So every September it's
Speaker 1: this big blowout in both in lions Head Village and
Speaker 1: veil Ville. Is there's like endless events and food specials
Speaker 1: and special vendors and great live music from German bands.
Speaker 1: They have the yodelers, like real life yodlers, not from movies.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, with that, well we got to go
Speaker 1: back to and then they have all kinds of like
Speaker 1: brought Worse are a big deal during October Fast and
Speaker 1: then some of the best like people watching, because folks
Speaker 1: come fully prepared to embrace the festivities with like let's
Speaker 1: just say, Germans know how to drink. They know how
Speaker 1: to drink. They have gigantic steins, all of them and
Speaker 1: then they there's so many people I saw so much
Speaker 1: like really nice lavish like Bavarian hats and letter hosen
Speaker 1: and just all of it. Liked the ninth it was
Speaker 1: really inspiring, and like again, like I like the look
Speaker 1: of it, and I wish that I could just dress
Speaker 1: like that without looking really bizarre and completely out of place.
Speaker 1: But it is what it is. But that's part of
Speaker 1: the reason why I am so infatuated with Veil and
Speaker 1: all of its restaurants and traditions and festivities like this,
Speaker 1: because it's got everything that I love. It's like all
Speaker 1: the outdoors, the activities and beautiful scenery, and then as
Speaker 1: soon you're doing with that, you can just like bop
Speaker 1: around and eat fondue and pretzels and sauerkraut and look
Speaker 1: at taxi. To me, another place you can go and
Speaker 1: hang out, which we loved is this place called Tenth
Speaker 1: Mountain Whiskey. And Tenth Mountain Whiskey that's that wear the time,
Speaker 1: I wear far too often. Yeah, So I bought a
Speaker 1: red flannel here and it's this really snug distillery in
Speaker 1: Veil Village and they do amazing things with like a
Speaker 1: full life. They have bourbon they have rye, they have
Speaker 1: different cordials, they have vodka, they have moonshine. Even so
Speaker 1: there's a lot, and my favorite thing to do. You
Speaker 1: can get cocktails and mixed drinks here, but my favorite
Speaker 1: thing to do is go and sit. They have like
Speaker 1: a couch like nice company lounge chairs. So favorite thing
Speaker 1: to do is go there, snag one of those and
Speaker 1: do like a flight and just kind of sample these
Speaker 1: small pores of their spirits because they're so well made
Speaker 1: that they're good sipping spirits. Even the moonshine, which is
Speaker 1: kind of shocking because normally think of moonshine is so
Speaker 1: abrasive and intense. This one is great. Like I could
Speaker 1: just simple not a lot, but like it's nice to
Speaker 1: have a little sample of it and really appreciate the
Speaker 1: precision in work that they put into their products because
Speaker 1: it really moonshines through. Yeah, and definitely like I can't
Speaker 1: recommend their swag enough. They have shirts, hats just like
Speaker 1: sweaters and jackets, and they have damage. They have skis.
Speaker 1: I think they even have shot skis, which I'm really
Speaker 1: depressed that we didn't get shot. So in case you're
Speaker 1: wondering shot skis are this kind of mountain town Western
Speaker 1: tradition where it's like it's basically group friendly shot where
Speaker 1: there's a ski, um, a ski that has like shot
Speaker 1: glasses four shot permanently attached because you don't want them
Speaker 1: to fall off. Because what you do is you grab
Speaker 1: that ski with four other friends and you put your
Speaker 1: shots in there, and then you all like say one
Speaker 1: to three, and you shoot them all together, and most
Speaker 1: like more than likely like one of you are just
Speaker 1: gonna get your shot poured on you versus in your
Speaker 1: mouth because unless you really care less, but you're all
Speaker 1: that's meant to be wild and crazy. So it's fine, right,
Speaker 1: I know there's no like delicate, like fancy way to
Speaker 1: do a shot ski, but yeah, while you're at tenth
Speaker 1: Mountain Whiskey, just be mindful of how much you drink
Speaker 1: because you could I could go nuts and that like
Speaker 1: swag area and just like buy everything and I think
Speaker 1: you did time, probably did um. But yeah, and also
Speaker 1: you do have to remember that when you're in the mountains,
Speaker 1: you know your tolerance is going to be a lot lower.
Speaker 1: Another thing, if you're used to drinking two cocktails, like
Speaker 1: start with one and just let it sit in because
Speaker 1: you're not. You're not like you're gonna get a little tipsy,
Speaker 1: a lot quicker. Yeah, Veil is very high up and
Speaker 1: especially so if you go to the top of the mountain,
Speaker 1: whether you hike up there or take the gondola or something.
Speaker 1: So and think that's another thing. When you're hiking or
Speaker 1: coming up or down, even just like a four foot elevation,
Speaker 1: you do have to think about your hydration and your everything.
Speaker 1: There's so much to think about it. So it's like
Speaker 1: all the normal necessities but like times five. So just
Speaker 1: become overprepared with all that stuff. And then but if
Speaker 1: you had to wrap up Veil and tell everyone what
Speaker 1: it is that you love the most about it, what
Speaker 1: the thing I love most about it? I think, And
Speaker 1: it reminds me almost of like Epcot or something in
Speaker 1: this sense where like it's this community that had this
Speaker 1: bold vision, this very specific vision, and they honed in
Speaker 1: on it so well and created something very distinct, like
Speaker 1: the you know, the initial developers of the town wanted
Speaker 1: to bring this like alpine culture and motif to the
Speaker 1: Rocky mountains, and it's astonishing how they're able to succeed
Speaker 1: with that, and it maintained it's maintained ever since, and
Speaker 1: it continues to do that. Whenever there's not a ton
Speaker 1: of new construction here that's such a kind of confined,
Speaker 1: controlled community, but whenever new things do develop, whether it's
Speaker 1: a restaurant or a new hotel or whatever, like everything
Speaker 1: fits into that and just builds upon that, so it
Speaker 1: only gets better and better. And I love that so much,
Speaker 1: how transformative it is and immersive. When you go here,
Speaker 1: it really feels like nothing else, Like brack and Water
Speaker 1: is not that far from here, Aspen's not toubly far,
Speaker 1: and Vail sets itself apart with this specific feel, and
Speaker 1: as you can, you'll quickly be a little toe from
Speaker 1: the restaurants, this very specific caste that is really enriching
Speaker 1: and the most some of the most soulful food, often
Speaker 1: by families. A lot of these businesses our family owned,
Speaker 1: and so it all kind of ties together to this big,
Speaker 1: like warm hug of a of a town, a hug
Speaker 1: that costs a lot of money, but it's a hug.
Speaker 1: You've been listening to park Landia, a show about national parks.
Speaker 1: Parkland is a production of My Heart Radio created by
Speaker 1: Matt Carrouac Brad Caro wac and Christopher has e otis
Speaker 1: produced and edited by Mike John's. Our executive producer is
Speaker 1: Christopher Hasiotis, our researchers Jescelyn Shields. Special Things goes out
Speaker 1: to Gabrielle Collins, Crystal Waters and the rest of the
Speaker 1: Parklandia crew and Hey listeners, If you're enjoying the show,
Speaker 1: leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other
Speaker 1: people like you find our show. You can keep up
Speaker 1: with us on social media as well. Check out our
Speaker 1: photos from our travels on Instagram at parkla India Pod
Speaker 1: and join in on the conversation in our Facebook group
Speaker 1: parkl India Rangers. From our podcasts my Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows, and as always, thank you for listening.