It’s not just great skiing. Aspen’s restaurant scene is Michelin quality

The Bosq name, a variation on the Spanish word for forest, references this focus on foraging in the Aspen forests. Described as a “mad scientist in the kitchen”, Dodge opened Bosq opposite Wagner Park in downtown Aspen with his wife, Molly, in 2016. But it was the pandemic that provided the real turning point in the restaurant’s fortunes.

Social distancing rules meant Bosq could seat only 12 diners (instead of its usual 30 covers), so Dodge switched from serving à la carte to a degustation menu to “make the math work”. He hasn’t looked back. “COVID was extraordinary [for Aspen]; everyone was escaping the city. It changed the whole business model for the better.”

Guests arriving at Bosq push through heavy grey velvet curtains to enter the dimly lit dining room with a bar in the corner. A feature mirror on one wall is framed with greenery, and garlands of glass baubles hang from the ceiling. Brown leather chairs are draped with grey throws, adding to the intimate clubby atmosphere.

Dodge has clearly been foraging for mushrooms ahead of our visit because fungi are a feature of more than one dish served. Slippery pickled chanterelles contrast with the crisp bite of a quinoa cracker, while the portabello with walnut and soy is deliciously velvety. Peking-style duck comes with roasted beets rehydrated in cherry juice, but the crowd favourite (and mine) is the creamy lobster roasted over juniper branches – Bosq’s signature dish.

Not surprisingly, Michelin-starred fare doesn’t come cheap in Aspen, a town renowned for its ultra-wealthy clientele.

Bosq diners can choose five courses from a set menu for $US185 ($279) or go all-out on the nine-plus course chef’s tasting menu for $US255. If you want to step it up another notch, you can add a dish of Nordic Oscietra caviar for $US65 or Japanese wagyu beef (with shiitake mushrooms) for an extra $US45. Adding sommelier pairings can set you back as much as $US390 a person. (Aspen is known for its wine lists – over a dozen master sommeliers have left their mark at local establishments.)

Those prices haven’t deterred diners. Within 18 hours of the Michelin Guide awarding Bosq a star last September, the restaurant was booked out for the entire winter season. And most guests opt for the full Michelin experience. Dodge notes that while the Aspen economy was down 27 per cent for the season, Bosq was up 50 per cent.

The Michelin Guide “recommended” three other Aspen restaurants last year: Prospect, Element 47 and the Afro-Mediterranean restaurant Mawa’s Kitchen. The Prospect team hopes its Colorado Journey tasting menu will secure it a star this year.

For $US225 a head (plus drinks) at Prospect, you meander through the landscapes of Colorado via a series of dishes with names such as High Alpine (warm, fluffy blue-corn madeleines with three types of butter and a cute wooden paddle for spreading), The River (Colorado river trout resting on little pebbles) and At the Ranch (Montrose beef short rib on a bed of spruce smoking inside a glass dome). It’s very experiential dining that showcases the best of Colorado produce.

Prospect has a ranch aesthetic, from the leather chesterfield banquettes and brass lighting in the high-ceilinged dining room to the embossed leather aprons and check shirts worn by its waitstaff. Our waiter Riley has perfected his “y’all” drawl for guests.

Perhaps overshadowed by Bosq’s Michelin-star hype, Prospect had a relatively quiet winter season with its new menu, but the team was hopeful the mid-June Aspen Food & Wine festival would spark good word-of-mouth trade – and possibly lead to that coveted star.

If you want a break from fine dining or your budget doesn’t stretch to Michelin restaurants, there is a much cheaper but quintessentially Aspen food experience you shouldn’t miss. Take the Silver Queen gondola to the top of Ajax early in the morning to ski first tracks before heading to mid-mountain diner Bonnie’s for a breakfast of oatmeal pancakes with a side of crispy bacon.

A wooden faux-Swiss chalet with a giant sundeck, Bonnie’s has remained relatively unchanged since it was opened by German ski racer Gretl Uhl as Gretl’s Tourtellotte in 1966. Renamed by new owner Bonnie Rayburn in 1980, it has long been a ski-patrol favourite. Famous for its apple strudel, Bonnie’s also serves all-American desserts like peach pie, strawberry shortcake and chocolate banana cream pie.

Amid the glitz and glamour of Aspen, Bonnie’s’ down-home charm is refreshing. However, it still has A-lister cache: the restaurant entered Aspen folklore in Christmas 1989 when Donald Trump’s wife, Ivana, confronted his mistress Marla Maples on the sundeck in front of numerous onlookers, including a very uncomfortable Donald.

Less than 10 weeks later, the Trumps announced they were divorcing. Ivana would later write in her 2017 memoir, Raising Trump: “As far as I was concerned, the marriage ended that day at Bonnie’s.”

Aspen, already an enclave for the uber-wealthy, went next-level during COVID as those with means fled the cities for the ski town. Now the airport is crowded with private jets and, as the locals say, the arrival of the billionaires has forced the millionaires to move down the valley.

Aspen might be coming off its stratospheric pandemic peak, but the billionaires are staying. And the restaurants are catering to their demands. The growing number of Michelin acclaimed establishments is testament to that. As Dodge says: “The Michelin star has been a game changer.”

The writer travelled as a guest of coloradoski.com and travelplanski.com