A fun and family friendly restaurant in Keystone, Colorado
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

side·track (sīd´trăk): n. 1. A diversion from the main course. 2. A detour taken with children that you would never, ever take without them.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Who:
Travel Savvy Mom founder Jamie Pearson, her 10 and 7-year-old kids, another travel writer and her family, and Kate Lessman, Senior Public Relations Manager of Vail Resorts.

What:
A fun and silly restaurant in Keystone Resort called Der Fondue Chessel (which is quite possibly German for “the melted cheese gathering place” or something like that) at the Outpost Lodge at Keystone Mountain, charmingly accessible only by gondola.  Well, two gondolas actually.

Why:
A press trip and family vacation in Keystone sponsored by Vail Resorts highlighting the family activites in Keystone Resort and the surrounding area.

The High Points:
Melting cheese raclette-style at our table and then drizzling it over potatoes cooked with bacon.  Cooking fondue.  The roaring fire.  Eating to the musical stylings of The Austrian Guys.  Discovering that yodeling actually aids digestion, improbably enough.

The Low Points:
Trying to do the Chicken Dance (a nightly Der Fondue Chessel tradition apparently) while simultaneously trying not to overcook shrimp.  Having the kids strip down to their long underwear in a restaurant due to the extreme heat of cooking at the table.  One particularly steep and fast dip on the gondola ride home with a stomach full of cheese fondue.

The Kids’ Take:
Ten thumbs up for getting to make their own dinner and partake in all-you-can-eat chocolate fondue (complete with marshmallows, pound cake, graham crackers, cookies, and banana bread) and eating dinner in public in their underwear.

A little too long between courses though.

The Adults’ Take:
Oh, why not?

The Bottom Line:
If you’re going to splurge on one family dinner on your family vacation in Keystone, this is the one.  It’s approximately a zillion times better than having to prepare dinner yourself after a long day of frolicking in the snow.  Try to come later in your trip to give anyone with altitude sickness time to work it out since the restaurant is at an elevation of 11,444 feet.

March 25th, 2010 | by Jamie Pearson 2 comments