Barely 30 miles northwest of Aspen, in the shadow of the majestic Elk Mountains, tiny Carbondale is becoming Colorado’s most exciting summer destination.
True, the town has more family-owned cattle ranches than Michelin stars, and there are still more farm stands than white tablecloth spots. The restaurant best poised to elevate the town’s status doesn’t even have a proper dining room.
Instead, at the Guest House, French Laundry alumna Seth O’Donovan serves her experimental farm dinners outdoors, usually next to a horse paddock or in a roomy tree house that surveys 1,200 acres of pristine Colorado pastures. Meals include savory links of deer sausage served with soft, house-made cheese and a mind-bending dessert of carrots with butter and cinnamon, cooked to the point where they almost resemble pie filling.
