Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and a Brewery in Carbondale, Colorado
Carbondale is a mountain town we’ve passed through a dozen times on the way to Aspen and Snowmass, but only ever stopped once: for breakfast.
On a recent trip to the area, we were booked at Avalanche Ranch Cabins & Hot Springs for one night, and this gave us the opportunity to explore a few of Carbondale’s culinary offerings and we were impressed.
We were hungry (on the verge of hangry) when we arrived in Carbondale on a Monday afternoon, so we headed straight to White House Pizza, a place that no less than five people had recommended.
Located in a big, historic white house, this place has been winning Best Pizza awards in the Roaring Fork Valley for years. I know this because they have framed Best Pizza award certificates from the Post Independent decorating the walls. Thankfully, their pizza lived up to promises made by all of those award certificates. Their BLT Twist pizza has put them on my list of Favorite Pizza Joints in Colorado.
Mt. Sopris as seen from the parking lot at Roaring Fork Beer Company, Photo: Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer
After pizza, we made a stop at Roaring Fork Beer Company. We made friends with the other folks at the bar and left with a four-pack of Freestone Extra Pale for our soak at Avalanche Ranch, one of Colorado’s best hidden gems.
Taster flight at Roaring Fork Beer Co.
We spent the rest of the afternoon soaking and then dried off in time for a memorable dinner in Carbondale at Konnyaku Restaurant.
Both owners were working and we were treated like royalty, as was every table around us. Menu items were explained at length and we ended up ordering nearly everything they recommended. After calamari salad and Koko curry soup, we had the Negi-Maki, thinly sliced rib-eye steak wrapped around asparagus, scallions, and goat cheese and cooked with a blowtorch at our table. These “beef rolls” melted in our mouths.
We then split an order of OMG Rolls. Order them. You’ll thank me.
For being an Asian fusion restaurant, Konnyaku has an impressive dessert menu and most is made in-house. We recommend the banana mint German chocolate cake.
Wall art at Village Smithy Restaurant in Carbondale. The building was the Village Smithy in the past.
The next morning we breakfasted at Village Smithy Restaurant. This place is no secret. In fact, it’s the #1 restaurant in Carbondale, according to TripAdvisor.com. It has the perfect breakfast ambiance: warm and inviting.
This is the only stop we’d ever made in Carbondale in the past, and it was a good choice once again. I loved the rye bread so much that I bought some. They order their bread from a bakery in Aspen and if they have extras they’ll sell you a loaf.
