Jackson Area Info

Some perspective from an acquaintance of Denise Abdoo's ...

From: Daniel Mauk <daniel.mauk@gmail.com>
Date: Dec 6, 2007 11:12 AM
Subject: Re: Jackson Hole
To: Denise Abdoo <denise.c.abdoo@gmail.com>

..probably the most expensive place in the village is at the Four Seasons. The food here is really good and they cater to your every need, but I do not know how accommodating they would be to a larger group. Another pretty good restaurant there is Cascade in the bottom of Teton Mountain Lodge. They have some pretty good food (really great nachos) and a relatively good happy hour special. For apres ski, I would definitely recommend going to the Mangy Moose Bar. It is located at the base of the mountain just south of where the tram once was (currently under construction), you should see people out on their back deck. They will have either a band or sports playing inside depending on the day. Definitely get there early because it fills up fast and might be hard to find a table for a large group. The apres ski food is alright, but it is definitely the place to be after the mountain closes. The food in the restaurant is alright and would definitely be accommodating to a large rowdy group. You might also want to check online at mangymoose.net to see if there are any bands playing at night that you might want to go to. It is a great place to see a show and always a good time.

Now the town of Jackson is a great place to go shopping for the day and has plenty of history. My favorite restaurant in town is called the Blue Lion. It has the best rack of lamb I have ever tasted, and many other great dishes. The next restaurant you should try is the Snake River Grill. Every dish there is excellent and is always one of the first restaurants I would bring family or friends to. If you like sushi, I would go to Nikai located on Cache St. While it is not the most authentic sushi restaurant, it has some imaginative rolls that are quite tasty (try the Bonsai roll). A restaurant I have never eaten at, but I hear it is one of the best is the Rusty Parrot. It is very expensive, but supposedly has the best elk tenderloin around. Another reasonably priced restaurant is Rendezvous Bistro. Locals love this place and I am a big fan of their special scallop dish on Fridays. All of these restaurants you should be sure to make a reservation at. One place I would not recommend is the Gun Barrel. Tourists seem to love going here because they think it will offer lots of exotic meats, but the food is not very good. For a good burger that is cheap and a great happy hour special, you should go to the Cadillac. This is another local favorite and fills up rather quickly, so get there early to find a table because it is first come first serve. The burgers are only about $5 and the happy hour is buy one get one free. If you are ever in town for lunch a place called Trio has a good lunch menu and is pretty cheap. Another great place for happy hour is the Snake River Brewery. All of their beers are made there and the food is pretty good too. It is definitely a fun place to grab a drink. One of the bars you will need to go to is the Cowboy Bar located across from the town square and next to the Cadillac. All the bar stools are saddles and the bar and tables are made from knotty pine. This is definitely a tourist favorite! Another must see bar is the Wort Silver Dollar Bar. It is one of the oldest buildings in Jackson and the bar there has a couple hundred old silver dollar pieces in the top. 43 North is another decent bar that locals love and usually has a really good drink special on Tuesday nights.

I will also let you in on some of the great runs that alot of visitors don't try out too often ... I will start with the runs off of Sublette chair. A great run if it has snowed recently is Bernie's Bowl. It is a large steep snow field with some small cliffs/rocks at the bottom, which can be avoided if you just stay to the skiers left, but can also sneak up on you if you do not know they are coming. Bivouac Woods is always a great run and tends to usually have some nice powder if you cut to the skiers right once in the woods. If you really want to challenge yourself you can try some of the Alta Chutes. These are very steep and can be seen on the left as you ride up the Sublette chair. If you want to get some nice powder that is hard to get to you can hike up to the Headwall or over to Casper Bowl. The hike should only take 10-15 minutes and is accessed off of Tensleep. Also off of Tensleep are the Expert ChutesThe Hobacks can be great but only if it has snowed recently and you get there early in the day, if not it is usually skied out and can be an extremely tiring run. Now off of the Thunder chair I would recommend going down Paintbrush. It is fun and usually has some nice snow. Off of the Gondola, try Casper Woods which I think is named Woolsey Woods. Off of the Casper Triple Chair definitely go into Moran Woods or Head Rush. And finally from Apres Vous, try out Saratoga Bowl if it has snowed recently. Now I did not mention anything off of the East Ridge Double Chair because there are not many runs accessible from there except back country. You can get to Corbet's Couloir from here, but it is a run for only the most advanced skier and is very steep with a mandatory 10-15 foot drop into the couloir.