Free to roam at last! Seeking luxury, sanity, scenery, and pivotal moments
Day 210 of the Nowhere To Be Project was spent lazily sipping sangria at Blue Moose Pizzeria in the Lionshead corridor of Vail. While the sangria was effervescent, fruity and refreshing, the best part was the price, $2.18. This was just one more wonderful promotion for Vail’s restaurant week. There are still several days left to enjoy affordable food in Vail and that’s not something we can say very often! Cheers!
Every year at this time, something wonderful happens in Vail. It is called restaurant week! Most restaurants in town slash prices or offer specials specific to the year. This year $20.18 is the magic number!
My first round of restaurant week took place on day 209 of the Nowhere To Be Project at Sweet Basil. Sweet Basil is a staple in town and is widely known as Vail’s best fine dining restaurant. I have been to Sweet Basil many times over the years, but my daughter had yet to try it. Restaurant week inspired Sweet Basil to create a special three course meal for $20.18 and my daughter and I gave it a go for lunch. There were two choices for the first two courses, but the dessert course was a given. The appetizer course presented a choice between a caesar salad with egg or roasted cauliflower soup. The entree course consisted of either a pork sandwich with fries or a mixed green salad with roasted chicken. Finally, the dessert coarse was a trio of banana and citrus sorbet.
My daughter chose the cauliflower soup and the pork sandwich. Since the only strictly vegan option on the special menu was the sorbet, I decided to go with an off menu salad instead. I did sneak a few fries and some sorbet from my daughter though, both of which were outstanding. The roasted cauliflower soup was my daughter’s favorite part of the meal. It certainly had a lovely presentation and aroma. To me, the pork sandwich looked like old fashioned Shake and Bake pork chops. According to my daughter, the bread was the best part of that sandwich. Personally, I would have been thrilled to see vegan choices included among the restaurant week specials and was shocked that there weren’t even vegetarian options on offer. Nonetheless, we had a wonderful time and enjoyed a lovely creekside lunch for under fifty dollars in Vail. That could only happen during Vail’s restaurant week!
