Estes Restaurant Week's Price Tiers Aren't What They Look Like. Here's How to Plan Your Ten Days.

Can a $75 Restaurant Week dinner cost less than a $35 one? At the first Estes Restaurant Week, which starts tomorrow, it can. A table of four at Smokin' Dave's BBQ in the $75 tier pays $18.75 a head, which is about half of what one diner pays at a $35 listing like The Post Mtn House.

The Estes Chamber of Commerce is running the event from Friday, November 13, through Sunday, November 22, with more than 40 restaurants taking part. Estes Park News described the format as special menus at "one of five fixed price points: $15, $25, $35, $45, or $75 per person." The listings on EstesRestaurantWeek.com tell a different story. A good number of them are priced for two people, for two to four, or for two to six, and a sixth tier at $55 appears on the site even though the announcement didn't mention it. The tiers are sorted by the number on the sign, not by what each person pays.

What the Tiers Cost per Person

Divide the group-priced listings by the number of diners and the order changes. The listed $15 tier price, applied to one person, makes a useful baseline.

For a group of four, the Smokin' Dave's listing in the top tier works out to $18.75 each. That is less than the $35-per-person tier at places like The Post Mtn House or Bird & Jim, which carry no for-two qualifier. Kissing Moose Cafe in the $25 tier costs less per person than the $15 listing at The Egg of Estes. Mountain Berry Bakery's listing, with six people sharing, is the lowest per-person number in the event.

So the tier works more like a description of the format than a budget. A $15 or $35 line usually means one meal for one person. The higher tiers include a lot of shared plates, priced for the table.

Where the Shared Plates Cluster

Shared-plate listings appear in every tier, but they get especially generous in the middle and upper tiers, and some of the most interesting ones are there.

Snowy Peaks Winery's listing is the most detailed one in the $55 tier:

"Our featured Restaurant Week offering is a Wild Game Sausage Board, featuring three distinctive sausages — elk, rattlesnake & pheasant, and wild boar — paired with two tastings of your choice of our Colorado wines."

That's $55 for two people, so wine and wild game come to $27.50 each, slightly more than the per-person meals in the $25 tier.

Kissing Moose Cafe has the clearest family-style listing, and it's also one of the newest businesses taking part. Its Restaurant Week page reads, "Restaurant Week Specials are shareable family style meals!" Estes Valley Voice reported that Chef Vicki Haan's Kissing Moose went from a food truck to a full restaurant, opening in late August at Expedition Lodge, 1701 N. Lake Ave. The café serves breakfast and lunch daily from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the Kissing Moose Saloon next door is open 4 to 9 p.m. Its Restaurant Week hours start at 6:30 a.m., run until 2 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday, and go until 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

The two-to-four pricing at Smokin' Dave's BBQ works the same way. Its page lists daily hours of 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. At that price, each member of a family of four pays $18.75, compared with $45 for one diner at Mama Rose's or Claire's Restaurant in the $45 tier, two places that list no for-two qualifier.

The Per-Person Top Tier

Without the shared listings, the $75 tier is small: Hunter's Chop House, Prospect Bistro, Twin Owls Steakhouse and Ember. Ember's listing explains what the price buys: "a specialty Five Course chef prepared menu available exclusively during Estes Restaurant Week." Hunter's Chop House advertises new dishes beyond its regular menu, served with paired wines and handcrafted cocktails.

The $55 tier sits just below and mixes formats. Riversong Inn Retreat Tea describes "a curated selection of premium loose-leaf teas, complemented by multiple courses of charcuterie, delicate tea sandwiches, delightful scones, and sweet treats." Park Tavern is the third $55 listing. Riversong's listing doesn't give a guest count, so it's worth calling ahead before treating it as either per person or per table.

Most of these restaurants are open evenings only, which brings up the next planning problem.

The Week Has a Thin Middle

The site says diners can come during each restaurant's regular hours, with "No set dining times required!" That means each place's usual schedule still applies, and several schedules close on the same days midweek.

• Hunter's Chop House is open daily from 4 to 8 p.m., but closed Tuesday, November 17, and Wednesday, November 18, for its annual cleaning.
• The Post Mtn House is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 8 p.m., so it's closed Monday the 16th and Tuesday the 17th.
• The Spice Rack serves Wednesday through Sunday, 7 a.m. to noon, and is closed the same two days.
• Claire's Restaurant is open Thursday through Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and closed Wednesday the 18th.
• Twin Owls Steakhouse is open daily, 5 to 8 p.m., and Prospect Bistro daily, 4 to 8 p.m.
• You Need Pie Diner & Bakery is open daily, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Most of the late seatings end at 8 p.m., so plan for an early dinner. Tuesday the 17th has the fewest options among these restaurants. The daily-hours places, like Twin Owls, Prospect Bistro and Smokin' Dave's, are the safer dinner picks that night. Kissing Moose serves until 2 p.m. that day. The event covers two full weekends, November 13 to 15 and November 20 to 22, which gives anyone saving the $75 tier for a Saturday two chances.

Racing for the Grand Slam

The Restaurant Week passport gives 100 points for each check-in at a participating restaurant or lodge night. Two of its prizes go to whoever finishes a goal first. "First Foodie" goes to the first person to reach 500 points, or five check-ins, and wins a food-themed basket from Brownfields. The "Foodie Grand Slam" goes to the first person to check in at a breakfast, a lunch, a dinner and a dessert restaurant, and wins a basket from Munchin' House and Caramel Corn. The person with the most points overall wins a $100 gift card. Every point also goes into the grand prize drawing for ten $50 gift cards to participating restaurants.

The Grand Slam is a race, so the opening weekend is when it counts. Using the site's own mealtime tags, one Saturday route could look like this:

1. Breakfast at Kissing Moose Cafe, which opens at 6:30 a.m. during Restaurant Week and is tagged Breakfast, at $25 for two.
2. Lunch at Penelope's Famous Burgers or Rocky Mountain Deli, both $25 and both tagged Lunch.
3. Dessert at a tagged dessert stop: Riversong Inn Retreat Tea, Estes Perk Coffee & Cocktails, The Spice Rack, Flavors of the Rockies, Mountain Berry Bakery or Wildflower Bakery. Flavors of the Rockies, at $15 for two, costs the least.
4. Dinner at The Bull Pin or Poppy's Pizza & Grill, both $25 and tagged Dinner, before most kitchens close at 8.

For two people, that route adds up to $140 using the listed prices. That's $70 each, a little under one $75 tasting menu per person.

When Guests Join In

Lodge nights earn points too, and the partner lodges are offering midweek rates that might suit friends or family visiting during the event. Castle Mountain Lodge advertises $99 a night for a standard room and $229 for a cabin with an indoor hot tub, Sunday through Thursday during Restaurant Week. Murphy's River Lodge advertises $99 a night and 50 percent off a third night when you book two. Aspen Winds on Fall River and Black Canyon Inn each list 15 percent off stays of two nights or more. Expedition Lodge, home of Kissing Moose, is also a lodging partner.

Downtown's next big night comes a few days after Restaurant Week ends. The Catch the Glow parade runs Friday, November 27, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., with more than 40 entries.

At MCM Collective, we pay attention to the details that make the Estes Valley what it is, from which kitchens open at 6:30 a.m. to which ones close on a Tuesday. If you're curious how your home fits into that picture, you can request a home valuation and we'll walk through it with you.