Bon Vivant – On Mountain Dining

And then there was lunch! After a great morning of skiing all over Telluride, Heidi Lauterbach, Ex Ski Racer and Telluride Marketing Goddess, took us to lunch at Bon Vivant. The name is French for a person who enjoys the good things in life. I used to say that if you looked up Bon Vivant in the dictionary that you would see a picture of my dear friend Mario Lobo. He always loved the best in life and lived his life 100%. He taught me an appreciation for the better things in life, including food and wine.
Bon Vivant, the restaurant, is a circular mid mountain restaurant with spectacular views. It sports a massive umbrella for days that are either super sunny or snowy and cold. The umbrella has built in heaters on every prong for those cold days. It’s the latest in high tech heating. Next to the restaurant they have a snow beach where you can chill out with a glass of wine and work on your ski tan.
The servers are dressed as if in a French Bistro and every dish gives homage to “La Vraie Cuisine Francaise”. We started with some Rose Bubbles and then moved to Bordeaux to go with our Truffle strewn Croque Madame. We chatted about our runs, the great snow and the overall cool Tellruide vibe. Dessert was a cinnamon sugar and whipped cream crepe that we washed down with some Poire Williams. Thank god we were skiing hard, that lunch alone would require hours on the treadmill to even take a dent out of the calories we consumed. There was only one thing missing, music! This place has the potential to go crazy, the tables seem quite sturdy, and the railings around the restaurant were just begging for me to be standing on them in my ski boots, with my girlfriends, dancing to the music. If anyone has some pull, get them to install a big sound system for the Bon Vivants in the crowd!