When a burger, fries, soda and cookie on a plastic tray in a crowded slopeside cafeteria lightens your wallet of $18, the $24 lunch buffet at Keystone’s Alpenglow Stube starts looking better and better. The highest Triple-A Four Diamond restaurant in the country (11,444 feet) could easily cruise on its views alone, but the Old World menu fuels its reputation as the finest mountaintop eatery. While not conducive as a rest stop in the middle of a big ski day, the rich offerings of the buffet include a unique array of breads, cheeses, salads, dressings and cured meats. If the dessert tray is a work of art, the cheese cart is a monument and the entire buffet a magnum opus. While far from affordable, a trip to the Alpenglow Stube will impart gastronomical memories that will linger well beyond the bill.
Get there — The Alpenglow Stube is located at the top of Keystone’s North Peak, accessible via two gondola rides.
