Falling from the mountain sky outside were snowflakes the size of Rice Krispies.Visibility in Breckenridge was nearly impossible on the last run before lunch, a situation worsened by the fact that some fool had stolen my sunglasses at the Slim Cessna show a few nights before.
Thankfully it’s much calmer inside The Maggie. Sitting at the bottom of Peak 9 in front of the QuickSilver Super6 lift, The Maggie is your typical ski-base buffet-style restaurant. The food’s terrible. Good luck finding a table. It smells like moist snowboard boots. Kids are screaming. The staff is a tad cold, and the chile con carne is lukewarm. Maury Povich’s daytime talk show is on the televisions.
In other words, The Maggie is the kind of place I try to avoid while riding. I’ll take a couple granola bars and a string cheese over overpriced, rubbery food any day. But this doesn’t render The Maggie useless – because the restaurant has a bar hidden in the corner, and the bar is perfect for a long Breck day.
First, all of Peak 9 leads to The Maggie, and less than 5 minutes of buckling out, you have a cold (or warm) drink in your hand. Barstools are easier to find than tables, and the bartendress is quick and laid-back in that ski-culture kind of way.
The sizable Bloody Mary bar is well-stocked. If you order Red Bull-anything, you get some other energy drink – but it’s OK, because it actually tastes better.
The key here is the hot drinks. Most come with whipped cream as optional, and the Baileys coffee is a dreamy mid-day treat. The Irish Coffee, however, is a heavenly respite from the cold – and they even toss a little green coloring on the whipped cream topper, making for a truly indulgent off- mountain rest. You can have a drink and a snack in The Maggie and be back on the mountain 30 minutes later, and that even includes 9 holes on the Golden Tee machine.
The Maggie
605 S. Park Ave., Breckenridge,
970-453-4157
Funky: No matter how comfortable you get or how many Irish coffees you drink, get back up on the mountain with
that warm feeling in your stomach for a few more runs.
Skunky: Eat elsewhere. Or opt for the liquid lunch, as hard and stale (and overpriced) hamburgers are offensive
to the palate and the pocketbook.
