Popination Reservation
a series of unhinged personal essays disguised as pub reviews. Today: a staycation in Breckenridge, part 1.
Or: The Carter, Burke & Riley’s, and Breckenridge Brewery.
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Holy wow did we need a vacation or did we need a vacation?
In the middle of a big move, after a big life event (buying a house), and lurking work burnout, added to some annoying health issues of ours, and more-than-annoying ones of family members. Plus, it was also about to be Spouse’s birthday. Get us the heck out of here!
We decided to go to a place that’s beautiful and up in the mountains but not that far, so it’s easy to get to. A place that wouldn’t be a thronging madhouse over the long weekend. And we had a side quest too: to find some art for the new house. We went to Breckenridge.
We went to a few fun places for sips and snacks during our restorative staycation, and there’s three places I’d like to share here in this one Popination. And then next week I must reserve a whole separate Popination about an amazing speakeasy we found hidden in the hotel we stayed at. So stay tuned for that.
And now, Our Stay in Breck, Part One! :insert theme music here:
Up first in the Breckenridge adventure:
Burke & Riley’s Irish Pub
A charming and comfy classic Irish pub was Burke & Riley’s: full of regulars and servers all happily shit-giving and nursing pints and looking as if they’d been there for a good long while when we walked in. That’s always a comfort—to enter a new place to me and find it’s warmly and regularly occupied. It’s an obvious sign that the place is good, not only for its food and drink, but for its ambience. If I see a pub that several people already are calling home, it’s going to make me feel more at home there too.
And my first impression was right: I had tasty Irish pub fare and all the Tully and Smithwick’s and Harp and anything else to feed and water me ol’ Celtic-descended guts. As I enjoyed my surroundings, I noticed lots of lovely balcony seating which made me think it’d be ideal on a warmer day.
Breckenridge is a ski resort town, albeit on a less moneyed scale as, say, Vail or Aspen. As such, us going up for a weekend at the end of May was during neither main tourist season: neither the winter ski season nor the summer hiking and outdoorsy season. They call this liminal time ‘mud season’ and it felt ideal to us in our brink-of-burnout state. Plus, all the places we visited and were served at, from the hotel to the cafe to all the pubs we Popinated to, expressed joy at having actual patronage. I guess this past winter season was pretty dismal, from what I’m hearing. No research in Popinations, remember, but that was what the Breck denizens were saying. So it was a relaxing combination of nowhere being oppressively crowded but it not being closed down like the ghost towns tourist attractions can be when there’s no tourists. A good balance.
Since this visit was on our first day there, we had walked down from the hotel, and when we were mellowly fed and beered, we walked back up the hill for a pre-hotel-dinner nap. However, I got direly affected by the altitude on that walk back. That surprised me—I hadn’t felt altitude sickness in many many years. I grew up in Boulder, after all, and even though Breck is a lot higher than that (also way higher than where I live now in South Denver), I don’t tend to get super affected by the mountain high. I guess I’m just not as used to it as I used to be. But a lot of water and a nap helped mightily. And the rest of the night was as relaxing as a hot tub (even though I didn’t go into the actual hot tub, since I forgot they’d have one and didn’t bring my swimsuit).
The next day, we took a short drive to a little crunchy/touristy mountain town called Frisco, where we did our side quest shopping, had a lovely brunch, and discovered an incredible little record shop that sold and played only vinyl. Spouse found two rare jazz albums and I just drank in the art of my surroundings. Oh, and! Speaking of art: there were several gift shops and galleries alike lining the rustic main street, and we ducked into several, the last one of which supplied us with the fulfillment of our art side quest!
Feeling successful and satiated (and full, and caffeinated), we went back up to Breck for another hotel nap, followed by the next pub on our weekend list:
Breckenridge Brewery
We had to visit the OG brewery since we were up here, and as we like the beers purveyed by them in our normal Popinations and bibulations down in Denver. So that was our afternoon second day jaunt: we took advantage of the hotel shuttle and had a from-the-actual-tap experience at Breckenridge Brewery, including some tasty appetizers.
This brewery is huge! Vast! And it was full of families lunching and loud shit-giving regulars (again! What a delight) having some post-work pints and bartender banter. I had a favorite IPA but also sampled a thick and delicious stout called Sexy Motor Oil, which. Yep, that’s exactly what it was. Delicious, too.
That evening, we had a reservation at the exclusive speakeasy tucked in a secret corner in the hotel, so we kept our brewery jaunt brief. But again, more about that next week. I want to conclude by talking about the hotel bar itself, which is where we heard the secretive whispers about said speakeasy to begin with. We went there each day we stayed, and though the larger restaurant was closed because of ‘mud season’’s slowness, the bar had full (excellent) food service and was a well kept and well appointed bar.
It’s called:
The Carter
We were served here by a handsome young bartender that knew quite a bit about his selections and about the art of mixology. The hotel, like the rest of Breck that we visited, had that pleasant vibe I’ve described (the ‘mud season’ mellow), and we found it easy to unwind and debrief a bit, and to shake off the Denver doldrums.
As we chatted and sipped and relaxed, we suddenly overheard a couple inquire as to their reservation to ‘the speakeasy’ and how to get to it and we were like hmmmmmmmmm?? …and perked up our ears and then looked it up online. But again! that’s for next time. Stay tuned.
The hotel was called the Alpenrock, btw. I don't think I mentioned its name amid all the others.