Food & Wine

100 Hours in Jackson Hole: Where to Eat, Drink and Play Like a Local

From burgers and sloshies (Jackson's aprés ski drink of choice) to tapas and champagne, here's how to navigate this resort town's restaurant scene.

Comparing European and American ski culture is like comparing groomed green slopes with backcountry terrain. In America, a ski vacation is about the skiing and the skiing alone; daily cafeteria lunches of burgers, fries, soups and beers will do. In Europe, a ski resort experience is also about the mountain top lunches (fondue?) and, most importantly, the aprés ski (Aperol spritz?). But there’s at least one American ski resort town that is as concerned about the dining and aprés ski as it is about the skiing.

“The people who live in Jackson demand good quality,” says Sam Johnson, co-owner of Teton Thai in Teton Village at the base of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. A town that attracts year-round tourists (thanks to its close proximity to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park), visitors to Jackson are a lot more discerning than the average ski vacationer. “In the past ten years, food and drink has become part of the village scene,” according to Gavin Fine, of Fine Dining Restaurant Group, which owns some of the area’s celebrated restaurants. “Jackson has done a good job at attracting people who want an experience beyond skiing.” Although the food and aprés scenes have evolved immensely in the past decade, it's not all fancy dining and fine wines, and there are still local haunts that serve the perfect post-ski beer, biscuit or burger. Here's where to go to experience the best of both worlds.

Bodega
Most people mistake Bodega for a typical gas station and adjoining shop. While it is both of these things, it's also the coolest apres ski joint in Teton Village. Come 4pm (when the ski lifts close), the shop floods with thirsty locals in search of their first post-ski drink. The beverage of choice? The sloshy, a frozen cocktail that has become Jackson's most iconic apes drink. On the menu, there's a good rotation of flavors like the WuTang Cran with peach schnapps, cranberry and whisky or the zingy Dark and Stormy with vodka, ginger and lime. Apres-skiiers can also pick up local beers (which can be consumed in the bodega), bottles of wine to-go and countless locally-made snacks, from jerky to fancy frozen pizzas and ice cream. A short walk away are the swanky Italian rests, Bar Enoteca and Il Villaggio Osteria (also owned by Fine Dining Restaurant Group), which offer up more substantial meals (pizzas, pastas and small bites).

Bin22
Most people enjoy a cocktail or pint of beer as an apres drink, but at Bin22, wine is pretty much the order of the evening (although you can get cocktails and beers on tap too). Hidden behind a bodega and wine store in downtown Jackson, Bin22 stocks a selection of Italian wines by the glass (or bottle) and Mediterranean tapas like charred octopus, salumi, papayas braves and crostini with whipped ricotta. It's the perfect antidote to one too many meals of nachos and sloshies.