Poppycocks Aspen — Restaurant in Aspen

The food was delicious, but the service was the worst I’ve seen in a long time. We were seated within the estimated wait time and a waiter greeted us pretty quickly, we ordered a coffee and two waters. The strong coffee was delivered immediately, the waters never came. I had to ask a rushed busboy for waters after our food had already arrived. During our meal, twice, other waitresses whizzed passed our table grabbing something from it, first the bowl of creamer, then the syrup. Not only did I find it exceptionally rude to grab something off our table without asking, we were still using both items. I was just stunned. First of all, how expensive could it possibly be to have enough bowls and syrup dispensers to have one for every table, and second, if it’s truly such a scarce luxury, at least ask and acknowledge we exist as you steal from our table abruptly and without care. My water, the one I only received after our food was delivered and after we ate, was never refilled. The room itself is mind numbingly loud, leaving you no choice but to yell in order to converse. They put our check on the table mid eating as if to rush us out, which at this point I knew the staff was already rude so wasn’t as schocked. We quickly put out our card and then it took ten minutes for them to pick it up. Ironic that you can be so quick to urge out while too busy to cash us out. After asking three different people for a to go syrup, we finally got that. They get two stars for the fluffy eggs, unlike anything else I’ve ever had oatmeal pancakes, and upbeat greeter, but lose three stars for being both disrespectful and unattentive. Perhaps ordering to go would be the best of...

Typical ski town establishment. $30 a head (including 20% tip) for average food from a pretty limited menu. Full of mid-season ski town folks, naturally, so the atmosphere reflected that, if you know what I mean (Brad and Jennifer miss the bagels from their usual Manhatten deli, "but this place is so quaint" or whatever). Gluten-free bread would have been an additional $4.50 (!!!), so i just went with the huevos rancheros. That didn't have any gluten-containing ingredients listed. Pork chili was bland and would have been more convincing if it was labeled "gravy." The potatoes were way under-seasoned. There was a salad (a couple of pieces of lettuce and some sliced tomato) on the side, which was listed as part of the meal, but added nothing of value and seemed to be there to make the plate look more full.

Service wasn't great, but there only seemed to be 2 servers and the one that took care of me was definitely the busiest (monumental side-eye to the other server). Poor thing, who was very quick and very lovely, said I could pay at my table then proceeded to take my phone to the register at the front of house to use Samsung Pay. Give them a wireless payment machine, for goodness sake! If I'd known I'd have just taken care of it on my way out!

Their rent's probably insane, so the prices should be expected. The service is as you might expect from any employer trying to squeeze as much out of their staff as possible. They need wireless, handheld payment machines. The atmosphere was flat, as you'd expect from a place full of typical ski...

Wow. I know Aspen is overpriced, that’s fine. Comes with the territory. What doesn’t is playing “rip off the tourist” with a b.s. policy of charging an automatic 20% gratuity for parties of 5 or more (according to their manager, which was an obvious lie) though not mentioned anywhere in writing. On the menu it states they “reserve the right to add a 20% gratuity to any bill”, no mention of qualifying party size. Purely at their discretion. Guess having 2 kids at the table means the server automatically deserves 20%, even if the service was incredibly rushed even though it wasn’t busy? In addition to the presumptive and offensive automatic gratuity, they ALSO added a “kitchen fee” which is automatically added without mention to help subsidize the kitchen staff’s wages. Menu prices are already absurdly high ($18 for a turkey and avo sandwich with store bought potato chips). How about paying your staff a living wage (impossible in Aspen) from the profits you make from your ridiculous margins you make on overpriced run-of-the-mill-food. Local institution or not, this practice is egregious and offensive. Now I know why it’s a local institution, tourists beware! You get punished for not living here. I’ve worked in food and beverage for 25 years. I happily tip AT LEAST 20%. I don’t appreciate being ripped off just because I don’t live here. There is a 100% chance I won’t eat here again on any future trips, and I will be sure to tell others to avoid Poppycocks at all costs.

2 stars cause the sandwich was tasty,...