Vin48 — Restaurant in Avon

12/31/2021

Good company may be the only reason our New Year’s Eve night was salvaged. While reaching out nearly 3 months prior to set up our reservation, Collin was wonderful in ensuring that we would be having a magical, elegant, New Year’s Evening dinner celebration. He made sure we knew that the place would be sold out for this night and would be nothing shy of the highest regarded restaurant in Beaver Creek.

Prior to our arrival, we ordered 4 bottles of wine to be opened and decanted for the table. We were connected to the wine manager, whatever that is, and were assured we would have this all set for us. Upon our arrival, it felt as if the restaurant could be closing because it was basically empty. The music was depressing, and there was a lack of attention from employees. We were seated for over 15 minutes before the waitress greeted us, and don’t get me started on the bleak, dull waitress that projected her uncomfortable nature on our table. The waitress asked for our drink orders and we all looked at each other confused on where our wine that we pre ordered was. She frantically stated she needed to get it out of the cellar and showed back up with the bottles freshly poured into a decanter. After asking the manager if they forgot about our previous phone call to order the wine, he said that he had it decanting for the last 4 hours for us in the fridge… false.

Moving on, the menu was a preset $160 menu. Waitress handed us the menus and started asking which choices we would like…without any explanation of what the chef has prepared for this evening. Making our way down the menu ordering for the table, 2 of the seafood dishes on the preset menu were no longer being offered with no substitution at all, so they only had vegetarian options.

The evening progresses, the wine glasses become empty, and I had to get up to refill the tables glasses, all night. Better service can be found at your local Carrabba’s. If I could rate this experience a -1 star, I would. The service was poor and the food was worse. 5 minutes before the new year and we look around and nothing. We request a little champagne toast and were served it after midnight. Let’s get to the bill already and get out of here, no? after reviewing the bill, we were charged $30 a glass for the champagne that arrived after the midnight toast. We were charged $40 for “open food” and our negative nancy waitress made a whopping $400 tip for service my 7 year old nephew could entertain better. You would think a restaurant named “Wine 48” would know how to serve and be educated on wine service.

This night could have easily been made better with any sort of effort from the restaurant to attempt to make this new year’s night different than any other night.

Thank you Vin 48 for allowing us to understand the importance of it’s not where you are, it’s really about who...

When a vegetable can make you close your eyes so you don't miss out on any part of the experience of what's happening in your mouth, you know something special is happening.

My first bite at Vino 48 was broccolini, and the second it hit my palette, my eyes instinctively went closed.

Although I would be completely surprised if you could go wrong with any dish on this menu, for reasons I'll explain below, here's what we ordered (and loved) for what it's worth: Special: Shishito peppers with pepper ailoi Broccolini (staple): whipped feta and chili, shallots, sesame Quail (staple - small meal): OMG - elevated fried chicken like you would not believe Pan seared trout (special): heirloom tomatoes, soubise, green beans Dessert 1: Carrot cake with brown butter cream cheese and crispy (air fried) carrot shavings Dessert 2: Lemon curd tart with creme anglaise

Each dish had the look, the feel (texture), and the taste of intentionality and love. When you can taste the thought and the care that went into the dish, you experience this connection with the chef(s). At least, I feel this way.

If you're in Avon, Vail, or Minturn, you've got to try Vino 48.

I'm sorry I cannot speak to the name-sake cocktail. I was not drinking the week we were here, but their unique wine wall, which apparently allows 3 1/2 oz pour of their most exclusive wines without ruining the bottles, is something that discriminating wine drinkers will probably also love.

Seriously - if you love your mouth, you've...

I hate to say that I was disappointed with my experience but I was :( I had read such amazing reviews about the service and the food so I booked a reservation for me and my wife for her birthday thinking we’d do something a little nicer than our usual pub style food. Our server didn’t even introduce herself or ask how we were- just jumped right into taking orders and then would disappear for awhile. It took about 20 minutes to get our food order in (luckily everything came out of the kitchen really fast, I will give them that!)

The food was okay. I wanted to love everything, I really did- especially since it was a special occasion but I felt bad that this ended up being my wife’s birthday dinner.

When making the reservation, Open Table asks if it’s a special occasion and if there are any requests. Obviously I said we were celebrating a birthday and anything special would be nice. I’m a former server so I had at least 5 simple things in mind they could have done to make it special but there was literally nothing special about the evening. We got a weak “happy birthday” as we were literally walking out of the door from someone at the host stand and my wife was like “they knew it was my birthday?” And I was embarrassed to admit that they did.

Again- I wanted to love everything. I went in with high expectations based off of the reviews I read but I’ve said “I’m sorry that was your birthday dinner” so many times to my wife...