Just Opened! Overlook Bar & Grill, Estes Park, Colorado

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A new restaurant opening in Estes Park is a rare and welcome occasion. Up until now Foodies had slim pick ins. Since this casual vacation town lies in the shadow of Rocky Mountain National Park. A large percentage of diners are looking to treat themselves to a night of dousing their campfires and enjoying BBQ, Pizza or Rocky Mountain Oysters. Most of the local joints in town are seasonal restaurants that have not been decorated or renovated since the 1970’s. While knotty pine paneling was once popular, I prefer light earth tones to dark and dingy.

The Overlook Bar & Grill has all of the right ingredients. Friendly staff, clean & modern décor, creative bistro-esque cuisine from an award winning, master chef, combined with a breathtaking mountain view. The bar offers a massive selection of craft beers, creative cocktails and hip domestic and international wines.

To be fair, I keep a practice of not reviewing recently opened restaurants, especially a restaurant that had a soft opening just 4 days ago. Estes Park’s new top chef is award winning culinary magician Michael Long. Best known for his restaurant Opus in Littleton, Colorado. An east coast native and graduate of CIA (Culinary Institute Of America, Hyde Park) Chef Long has the expertise to create just about any level of cuisine from haute to comfort level. The cuisine at Overlook takes diners to culinary peaks, but respects Estes Park’s laid back atmosphere. “ Thirty-percent of our customers are kid’s” claims Chef Long.

We tried several dishes including a rich & creamy, melted Mountain Mac-N-Cheese ($8), which offered a creative take on Macaroni and Cheese, stuffed inside a wheel of oozing brie and placed on top squares of Focaccia bread. The beer braised Beet Salad ($8)was plated in an artsy display. The signature dish, pepper crusted Elk Chop ($39) is a big portion. Served rare it is a slightly gameier than beef, with a velvety texture and flavor hinting of grass and cedar. My chop was served atop a delicious plate of polenta and braised spinach with a wild huckleberry porter ale elk jus. The Hot Apple Cobbler ($6) was individually baked in a cast-iron skillet, served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Creative Cocktails include a Jack Daniels Single Barrel Manhattan ($9) and a Raspberry Margarita ($9).

The Overlook Bar & Grill is a great place to enjoy delicious food & drink with friends and family. It has the best roof top view in Estes Park. You can even see the historic Stanley Hotel, which is where Stephen King got his inspiration to write horror classic The Shining!

The Overlook Bar & Grill
165 Virginia Drive
Estes Park, CO
Tel. 970 267-2912
Website: Coming soon!


Note: If you enter the building from its front entrance on Virginia Drive, you will be taking three flights of stairs to the restaurant entrance. If you are not up for that much exercise…parking in the rear lot gains entrance to a single flight of stairs or elevator.






Comments

Kevin said…
The place is nice, the food looks good, and the view amazing.. Surely a great place to have your meal.
December 11, 2013 at 11:18 PM
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