Tavernetta

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Michelin-Pedigreed Italian Table in the Colorado Alps

Tavernetta Vail sits inside Four Seasons Resort Vail, bringing with it the full weight of the Frasca Hospitality Group's reputation. That Denver-based group built its name on Frasca Food and Wine's Michelin Star and Tavernetta Denver's Bib Gourmand, and the Vail outpost carries that same commitment to Italian regional cooking into a mountain setting. The result is refined Northern Italian cuisine delivered with what the restaurant calls "warm, genuine hospitality" — a phrase that, here, has an actual track record behind it.

Chef Ethan Diamant and the Kitchen Team

Chef de Cuisine Ethan Diamant leads the kitchen, supported by General Manager Jay Havey and Assistant Restaurant Manager Michael Katzen. The menu they've built reads as a serious tour of Italy's larder: antipasti like Carpaccio alla Cipriani with grass-fed beef and Grana Padano, or Burrata with Trapanese pesto and pangrattato. Pasta — all of which can be made gluten-free — ranges from Cavatelli with Iberico pork collar and cave-aged Caciocavallo to Linguini with Maine lobster, preserved tomato, and Calabrian chili. Secondi push further: Alaskan halibut paired with baccalà and fregola, or a ribeye finished with truffle jus and white asparagus. The alpine setting quietly inflects the cooking — quail arrives with spruce, huckleberry, and beet root; the polenta side, Toc' In Braide, uses Anson Mills Spin Rosso with an alpine fonduta.

The Wine List and the Spritz Window

Wine Spectator recognized Tavernetta Vail with its 2025 Award of Excellence, and the list justifies the attention. Described by the restaurant itself as "unabashedly a love letter to Italy," it is composed almost entirely of Italian producers — Barolo from a collaboration between G.D. Vajra and Frasca Hospitality Group, Barbaresco from Produttori, Etna Bianco from Graci — with Champagne as the sole exception. The by-the-glass selection alone spans Friulano, Fiano di Avellino, and Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo.

For something more casual, the Spritz Window is a deliberate nod to the wine windows found across Tuscany and Northern Italy. Guests buzz for a seasonal spritz cocktail and watch it arrive through the pass — a small, considered gesture that says something about how this place thinks about atmosphere.

Breakfast Through Dinner, Private Dining Included

Beyond dinner, Tavernetta Vail serves breakfast daily and Sunday brunch, making it a full-day Italian dining destination within the resort. Private rooms and large-group accommodations are available, and the restaurant periodically runs special programming — a Sicilian tasting menu through the summer months, seasonal prix fixe events — that keeps the offer from feeling static.