THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Piñons Awards

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Piñons Restaurant Review:

With a handsome, warm-toned dining room and a deck overlooking Aspen Mountain, Piñons has long been one of the top dining destinations for resort hounds who know good food (and have the means to pay for it). Chef-owner Rob Mobilian combines local and European influences to conjure up a leather-bound menu of style and substance. Appetizers range from scaled-up comforts like quesadillas with duck, spinach and portobellos to unabashed luxuries such as fried oysters topped with caviar and crème fraîche. Among the entrées, the Parmesan-crusted veal chop over risotto has a cult following, but the lot of them are meaty in every sense of the word --- think espresso-seared buffalo loin in huckleberry sauce or herb-roasted rack of lamb in a carrot-ginger broth with mashed rutabagas. (Heads up, vegetarians: your options are pretty limited --- although the bread basket alone may compensate for the lack of choices to follow.) For dessert, look for the Nutella-banana cream pie. Enjoy the civil ministrations of the tenured staff, who will help you pair it all with a world-class bottle from the enormous cellar.