Allie’s Cabin warms up a cold night at Colorado’s Beaver Creek Resort

The temperature wasn’t much above zero at the base of Colorado’s Beaver Creek Resort ski area one evening in December as I boarded an open sleigh, powered by snowcat, to head uphill toward dinner on the mountain.

Just eight minutes later, I arrived at my destination, Allie’s Cabin. The ride wasn’t long enough to get too cold, bundled as I was in four layers, but it was far enough to provide a sense of winter escape as the lights of Beaver Creek Village receded hundreds of feet below us.

Allie’s Cabin, named for early Beaver Creek settler Allie Townsend, is one of three dinner-only, fine dining lodges on Beaver Creek mountain accessible only via sleigh ride. The others are Beano’s Cabin, which offers five-course, prix fixe meals featuring Colorado cuisine; and Zach’s Cabin, which serves cuisine from the French region of Alsace, along the Swiss and German borders. Menu items at Zach’s are varied but include such fare as foie gras, schnitzel, caviar and fondue.

Allie’s also used to focus on popular Colorado items such as trout, lamb and bison but was transformed ahead of the 2021-2022 ski season to specialize in Northern Italian food.

Beaver Creek promotes Allie’s Cabin as “accessibly romantic,” in large part because it’s the closest of the three lodges to the mountain base. The short sleigh ride (Zach’s Cabin and Beano’s are a 15- and 20-minute ride away, respectively) makes it an easy option for a couple in search of an intimate start to an evening, even if a complete dinner isn’t in the plans.

On this night, though, I was eager for the full Allie’s experience, which the restaurant obliged by seating my partner and me next to a large picture window that looked down upon the village lights. Happily, on this cold Rocky Mountain night, we were also just a couple paces away from the restaurant’s cavernous stone fireplace.

For appetizers, we selected salmon tartare and fried calamari. The tartare, served with avocado mousse and a mustard dressing, and the calamari, presented with a chili aioli for dipping, were both a pleasure. But it was the fried polenta sticks topped with caviar that I found most memorable. The black, bowfin caviar was topped with a small dollop of creme fraiche and garnished with crisscrossing chives. I’ve never loved caviar, but on this occasion, I found the flavor pleasantly buttery and an excellent complement to the crispiness of the polenta.

For mains, Allie’s Cabin offers a variety of hearty items; for example, veal Milanese or grilled swordfish, a personal favorite of mine. But having already exercised little restraint during the bread and appetizer courses, I went with the somewhat smaller offering of bison Bolognese, a dish that combined the restaurant’s Northern Italian focus with a bit of Colorado. It seemed appropriate, sitting as I was in a wooden lodge on a ski mountain next to a huge fireplace.

A while later, we caught the final sleigh of the night back to the village. Satiated from the food and a slight overindulgence of spirits, the ride downhill felt warmer than our ride up hours earlier.

I took in the night sky, away from the immediate interference of village lights, and realized that I don’t do that enough during my winter mountain sojourns. After all, as much as anything, a ski trip is about getting well and truly away from the norm.