Classic Comfort
Courtesy of Carl Scofield
As in a reoccurring dream, we find ourselves with familiar friends, people we seem to know from another lifetime, sitting at the same barstools, having the same conversations, eating our favorite food, and basking in déjà vu.
Walk down Frisco's Main Street and into any of the restaurants and you have a good chance of meeting the business owner, who is greeting guests or bussing tables.
Cindy Spaulding, proprietor of The Boatyard Grill, keeps her apron tied as she takes a break to talk about friends and the community of Frisco’s restaurants. 
Across the street, owner Bobby Cato takes care of the Italian eatery Tuscato and at the next corner, Bobby Starkow pilots the ship at Silverheels and Kemosabe Sushi.
The main ingredient is people. Spaulding speaks highly of her staff and their love for their work.
“They spend time on the specials and really like to cook and try new things. Having good people who really care is a blessing.”
If you burned a few calories skiing or are just plain hungry, The Boatyard's Hummus & Baba Ganouj appetizer delivers shiny, oily Kalamata olives and Colorado goat cheese.
In contrast to chain restaurants, this small business offers unique style, value, and distinctive variations, such as on a generous plate of 
applewood-smoked, bacon-wrapped buffalo meatloaf with mashed potatoes.
The care and affection taste great, and the food and ambiance mirror the owner's unpretentious attitude.
Chances are, the bartender knows your name and your friend's.
Out of the corner of your eye you glimpse bicycle tires reflected in the window, snow piling up on the saddle.
Laughter bounces around the room as you drink shiraz, cuddled up in a cozy pile of pillows, leaning against seat-to-ceiling plate glass that was once a showcase for car tires in the building's previous life.
Diners sip cabernet that matches the color of the satiny cushions, but the mood is jeans and sports.
There are candles, but the waiter's not shaved.
Spaulding wanted to see familiar faces every night, not only on a birthday or anniversary, and so she and her husband designed The Boatyard as a place to enjoy any time.
“A friendly, warm, welcoming, open, happy atmosphere,” is how Spaulding describes the vibe.
And the food selection matches the mood. “The menu has an exceptionally wide variety,” she notes.
“If you have a group with a number of different tastes, this is the place to come.
One person may want a steak, another can have a great salad, and the kids can have pizza.”
GIVING BACK
A wooden sign above the bar recognizes “Breckenridge – A Little Drinking Town with a Fishing Problem.”
Portraits on the walls feature gleaming trout and the proud fishermen who caught them in the Tarryall Reservoir, the Blue River, the Colorado River, or one of a number of other world-class fishing spots within an hour of this ski resort town.
John Daisy has a passion for fishing and a heartfelt appreciation for his backyard.
“Summit County is a great place to come home to,” proclaims Daisy, longtime owner of Fatty's Pizzeria. Hailing from a culture of blue-collar workers from the South Side of Chicago and Gary,
Indiana, he has traveled around the world, climbing mountains in Asia, Africa, and South America, always coming back to the Breckenridge restaurant he says he plans to keep forever.
“Being here almost thirty years, we've been very involved with community functions and fundraisers,” Daisy says.
The Breckenridge Restaurant Association, for example, has put $180,000 back into the community in the form of scholarships and sports team sponsorships.
The organization, started by Daisy and fellow restaurateurs Sam Mamula and Dick Carleton, supports the Friends Welcome program, which provides staff trainings and rewards businesses and employees for outstanding customer service.
The Association also donated $25,000 to the Colorado Mountain College culinary program, which now has a state-of-the art kitchen facility at its recently opened Breckenridge campus.
A fundraiser for the Little Red Schoolhouse preschool is an annual tradition at Fatty’s, and a golf tournament which evolved from a drinking game into a true golf game on the Jack Nicklaus-designed Breckenridge Golf Club, has raised $50,000 over four years for local sports programs.
Fatty's also takes care of its town with home-cooked meals. “We still make soups from scratch,” beams Daisy.
A tour of the kitchen reveals the back-of-the-house crew’s incredibly hard work, which includes the polishing, scrubbing, and shining of a superbly equipped facility.
The restaurant’s regulars eat French fries and club sandwiches, looking up over the rims of their pint glasses to watch a football game, probably not conscious of the fact that behind the swinging doors, the staff is making hollandaise, chicken stock, and beef stock for sauce, and de-boning birds for a new Thursday menu item called the turducket, a three-fowl, three-stuffing creation that cooks for 12 hours, after which the drippings are turned into gravy.
Chicken pot pie is another cold weather staple on the made-from-scratch menu.
Fatty’s kitchen turns out homemade pastas, including cannelloni and ravioli, and its pizza dough is made fresh daily, along with up to 20 gallons per day of their own marinara sauce, providing the restaurant with a staple comfort food.
Of course, Breckenridge is blessed with more than one excellent pizzeria, including Downstairs at Eric's on Main Street and Giampietro's on Lincoln.
Daisy claims he is surrounded by the best restaurants in town: The Hearthstone (which he considers to be among Colorado’s best dining establishments), Angel's Hollow, and South Ridge Seafood Grill are all on Ridge Street in the Arts District.
“We try harder because we don't have the captive audience,” he says of his off-Main Street location up on a rise with stunning views of the Tenmile Range.
“I'm lucky,” he acknowledges again and again, “with customers and friends coming here, people who are part of our community. I come in at lunchtime, and I know someone at every other table.”
WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME
“A lot of faces and names have changed, but the kind of people who come here are the same kind of people they've always been: vigorous, independent people who love to ski and love the outdoors,” explains Jim Shields, who with his wife, Jane, have been involved in the business of running the Snake River Saloon since 1975.
“We used to be the biggest building in the valley,” Shields recalls.
Today, the unassuming log structure on U.S. Highway 6 is dwarfed by high-rise condominiums and lodges at Keystone Resort.
“We are a local hangout,” Shields says.
“People love to stop in and sit by the fireplace or shoot some pool.”
The Snake River Saloon boasts awards for best place for a romantic date – or a Bloody Mary. 
“You get the best of both under one roof,” Shields explains.
“Have a wonderful dinner and never have to drive.
Just go next door for music and dancing.”
The wood-paneled barroom's dance floor warms up with live music, as it has every weekend for 35 years.
“Great bands come through.
We are a bastion of live music and always have been,” Shields notes.
The walls of the Snake River Saloon reflect the essence of Summit County. Photo collages with hundreds of images of neighborhood friends from the communities of Montezuma, Keystone, Dillon, and around the globe, tells its stories.
Shields notes the staff is strongly connected with the clientele. “We believe our people, our employees, are what make us great,” he says, adding that he has staff members who have been on the job 15, 20, and even 30 years. “Customers pick up on that vibe.”
They also pick up on the timelessness of the establishment. “If you were in the Snake River Saloon in 1975 or in 2009, you know there’s something really familiar and comfortable in this old-fashioned mountain log building,” says Shields.
“Even if you haven’t been in for a long time, it's the same.”
Rachel Meisler makes her home in Breckenridge, where she savors eating and drinking at the local hangouts with her friends. She practices Nordic skiing, cycling, yoga, teaching, and creating art.
