There are a number of very good breakfast places in the Steamboat Springs area. We usually don't do big breakfasts, but we found that with all the running around and sight-seeing that we would do during the course of the day, a hearty breakfast was needed if we didn't have time to stop for lunch. One of the places in the downtown Steamboat area was situated in an old house which really intrigued my wife. We looked the restaurant up on line, found that they did breakfasts and one day we took a trip to Yampa Valley Kitchen.
While we were in Steamboat Springs this past year, we ate at two restaurants - Mambo and Bésame - both owned by chef Hannah Hopkins and developer Jeremy MacGray. (Click on the links to go to the Road Tips entries on both restaurants.) It turns out that Yampa Valley Kitchen is the third of the trio of restaurants that Hopkins and MacGray own in Steamboat.
The building that houses Yampa Valley Kitchen is an old farmhouse that was built in 1918. The building was declared unstable and was condemned about six years ago. However, a local chef by the name of Patrick Ayers took over the building in 2014 and remodeled it into a full-service restaurant. In 2017, he started Cloverdale, a very high-end farm-to-fork restaurant in which he used food stuff grown on his farm outside of Steamboat Springs. Ayers caught the eye of many food enthusiasts - primarily because the patrons were not given a choice of the foods when they would come to the restaurant. They would eat whatever Ayers would have available that evening.
Coupled with Cloverleaf being rather pricey - five-course meals for two ran about $130 dollars while 10 to 14 course meals could end up being close to $275 for two people - and that the menu changed daily, the restaurant proved to be a very risky proposition. While many food critics and editors applauded Ayers avant-garde style, it didn't catch on with the locals. Cloverdale closed in September of 2018. (An aside - my wife and I remember seeing Cloverdale when we were in Steamboat in 2018, but my wife thought it was a gift shop and we didn't bother checking the place out.)
In December of 2018, another restaurant took over Cloverdale's spot - Low Country Kitchen, a southern-style eatery run by Brian and Katy Vaughn. The Vaughn's opened the original Low Country Kitchen along Lincoln Avenue in Steamboat back in 2014. But after a record winter of 2018-19 for Low Country Kitchen, a financial restructuring fell through and the Vaughns were forced to close Low Country Kitchen in June of 2019.
Hopkins and MacGray saw the potential of the little restaurant and they took over the property in late 2019. MacGray's wife, Krysta, redesigned the interior of the restaurant to give it more of a farm-house effect. Chef Joe Campbell - who was also the executive chef for Mambo and Bésame - came up with a menu using locally-sourced and organically-raised food ingredients. With everything in place, Yampa Valley Kitchen opened in July of 2020.
We pulled up to Yampa Valley Kitchen at the corner of Oak St. and 9th St. just before 9 a.m. (see map) The restaurant definitely looked like it would have been an old farmhouse from the early 20th century, but updated to look more modern. It had a metal roof and some impressive landscaping around the building. Off to the one side was an outdoor patio for dining outside when the weather was nice. But the weather had turned unseasonably cold during our visit and outdoor dining was out of the question for the remaining days of our visit.
We had actually tried to get into Yampa Valley Kitchen one morning, but we were told that it would probably be a 45 minute wait and they really didn't have a spot for people to wait. We promptly made reservations for breakfast the next day at 9 a.m. This time, we were able to get right in.
Just past the hostess stand was the bar area. Yampa Valley Kitchen has a full bar with specialty drinks, wine and beer. Their bloody mary consisted of a base made with juiced beets, peppers and tomatoes, then lemon juice, ginger, spices and herbs are mixed in with a horseradish-infused vodka. It's finished with celery and a hot sauce if you want it spicy. I came about this close to ordering one, but I didn't. We were going to have a long day of sight-seeing and walking around some of the area lakes.
The main dining area wasn't all that big with a small dining area with a large bay window off to the side. There was an upstairs to the place, but I don't know if there was any dining space up there. With the multiple windows on the main floor of the restaurant, the room was filled with a lot of natural light.
Our hostess showed us to a table near one of the front windows and dropped off a couple breakfast menus for us. Our server that morning was Clarissa, a friendly and soft-spoken young lady. I immediately ordered a double espresso and a glass of orange juice. My wife was sort of surprised to see smoothies on the menu and thought about getting the golden mango smoothie made with mangoes, bananas, coconut turmeric and agave juice. But she ended up getting an orange juice and coffee, as well.
We were sort of surprised at the number of items on the breakfast menu. (The lunch menu featured soups, salads, sandwiches, a burger, and light entrees featuring shrimp and grits, salmon miso soup, and a daily "chef's-choice" frittata. Some of the breakfast menu items migrate to the lunch menu at Yampa Valley Kitchen.) They had a basic American-style breakfast with two eggs, toast and a choice of either sausage, bacon or ham, and a choice of fried potatoes or a medley of greens made fresh in the kitchen. They had a French omelet made with gruyére cheese and ham, eggs Benedict, traditional biscuits and gravy, and a choice of crepes. They also had a number of vegetarian selections such as a banana-smoothie bowl with almond butter and almond milk, a vegetable omelet, and avocado toast.
My wife was torn between the lemon crepe and the chocolate hazelnut crepe made with an in-house chocolate hazelnut spread, similar to Nutella. I had my eye on the French omelet. Or the lemon crepe, as well. I really didn't know which way to turn.
Well, that is until Clarissa brought out a couple plates of breakfast items to a couple ladies seated at a table in the middle of the dining room. I'm usually not one to pry into what someone is eating at another table and I certainly wasn't going to ask the lady who was seemingly enjoying what she ordered. I asked Clarissa instead when she came back to take our order.
"Oh, that," she turned back to me after looking at the table. "That's the Reuben Benedict." I said that it looked good and Clarissa said it was one of the more popular items on their menu. I ended up order that instead of the French omelet. My wife ordered the lemon crepe, so I knew that I'd be able to get a bite or two of that to try.
The reuben Benedict was outstanding. It's no wonder it's one of the more popular items on the menu. It featured house-made pastrami along with kimchi on English muffin halves topped with poached eggs and a house-made hollandaise. The house-made pastrami was terrific and the overall savory flavor of my breakfast was out-of-this-world.
My wife also couldn't say enough about her lemon crepe. The thin crepe was filled with a rich lemon curd filling. Pods of whipped vanilla cream topped with fresh blueberries, raspberries and blackberries surrounded the crepe. My wife offered me a bite of the crepe with some cream and berries. I have to say it was delicious with a lot of different taste sensations going on in my mouth. My wife tried a bite of the reuben Benedict and decided that while it was good, she was happy with her lemon crepe. So, we were both happy with what we ordered.
We were very happy with the breakfasts we got at Yampa Valley Kitchen. My reuben Benedict was off-the-charts, while my wife loved her lemon crepe with whipped vanilla cream and berries. While they did have a couple three traditional breakfasts on the menu, most of the items were definitely a step-up in terms of taste and quality of the ingredients. But, once again, like many other places in Steamboat Springs, breakfast wasn't cheap. It was $55 bucks before tax and tip. And Clarissa did get a nice tip as she did a very good in taking care of us. Other than the high prices, we thoroughly enjoyed our breakfasts at Yampa Valley Kitchen. But, you know, we don't mind paying extra if the food is good. And the food at Yampa Valley Kitchen is very good.
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