The Investment
Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN) is deploying what the company calls its largest-ever food-and-beverage investment, overhauling the quick-service menu items that drive the majority of on-mountain dining revenue across 15 destination and regional ski resorts for the 2026–27 winter season. The push targets core daypart staples — burgers, chili, pizza, fries, hot dogs, chicken strips, and mac and cheese — reformulating recipes with higher-quality ingredients and elevated presentation at existing price points, with no surcharges beyond normal inflation.
Greg Sullivan, Executive Vice President of Retail-Rental, Hospitality and Food & Beverage, framed the effort as a unit-level experience play. "Great food is a critical part of a memorable day on mountain," Sullivan said, adding that the company wants guests to associate its resorts with high-quality food and differentiated après scenes alongside world-class skiing. The flagship example is a new Steakhouse Burger — a butcher's-blend patty with New School American Cheese, Summit Sauce and seasoned waffle fries on a butter-toasted brioche bun — a clear step up from typical ski-lodge QSR fare. The initiative is positioned under the company's broader Epic Experience platform, which targets service consistency across every guest touchpoint, not just lifts and lodging.
New Experiential Concepts
Layered on top of the quick-service upgrades, Vail Resorts is rolling out a roster of higher-check experiential dining and après concepts designed to drive incremental spend and lengthen the guest occasion. At Vail Mountain, a new outdoor Ice Bar adjacent to the Legendary Back Bowls Gate anchors the après program, complemented by a specialty Spritz menu at the redesigned Bistro 14 and the return of the Two Martini Lunch at The 10th. Frisco-based Outer Range Brewing Co. will sponsor the season-long après series at Vail Express Lift Bar and activate across Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Keystone, and Crested Butte — a local-brewery partnership model that builds regional identity while keeping beverage margins in-house.
At Whistler Blackcomb, the company is pushing further upmarket with a Caviar and Champagne service on the Steeps patio and a new Pacific Northwest–rooted menu, plus the On The Rocks ice bar at Christine's on Blackcomb. Park City Mountain adds a roving S'mores Sleigh and expands its guided Peak to Plate ski-and-dine experience, which pairs lodge-to-lodge skiing with curated courses — a format that commands a meaningful premium over standard cafeteria traffic. Breckenridge introduces the Climb and Dine series, pairing self-powered ascents with chef-curated dinners, alongside the returning Hot Dog Tower and a new Sweets Station at TenMile Station. Beaver Creek's chef-driven Alpine Table Series returns with sommelier wine pairings in an intimate alpine setting.
Channel Context and Pass Economics
For foodservice operators tracking resort hospitality, the Vail playbook illustrates a bifurcated F&B strategy increasingly common in captive-audience venues: invest in base-level QSR quality to reduce friction and lift satisfaction scores across the highest-volume daypart, while simultaneously building premium experiential concepts that capture wallet share from higher-spending guests. Technology and operational changes aimed at reducing wait times and increasing seating capacity are also part of the rollout — a throughput play that mirrors what fast-casual chains have pursued with digital ordering and kitchen optimization.
On the yield side, Epic Pass holders receive 20% off dining through the Epic Mountain Rewards program — a loyalty mechanic that incentivizes pass attachment while softening menu price sensitivity. Pass prices rise after November 15, with a new 20% discount for guests ages 13–30 on Epic and Epic Local passes. The dining discount effectively makes on-mountain F&B a pass benefit differentiator, tightening the link between lift-ticket revenue and food-and-beverage capture rates. For operators benchmarking resort F&B against theme-park or stadium hospitality models, the integration of dining perks into a subscription-style pass structure is worth watching as a demand-smoothing and AUV-building mechanism.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
