Aspen's Kitchens Close One at a Time and Come Back on the Lift Schedule

Duemani closed on September 29. Cache Cache served its last summer dinner on Saturday, October 3, and Bosq closed the same day. Betula and PARC Aspen followed on October 11. Aspen's fall off-season wears down slowly, one dining room at a time, for weeks.

The reopening runs on a different schedule. The eatAspen Fall 2026 off-season guide lists closures spread from late September into November. Its reopening dates cluster around two days on the Aspen Snowmass calendar. Aspen Mountain and Snowmass open November 26, 2026. Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk open December 12. The kitchens leave one by one and return when the lifts start turning. That makes the middle of November the true low point of the year.

The order they close

Most of the closures in the guide land before Halloween. The second half of October, when the weather is often still good for a patio lunch, is when the bigger dinner rooms close.

The table leaves out several places that don't fit neatly. Mawita, at 305 AABC, has been closed since September 6 and stays closed through Sunday, December 13. Willow Creek Bistro at The Ritz-Carlton Club is listed as closed until Thanksgiving week. ZigZag is closed for the off-season, and Le Cafe is set to take over its space at 624 East Cooper in December. Red Mountain Grill at the Aspen Golf Course plans a two-week closure in early November, with exact dates still to be set.

Add up the dated closures in the guide and the curve is clear. Today, October 12, eight of these restaurants are closed. On November 10, fourteen are closed at once: every restaurant in the table, Aspen Brewing Co. included in its nine-day break, plus Mawita, ZigZag and Willow Creek. The count drops to thirteen when Aspen Brewing Co. reopens November 18 and stays there until French Alpine Bistro returns November 25.

The two waves back

The reopenings arrive together because they follow the lift schedule. French Alpine Bistro comes back on November 25, the night before Aspen Mountain opens, and resumes its daily 3 to 5 p.m. happy hour. Aosta, The Monarch, The Wild Fig and Betula all have closures that end November 26. Willow Creek Bistro returns in Thanksgiving week.

The second wave lines up with Highlands and Buttermilk. Duemani reopens December 4. Mawa's Kitchen brings back breakfast and brunch December 10, Bosq's closure ends the same day, and Cache Cache and Matsuhisa's upstairs dining room both return Friday, December 11, the day before the second pair of mountains opens. Mawita follows after December 13, then Mawa's dinner service on December 15 and PARC Aspen after its closure ends that day.

So the week of November 23 goes from one of the quietest dining weeks of the fall to one of the busiest in a matter of days. Two reliable year-round options also close on Thanksgiving itself. Matsuhisa closes fully on Thanksgiving, and so does Yuki.

What "open all off-season" actually means

Several restaurants stay open through the quiet weeks, but almost every one of them changes something. In the guide, "open" usually comes with shorter hours, fewer days, or one meal dropped.

• Campo de Fiori stays open all off-season, serving dinner at 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday since October 11.
• Matsuhisa keeps the downstairs open. The upstairs room is closed from October 6 to December 11 except on Mondays, when it hosts Monday-night football specials along with the downstairs bar.
• Yuki is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays from October 6 through November 18.
• Catch Steak serves 6 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
• Las Montañas stopped lunch after October 5 and won't bring it back until mid-December. Happy hour runs 3 to 5 p.m. and dinner starts at 5 every night.
• CP Burger runs 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
• Crepe Therapy Cafe is open daily, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 8 p.m. on weekends.
• West End Social at Aspen Meadows drops breakfast and lunch from November 9 through November 23 and serves from 2 to 9 p.m. The Meadows Cafe, also at Aspen Meadows, covers mornings from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Full 7 a.m. service returns November 24.
• Explore Books Cafe is open seven days a week, with the cafe running 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the bookstore until 5 p.m.

The guide lists Steakhouse No. 316, Little Ollie's, New York Pizza, Phatt Pho, Roxy's Market & Cafe, Limelight Lounge and Clark's Market as open without noting any change in hours. Woody Creek Tavern is open too, though getting there gets harder for a few weeks, as explained below.

This year's new arrivals are the open question. eatAspen's October 2 roundup reports that LoLa 41 opened in the new White Elephant Hotel on Main Street, The Golden Horn opened in a below-ground space on the Mill Street pedestrian mall, and Café 73 opened at The Gant. None of the three has off-season hours posted in the fall guide yet, so it's best to call ahead before a mid-November dinner. Aosta, the other new Alpine Italian room on East Durant, follows the established pattern and closes October 25 through November 26.

The stages run when the dining rooms are dark

Aspen's theaters and galleries pick up much of the slack. Several of their fall dates land on or near the evenings when restaurants close.

1. October 16. Aspen Film screens the Met Opera's "Macbeth" at the Isis Theatre.
2. October 21, 4:30 to 6 p.m. The Wheeler Opera House holds a free public open house to celebrate its 2026 Outstanding Historic Theatre Award. It's also French Alpine Bistro's last night before its break, just a block down Hopkins.
3. October 24. Aspen Film shows "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" with a live-music after-party, the night before Aosta and The Monarch close.
4. October 27 to November 8. The Aspen Art Museum hosts its Community Ofrenda, with more programs on November 2, 3, 12, 18 and 19.
5. November 13. Aspen Film's encore of "Carmen" plays at the Isis, during the stretch when fourteen dining rooms are closed.
6. November 15 to 28. The Wheeler hosts The Carpenters Songbook on the 15th, the U.S. Navy Band Commodores on the 16th, Foy Vance on the 19th and Pedro Gonzalez on the 21st. Drew Lynch on the 27th and Suzy Bogguss on the 28th fall during opening weekend.

Getting around shrinks on the same schedule

Transit and trail access follow the same curve. The Maroon Bells shuttle ends October 18, and trailhead parking reservations end October 31, according to Visit Maroon Bells. RFTA's fall schedule runs through November 22. City of Aspen buses run 7 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays. The fare-free Cross Town route and Woody Creek service are suspended for the fall and both return November 23. For now, a burger at Woody Creek Tavern is a drive rather than a bus ride.

Independence Pass is still uncertain. CDOT says Highway 82 over the pass typically closes for winter on or near November 7 but has not announced a 2026 date. Last season it closed on November 17, 2025.

Taken together, the timing lines up. Buses return November 23, French Alpine Bistro November 25, and the lifts and most of the big dinner rooms November 26. Cache Cache and Matsuhisa's upstairs come back December 11, and Highlands and Buttermilk open the next morning.

The quiet weeks before opening day are also when many Aspen owners find time for the conversations that summer and ski season push aside. If you're wondering how your property might fit into next year's plans, Zach Lentz is available for a private conversation while the town is quiet. Schedule a Confidential Consultation.