My girlfriend and I stayed a night here in August. The room was clean, and nice enough, but for $173.00 - I would have expected more. The inn overall has a very generic, corporate feel to it - not very cozy or welcoming. Quite frankly, it is something one might expect from a larger resort in Colorado, not in Vermont - a state known for its unique warmth and support of local businesses. I have nothing against Colorado; it is a beautiful state with friendly people and some great breweries, it just has much larger resorts. Anyway, we ate breakfast in the Coleman Brook Tavern the next morning. Breakfast was quite good, and to be fair (the only reason this place gets 2 stars instead of 1), the tavern served me one of the best Bloody Mary's I've ever had.
We enjoyed breakfast enough that we returned here in October after discovering that the restaurant we wanted to go to was full on this particular evening. We had drinks at the bar before dinner. The bartender was nice enough, but after I attempted to order a brandy, I realized that he did not know what he was doing. The brandies, Armagnacs, and Cognacs are all kept on the top shelf, which I was gesturing towards as I inquired about the selection and prices. He basically told me that they were very expensive and gave me a drink menu. Said menu had everything except the brandies listed on it. He seemed to think that bourbon was an acceptable substitute (or perhaps one-in-the-same) for brandy and proceeded to show me several bourbons. Now, I happened to really like bourbons, and my brain was hurting at this point, so I ordered a bourbon neat. Our bartender then showed us to a table for dinner, and put on his waiter hat. My friend and I ordered ahi tuna rare ("Black and Blue" as they called it), and my girlfriend ordered duck. The restaurant, for some reason, ran out of the white bean puree that was supposed to be part of the tuna dish, which they were nice enough to inform us of. I substituted this with something else that was so boring, I can't even recall what it was.
Our entrees arrived. Both tuna steaks were thoroughly cooked, almost dry; and the duck was practically raw. We then made the mistake of ordering dessert: a make-your-own s'mores option. This consisted of stale marshmallows, graham crackers, Hershey's chocolate, and a can of Sterno that looked like it was about spent. Our brilliant waiter / bartender insisted that he had served hundreds of these desserts, and assured us that the Sterno flame was adequate. The flame from the Sterno was just the right temperature to warm the outside of the marshmallow slightly, or engulf the marshmallow in flames - there was no "sweet spot"; this was a frustrating and unappetizing experience. On the dessert menu I finally found my brandies and their respective prices. I ordered an Armagnac, which was quite affordable, and if our bartender had been familiar with the very basic types of liquor, I would have ordered in the first place. Apparently he was taught how to mix one hell of a margarita, yet skipped class the day they taught the difference between brandy and whiskey! Oh yeah, and the make-your-own s'mores dessert was $15.00!!
Overall, our dinner was of mediocre quality and obscenely overpriced. My girlfriend and I intended to take our friend out for a nice dinner on her 30th birthday, but returned home in a crappy mood and nearly $200 poorer.
This place is a sorry excuse for an "Inn"; it is a glorified Holiday Inn at best. The Jackson Gore Inn makes me ashamed to be an American and fear that my state is steadily falling into the greedy, lame, cookie cutter corporate cesspool that is poisoning the rest of our country. But if you want a nice goat cheese breakfast wrap, and an outstanding Bloody Mary . . . check it out I guess.
P.S. Looking on the bright side, the roughly $373 that I spent at Jackson Gore this year paid for a whole week's wages for one of the resort's ski lift attendants! read more