The sign from the original Ullrhof now hangs on a wall in the main dining atrium of a building twice its size. That building sits at about 9,900 feet near the base of Big Burn. Its decor uses bright colors, murals, vintage artwork and old ski ads that look back to the 1970s, when the first Ullrhof was serving burgers to people skiing Big Burn. The Denver Post toured it in October. Crews finished the work in September.
The new Ullrhof is scheduled to open on Saturday, December 5. That is nine days after Snowmass's scheduled opening on Thanksgiving Day, November 26. Ullrhof also has company that day. Sam's, Up 4 Pizza and The Cabin are all scheduled to open on December 5 too. For anyone in Snowmass Village who skis for lunch as much as for laps, the season really starts on December 5.
What November 26 Actually Opens
Snowmass's opening-day plan is small. On November 26, only the Meadows beginner terrain is scheduled to open, served by the Elk Camp Gondola and the Meadows lift. The gondola runs uphill and downhill from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with the last ride down at 4 p.m. Big Burn, Village Express and the Elk Camp chair are not part of that first-day plan.
Elk Camp Restaurant is the one on-mountain restaurant scheduled to open on November 26, with hours of 9:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. It hosts the first Snowmass party of the winter on Saturday, November 28, from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., with food and drink specials and a local DJ.
For the first nine days, then, the season fits in one corner of the mountain with one restaurant at the top of the gondola.
The Same-Day Openings
Most of Snowmass's on-mountain dining is scheduled to open on December 5. Here is the full sequence as Aspen Snowmass has posted it:
- November 26: Elk Camp Restaurant, 9:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- December 5: Ullrhof, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- December 5: Sam's, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- December 5: Up 4 Pizza, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- December 5: The Cabin, at the Lynn Britt Cabin site, with lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and après from 2:30 to 4 p.m.
- December 18: High Alpine, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Four restaurants opening on the same Saturday is what the season looks like once more terrain is running. Ullrhof is the one most people will notice, because it is new from the foundation up and big enough to change how lunch works on that side of the mountain.
Why the Ullrhof Had to Get Bigger
The Denver Post reports the project cost $42 million. The original building was torn down in May 2025, when construction began. Aspen Skiing Co. CEO Geoff Buchheister told the Post the expansion was needed to catch up with Snowmass's growth. The ski area opened in 1967 on 580 acres and now covers 3,330 acres. The old Ullrhof was built before Snowmass Base Village and the Elk Camp gondola, both of which brought more people onto the mountain.
The Post puts the building's footprint at more than twice the original's, with large patios on the outside. According to Aspen Snowmass, it has more than twice the original's seating, room for more than 600 people. The Post reports the space is meant to ease crowding at Snowmass's other on-mountain restaurants. It also has a private room for ski school groups and several cozier seating areas, one with a fireplace.
It is also Aspen Snowmass's first all-electric on-mountain restaurant. The kitchens and heating are electric. The building has a high-performance envelope that holds heat and an R-58 roof. Cross-laminated timber, an engineered wood, takes the place of much of the concrete and steel a building like this would normally use. WoodWorks lists the project team as Bull Stockwell Allen for architecture and Shaw Construction as general contractor. Holy Cross Energy supplies the power, which runs the patio heaters, espresso machines and ordering kiosks. In the same Denver Post piece, Buchheister said there "probably will be challenges with that as we go through cooking on fully electric and the power grid and everything else," and called it "a challenge that we welcome."
Four Counters, Four Clocks
The biggest change from the old Ullrhof is how you order. Aspen Public Radio quoted Eva Rudow, a business operations manager at SkiCo: "This whole building is built around a food hall concept, so four concepts, four different ways to order." You order from a kiosk or your phone, and each concept keeps its own hours.
| Concept | Where | What it serves | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ullrmarket | Main floor | Espresso, coffee, pastries, grab-and-go snacks, cold lunches | 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
| Ullrbar | Top floor | Gastropub fare, cocktails, beer, wine | 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
| Food Hall | Main floor | Burgers, fries, salads, shakes | 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
| Ullrgrill | Outdoor deck | Dogs, brats, chips, doughnuts, beer | 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., sunny days only |
Those hours shape a ski day. If you're on the slopes early, you can get coffee or a drink from 9 a.m. The burger counter opens at 11. Every concept stops serving at 3 p.m., and the building closes at 3:30. Ullrbar's own description says to stay "for the first round of après," which means a drink upstairs before the last runs down, not an evening out.
The Denver Post's menu details show what the main kitchen is built around:
- A $29 combo with a double-patty smashburger, fries and a vanilla shake, a nod to the original's burger
- Fried pickle chips and pork green chili
- The Max Park, a "popcorn chicken and waffle skyscraper" with hot honey, named for one of the runs that ends at the door
- Shakes topped with Oreos, mini cupcakes and Reese's
- At Ullrbar, larger plates like mussels and poutine
Aspen Snowmass's own listing recommends the crispy chicken lollipops upstairs. You can ski right to the entrance from Lunch Line or Max Park.
December 5 Is Also the Party
Aspen Snowmass is marking the reopening with a '70s-themed grand reopening on December 5, from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., with a DJ on a wraparound deck the company says was built for après. It is one of a string of opening parties across the four mountains. The next ones are at the Merry-Go-Round at Aspen Highlands on December 12 and Buttermilk Mountain Lodge on December 13, both 80th-birthday kickoffs.
The weekend after that brings Wintersköl's 75th year, December 10 to 13. Its Snowmass Village holiday market is part of the program. Elk Camp gets its evenings back on December 23, the first Ullr Nights date of the season. The event runs from 5 to 8 p.m., with dinner at Elk Camp Restaurant from 6 to 8 p.m., and more dates follow on January 1, February 12 and 19, and March 12 and 19.
The Village Gets There First
Down at the Mall, most places reopen well before December 5. Smash & Dash, which replaced Napoli Express on the Snowmass Village Mall and serves smash burgers and shakes, reopens Friday, November 20. Grub Thai reopens the same day, and Gorsuch Ski Cafe follows on November 21.
The Après Deck, the slopeside spot by the Viewline that replaced Bunny's Social Club, reopens in the days just before Thanksgiving. It serves à la carte through December 14 and then switches to a winter breakfast buffet. New Belgium Ranger Station and The Stew Pot reopen on opening day, November 26, and Venga Venga follows on November 27. The Snowmass Sky Cab runs between Snowmass Village and the Mall from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
So the village is mostly open by Thanksgiving weekend, while on the mountain it's Elk Camp alone until December 5, when Ullrhof and three other restaurants all open on the same day.
If you'd like to talk through which parts of Snowmass Village put you closest to Elk Camp, Big Burn or the Mall, Lloyd Tucker knows these runs and these neighborhoods firsthand. Schedule a tour or request a valuation, and we can start with a lap and lunch at the new Ullrhof once it opens.
