Then came the carpaccio, thinly sliced local beef served with alternating dots of zesty, creamy horseradish and rich egg yolk. Bucatini was bathed in a Parmesan brodo loaded with black pepper and guanciale. Toothsome cavatelli with rapini came topped with a big, crispy piece of speck. Scallops arrived, seared to golden-brown perfection.
As the wine flowed and the sun sank below the mountaintops, it was easy to see why chef Matt Vawter, a Summit County native, decided to open his second restaurant in the mountain town less than three years after leaving his role leading the kitchen at James Beard Award-winning chef Alex Seidel's Mercantile at Denver's Union Station.
Before becoming Radicato last June, 137 Main Street was the longtime home of Relish, which was owned by Matt Fackler, whom Vawter had worked for when he was finishing culinary school at Colorado Mountain College in his late teens. "We've remained friends since, and he's always been a mentor of sorts," Vawter says. "He was done and wanted to sell Relish, and we all agreed that it was one of the cooler spaces in Breckenridge. ... It's just a special space."
Fackler was also the person who set Vawter's career in the Mile High in motion. "He's actually the one who told me about Fruition when I was moving down to Denver years ago," Vawter recalls, referring to Seidel's New American eatery on East Sixth Avenue. That's where Vawter ended up landing a job and rising through the ranks for six years before Seidel brought him on as proprietor/chef de cuisine at Mercantile when it opened in 2014.
But after thirteen years in Denver, Vawter decided to make the move back to Summit County in 2020 — and to open a place of his own. He began the process of remodeling an old Victorian house at 207 North Main Street in Breckenridge that September, but then COVID numbers began rising again, and indoor dining was shut down for a second time in November.
"That part was nerve-racking," Vawter admits. "It was like, 'I've already spent a bunch of money — we're invested in this. And now things are closed. We set this date of December 1 as a target to get open, and that doesn't make a whole lot of sense now.'"
But he and his team, many of whom came up from Mercantile for the new venture, decided to move forward anyway. And on December 10, 2020, Vawter's New American restaurant Rootstalk made its debut. "We did outdoor dining and to-go, and that was more to get our feet wet in the kitchen and start to iron out the kinks with systems," Vawter recalls.
Eight days later, Rootstalk got its five-star rating from the state, which allowed it to open at 25 percent capacity. "Looking back on it now, it was more of a blessing in disguise," Vawter says. "I don't think you ever get that opportunity in restaurants to ease into things. ... We had a unique opportunity to see, what did we still need to fix in the space? What kind of efficiencies are we lacking? Do we need to purchase different equipment?"
By the busy summer season of 2021, Rootstalk was "ready to go," Vawter recalls. And go it did. It's proven popular not just with tourists, but with Breckenridge residents who've embraced the chef who came home — bringing some serious fine-dining chops with him. "It's always been one of our goals to establish ourselves with the local clientele, so it's been nice to have the support of locals. And the locals enjoy what we're doing," Vawter says.
Having one successful restaurant in the small town was a win for Vawter, but deciding to open a second was more about his team than himself. "Cameron Baker, my chef de cuisine; Patrick Murphy, my general manager — it's really about them, and creating an opportunity for them to grow both in responsibilities, but also financially. And, for lack of a better term, lay their roots down here and be stable," Vawter says.
Baker and Murphy are now partners in both Rootstalk and Radicato. "That was really important to me," Vawter adds. "I feel really fortunate about the team that I have and the team that I get to lead, and watching young people become leaders and develop in their own right. I just feel fortunate to be a part of it."
Opening his second restaurant was a very different experience than the slow-rolling debut of his first. "There was already a reputation established at Rootstalk, so I think the community was excited about what was going on. It took off a lot quicker," Vawter says.
For Vawter, it was also important to create a different experience for diners at Radicato while maintaining the same quality of service and operations across both concepts. "That was more challenging than I thought it would be," he admits. "It's a small town up here. ... In a city environment, maybe that's a little different and easier to navigate, because you just have people to grab from. But that's still our biggest challenge, is just making sure each restaurant has its own identity and stands alone."
While Rootstalk's menu of New American dishes is "rooted in that everyday elevated, the familiarity, the approachable-ness and some of that nostalgia," Vawter says, Radicato fully embraces Italian cuisine. The two restaurants differ stylistically, as well. "We really push the idea of sharing and breaking bread as a table at Radicato," Vawter adds, while Rootstalk "has definitely evolved more into the standard everyone orders their own dishes."
The tasting menus reflect those approaches. At Rootstalk, dishes are plated per person, while Radicato's tasting menu is served family style.
Both small plates and large entrees, like the dry-aged, bone-in ribeye, are meant for sharing at Radicato.
Molly Martin
In Denver, meanwhile, restaurants stay pretty consistently busy all year round, but there is a weekly cycle, with things slowing down on Mondays before ramping back up again for the weekend. "Here it's just go, go, go all season long, and then when the off-season hits, we're only doing 35 to 40 covers a night," he notes.
"It's a totally different dynamic," Vawter continues. "From a business standpoint, it's easier to plan when you're just busy all the time, but it wears on your team. On the other side of that, the winters are tough up here, because you're really getting after it every single day. Both have their challenges. Both have their pros and cons, but it is nice to have a little break here and there."
This past spring, Vawter used that slow time as an opportunity to do some team building, taking a group from Rootstalk to Moab for mountain biking and camping and another from Radicato on a rafting trip in Buena Vista. "We're able to try to find some time to close when it makes sense and experience some different things with the team to keep everybody engaged and do some things outside of the restaurant," he explains.
Inside the restaurants, those teams are helping to raise the culinary standards in the state's mountain towns. Colorado is set to become the sixth Michelin Guide destination in the U.S., though when the first edition is released this fall, it will cover only Denver, Boulder, Aspen and Snowmass Village, the Town of Vail and Beaver Creek Resort, and nothing in Summit County. "It's really cool that the state's going to get recognized," Vawter says. "I didn't know that that was gonna happen in my life behind the stove. I hope someday they maybe make a left turn off of I-70 and come this way."
Whether Michelin stars are in his future or not, "I'm really enjoying being home and raising my family here and being part of this community," he says. "It's just been a lot of fun."
And proof that sometimes, you can go home again — and in the process, make that home a better place for others, too.
