Lodges that don't allow outside food

[Harvey]

I'm with the ski mountain on this. Do they make "too much money" in this business? I have no idea.

But it is their business. How about we raise the price of skiing by $20 a day and allow any outside food, cooking whatever? Or maybe just don't allow outside food and then the cost is borne more fairly.

I say brown bags ok, be quick and don't monopolize the table on a busy day.

 

[Smellytele]

At Cannon you get relegated to the basement to brown bag it

 

[Scruffy]

 

[snoseek]

Big old Shoutout to loveland for having multiple places to grill off/bake your lunch (Oregon stove was my jam) and unless it changed a straight kitchen with plugs and a sink for your crackpot. You wanna eat your lunch downstairs in the bar? Yeah that's cool. Vail actually has a sweet grill spot on the top of blue ski....yeah you gotta plan and bring your own charcoal but beats the hell out of a 20 dollar ala cart burger. If a place isn't lunch friendly they don't get my 2 pint lunch money...ill go to the car.

 

[granite]

I take my own food into a lodge quite often. However, I always buy something from the cafeteria to go with it, a beverage and some other type of food item. I usually buy a beer after skiing too. So, I don't feel guilty bringing my own food into any lodge.

 

[granite]

I think it depends on the lodge too and type of food/beverage outlet. For instance, I'll take my own food into the Cannon base lodge cafeteria. However, I would never take it into the Cannoball Pub-a bar/restaurant- right next to the cafeteria area.

 

[MEtoVTSkier]

I take my own food into a lodge quite often. However, I always buy something from the cafeteria to go with it, a beverage and some other type of food item. I usually buy a beer after skiing too. So, I don't feel guilty bringing my own food into any lodge.

I fall into this category. I may bring sandwiches once in a while, but end up getting coffee/soda/beer/booze and sides like fries and whatnot to go with it. I'm ok with that, and we don't hog tables all day.

 

[Nick]

Do you bring your food to Applebee’s? How about your own 6 pack to the bar.

People who camp and cook out at ski resorts are dirty hippies or cheap bums.

I’ll funnel my own beers in the parking lot and throw crushed empties at Jerry’s off the lift. That $25 burger tho goes to the bottom line. How else is Mt Blow going to be able to spread mulch? They can’t borrow any more funny money.

I mean tbh i don't think a lodge is a fair comparison to a restaurant. A lodge is more like a cafeteria. It's not table service (unless you are in the restaurant ares, in which case I would get it). But esp for a family or similar, the food can outprice the lift tickets. NOt everyone can swing that. Maybe a famliy can get more ski days in in a year by spending money on tickets instead of chili bread bowls.

 

[Nick]

I'm with the ski mountain on this. Do they make "too much money" in this business? I have no idea.

But it is their business. How about we raise the price of skiing by $20 a day and allow any outside food, cooking whatever? Or maybe just don't allow outside food and then the cost is borne more fairly.

I say brown bags ok, be quick and don't monopolize the table on a busy day.

I'm in this one. I don't think you should crockpot it up in there. A thermos or packable lunch is one thing. Don't hog the table.

 

[jimk]

I get that resorts are entitled to make a buck with their food service operations, and that for a lot of folks a good lunch during a ski day is big part of the fun. But for an old schooler like me, I think ski lodges are firstly a retreat from the cold; i.e., a place to get your gear sorted at the start of a day and a safe refuge when you get cold and/or hungry any time during your visit. On really harsh/cold days they are not just a money maker for hungry and captive guests, they are necessary shelter that any responsible resort must provide free of cost (with lift ticket) in the interest of public safety.

Having said that, in the US East most resorts offer lodges that are much more user-friendly to guests in general and particularly to brown baggers, then in the US West. Also, I recently visited some ski areas in Western Canada such as Lake Louise, Revy and Mt. Norquay and found them to be super friendly to brown baggers and great about providing free cubbies in lodges for storing your stuff during the day.

Not my photo (from admin at FTOL), but one of my favorite places in Utah for no-hassle brown bagging lunch is a heated room with comfy chairs, big windows and nearby restrooms, in lower level of the mid-mtn Mid Gad Restaurant at Snowbird, behind entrance sign:

Just don't try to take your peanut butter and jelly sandwich up to the Snowbird Summit Restaurant.:idea:

 

[granite]

The other thing, I've been skiing for 50 years and have spent a zillion dollars on the sport. If I want to bring my own lunch into their cafeteria style seating area, I'm going to do it. I go outside to picnic tables a lot too, would rather be out in the fresh air then inside a stuffy, crowded lodge.

 

[jaytrem]

I go outside to picnic tables a lot too, would rather be out in the fresh air then inside a stuffy, crowded lodge.

Just a heads up, no outside food will be allowed on the deck also.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Here is the issue, some folks simply can not afford slope side food, it's bloody expensive. And bring the whole family? Wow! You'll pay as much for the eats and drinks as those lift tickets.

I dont have any kids, so I've never even considered that, but yeah, that is a great point. The wife and I had 2 sodas & 2 burgers at Magic last weekend and it came to $42. That's pretty nuts. Toss 2 or 3 kids into the equation and I can see how that gets ugly quick.

Ski resorts should realize that skiing is a declining industry. Some shrinkage every year.

Is this really true? I hear this every year, and demographically, it makes perfect sense to me. Yet simultaneously it seems like I keep hearing about, "record skier visits", etc.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Big old Shoutout to loveland for having multiple places to grill off/bake your lunch

I absolutely loved that place. One of my favorite places I've ever skied. Has that (now) rare Mom & Poppy' feeling I love, akin to a Plattekill, Magic, Smuggs, MRG, etc....

 

[MEtoVTSkier]

The wife and I had 2 sodas & 2 burgers at Magic last weekend and it came to $42. That's pretty nuts.

That seems pretty danged high! Especially for what I would be expecting from Magic.

 

[Riverveteran]

How about this - if you know you are going skiing don’t eat out at home that week? You gotta feed the family whether you are home or on the slopes, learn to balance it. Eat cheap meals at home the weeks you ski.

The criock potters are are the first to complain about conditions. Ski resorts area a business they need/have multiple lines of revenue to be successful.

 

[abc]

How about this - if you know you are going skiing don’t eat out at home that week? You gotta feed the family whether you are home or on the slopes, learn to balance it. Eat cheap meals at home the weeks you ski.

Or I can ski less. Many of my casual skier friends had quit skiing completely, unable to justify the cost.

As far as I’m concern, the season has a total budget. The more I pay for food, the less I have left over for lift ticket and gas. So the more I spend for food, the fewer days I ski to keep the same budget.

I’m not complaining. The more expensive the TOTAL cost of skiing, the less I ski. End of story.

It’s up to the ski mountain to decide if they want to charge me a lot for a few days per season, or charge a reasonable per day, and I’ll come more often. But below a certain number of days, I quit completely and bought a mountain bike. (1995-2005). It was the multi-mountain low cost pass brought me back in, brown bagging about half the days. The mountain can take it ALL away by insisting “no outside food”. Their choice.

I’m not complaining. I still have my mountain bike. No lift ticket needed.

 

[drjeff]

While total skier visits are flat to slightly down over the last decade or so, the daily yield for many resorts, and in particular many larger resorts is up.

Is that a good thing? A bad thing? Or just something relative to one's perspective??

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[tnt1234]

As a family, we almost always brown bag for a couple of reasons -

- the cost. Family of 4, lunch at a lodge can easily be $80 or more. Over the course of a season, brown bagging it means a couple more days worth of lift tickets. We'd rather spend cash on tickets than crappy food.

- Diet - family of four with two vegetarians - I dare you to find edible vegetarian food at the pokes or catskills ski mountains. And even for the none veggies...most of the food sucks at these places.

- Time - standing in line, waiting on the food at a place like stowe (where it's good, but slow) checking out, then hawking for a table, etc....wtf? I just paid $90 for a lift ticket and you want to make be spend an hour of m day trying to buy and consume your food?

- Vibe. I get really pissed when they try to milk me for more.

But hey, it's the way of the world. Everything is about money. But I really aappriciat a place that doesn't make me feel lie an outlaw for bringing a sandwich to he lodge.

 

[Glenn]

Time is a good point. We were leaving the lodge yesterday as the lunch hour crowd was rolling in. Lines to get into the caf area were really long...past the cashiers.

I haven't seen a crock pot at a lodge in some time! But I do remember seeing those years ago at Mt. Snow...I think over in the Sundance lodge.

I've always looked at the lodge as the place to gear up...and down...and eat. If you are seated at a place where: You need to be seated by someone or there are servers bringing food, that's not a place to gear up or bring outside food.

Mountains have a right to make rules as they see fit. And like trail count, they should be accurate in their descriptions. If they don't allow outside food, that's their prerogative. Just don't call it a lodge; call it a base restaurant.