I’ve been lucky enough to go to Jackson, WY for a few ski seasons now, and of course have identified the best places to eat. Most people think the point of Jackson is to ski (or hike) the beautiful Tetons, rather than eat at restaurants, but those people are wrong. The main point of Jackson is to go to:
Persephone
Persephone is my favorite coffee shop globally. I’ve been to hundreds after living in lower Manhattan, London, and the Bay Area, and not ever making my own coffee. Persephone is just the GOAT. It’s a coffee shop/lunch place, and there are actually two Persephones, one in the town of Jackson and one in Wilson. Both are great, but the Jackson one has an unbeatable charm and proximity to the rest of the town. I’m not a coffee snob, but the black coffee is just perfect. As Mocha Joe said, good coffee is all about the beans, and Persephone’s creators perfected a blend of Overview Coffee that is divine. It comes in very comforting Persephone mugs, of which I own several.
The highlight, however, is the food. In the morning, the homemade pastries are all fantastic. I particularly loved the pistachio and pumpkin breads. The chocolate chip cookies, perfect. The cinnamon brioche, light and fluffy and delicious. The egg sandwich on croissant is to die for, and would easily be among the top of the New York BEC scene. The lunch, which I didn’t have much of (sadly my friends weren’t willing to quit skiing midday to trek back to Persephone for a second round most days), was phenomenal; I had a beef short rib sandwich that is among the best sandwiches I’ve had ever.
You might have a friend who tells you Cowboy Coffee or Cafe Genevieve is really good; they’re wrong. Don’t waste your time on non-Persephone coffee while you have the chance.
Dinner
The dinner restaurants in Jackson are hit or miss. Some are great, but many are bad, and because you’re in the richest county in the US, nearly all are very pricey. We assumed Coelette would be amazing because it’s owned by Persephone, but were disappointed. It’s not that the food isn’t “good”, the ingredients are definitely very fresh and locally sourced. We got to try yak meat, which was cool. The problem is, the food isn’t actually good-tasting. It’s very complex and innovative, but the result is overly sauced, odd-combination dishes—elk pastrami, soba with almond butter, roasted sunchokes with pickled carrots. The historic cabin atmosphere is very pleasant if you care about that sort of thing, but for those of us who care only about the food, I’d look elsewhere.
Snake River Grill is the quintessential Jackson Hole restaurant recommendation. I definitely preferred this to Coelette, partially because the food is much simpler and tastes better. But the main word I would use to describe SRG is “overrated”. The burger is a huge portion of meat with essentially nothing else going on. They hype it up by only serving a certain number per night, which I guess makes some people like it more, but to me that’s just a little bit annoying and raises the bar for the burger to meet (begrudgingly, I’ll admit the Raoul’s burger in Greenwich Village is worth playing a similar little mind game for). The lauded potato pancake with smoked salmon and cream cheese is good, but not as good as it would be in a random deli in New York. The pasta didn’t taste homemade, and the steak was good but nothing special. I would be willing to go again, and it’s a very comforting/positive experience to eat there with a roaring fireplace and welcoming Midwestern staff, but it’s not the best restaurant in Jackson.
Silver Dollar Bar and Grill is a bar/casual restaurant in the Wort Hotel. It is a great time. There is live country music and people in cowboy hats dancing and having a blast, which just makes you feel happy to be alive if you’re the type of person who spends most of their time hunched in front of a few monitors. The only thing I’ve ever had there is the burger, which is solid and less of a gargantuan fleece than much of Jackson. I wouldn’t go there for the food per se, but it’s great for burgers, beers, and music.
Kampai is objectively the best restaurant in Jackson. It’s a new Japanese place that has made a clear choice to serve good-tasting food over any semblance of authenticity, but even the nigiri and sashimi are obviously very fresh fish. The salmon pizza was my favorite thing, but all the rolls and appetizers we had were great. The huckleberry ice cream is surprisingly worth getting. This would be a top sushi place in London, and an above-average one in New York. The one downside is the price, which is aggressive and reminds you that you are choosing to eat out in a location where the average salary is $300k.
Pinky G’s is a sloppy, American-style pizza place. Would it crack any New York “top 10 pizza places” lists? No. Do you care when you sit down to an industrial sized amount of aggressively cheesed pizza after a few drinks in Million Dollar Cowboy Bar? Definitely not. Great for late night.
Teton Thai is the worst Thai food I’ve eaten in my life. It took a solid 45 minutes to arrive, the pad thai noodles tasted like they were straight out of a Del Cecco box, and the beef had an unpleasant odor and taste. But hey—what do you want for $28? (not an exaggeration, that is the lowest possible price of a pad thai)
Ski restaurants
The best of these is The Handle Bar, a crowded ski-in restaurant at the bottom of the hill in the Four Seasons. Highly recommend the burger or the chili, although I was disappointed in the hot chocolate. Everything’s good, but then again they only really serve comfort food: mac and cheese, beer pretzels, frickles. Even the salads are surprisingly good. The only downfall of this place is that it’s hard to get a table in peak season (and that it’s expensive, but so is everywhere else on the mountain). Lesser known is the Ascent Lounge, which is up a couple floors. It doesn’t have the fun aprez atmosphere of Handle Bar, but the wagyu burger is very solid. Otherwise, I would go to one of the several cafeterias on the mountain and save your appetite for Persephone and Kampai.