Tihany's Architectural Statement
When The Broadmoor engaged Adam Tihany in 2006 to design Summit, the legendary hospitality architect. Best known for Per Se, Le Cirque, Jean-Georges, and the Aureole wine towers. Responded with what remains one of his most audacious American interiors. The room's floating zinc canopy, a two-story wine tower at its centre, and the cinematic chandelier of hand-blown glass orbs together create a sense of occasion that precedes the first amuse-bouche. This is a dining room that photographs like a magazine spread and inhabits like a private club.
The cuisine is contemporary American brasserie: seasonally lively, technically precise, and calibrated to the elevation. Executive chef Adam Mali sources through Broadmoor Farms. The resort's own agricultural operation. Alongside a network of Colorado ranchers and boutique growers whose names appear on the menu beside the dishes they've supplied. The result is a cuisine rooted in place without being parochial: Nikkei tuna tiradito and house-made charcuterie share the menu with Rocky Mountain elk and smoked bacon-wrapped monkfish, each executed with the exacting consistency that a Forbes Five-Star kitchen demands.
The wine program, recognised annually by Wine Spectator, is led by a sommelier team that operates at a level more commonly associated with major metropolitan dining. The two-story glass tower at the centre of the room is not decoration. It is an active cellar, and the bottle being brought down to your table was selected ten minutes earlier in conversation with someone who knew what to ask.
What to Order
The Summit Ceviche Trio. Catch-of-the-day, Peruvian salmon tiradito, and a Japanese-inspired Nikkei tuna. Is the correct way to begin. For mains, the honey-and-spice glazed Rohan duck breast and the smoked bacon-wrapped monkfish with lobster tail are the kitchen's most evocative work. The house-made charcuterie remains a signature, and the warm ricotta gnocchi is the kind of dish that turns a pleasant meal into a memorable one. In truffle season, commit to the truffle tasting menu. It is one of the most generous expressions of the season anywhere in the Rocky Mountain West.
The Atmosphere
Summit is the rare restaurant where the architecture itself is part of the meal. Tihany's design language is dramatic without being austere, contemporary without being cold, and the ceiling treatment alone justifies a first visit. Tables are generously spaced. Service operates at Forbes Five-Star standards. Attentive, informed, and unhurried. The dress code is smart, but Summit is the easier, less formal sibling to the Penrose Room upstairs: this is the room for dinners that last three hours and feel like one.