Pepi and Sheika Gramshammer opened Gasthof Gramshammer in 1964, and the restaurant has carried Vail's Austrian accent ever since. Pepi raced for Austria before he helped build the resort town from a sheep meadow, and the dining room still runs on that founding idea: an alpine inn transplanted to the Rockies, run by one family for sixty years.
Executive chef Helmut Kaschitz has cooked here for close to two decades. He grew up in Austria and spent more than thirty-five years in kitchens across Switzerland, Germany and Jamaica before settling in Vail, and his menu barely changes because regulars will not let it. The jager schnitzel is the dish to order: pounded veal medallions under a dark wild-mushroom sauce, with house spaetzle and braised red cabbage. The wiener schnitzel, a wide breaded veal cutlet with roasted potatoes, runs it a close second, and the Hungarian veal goulash is the cold-night order. Entrees sit between $25 and $59, with starters from $12 to $22.
About three-quarters of the menu is the same year to year, which is the point. This is cooking measured by consistency, not reinvention.