The 5 Best Servers Around Summit County

A restaurant’s menu may bring guests through the door, but hospitality often determines how they remember the meal. Front-of-house professionals coordinate pacing, answer questions about ingredients, help diners navigate wine and cocktails and connect the work of the kitchen with the people at the table. In a destination community where a single dining room may serve longtime locals, international travelers and families celebrating milestones on the same night, that role carries particular importance. The Best of Summit salutes the people who contribute to the dining experience across Summit County.

Connor Robinson || The Carlin

Connor Robinson works at The Carlin, a Breckenridge hospitality property that combines several experiences within one building. Its main-floor restaurant specializes in American coastal cuisine, with a raw bar and wood-burning oven forming central parts of the concept. Oysters and other seafood figure prominently, while the beverage side encompasses cocktails and an extensive wine list. The restaurant serves dinner daily and weekend brunch, with happy hour providing another style of service during the early evening.

Dominic Sciole, Ski Tip Lodge || Keystone Resort

Dominic Sciole serves guests at Ski Tip Lodge, where dinner follows a different format from a conventional à la carte restaurant. The historic property has connections to Keystone founders Max and Edna Dercum and previously served as their family home after earlier operating as a stagecoach stop. Today, dinner is reservation-only and built around a rotating four-course prix fixe menu that changes with the seasons. The format gives service a defined progression across the evening, with each course forming part of a longer dining experience rather than arriving as independently selected dishes.

Emily Schneider || Sauce on the Blue

Emily Schneider serves at Sauce on the Blue, an Italian restaurant in Silverthorne where she has previously received recognition from Summit Daily News readers for her work as a server. Her dining room encompasses a broad menu, requiring familiarity with house-made pizza, pasta, seafood, Colorado lamb, filet mignon and other entrées. The beverage program adds considerable depth through wine, cocktails and a large whiskey and bourbon selection that includes tasting flights. Sauce on the Blue also shifts between several types of service throughout the day, including lunch, dinner and a daily happy hour offered in the bar and patio areas.

Ursula Hagstrand || Saved by the Wine

Ursula Hagstrand works at Saved by the Wine, a Dillon wine bar and restaurant founded in Summit County in 2020. Wine sits at the center of the concept, with a selection that reaches across regions and styles and includes organic and biodynamic choices. The food is designed to accompany that beverage focus while standing on its own, with dishes such as charcuterie, fondue, truffle gnocchi, garlic meatballs and cacio e pepe pizza appearing on the menu. Cocktails, whiskey, local beer and nonalcoholic drinks broaden the choices beyond wine.

Zach Ryan || Rootstalk

Zach Ryan works at Rootstalk, chef-proprietor Matt Vawter’s Breckenridge restaurant centered on seasonal American cooking and relationships with Colorado farmers, ranchers and producers. The main dining room offers an à la carte menu that changes as ingredients move through their seasons, creating a service environment in which dishes and preparations evolve throughout the year. Wine, cocktails and nonalcoholic selections form a developed beverage program alongside the food. Rootstalk also offers a separate Chef’s Counter experience for four guests each night, built around a 10-course tasting menu and direct views into the kitchen.

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