Full Belly Files | Crested Butte Cravings, NFT Wine Club, and Coral-Keller Thoughts

This edition of Full Belly Files was originally emailed to subscribers on July 21, 2023. To receive Matt Kettmann’s food newsletter in your inbox each Friday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

Last weekend was my fourth trip to the Rocky Mountains over the past nine months, and I have to say that Crested Butte in mid-July just may be the epitome of a warm-weather Rockies experience. The wildflower rainbow was in full bloom (coinciding conveniently with their annual Wildflower Fest), the cloud-scraping peaks pumped fairytale Switzerland vibes, and the town itself seems like it’s managing to stay appropriately grassroots-hippie-weird while keeping up with modern epicurean and hospitality standards. (No one even seems to lock up anything, even ebikes, which was pretty refreshing.)

We were there for my cousin Ashley’s wedding. She’s the lead singer of an ’80s (and now ’90s) cover band based in Boulder called The Goonies, which played three rocking shows over the weekend, including the wedding itself. (How cool is that to play your own wedding?) But we still had time to check out the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory scene in Gothic, jump into both Emerald and Long lakes, hike around Beaver Ponds, and — no surprise for readers of this newsletter — dive into the bustling restaurant scene during what must have been their busiest weekend of the year.