5 Vail-area establishments that have received national attention in recent months

Vail-area establishments have received national attention in recent months, including one that was named in the New York Times’ list of what it called “The 50 best stores in America.”

While most of the write-ups were of a more subjective nature, OpenTable — the popular restaurant reservation booking app — prides itself on providing a purely objective analysis in its annual list of the nation’s top 100 restaurants.

“Some lists are decided by critics, but not the Top 100,” OpenTable writes. “This one is driven by diner demand.”

The Vail restaurant Matsuhisa was one of five Colorado restaurants to make the exclusive list, which was published in November. The remaining four restaurants are all located in the Denver area.

Kemo Sabe

In July, Forbes Magazine profiled Kemo Sabe, which has locations in Vail and Aspen, but the magazine wasn’t interested in the Western wear retailer for its signature cowboy boots and hats.

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“Kemo Sabe is known for giving customers free tequila to sip while they shop,” wrote Forbes contributor John Kell. “Now, one of the tequila brands that will sit behind the retailer’s bars will be its own.”

The Kemo Sabe brand tequila “will be priced between $100 to $130 per bottle, fitting neatly into the premium pricing range that Kemo Sabe fetches for boots that can fetch over $1,800, outwear that can sell for well north of $3,000 and $18,000 bracelets,” Kell writes.

Eagle Valley Music and Comics

Every year, on the third Saturday in April, Record Store Day is recognized in the United States, allowing music lovers to participate in a “celebration of the culture of the record store,” according to RecordStoreDay.com.

But in recent years, the Record Store Day celebration has extended to include the day after Thanksgiving, as well, in an event called RSD Black Friday.

Eagle County is lucky to have an independently operated record store, which has received the Record Store Day Pledge, “which means they have agreed to act in the spirit of Record Store Day, and sell the commercial Record Store Day releases to their physical customers, on Record Store Day; not to gouge them, or hold product back to sell them online,” according to RecordStoreDay.com, which describes the Minturn shop as a “super cool place in an awesome little town just 4 miles from Vail.”

Eagle Valley Music and Comics owner Tom Robbins said this year’s RSD Black Friday event allowed him to receive a few exclusive offerings, including Talking Heads’ clear vinyl edition of “Tentative Decisions,” or 2 Chainz’s “T.R.U. Realigion,” on vinyl for the first time, limited to 3,000 copies, in a case made out of a pair of blue jeans.

Capranea and Dahu

The fashion-industry trade journal “Women’s Wear Daily” is often, as its name suggests, focused on women’s wear. But in an October story from the publication often referred to as the “Bible of Fashion,” senior men’s editor Jean Palmieri took interest in the companies’ new flagship store on Bridge Street.

“While Capranea has become one of the leading ski brands in the Swiss market, its reach outside its home country is limited,” Palmieri writes.

Palmieri profiled Ian Widmer, a Vail local who found himself in the fortunate situation of spending a lot of time in Switzerland with his father, who is Swiss.

“During his time there he became immersed in the local ski culture and became friends with Marc Haensli, the founder of Capranea. Haensli, the son of Walter Haensli, the codeveloper of Head Ski, an Olympic coach and a key player bringing skiing to New Zealand, created Capranea in 2008,” Palmieri writes.

They also acquired Dahu, another Swiss brand which converts a comfortable hiking boot-like liner into a ski boot. Local bootfitting legend Dano Bruno, who has fit boots for Tanner Hall and Alex Ferreira, among many others, became a believer in Dahu a few years ago and helps run the shop.

Gorsuch

If you had to guess which Vail shop made the New York Times’ list of the “50 best stores in America,” few would be surprised to learn that it was Gorsuch that received the honor.

After starting a small ski shop in the Clock Tower Building in 1966, the Gorsuch family’s catalog, which they launched 10 years later, became iconic in the ski industry, achieving a peak circulation of 3.5 million in its prime.

But the Times also revealed a little-known aspect of the Gorsuch shop in its short profile — the story of the shop’s interior.

“The space, stocked with Austrian crystal products and other home goods, has wood-paneled interiors that its founders, Renie and David Gorsuch, acquired from a home in Austria and reassembled on site,” the Times wrote.