A cut above: From Edwards to Eagle, local restauranteur brings his own perspective to the Vail Valley

When Casey Glowacki first purchased Eat! Drink! and Cut: Artisan Meats and Seafood in Edwards, there was a lot of talk about the “guy from Charleston” who bought the business. A popular spot for happy hour and leisurely meat and cheese plates in the sunshine, the wine bar/retail shop was a foundation stone in the still-burgeoning dining scene. After a massive redesign to Eat! Drink!, Drunken Goat opened in June 2019 to great enthusiasm — the patio beckoned once again.

But Glowacki’s journey to Edwards wasn’t as straightforward as it may appear — success often seems effortless after the fact. Like the Eagle River itself, there have been boulders, rapids and strainers in Glowacki’s ride. But with four (soon to be five) restaurants serving up varied cuisines and experiences, the river ahead seems a steady float.

B.E.: Before Edwards

Glowacki was born and raised in Colorado, mostly in the Englewood and Aurora areas. When he was 13 years old, his dad died and he moved to Arizona with his mom. After finishing high school in Arizona, Glowacki describes himself as a “lost soul.” He ended up moving to Telluride; after a few years, he met a girl there who was from South Carolina.

“That’s how I wound up in Charleston. She and I decided to move to the East Coast and try to, you know, seek a normal life and everything,” Glowacki said. “Telluride was, you know, all we were doing was kind of partying there and skiing. So we moved to Charleston and … I got ‘stuck’ in Charleston for 20 years.”

Which wasn’t so bad, since it’s also where he met his wife, Rachel. Eventually, the couple eloped to Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. Glowacki said that those were the best years in Charleston, from the 1990s to five or 10 years ago. It was then that Charleston became a darling with glossy magazines like Conde Nast and Travel + Leisure.

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“It became too metro, just too many restaurants,” he said. “Everything was fancy and it wasn’t the little teeny Southern town that I used to shuck oysters and have buckets of beer at.”

Glowacki wasn’t just sitting around, drinking beer though. Glowacki grew up in restaurants. While in high school, he worked at a fine dining restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he said the chef “brought me under his wing and had me do an apprentice program with him.” From there he joined the American Culinary Federation and started climbing the ladder in the back of the house. Ultimately, he attended culinary school at the New England Culinary Institute (now closed) in Montpelier, Vermont.

“I wanted nothing more than to be a chef, which I was,” Glowacki said. “And I opened my first restaurant in Charleston as a chef-owner.”

He “cooked every day,” but once one restaurant became four (including Five Loaves Café, Sesame Burgers & Beer and Ember Wood Fired Kitchen), he found himself in more of a managerial role, running the businesses instead of cooking.

“I got used to that and I liked the challenges of taking a 30,000-foot view of the business and being a helper. All my managers know that they can call me for anything,” he said.

“I like to just be the guy, the go-to guy that can keep the ship going, you know? That’s the role that I find myself best in,” he said.  

Back to the mountains

But Charleston was changing and Glowacki said that his partners with the restaurant group there were going in a different direction. He wanted to bring Rachel, who’s from New York, to Colorado to show her where he grew up — including Vail, where he grew up skiing.

Glowacki said that they looked at several mountain towns including Telluride, Frisco, Steamboat and Breckenridge but that he wanted to “land in this valley.”

Then he saw that Pollyanna Forster, with whom he had mutual friends in Charleston, was selling Eat! Drink! and Cut.

“It seemed like something that I could add input to and make it my own,” Glowacki said. “I had never bought a business before and run it as a turnkey operation. I was looking for ease.”

As with the best-laid plans, “ease” is not exactly what happened. Glowacki realized that he wanted a different concept in the space, and thus Drunken Goat was created. Cut was fine operating as is, but he closed Eat! Drink! and worked to bring his vision to life. In June 2019, he opened the doors of Drunken Goat.

“From the first day we opened, clearly a success. The town wanted something new; they wanted what we were giving them: cheese boards, charcuterie, bruschetta, lighter fare,” he said. “It just became this locals’ hang out. It wasn’t fine dining and it wasn’t ‘bar and grill’ either.”

For eight months, things were going exceptionally well at Drunken Goat. In March 2020, everything changed. And though no one wants to relive those months, Glowacki said that there was a bright spot: Cut — which sells meat, seafood and prepared foods — became more popular than ever. When restaurants were allowed to reopen, Drunken Goat’s garage doors and patio made it a popular pandemic-era option.

“That’s how we muscled through it,” Glowacki said with a small laugh.

Downvalley opportunities

Like many families, Glowacki found that they needed more space for toys — bikes, campers, etc. — and dogs (they have two), so they moved from Edwards to Eagle. Three months later, the owners of The Assembly, located on the corner of Founders Ave and Capitol St in Eagle Ranch, were selling.

“I’ve always had a ‘yes mentality’ when it comes to a broker calling me, ‘Hey, do you want to look at this restaurant?'” Glowacki said. “I said, ‘Sure.'”

Not only was the space available, but the real estate was also for sale. He called Kevin Nelson, who was running Drunken Goat, and offered him a managing partner position at what would become Wild Sage. “Long story short,” Glowacki said, everything came together and they made an offer. In May 2022, Wild Sage opened its doors.

“Kevin and I bounced around some different concepts and we landed on a vegetarian-leaning concept because we felt that that was something that the valley as a whole needed,” he explained. Wild Sage’s casual, elevated cuisine and service seem to resonate; like all of Glowacki’s restaurants, the happy hour is popular there, too.

Less than a year later, Glowacki opened Capitol Public House across the street from Wild Sage. Working with interior designer Susan Nowakowski of Zehren and Associates, who also designed Wild Sage, Glowacki says he and Nelson thought Eagle needed an “upscale, sort of ‘Cheers’ bar.”

“We were going for a solid bar and grill with elevated food,” he says. “I always say that there’s no surprises at Public House, but everything that you get is delicious.”

General Manager John Delany also developed a mug club and a “flight club” for both whiskey enthusiasts as well as the whiskey-curious.

That’s not all, though: Glowacki recently opened a second location of Cut in what was formerly the private dining room in Capitol Public House. It has a separate entrance and is a “gourmet fish and meat market with fresh-cut cheese and a big focus on meals to go,” he explains.

Though the Eagle River valley keeps growing, there’s less of a chance that Edwards or Eagle will go the way of Charleston. As such, it seems like Glowacki will be happy to stay for a while. Rachel is a yoga teacher and is active in the community. And while their oldest son, Liam, is headed to East Africa with NOLS after he graduates, Grey, the younger brother, still plays soccer for Battle Mountain High School, the reigning state champs. As for the future … Glowacki’s open to opportunities