Delayed posting from another ski trip last week, this time to Mammoth Lakes, CA, home to Mammoth Mountain. Alas it might be my last US ski trip for a while with the dollar plummeting like it has!
Mammoth Lakes is a pretty sleepy town by ski resort standards, but there's a couple of nice spots around.
Right across the street from the village gondola, in the basement of a totally retro hotel (Alpenhof Lodge) is the Clocktower Cellar. It's a old school bar, lots of wood and retro beer signs and almost feels like someone's basement. But it's got the best lineup of beer in town, around 25 taps including locals (Mammoth Brewing, June Lake Brewing) along with other CA crafts (Anderson Valley, Stone, Anchor, Sierra Nevada) and a few imports (there was even an Icelandic beer on tap), and a great bourbon selection. Fun place and seems very 'industry' as well as its one of the few places that stays open late. A must-visit - we've been every night while here.
Just down the road from the Clocktower is the brewery and tasting room of Mammoth Brewing. A nice place, where you can get their full lineup of brews, which this week was around 6-8 regulars and 4 seasonals. Cheap flights ($4/$5) available to try everything out. They have a kitchen as well, and it looks like the food service is outsourced to another entity (The Eatery). Beers available included a pilsner, pale ale, amber, nut brown porter, IPA, double IPA and some interesting seasonals including a raspberry sour stout and eisbock.
There wasn’t much else we were able to find/explore – there’s a good tequila bar at the gondola base called Gomez, along with a pretty good BBQ restaurant at the same base. Also visited a decent bar called Z Ranch that had a number of JLB, but it was pretty quiet when we visited. Good Mexican food at The Loco Frijole which is right across the street from Z Ranch.
Great skiing too, although I would have loved a bit more snow. All in all a really nice place to visit. Next up, an update from Truckee – and my how that area has changed!
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Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.
Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!