Limelight X Volcan Tequila Dinner
Here’s the story: One typical evening, I was browsing Eventbrite (the app I use to find food festivals and events going on) trying to see if there was any new events I could try out.
I then come across one ad for a tequila dinner at the Limelight Hotel in Snowmass, Colorado that was happening a week from that day. I sign up for the dinner, thinking maybe it was just some simple food with tequila pairings.
What I did not expect was to find that, within the Limelight’s restaurant, was a 4-course dinner that each had a tequila cocktail pairing, much less that it was truly an experience to remember.
The Limelight Hotel is a wonderful small chain of hotels that started in Aspen but a location in the Snowmass base village had opened up in recent years.
Volcan de mi Tierra (land of the volcano) Tequila is a company that has been making naturally-made tequila that takes advantage of the soil enriched by a volcanic eruption in the Jalisco region of Mexico to grow their agave plants.
Combine 4 of these stunning tequilas into some stunning cocktails and pair them with an incredible 3-course dinner, and you have yourself a dinner to remember, and I am here to describe how it all went down.
Cocktail #1: Hibiscus Margarita
Before arriving at this dinner, I thought it was going to be sort of a tequila tasting where you’re given a tiny glass of tequila to sample along with dinner, so you can imagine my pleasant surprise when I was handed a cocktail!
After sitting down and meeting my tablemates for the evening, we were first treated to an amazing cocktail, that being a huckleberry-hibiscus margarita made with Volcan’s signature tequila blanco.
Tequila blanco, or silver tequila, is simply the unaged variety of tequila, it has a very clean, floral, slightly spicy flavor to it that, when paired with the tart huckleberry and that hint of hibiscus floral notes, made a truly perfect margarita!
(Although it’s because of that drink that I noticed bits of salt on the table for the rest of the night.)
Amuse Bouche: Peruvian Opah Ceviche
While sipping on our margarita, the other diners and I were given a little bite of food to sample, that being an opah ceviche.
Opah is a tropical white fish that tend to spawn around the warmer waters of the Southern Hemisphere. Like many other white fish, opah has a very light, delicate flavor and, when prepared raw or for a ceviche, has a semi-firm texture that is quite nice.
Along with the little strips of opah was a Peruvian citrus-based marinade called tiger’s milk (Don’t worry, nobody actually milked a tiger), cucumber, red onion, and ginger.
First I got the citrusy, refreshing flavor of the tiger’s milk and the cucumber, but then I bite into the opah and start chewing up the wonderful texture of that fish, and it works beautifully with the margarita!
Cocktail #2: Rosita
While waiting for our first course of food, we were then given a drink made with a tequila blend known as X.A tequila mixed up into a classic cocktail known as a Rosita.
A Rosita is very similar to another classic cocktail, the negroni, which is made with bitters, vermouth, Campari, and gin. A Rosita is pretty much the same, but uses tequila instead of gin.
Very similar to an Old Fashioned, this Rosita focused on the true flavor of the tequila accented with bitter notes from the Campari and bitters. It’s certainly a drink you’d want to be careful with, but it’s certainly enjoyable.
Appetizer: Wagyu Tartare
Up next on our tasting adventure is a dish that is already quite popular in fine dining, but is something that I, personally, haven’t had much experience with, beef tartare.
To put it simply, beef tartare features raw beef finely chopped and then mixed with mustard, onion, and capers. The one we were served also had some beef bone marrow mixed into the tartare and was served with homemade focaccia and a drizzle of balsamic glaze.
In all honesty…the tartare I had was quite good! That raw wagyu beef was both full of flavor and the beef was so finely chopped that it had almost a buttery consistency to it that was perfect for spreading onto the soft circles of the bread.
I might not be ordering beef tartare myself anytime soon, but I now know that when it’s done right, it is done great.
Cocktail #3: Tequila Spritz
Up next for our drinking pleasure, we were treated to a cocktail that I didn’t quite hear the name of, but was certainly tasty; a tequila spritz.
This cocktail, in particular, was made with tequila Anejo, a tequila that has been aged in oak barrels for at least a year, resulting in an oaky, nutty flavor.
Along with the tequila, there was a bit of Grand Marnier (orange liquor) and what I assumed was prosecco for bubbles and lightness, all of which blended together beautifully for a fizzy, slightly sweet drink that paired wonderfully with the next course.
Entree: Saffron Risotto with Lobster
(See that? There’s risotto. So this can go onto an Italian food blog!)
Up next for the food experience was, in my opinion, the dish of the night, saffron risotto with lobster.
I had only just gotten on the craze for shellfish like crab or lobster, so I knew right away that this was going to be a dish to remember.
This dish featured a creamy parmesan risotto laced with golden saffron and studded with small slices of asparagus, and it is then topped with a big, gorgeous lobster tail.
I don’t know how to fully describe how amazing this dish was! The risotto had a wonderful creamy texture, a bit of flavor from the parmesan and white wine, but the hero for that dish was that tender, perfectly cooked lobster tail that sat on top.
It’s a dish that I might have to try making myself at some point, we shall see.
Cocktail #4: Carajillo
For the last cocktail of the evening, yes we are unfortunately almost at the end, we were given a very unique coffee and tequila cocktail called Carajillo. The drink was made with coffee and reposado tequila, a tequila that’s aged for 9 months.
I’ll be honest, this cocktail didn’t really excite me like the previous cocktails, mostly because I’m not much of a coffee drinker, but I suppose if I did like coffee then it would’ve been a very pleasant drink.
As a bonus, we were allowed to take home the glass that this cocktail was served in, so it wasn’t a total waste for me.
Dessert: Dragon Tiramisu
Sadly, it seems that we have reached the end of this dining experience, but I wouldn’t feel right about ending it without something sweet. In this case, it was a fruity, delightful play on Tiramisu.
I’ve stated my love for tiramisu, the classic Italian dessert made of coffee-soaked Ladyfingers, mascarpone cream and dusted with cocoa powder, but this one took that concept in a different direction.
This tiramisu still had the ladyfingers, but they were soaked in a blood orangcello (blood orange liquor), and the cream was topped with a dragon fruit syrup/sauce, some berries, and a thin cookie.
The syrup on top had a nice sweet, slightly tart flavor that worked wonderfully with the orange flavor from the liquor, and that cookie was thin, crispy, and was sugary enough to dunk into that tiramisu for more.
Overall, the Limelight X Volcan tequila dinner was a fantastic way to taste things I don’t often eat and have a nice time doing.
But here’s the crazy part. That whole dinner with 4 cocktails, an amuse, Wagyu tartare, and lobster only set me back…get ready for this…$60! I’m serious! That whole dinner only cost $60. I could go to a nice restaurant in Aspen and get roughly the same thing for a few hundred dollars at least!
It’s pretty rare when fine dining meets affordable it leads to good things, but in this case it did, and I’ll be sure to look out for any other dinners Limelight might be hosting so I can have another amazing experience.
