Walk the loop from Gore Creek up to the top of Bridge Street on a Tuesday in early July and three of the doors you pass have changed hands, changed hours, or changed audience since last summer. None of it shows on the village map yet. If you live here, the map in your head is the one that matters, and it needs a small edit.
The short version: The Sebastian has an international name in its ground floor for the first time. The corner where Los Amigos poured margaritas for four decades is now a construction site with a member roster. And the Four Seasons whiskey room that hibernates every spring flips back on July 1. These are three separate stories that share a single throughline. Vail Village is quietly reallocating which slot on the loop does which job.
The Sebastian Gets a Global Name
Zuma opened June 11, 2026 in the heart of Vail Village, tucked into the ground floor of The Sebastian. If you've been to the London original or the New York outpost, you know the format. If you haven't, the shorthand is contemporary Japanese with a robata grill at the center of the room. The Vail location features a main dining area, bar and DJ booth, positioning itself as an après ski destination after a day on the slopes.
The DJ booth is the tell. Vail Village has plenty of restaurants with a bar attached. It has almost none built from the start to hold a room past 10 p.m. with music you actually notice. Zuma's arrival gives The Sebastian a nightlife function it hasn't really had, and it does so on a block that already draws foot traffic from Solaris and the covered bridge. Residents who used to walk past The Sebastian on the way to somewhere else now have a reason to stop there first.
Reservations are the practical point. The room is not large, and the brand travels with a booking list from other cities. If you're planning to bring out-of-town guests in July or August, treat Zuma the way you'd treat Sweet Basil in December. Book two weeks out, not two days.
The Los Amigos Corner Becomes Something Else Entirely
The bigger structural change is at the top of Bridge Street. The Sixty Two Society is set to debut during the summer of 2026 in the space that housed Los Amigos, with construction that began in May. For anyone who has skied Vail more than a couple of seasons, this is the harder edit to make. Los Amigos was the slopeside margarita stop. Its patio was the place you ended up whether you meant to or not.
The replacement is a different animal. Vail native Brad Kaemmer is opening a luxury dining and social experience at the top of Bridge Street called The Sixty Two Society, named for the year Vail opened. Kaemmer is a restaurateur and sommelier with over 30 years of hospitality experience. The pedigree matters here because the concept isn't a straight restaurant swap. In addition to dining open to members, locals and visitors, there are perks for members such as five-star concierge services, ski-in/ski-out access, ski valet, ski, snowboard and boot storage, transportation services and access to the Society Suite.
Read that list carefully. Ski valet, boot storage, transportation. Those are the amenities a second-home owner pays a private club for in Aspen or Deer Valley. Vail has had versions of them scattered across hotels and residence clubs. It has not had them concentrated in a single Bridge Street address that also functions as a public restaurant. The Society Suite offers a slopeside lounge for members before or after the slopes, and a dedicated concierge team handles personalized recommendations and event coordination for members and their group.
Kaemmer's family history in the valley runs deep enough that this reads less like an outside operator moving in and more like a return. The Kaemmers previously owned Pistachio's, which became Vendetta's, and La Piñata, which became Los Amigos, and were involved in other restaurants before opening The Toy Shop on Bridge Street and the Velveteen Rabbit in the Vail Village Inn. The family owned the room now being converted. It is not a coincidence.
For residents, the practical questions are two. First, what does the dining side look like on a Wednesday night when you don't want a reservation? That answer will emerge over the fall. Second, what happens to après demand that used to spill onto the Los Amigos patio? The likely absorption zone is the Mountain Standard and Sweet Basil block down along Gore Creek, plus the new Zuma bar at The Sebastian. If you've been using Los Amigos as your default overflow room for out-of-town groups, you need a new default.
The Four Seasons Whiskey Room Reopens July 1
The third change is smaller and easier to miss. Speyside is currently closed for the season and reopens July 1, 2026. Speyside is the Four Seasons' whiskey-forward concept, and the summer reopen is worth flagging for one reason. Most Vail Village residents think of Speyside as a winter room. It is not. It runs a full summer service and does so with materially less competition than it faces in February, because half the après crowd has left town and the other half is on a patio somewhere.
If you have not been in during a July or August evening, the room is closer to a library than a bar. Combined with Tavernetta downstairs and The Remedy on the ground floor, the Four Seasons stack now gives you a full pre-dinner, dinner, post-dinner sequence without leaving the building. That is a resident's move, not a visitor's move. Visitors want to walk the village. Residents want to park once.
Where the Michelin Anchors Still Sit
None of the three new arrivals displaces the reference points. Vail is home to Michelin-recognized dining establishments, including Sweet Basil and Osaki's in the heart of Vail Village. Those two rooms remain the answer when someone asks the neutral question of where to eat, and they remain the hardest reservations in July. What has changed is the middle of the market. The Sixty Two Society is targeting a different guest than Sweet Basil. Zuma is targeting a different hour than Osaki's. Speyside is targeting a different mood than either.
What Actually Changes on the Walking Loop
Strip out the branding language and here is the practical reshuffle for anyone routing an evening this summer.
- Top of Bridge Street. Was a walk-up Mexican patio. Is now a members-and-public concept with reservations expected and a slopeside amenity layer. Do not send visitors here expecting the old room.
- Ground floor of The Sebastian. Was a hotel restaurant most locals walked past. Is now a robata dining room with a late bar. New default for a group of six who want dinner and drinks in the same address.
- Four Seasons, second floor. Was a winter-only mental category. Is a full summer whiskey room starting July 1. Useful for the second stop of the night, not the first.
- Gore Creek block, Sweet Basil to Mountain Standard. Unchanged in operation, likely to absorb the walk-up demand that used to land at Los Amigos. Expect earlier waitlists.
- Osaki's and Sweet Basil. Reservations still tighten first. Book on the same cadence you always have.
The village's dining spine has not moved. What has changed is what each vertebra does. A resident who reads the reshuffle correctly will still get a table on a summer Saturday. A resident who assumes last year's map still holds will spend forty-five minutes walking between three full rooms before ending up at the Grill on the Gore, which is a fine place to eat but is on the golf course and not on Bridge Street.
The Longer Arc
Three restaurant changes in one summer is not a lot for a village of Vail's size. What makes this cluster worth paying attention to is the direction. Zuma is an international operator choosing Vail over Aspen for its first Colorado room. Sixty Two Society is a returning local operator investing in a members model that assumes second-home owners will pay for the concierge layer. Speyside is an existing luxury hotel doubling down on year-round service rather than seasonal shutdowns.
Read together, those three moves say the same thing. The operators betting capital on Bridge Street this year are betting that the resident and second-home base is deep enough to support restaurants that never quite empty out, even in the shoulder weeks. That is a bet on the neighborhood, not on the tourism calendar. Whether they are right will show up in reservation books by October.
For anyone weighing a Vail Village purchase, the dining shift is a data point worth watching alongside the harder market numbers. The room where you eat on a Tuesday in mud season is not a small thing. It is most of the reason you own here in the first place.
If you're thinking about buying, selling, or repositioning a Vail Village property this summer and want a conversation grounded in what's actually happening on the ground, Jeff McAbee is available to schedule a consultation.
