Jake Linzinmeir, Chef/Owner, Chair 8, Telluride, CO

Michael Sanson

You think you've got it rough? Try running a restaurant in a ski town. The seasonal business is murder and keeping good help is, to say the least, challenging. For these reasons and more, there are few good restaurants in ski towns. That's why Jake Linzinmeir caught our eye.

After graduating from Cornell University in 1992, he moved to Colorado and eventually landed a job at Excelsior Cafè in Telluride. At age 22 he purchased the restaurant with a partner and then went on to open Blue Point Grill, a seafood and steak joint, the adjoining Noir Bar, as well as Wildflour Cooking Company, a beloved local bakery and bistro.

And then Linzinmeir took a year off to clear his head in Italy, where he worked with a superchef at a Michelin three-star restaurant near Venice. Afterwards, he returned back to Telluride and opened not an Italian restaurant, but one that serves American classic comfort food. Huh? Don't ask. But his newest restaurant, Chair 8, is right on the money.

Imagine a campy Austin Powersinspired decor with walls clad in white carpeting and mod sofas in lieu of banquettes. And the food is out there as well, including a pecan nut butter, fig jelly and foie gras sandwich. In a town near Venice a chef is screaming, but who cares when Katie Couric has invited you to the Today Show twice?—