AS US 64 DROPS OUT of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, it winds through aspen and pine forests and deposits you in a peaceful valley. At 8,880 feet, the quiet village of Angel Fire features a ski resort, summer mountain biking, a golf course, and a handful of restaurants. What it did not have was a proper cocktail bar.
Enter Elevated Pour. Located in Frontier Park, the wine and cocktail bar shares a restored log building with the Angel Fire Visitor Center. The handiwork of three local couples, the space feels modern yet cozy thanks to a neon-lit bar, honey-colored log walls, dark-wood accents, and a welcoming fireplace. “We wanted the spot to be a place all of us wanted to hang out,” says Mia Jackson, one of the co-owners.
Jackson and her husband, Matt Utzman, had been coming to his family’s vacation home in the valley for 25 years; their daughter, Ashton, learned to snowboard on these slopes. When Ashton left for graduate school, they were done with Austin, Texas, and moved to Eagle Nest, looking for a new life and toying with the idea of opening a business. Nothing hit the mark until mutual friends connected them with locals BJ and Annie Lindsey and seasonal residents Mark and Robin Bennett, who had been searching for partners to open a wine and charcuterie bar. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for Jackson and Utzman, who have more than two decades of restaurant and hospitality experience. In March 2025, they gathered 14 people for a tasting of cocktails, charcuterie, and shareables—the full vision. “That night was when it all came together,” Jackson says.
Order the whipped ricotta.
Photograph courtesy of Elevated Pour/Snell Photography.
Elevated Pour opened last August as a wine bar. By the fourth day, however, plans had changed, since the cocktail menu quickly stole the show. “Matt looked up from the well and said, ‘I guess we’re a cocktail bar now,’ ” she recalls. The drink list draws inspiration from the landscape: the Blue Bird, a riff on the dirty martini using fat-washed Grey Goose, nods to ski-day skies, while the top-selling Elevated Old Fashioned skips simple syrup in favor of Luxardo cherry syrup. New Mexico pours from Gruet Winery sit alongside drafts from Santa Fe Brewing Co. and Cimarrón’s Blü Dragonfly Brewing.
The food focuses on charcuterie and shareables. Guests who order the whipped ricotta alongside the meatballs—Utzman’s recipe, Jackson’s sauce—liken it to lasagna for its rich, creamy flavor profile. “The food is always fresh,” says local realtor Noel Olsen. But Elevated Pour is more than that. Angel Fire’s population of 1,200 year-round residents swells to more than 4,500 in the summer. “They make you feel like they actually missed you,” Olsen says, “like old friends.”
In February, Elevated Pour hosted the first Taos Wine Festival dinner ever held in Angel Fire. This summer, Jackson is planning Wine Class Wednesday, a six-week course that pairs six varieties with appetizers.
“Angel Fire has always had great places to eat after a day on the mountain,” she says. “We just wanted to add somewhere you could stay a while.”
ELEVATED POUR
3365 Mountain View Blvd #4, Angel Fire; 575-377-4535
