Colorado mountain towns like Breckenridge offer "mud season" deals at restaurants during offseason

As the snow (slowly) melts and the ski season of 2025 fades, a familiar period known as "mud season" settles into Colorado's high country. While this shoulder season brings a quieter pace to mountain towns, it also presents challenges for local businesses, particularly restaurants that rely heavily on tourist traffic like Breckenridge, a former mining town turned winter and summer destination.  

To try and tide over some of those restaurants, many eateries are rolling out special mud season deals to entice locals and visitors and keep their operations running smoothly.

Carlin Shotts, owner of Luigi's Pizzeria on Main Street in Breck, said he knows exactly what needs to be done once ski resorts start closing up in late spring.

"I mean, you just start tightening the purse strings and thinking about how you're going to get through that slow time."

The drop in tourism during the mud season can force restaurants to make difficult decisions, between closing for weeks or months on end, or even letting staff go, or adjusting the hours of operation.

"The brutal reality of it is you can't always hold on to everybody and not everybody makes it up here," Shotts admits.

Thanks to the Breckenridge Passport Dining Deals, the incentives provide a win-win situation: locals can enjoy great meals at a discount, while restaurants can maintain crucial business and keep their employees working, all while helping to support local students.

"Trying to attract what little bit of business is in town, trying to keep your employees employed enough that they don't disappear and that they can make their ends meet ... it's just a delicate balance," Shotts explains.

While the occasional tourist might wander in, it's the consistent support of the local community that truly sustains these businesses during the off-season.

"I would love to see more locals in our business," Shotts emphasizes. "I mean, that's we're kept alive and afloat in the off season by locals coming in. I mean, we thrive with the tourists, but the locals, their support is what carries us through."

Shotts said Luigi's is not immune to a closure itself, with a week or two closed on the horizon, usually around the same time that employees take off it everything clicks (it doesn't always.)