Denali Dining Roadside restaurants serve customers by the busload

By Amy Newman

Tourism in Denali is on the rise. According to the National Park Service, 364,000 travelers made their pilgrimage to the continent’s tallest mountain in 2000. By 2019, those numbers jumped to 601,152 annual visitors to Denali National Park and Preserve.

Since 2000, options have proliferated for meals outside of hotel restaurants. New eateries have joined the old-time establishments, and some have changed owners and rebranded, offering visitors diverse and sophisticated dining options. And, like all the roadside businesses clustered near the park entrance, they specialize in serving busloads of customers at a time.

Northern Hospitality

North of Denali Park itself, hungry travelers can find satisfaction on the shady side of the Alaska Range. In Healy, 49th State Brewing – Denali Park serves classic pub fare centered around sustainable Alaska foods. The restaurant hosts group dining in the dining room and pub sides of the restaurant, as well as the brewery.

“We give them a unique experience where you literally dine in the brewery,” says co-founder David McCarthy.

“There are tables in between the brewery tanks and the barrels filled with beer, which is really cool. People just don’t expect it.”

McCarthy works with tour companies to provide groups a custom experience, whether it’s a special menu, a buffet, or something else.

“Every tour group is treated uniquely,” he says. “We want them to experience Alaskan hospitality.”

Hospitality is the name of the game for McCarthy, and the name of his business. Northern Hospitality Group is the parent company of the flagship brewery in Healy and its successful spinoff in downtown Anchorage. It also operates a couple of restaurants 1 mile north of the Denali Park entrance: The Overlook at the Crow’s Next and Prospectors Pizzeria & Alehouse.

Comfort foods with an Alaska twist, along with forty-nine draft beers, at least half of them from Alaska breweries, are on the menu at Prospectors Pizza

& Alehouse, which opened in 2010, the same year as the first 49th State Brewing location up the road.

“The majority of people who came to Denali prior to 2010 were basically being fed the same food repetitively to get the ‘Alaskan experience,’” McCarthy says. “What we saw in the market was that people were looking for more comfort food.”

That comfort comes in the form of “hybrid Alaskan-style Italian food” that manages to incorporate Alaska into every dish, McCarthy says. “There’s spaghetti and meatballs, but the meatballs are made of elk. Fettuccine Alfredo is topped with king crab. You might have a pizza with king crab in the shell on top. It wasn’t made as a novelty. It was made as a quality pizza to drink with a craft beer.”

Northern Hospitality Group purchased the Crow’s Nest Hotel in 2014, transforming The Overlook into an elevated dining room with an aesthetic McCarthy describes as “outdoor chic.”

“It’s not quite tablecloth,” he says. “It’s just a more elevated experience with higher-end wine and foods.”

Like at 49th State Brewing, The Overlook offers customized dining options for groups based on what they want to experience in Alaska.

And that experience, just as much as the food, is what McCarthy thinks restaurants are offering.

“What you’re selling is this experience of going to the national park and seeing the greatest Northern American safari,” he says. “The authenticity of what we offer in the restaurant becomes part of their adventure.”

Gulch Gastronomy

The Overlook’s neighbor on the bluff above the Parks Highway is the Grande Denali Lodge, which contains the Alpenglow Restaurant, serving a spectacular view of the park alongside continental American fare with an emphasis on Alaska seafood.

“The idea up there is great cocktails, good food, in a great setting that overlooks into the national park,” says Chris Scheffer, complex general manager for the Grande Denali Lodge and Denali Bluffs Hotel.

A private banquet room in the lodge is available for groups that want privacy or a more customized experience; group dinners in the main dining room can accommodate up to sixty guests. Scheffer says he works with tour groups in advance to prepare a menu that not only fits the group’s dining budget but gives the kitchen flexibility in case certain items are unavailable and helps expedite production.

What Grande Denali Lodge and The Overlook both overlook is a bend in the Nenana River known as Glitter Gulch. Located just outside the park proper, highway traffic stops for pedestrians crossing between a strip of merchants at the foot of the bluff and the deluxe visitor accommodations on the riverbank, including McKinley Chalet Resort and Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge.

Fannie Q’s Saloon opened in 2019 in the former site of Denali Wilderness Lodge’s dinner theater. A redesign transformed the restaurant into a sleek, well-lit space with large windows, a candelabra chandelier and, befitting a saloon, a long bar that stretches along the back wall, says the lodge’s general manager, Michael Cook.

“The menu is American fare, not casual but not formal,” he says. “Fish and chips, a burger, fried chicken sandwich, but we also have some nicer entrees, like a braised pork shoulder and Alaska rockfish with chipotle lime.”

The saloon’s full bar offers twelve Alaska beers on tap and craft cocktails focused on Alaska-sourced products, whether a Southeast Alaska or Talkeetna distillery or local Alaska flavors, Smith says.

Next door, Grizzly Burger was revamped in 2019 into a full-service, self-seating restaurant, so groups can rearrange tables and chairs or head to the deck above the Nenana River, Cook says.

He likens the burger-based menu to Five Guys or Smashburger, with “fresh grill top patties on a brioche bun.” Grizzly Burger has a full bar and a milkshake machine that can make kid or adult-friendly treats.

“We do boozy milkshakes,” Cook says. “So, if you wanted a s’mores milkshake with a shot of peanut butter whiskey, we can do that.”

Within the McKinley Chalet Resort, Karstens Public House serves casual Alaska fare—burgers and sandwiches, pasta and steak, and some great shareable appetizers— in a fun, open space that can accommodate large groups.

“It’s just like a public house feel,” says Tracy Smith, general manager at McKinley Chalet Resort, Holland America Princess Alaska-Yukon. “It’s open and has lots of energy, and we do have the ability to make large tables in there.”

Like Fannie Q’s (both are owned by Holland America Princess), Karstens offers twelve Alaska beers on tap and craft cocktails featuring unique Alaska ingredients.

Southside Snack Stops

When Prey Pub & Eatery opened in 2012 as Prey, its one-word name created confusion.

“People didn’t really understand what it was,” says Chris Hudson, general manager. “It was just Prey, so people thought it was a church.”

A name change and exterior facelift in 2019 make clear the pub nourishes the body, not the soul. The Americanstyle pub fare menu features sandwiches; caribou meatloaf; a burger made with a mix of bison, Wagyu beef, elk, and wild boar; Alaska seafood; and prime rib.

The 68-seat dining room can accommodate small to mid-size groups with advance notice. Groups can order straight off the menu, but Hudson says most request a pared-down menu that coincides with the group’s prepaid dining budget.

Without advance notice, Hudson’s advice is to be flexible.