A Girdwood dinner occasion splits at the tram base. Seven Glaciers sits at the top of Mt. Alyeska — reached by a seven-minute aerial tram ride to 2,300 feet above the valley, where a panorama of hanging glaciers and Turnagain Arm sets the table before the menu opens. You book weeks ahead, the tram ride is included with the reservation, and the view does the first course before anything arrives on a plate. Then there's the path where nothing about the evening gets scheduled that way. Nobody calls ahead. The reputation handles the reservation. The line at the door is the entry system, and the New Orleans–style kitchen waiting at the end of it has been answering for itself since Bob and Deanna Persons bought the place in the spring of 1979. Same valley. Same night worth planning a trip around. Two different propositions about whether you earn the seat before you sit in it — or after.

Seven Glaciers sits at the top of Mt. Alyeska, reached by the aerial tram, 2,300 feet above sea level. When you make a dinner reservation, the tram ride is complimentary — it lifts you above the treeline, above the resort grounds, until the restaurant appears with floor-to-ceiling glass and a view of the hanging glaciers the place takes its name from: Crow, Raven, Eagle, Clear, Goat, Milk, and Alyeska.

The format matches the setting. Executive Chef Aaron Apling-Gilman builds a prix fixe chef's tasting menu around Alaska's contemporary cuisine — locally sourced seafood, seasonal produce, and game — that moves at the mountain's pace, not the city's. The signature dessert is the Baked Alyeska, the kitchen's version of the more famous meringue dish. Wine Spectator has recognized the list continuously with its Best of Award of Excellence; Wine Enthusiast named Seven Glaciers one of America's 100 Best Wine Restaurants in 2023; and the restaurant carries the AAA Four Diamond Award — one of only three AAA Four Diamond restaurants in Alaska, per alaska.org.

Reservations book well in advance during open season. This is not a walk-in occasion. The tram ride down afterward, with the valley lit below, is its own course.

Double Musky Inn doesn't have a view. It has a door, and in front of that door, a line that has become its own institution — longer on weekends, present most nights, entirely irrelevant to the people already inside.

The menu is New Orleans–style: steaks and seafood built around spices and seasonings with a Louisiana accent, adapted to what the surrounding waters and valleys produce. The French Pepper Steak is the signature — the dish Food Network's Jill Cordes called the best pepper steak in the U.S. — and it's the reason regulars make the drive from Anchorage. Beyond the Pepper Steak, the menu runs through shrimp étouffée, shrimp and sausage jambalaya, lobster kebabs, salmon au poivre, and crab-stuffed halibut with Creole beurre blanc. The room is dim, the portions are not, and the people at their tables have the ease of guests who stopped justifying the wait a long time ago.

What the line tells you before you sit down is that nothing about this dinner depends on your approval. The reputation predates your visit. That's not arrogance — it's just what longevity looks like from the outside. The original building went up in the early 1960s as an after-ski bar; Bob and Deanna Persons bought it in 1979, and the restaurant has stayed in the family since — Justin Persons currently serves as Executive Chef.

Both dinners take Girdwood seriously. That's the thing they share.

Seven Glaciers turns the mountain into the occasion — the tram is included with your booking, the menu is a fixed tasting, and the evening moves at the pace the kitchen sets. The experience is elevated in the literal sense, and the meal earns its place inside that frame.

Double Musky asks you to wait, then rewards the waiting with a kitchen that has been answering for itself since Bob and Deanna Persons took it over in 1979. New Orleans food in the Chugach, no reservations, a line that forms before the doors open — the combination should not work as well as it does, which is precisely why it has been working for as long as it has.

The valley has enough room for both. The question is what kind of night you brought with you.

Where: Top of Mt. Alyeska via the aerial tram. Tram base at Alyeska Resort, 1000 Arlberg Ave, Girdwood — approximately 40 miles southeast of downtown Anchorage.

Tram: Complimentary with your dinner reservation. Seven-minute scenic ride covering both directions.

Hours: Dinner 5 PM–8:30 PM, Tuesday through Saturday. Bar seating 3 PM–9 PM (separate bar menu). Closed Sunday and Monday. Reservation required for both dinner and bar.

Reservations: Essential. Book directly through Alyeska Resort at alyeskaresort.com/seven-glaciers. Window tables book well in advance during peak season.

Annual closures: The Alyeska Aerial Tram closes annually for seasonal maintenance — typically a spring window of approximately April 26 through June 12, and a fall window of approximately October 3 through December 11. For 2026 specifically, Alyeska has confirmed the Aerial Tram closes April 27, 2026, with an anticipated return in late May. Seven Glaciers and the Bore Tide Deli are closed during these tram windows. Verify current dates at alyeskaresort.com before planning around a specific evening.

Phone: (907) 754-2237

Awards: AAA Four Diamond (one of three in Alaska); Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence (continued recipient); Wine Enthusiast America's 100 Best Wine Restaurants 2023.

Chef: Executive Chef Aaron Apling-Gilman.

Wine list: 400+ labels.

Weather: A mountain environment means the tram can close on short notice in high wind. Contact the resort directly if conditions are uncertain.

Where: 3 Crow Creek Rd, Girdwood, AK 99587. Mile 0.3 of Crow Creek Road, off the Seward Highway.

Reservations: Not accepted. Walk-in only. Arrive before the 5 PM opening for the best chance at a table without a long wait — weekends draw lines that form before the doors open.

Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 5 PM–10 PM. Closed Sunday and Monday. [NEEDS VERIFICATION — confirm current annual closure window with restaurant; historically closed for a stretch in late fall through early winter.]

Payment: Credit cards accepted.

Phone: (907) 783-2822 | doublemuskyinn.com

Executive Chef: Justin Persons.

Menu standouts: French Pepper Steak (signature), shrimp étouffée, shrimp and sausage jambalaya, lobster kebabs, salmon au poivre, crab-stuffed halibut with Creole beurre blanc.

Getting there: Girdwood sits off the Seward Highway, approximately 40 miles from Anchorage along Turnagain Arm. The drive is scenic — plan for pullouts. A car is required; no reliable public transit serves this corridor.

Girdwood draws overnight demand during peak summer and ski season. Planning ahead opens quieter, more spacious rental options in the surrounding valley — arriving earlier in the day, building the full day around the drive, the meal, and the return gives the evening its own shape instead of a logistics problem.

The mountain that sets the table. The line that has been forming for decades. Two different answers to the same Girdwood question: what does a dinner worth planning look like?

One takes you to the top of the mountain and lets the landscape open before the food does. The other asks you to stand in a line that has been forming since 1979 and trusts that the room at the end of it will justify the wait.

The Chugach doesn't favor one over the other. It just keeps the glaciers lit either way.