![\"matterhorn\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/matterhorn.jpg\")
<\/a>Twenty five years ago, near the base of the Matterhorn, a poster for a ski bar in Zermatt, Switzerland, changed Roger Beaudoin\u2019s life.<\/p>\nHe walked inside and was captivated by \u201cthe North Wall Bar\u2019s international pub atmosphere. Here were people from around the world, drinking big steins of brew, eating pizza, and watching Warren Miller ski films on the big screen. Who knew that someday I\u2019d open my own version?\u201d<\/p>\n
His Matterhorn Ski Bar is a huge, action-packed chalet-style restaurant a quarter-mile below the Sunday River ski resort, so named\u00a0 because Beaudoin has climbed the Matterhorn twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur house specialty is wood-fired, thin-crust pizza that my business partner Patrice Miller and I researched in Naples at Italy\u2019s first brick-oven pizzeria. The owners took us under their wings. We brought back secrets they\u2019ve used for 200 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Placed in the middle of the restaurant, the busy oven fascinates the throng of customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe serve up to 350 pizzas on a busy night. We could get 15 in the oven at one time, but we try to do only eight or nine at a time\u2013they cook faster, in three to four minutes at 900 degrees.\u201d<\/p>\n
Start with a 12-inch, three-cheese pizza ($11.95), select a sauce\u2013Matterhorn marinara, basil pesto, roasted garlic puree, or garlic parmesan\u2013and choose from 25 toppings ($1.90 each). Or just grab one of the signature pizzas ($16). Among these are the Zermatt, with grilled chicken, sauteed spinach, feta, three Italian cheeses, and basil pesto; Weisshorn\u2013buffalo chicken, diced bacon, blue cheese; and Edelweiss, the whitest pizza with alfredo sauce, caramelized onions, parmesan, and fresh mozzarella. For $7 extra, splurge on the Verbier, a Maine lobster pizza in alfredo sauce with tomato and asparagus.<\/p>\n
Although pizza is literally front and center, the menu includes sushi, steak, risotto, penne bolognese, buffalo wings, bison, and particularly tasty baby back ribs. It\u2019s a kid-friendly place, with engraved mugs filled with Geary\u2019s draught root beer and an exceptionally popular arcade.<\/p>\n
Speaking of mugs, the Mug Club boasts about 675 members. And there\u2019s a dance floor and live music throughout ski season. Tuesdays are \u201cDeep & Cheap\u201d: wood-fired pizza at half price, local Angus burger with fries ($6.49), fried calamari with marinara ($6.99), and drink specials.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really about fun, about the skiing lifestyle\u201d says Beaudoin. Oh, and about that poster in Zermatt that inspired this \u201cpie in the sky\u201d idea? He rolled it up and took it with him. It now hangs at the Matterhorn<\/p>\n
Matterhorn Ski Bar\u2013Sunday River Rd., Newry; Daily from 3 p.m. 824-6836, matterhornskibar.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winterguide 2014 Eat, Ski, Love Sunday River\u2019s cozy and hopping ski pub has a thing for Neapolitan pizza. Review by Diane Hudson Twenty five years ago, near the base of the Matterhorn, a poster for a ski bar in Zermatt, Switzerland, changed Roger Beaudoin\u2019s life. He walked inside and was captivated by \u201cthe North Wall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[79],"class_list":["post-9351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-winterguide-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9382,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9351\/revisions\/9382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}