Root Down Green Restaurant Tour

Not long ago a friend, L, and I attended the Green Route Restaurant Tour stop at Root Down. When we got there, we still weren't sure what to expect from the "tour." We thought there would be a tour of the kitchen (which is pretty laughable if you see the size of Root Down't kitchen--plus it's pretty open and you can see it when you walk by it to your table). It turned out to basically be free appetizers and drink specials. Woohoo!

Denver's Green Route, it turns out, is "a green map for the City of Denver, showcasing the cutting edge sustainable businesses and organizations that make Denver a global leader in sustainability." The "tour" was a series of evenings at green restaurants in Denver, featuring free apps and drink specials to encourage people to try a new green restaurant (or re-visit an old one). The tour is over for now, but the Green Route host told me there would be another one this summer, so watch their site for announcements. You do need to reserve a spot and have a pass. Definitely worth attending.


I love the retro decorations of the restaurant. It's in an old garage with doors that can be pulled up when the weather is nice. They have this wall of rotary phones in the bar area (photo courtesy here). They have a similar wall of retro scales in the ladies room, which I took a picture of, but can't seem to find now. Check out this slide show at Metromix for some good pictures of the decor and food.


Green Route served us a number of appetizers including sweet potato fries with a toasted curry-lime yogurt dipping sauce, smoked portobello wontons with leeks, shallots, mascarpone & soy-mint "dunk," and sweet potato samosa "spring rolls," my favorite. Some people were lucky enough to get oyster sliders (but sadly not me). We really liked all of the appetizers. L and I drank “42 Below” rosemary-lavender lemonades, which were refreshing and delicious.

We also had dinner reservations. Our server was super nice and wearing some great jewelry. I commented on one of her rings and it turns out they're her own designs. She takes old vinyl records and other materials and melts them down to make really cool designs. She doesn't have a website yet, but she does sell her items at Eve, Inc. boutique on Larimer. I'm pretty certain the black rings and cuffs here are hers. Just go there and ask for Junky Funk Designs jewelry.

Anyways, back to the food. We shared a nice cheese plate and seared diver scallops with plantain hash, lemon-habanero tartar Sauce & crispy leeks. The scallops were a bit underdone for my taste and the accompaniments were super salty. We each had a different slider plate. I had the hoisin duck confit slider with lemon creme fraiche, shoestring sweet potatoes, and arugula, served on an Udis challah bun. This dish was WAY too sweet for my taste (a common problem with duck dishes, I've found), and L had buffalo sliders with Mongolian BBQ, shitake mushroom relish, and arugula, also served on an Udi’s challah bun with burdock root chips, which she enjoyed.

While I didn't love all the dishes, I still had a great time and would definitely go back--especially for appetizers and cocktails.

The Squeaky Bean

B and I recently had one of the most fun nights out we've had in a long time, with a night out with another couple at The Squeaky Bean. L and I met the guys (our husbands) there. It was loud and packed and they were waiting at the bar and VERY happy that they were drinking "Man Beer," which is a beer from Bull and Bush. When you order, make sure you do so in a very manly voice.



I ordered a "Squeaky Spritz," which consists of Prosecco, Aperol Italian Aperitivo Liqueur, Rocky Mountain Sparkling Water, and is garnished with a Castelvetrano olive. I had to get it because it sounded like such an odd combination withe the olive. It looks like an orange pop (although this pic looks red)--pretty much the color of that nasty orange drink from McDonalds that you used to get in the big yellow and red jugs. Ick. But it was surprisingly refreshing and not too sweet--just the way I like my cocktails. I'd venture to say it's one of my new favorite cocktails, but unfortunately one I probably won't try to recreate at home, due to the unique ingredients. And the olive just...works. Weird. I got the photo to the left from a nice photo essay on The Squeaky Bean from Metromix.






We started off with the Pig Platter and the fonduta. Seriously, how can you go wrong with something called a "pig platter?" And it is served on the cutest wooden pig tray ever. Basically, it was an assortment of cured pork (duh).










The fonduta was made out of gruyere and pureed potato and was served with grilled bread. Decadent and delicious! I could bathe in the stuff. Seriously.










After we got a table we ordered the crispy medjool dates with cambazola and prosciutto--always a crowd pleaser. We also got the burrata, which comes with butternut squash agro-dulce, micro fennel, and grilled bread. This was the only "disappointment" of the evening and it really was quite good. It just didn't stand up to the other dishes. (Plus I'm totally spoiled by Osteria Marco's burrata and should know better than to order it anywhere else).

We also got the roasted cauliflower salad with medjool dates, smoked trout, curry vinaigrette, and parsley coulis. I would never think to order this, if it hadn't been for this post from Denveater. Please go there to see a gorgeous pic of this amazing dish. Cauliflower is just not something that usually interests me particularly. I have nothing against it. This salad elevated cauliflower to a higher level. Although, I suppose if you mix just about any vegetable with medjool dates, smoked trout, curry vinaigrette, and parsley coulis it's going to be amazing, right?

After so many small plates, we got just two entrees to share between the four of us. By this time (ie., after several Squeaky Spritzes--and let's not even talk about the boys and their Man Beers), I wasn't taking pics and not paying attention to the details of the menu, but one had pork belly and one had kobe beef. The pork belly was awesome and the kobe wasn't my favorite as the sauce was really salty. I seem to recall there being a lot of mint and peas on the dishes, since SB focuses on seasonal ingredients. In fact, I swear I could still taste peas the next day. Plus I was ridiculously full all day the next day too!

At some point in the evening I also tried the Tejon Fizz cocktail, which our server described as tasting just like a gummy bear. It's made of Van Gogh pineapple vodka, muddled cardamom pods, fresh lemon juice, a whisper of agave nectar, and club soda. It was definitely sweet and a little too sweet for me. Plus I just liked that Squeaky Spritz so damn much...

I did not see the kitchen, but I've heard that it is very tiny and has only one convection oven. How they put out so many incredible dishes is truly a feat. This is now one of our favorite places in town. Can't wait to go back!

One of My Favorite Meals of the Year

I've been meaning to post this for awhile, and since I've waited so long, you only have one more chance to get this meal: this Saturday.

We like to go to Golden's Farmers Market on Saturdays--the last one is this weekend, until next year. There is a tortilla stand there that sells tortillas and frozen tamals and meals, including quesadillas, burritos, tacos, and my favorite: pupusas. Pupusas are from El Salvadore and are a thick corn-based tortilla or flat bread, stuffed with goodness. I prefer the pork and cheese-filled ones from this stand. They serve it with a side of salsa and a salad of shredded lettuce, tomatoes, and chiles.

Get your pupusa (or other treat--I've tried the burritos, tamals, and quesadillas, and they're all good) to go. Then hop on over to nearby Golden City Brewery, where you can order a beer and sit at one of the picnic tables with your lunch. Recently they've had a seasonal brew that I adore called Golden Gose. Gose beer is a beer I'd never heard of--a wheat beer brewed with coriander and salt. GCB serves it with a shot of raspberry. Sounds gross, but is delicious! Truthfully, I can't taste the coriander and salt really, but the beer is light and perfect for a summer's day--it doesn't even really taste like beer. And it just happens to pair with the pupusas perfectly.

Another great thing about this perfect meal is that you can take the kids. Mine get hot dogs from the Farmers Market and buy a juice or pop at GCB. There's even a wooden train for the kids to play on at GCB. My boys love it.

In my picture of my perfect meal, you can see the wipes we brought for the kids and even a juice bag (or joosh bag, as we like to call them) in the upper corner. Shown here is my delicious pupusa with salsa and salad spread all over it--the best way to eat it, a pint of Golden Gose and some samples of other brews, which GCB is always happy to let you have.



So get on over there this Saturday! Maybe you'll see me.

ETA: and here are pictures from the last weekend (pardon the fuzzy camera phone quality). Gose is probably still available at GBC, so you can still check it out. I talked to the woman at the pupusa stand and she said they want to open a restaurant but don't know where or even what it will be called. So hopefully they'll be back at Golden Farmers Market next year.

Colorado Mountain Winefest

Last weekend B and I went to the Colorado Mountain Winefest in Palisade as an early celebration for our anniversary (11 years on 10/2). We did this as a sort of follow up to our big 10 year anniversary trip to Napa/Sonoma last year.

It was packed! This will give you a little sense of the crowds.



This display of t-shirts gave me a giggle.



There were 52 wineries there each with numerous wines to sample. It was overwhelming! We hit the first table and tried each wine. We did the same at the second table. Then we realized that this strategy was not going to work--in fact it was a recipe for disaster! So from then on we only tasted award winners and wines that caught our eye. And we still tasted a lot. We also dumped anything we didn't immediately like. I hate the thought of wasting wine, but I was a dedicated dumper. I don't even know how much wine we must have consumed and dumped--bottles probably. By the end of the day we were definitely wined out. A good way to be! The festival was great for people watching too--especially as the day wore on. I generally hate crowds, but I didn't seem to mind it this day. I guess the wine put me in a good mood.

In our opinion--which is certainly not terribly knowledgeable, we just know what we like--Colorado does white, sweeter wines well, like Rieslings and Gewurztraminers. It does not do reds so well. The only red we bought was from Denver's own Balistreri winery. We ended up coming home with 15 bottles (3 were a gift). More on those later in this post.

On Friday, we visited St. Kathryn Cellars and Confre cellars (in the same building), the first tasting room off the road. It was the only one we went to before the festival, because we got to Palisade just a few minutes before 5 pm. The wines there were not our favorite, and they seemed to focus on fruit flavored wines, which I'm usually not too fond of. But there were a lot of wines to taste, so it's worth a stop if you're in Palisade.

We stayed in Grand Junction and tried a few restaurants in GJ and Palisade, but none that really excited us. On Friday, we tried Inari's in Palisade. The high point was sitting at our table under an umbrella in a hail storm (and sunny!). We were excited by the sample menu online which included "Southern Fried ½ Rabbit With edamame succotash and potato" and a "Colorado Leg of Lamb Braised for 9 hours with tomatoes and red wine." Yum! But the current menu had nothing like this and was fairly uninspired. B got a ho hum pasta bolognese and I got an even more ho hum fish cake dish. Here's my cutie:



And our calamari starter. It was okay. That "aioli" next to it tasted a lot like thousand island. That's a Colorado wine next to it, of course!



B's half eaten bolognese. I never got around to taking a picture of my dish. You can see the hail in this pic, which is why I'm posting, since it's not a particularly pretty table pic.



After we hit the town of Palisade. First we stopped at Peach Street Distillers, where they make all manner of booze: vodka, gin, brandies, and Colorado's first bourbon. They make everything from Olathe sweet corn. You can sample their wares and buy a number of mixed drinks, which they quaintly serve in jars. B had a bloody mary and I had a gin drink. Here you can see our drinks and the brewing casks (is that what they're called?).



This is not the best quality picture, but it shows the distillery's kitty, who was very friendly.



Check out these gorgeous bottles of pear and peach brandy. Yes, that's a pear in the bottle. There's grappa pictured too. The pear tasted like it needed to develop a bit more, but I think it will be quite good. And that bottle is beautiful! Look for the handmade beads in the shape of pears and peaches hanging from the bottle.



Here's the Colorado Straight Bourbon, "Colorado's first bourbon," also with a handmade bead. I bought a bottle.



As you can see, the distillery made me very happy.



The bar tender was very friendly and suggested we go meet her boyfriend who was tending bar at Palisade Brewery just a few buildings over. The beer there was quite good. Like the dragon decoration?





Later that evening we checked out 626 on Rood in Grand Junction for some late night snacks. The lighting was bad so I didn't get worthwhile pictures and the service was lacking, but the snacks were tasty. We got the seared Foie Gras with caramelized blood orange and Cointreau Noir sauce--the sauce was a little too sweet, but otherwise it was a good dish--and the cheese fries with white truffle oil and French sea salt--hard to ruin those and they most certainly did not. Yum!

On Saturday evening (after the festival), we went to Bin 707 Food and Wine, where we did NOT have any wine (we were actually sick of it). It was okay.

On Sunday, we visited wineries. We started out with a tasting at Whitewater Hill Vineyards. We particularly liked their Gewurztraminer, Muscat Canelli, and Zero Below, which I believe is an ice wine.

We then headed to Carlson Vineyards Winery.



My mom had asked me to buy them some of their Laughing Cat Riesling, saying it's one of the only wines my dad likes. It is really quite good, but I thought their Laughing Cat Gewurztraminer was fabulous. They had kitties in the winery too!

I know I said earlier that I don't generally like fruit flavored wines, but I really liked their Cherry Wine, which is made with pie cherries and tastes like it. They served it in a glass whose rim was dipped in chocolate and together they were just like chocolate covered cherries! They sold the wine with or without some meltable chocolate from Enstroms. I bet you can guess which one I bought.

We headed over to Plum Creek Winery, where we got a nice tour in addition to the tasting. Our tour guide, who takes care of the wines (can't remember what the title is), was really knowledgeable and was so nice. We joined the tour late and after he took just the two of us and "re-did" what we missed. Now that's some service!



I got some pictures of the vines and grapes too. That background scenery sure is different from California wine country.







Last but not least, we visited Garfield Estates winery, a small but lovely little place. Here's B here, showing his love for wine:



On our way out of town, we stopped at one of the roadside "stands" and bought a half bush of peaches (which I just put up today), some peach syrup, and some honey. This is from another stand down the road, but it was just too cute.



And last, but not least, a very Colorado picture of B at a rest stop we stopped at in Eagle. I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of the aspens! But they were in full swing. Gorgeous! It was a great weekend. Happy anniversary (early), honey!

Denver Harvest Week - Steuben's Report

As you probably know, this week is Harvest Week, a week in which Denver area restaurants create menus that feature Colorado grown and produced products.

We decided to check out Steuben's menu on Sunday evening, after an afternoon at the zoo. I love Steuben's for several reasons, but the top two are

1) THE COCKTAILS!


The Bees Knees III, consisting of honey vodka, ginger liqueur, lemon ginger simple syrup, fresh raspberries, lemon juice, and egg whites.


An Aviation, made of gin, lemon juice, Luxardo maraschino liqueur, and Creme de Violette. Check out how incredibly different it looks than the one I had recently at Colt and Gray. (The latter was better. This was too sweet. I think perhaps too much violette and hence the purple vs. yellow color?)

2) THE KIDS MENU!

There are not many places in town (or anywhere) where you can get good food and cocktails, yet still please the kids. As I mentioned, I think, before, my picky eater says that Steuben's is his third favorite restaurant (after Red Robin and McDonalds--argh). Their $7 kids meals feature veggies w/ranch, a main dish, a side, fruit, a drink, and oh, something else I forget.


Check out this interesting combination of spaghetti and mashed potatoes. This is the picky one. He asked the server if they give refills on spaghetti. He didn't eat much of the taters, but I liked them and they were great as leftovers with my chicken entree the next day.


And another starchy combo of spaghetti and french fries.

Oh wait, I remember the other thing the kids meals include:

CUPCAKES! (or ice cream so your little one should desire)



Other things I like about Steuben's include the funky retro decor, the patio, and the cute kids menus as artfully decorated by my boys:



The Harvest Week menu is here. We decided to try just about everything. There was no room for dessert and I'm not sure why I didn't try the cocktail. I think I got mesmerized by the main cocktail list. I could study that thing for hours and hope to try them all at some point. :-)

We started with the Pork Belly Rillettes and MouCo ColoRouge. This dish was the one I looked forward to the most and liked the least. The rillettes were a little blah. It could have used more seasoning. The MouCo ColoRouge was very good, as their products always are, but it was such a tiny piece that if you put 1/4 of it on each of the 4 steamed biscuits, you wouldn't have been able to taste it at all. The biscuits were good, but perhaps a little overdone, and the pickled vegetables (leeks and ?) were really good--my favorite part of the dish.



B had the Colorado Lamb French Dip with Fries and Stranahann’s Horseradish Sauce. Two different servers warned us that it was "very lamb-y." We both liked the lamby-ness of it. And the horseradish sauce was excellent (although I wouldn't mind it being more horseradishy). It was huge and B ate it all. Impressive even for him.



I had the Peach Glazed Half Roasted Chicken with Local Greens Panzanella. I was worried the chicken glaze would be too sweet. It was sweet, but the dish was sauced with a light touch--just the right amount of sweet. The greens included rainbow chard and I'm not sure what, but they were excellent, especially with the panzanella grilled bread. I've been really into greens this summer and these were some of the best I've had this season.



It was a super fun family night out and mommy got her cocktails, so all was right with the world. We all left full and happy.

Harvest Week is just half over, so get out there and try some local dishes. I wish I could hit a place every night, but this was it. We're babysitterless and saving funds for Colorado WineFest this weekend. Report to come!

Colt and Gray

B and I went to Colt and Gray, Denver's new "gastropub" on Saturday. I'm not sure why it's considered a gastropub and not a restaurant. The atmosphere was not what I would consider pub-like--more of a modern restaurant with clean lines. And the bar was fairly small--although, granted, the place is fairly small altogether. But, really, I don't care what they want to call themselves, because the food...oh, the food!

We had a bit of a hard time finding the place. They are not at their published address of 1553 Platte Street, but are around the corner. And they don't have a sign yet. We had to go up and ask some servers standing outside if we were in the right place. We didn't have reservations, but were able to get a seat at one of the bar tables.

The menu ranges from "bar snacks" to small plates to full entrees. I was disappointed to see that the "kids menu" disappeared from the website. I never saw the actual menu, but they had a page "under construction" for it when I first visited the site. A menu that includes the kind of food they serve plus a kids menu gets me really excited. They may still have a kids menu by request, but I didn't check, since we were sans boys. If they don't, I hope they will still create one. We need more good restaurants that kids can go to in Denver.

I started with one of the "classic" cocktails called "The Aviation," a gin and lemon-based drink. B had a Fuller’s Mr. Harry ESB, which they have on tap. They also have a decent beer and wine list.



We decided to stick with small plates so we could get a wider range of tastes:



From the "bar snacks" portion of the menu, we ordered the Long Farm Crispy Pig Trotter. I must admit we were expecting a pig's foot to gnaw on and we were actually kind of excited about it. But we got this:



And we certainly weren't complaining! Other than a pea-sized piece of bone in mine, these were perfectly delicious--a minced pork patty fried in a crispy batter and served with grainy mustard and salad. They were finger-lickin' good.

Next up: Chili Garlic Prawns with Coriander and Cashew Pesto and Avocado Citrus Salad:



This was our favorite dish. The prawns had a smoky flavor and the pesto was so good we practically licked our plate. In fact, B tried to pull a fast one, saying "Look over there!" so that he could swipe his finger across the plate while I looked away. The oranges in the accompanying salad were sweet and tart and fit beautifully with the other flavors.

The Oysters on the Half Shell with Citrus-White Wine Mignonette



were good, but I wanted the mignonette to have a stronger flavor. I enjoyed them, but they just didn't compare to the one's I had recently at Indulge French Bistro. Perhaps, if I hadn't had those in my recent memory, I would have been more excited by these.

We were wanting more so ordered a charcuterie and cheese plate with



house-made country pate, a blue cheese that was not on the menu but the server recommended, Boccalone Nduja, Bresaola, and Collo Rosso cheese (a soft cheese). The plate came with grainy mustard, mango chutney, and cornichons. We both liked the Boccalone Nduja best. It's a spreadable salami and the meat in the little tin above. It's spicy and oh, so delicious. The pate was good. Actually everything on the plate was really good. I would have enjoyed some honey to go with the cheeses (in addition to or in place of the mango chutney), but that's just my personal preference.

Our server was very friendly and knowledgeable and quite attentive until the place started filling up. It took a long time to get our second round of cocktails and we were told that the bar was "backed up," despite the fact that the place was not that full. I'll chock that up to the place being new and won't fault them, because overall the experience was great.

ETA: a friend just pointed out that Ruhlman's blog has a post on the Aviation cocktail. Yummmm!

I can't remember the name of the second cocktail I had but it was another one of their "classics" and was made with chartreuse and calvados (in addition to ?) and garnished with delicious (non-maraschino) cherries.

Lola

B and I had a fun night at Lola recently. The kids were with the grandparents, so we hurried out of work and tried to make happy hour on a Friday. It turns out that 5:45 (15 minutes before happy hour ends) is a great time to get there, because that's right about when they kick people off a few tables on the patio to make room for diners. Since we were planning on eating, we got one of these tables right away, and still got to get a round for happy hour--a margarita for B and some sort of basil and lime concoction for me. I was a little disappointed in the latter. While I don't want a strong basil taste in my drink, I'd like to taste it a little. The drink didn't taste much different than the margarita.



We ordered the chips and tomatillo-green apple salsa to start, but got the charred tomato-chipotle salsa (shown above). Call me greedy, but when a restaurant makes a mistake like that, it really peeves me when the server doesn't leave the "wrong" dish there for you to eat. It was whisked quickly away while she went to get the right one. We'd already tasted it--what is she going to do, give it to someone else? I hate wasted food. Plus I would have liked to have had both salsas, of course! If I were the server, I'd bring the requested dish, but leave the mistake one there for the table to eat. Anyways...the tomatillo salsa was especially good.

We ordered the agave glazed pork belly sopes with cactus pickles, green chile mustard, and crispy onions to start. It was tasty--especially the cactus--but a little bland.



I ordered the field greens salad with manchego, fried green tomatoes, and cilantro vinaigrette--mainly because I can't resist fried green tomatoes. And these were especially good. Another peeve--the server brought my salad with our entrees. My entree was the chile blackened yellowtail tacos. These were fresh, but a bit underseasoned. Here are both dishes:



B got the ranchera smothered relleno burrito:



I was a little underwhelmed with Lola. My food was a little bland. The stars were the tomatilla salsa and the fried green tomatoes on my salad. The service was okay, but not stellar (although my server had an adorable hair cut!).

Here we are, with me looking smuggy. We had fun anyway--we were out without kids!



After we stopped in Zio Romolo's Alley Bar for a quick drink. It was a spur of the moment thing and we stupidly didn't realize it's attached to Pasquini's at first. It's an adorable skinny bar with gorgeous bar work (see the website), but my favorite part was the pictures in the ladies room (actually in Pasquini's), like this one:



It makes me laugh, what can I say? The bartender was nice and they had a good selection of locally made booze.

We stopped at Indulge French Bistro on the way home, just to check it out. We sat at the bar with the very loquacious and self-deprecating bartender who looks a wee bit like Eric Stolz (it's gotta be the long red hair). He made me a Manhattan with St. Germaine liqueur, which was good, although very sweet. And, on a whim, we ordered the Island Creek Oysters on ice with mignonette aspic. Oh my, were they good! I swear I could have eaten 7 orders of them. Here's a really crappy pic that doesn't do them justice at all. I will definitely head back there for more tastes sometime.