Read More
+
Top Chef Hosea Rosenberg Dines at Colt & Gray
When Top Chef's Season 5 winner- and Boulder resident- Hosea Rosenberg goes to Denver for a night out, he heads to new restaurant Colt & Gray. Hosea told citybuzz, "They are cooking the food that chefs, like myself, like to eat," which is always a very, very good sign.
For Hosea, the self-admitted key to his culinary heart is "all things pork," and Colt & Gray
holds that key with delicious dishes like the Long Family Crispy Pig Trotters Appetizer (a.k.a. pig's feet!) and Grilled Long Farm Pork Chop Entree. But other dishes, non pork-related, have been receiving the same sort of praise in Denver write-ups, like the Potted Peeky Toe Crab Appetizer (a crab spread) and the House Made Ricotta Ravioli Entree.
But we all know there is so much more that makes a restaurant great, and Colt & Gray has that, too. The resident mixologist mixes up a mean spin on the classic Manhattan, the New 1920's Cocktail, with absinthe as the special ingredient. And even the decor received attention for itself with a write-up in Elle Decor Magazine.
For such a young restaurant, the amount of amazing reviews is enviable, and the dessert of its meal of great press is making the top 10 of Denver Magazine's 25 Best Restaurant Lists. Sure, Top Chef 's Hosea Rosenberg and all the magazines in the world can tell you it's great, but just one meal at Colt & Gray will make you understand what everyone's talking about.
*** Hosea Rosenberg was the Season 5 winner of Bravo's top rated competition show Top Chef. Hosea is a resident of Boulder, Colorado and the Chef at Jax Fish House in Boulder. Besides his Top Chef title, Hosea has won many awards including Best Chef three years in a row at the Denver International Wine Festival, Guest Chef at the James Beard House, and his restaurant, Jax, has received the Best Seafood Restaurant in the Denver/Boulder area since opening in 1994.
Read More
+
The Palm Steakhouse: Denver’s Place for Steaks
Read More
+
Charlie Brown’s Bar & Grill: Where the Beat Goes On
Read More
+
Where Fulfilling Comfort Food Comes to Fruition
Fruition was named one of America's Top Ten New Restaurants in 2007. Chef Alex Seidel didn't create a new twist on asian fusion cuisine or use some molecular gastronomy tricks up his sleeve, he just made some seriously good comfort food. Chicken soup with homemade noodles, and even warm apple pie have never tasted so good than at Fruition. Enjoy a properly cooked meal that leaves you smiling from the stomach to the mouth.
Read More
+
Fuel Café: Revving To Go
Hidden away as it is in a mixed-use complex of lofts in the emerging RiNo district, no one saw Fuel coming two years ago. But come it has. Bob Blair’s quirky café is an oasis of inventive contemporary cooking that displays a myriad of Mediterranean influences at lunch—when the sandwiches range from pan bagnats to banh mi—and dinner, where scallop gazpacho beckons alongide peach barbecued pork. It’s the housemade pasta, though, that really puts this place on the map, paired with a wine list that emphasizes boutique finds. Speaking of finds, kicking back on the patio on a sunny summer’s eve, you’ll feel as though you just made a major discovery.
Read More
+
See Why CY Steak Sizzles
The CY stands for Cliff Young—and you’ll see why the name should resonate so deeply with Denverites the second you enter the joint. A pioneer on the city’s fledgling dining scene in the 1980s, Young recently returned here after years in France—only to make waves all over again by opening CY Steak on the premises of Diamond Cabaret, an upscale downtown “gentleman’s club,” to use the polite term.
Location (and late-night entertainment) aside, this is a classic steakhouse; handsome in red and black, it emphasizes a cellar full of big red wines and a menu laden with throwback riches—from caviar platters and Chateaubriand carved tableside to broiled lobstertail and duck-fat potatoes. What’s for dessert is up to you.
Read More
+
Vita: Eat. Drink. Listen.
An early bloom in the blossoming East Highlands, Vita has endured in the light of its special perks. Funky and arty with the works of local painters, it boasts one of the city’s few rooftop terraces, thronged on warm evenings with couples taking in a stellar view of downtown at sunset; inside, jazz combos keep the mood cool several nights a week.
Despite the Italian name, the menu skews contemporary American, with an emphasis on entree-worthy small plates like seven-hour pork braised with cherry peppers and a mini-osso buco over blue cheese polenta, many of which go for $5 or less during happy hour. Speaking of deals, bargain-bin buffs take note: the entire selection of wines by the bottle is offered at half-price on Tuesdays.
Read More
+
For Swank and Steak, It’s Always Elway’s
Although it may have owed its early fanfare to the popularity of its namesake, retired Broncos quarterback and co-owner John Elway, this Cherry Creek steakhouse has endured on its own merits: a swanky white-cloth setting, a legendary local bar scene, and a solid (if spendy) repertoire of chops, luxury seafood, and other modern American classics.
In fact, its success has spread downtown, with an even fancier, leather-swathed and wine-walled outpost in the Ritz-Carlton—where the day begins with power breakfasts and ends with sightings of sports celebs hunkered down over ribeyes and crab legs.
Read More
+
LoHi SteakBar Raises the Stakes—and the Bar
When locals heard chef-about-town Sean Kelly had turned up at this smart, sexy Lower Highlands spot, they swarmed in pronto—and they haven’t left since. Hopping nightly with the city’s hipper foodies, LoHi SteakBar features a highly likeable menu that centers on an array of steak frites and burgers, rounded out by funky snacks, sandwiches, and sides—from blue cheese fondue to rock shrimp po’boys to creamed spinach, plus retro desserts like banana splits.
The bar mixes a mean cocktail or two as well, including a fresh update of the banana daiquiri, and 3-for-1 bloodies come with weekend brunch.
Read More
+
Get Saucy at Vesta Dipping Grill
Replete with sensual swirls of fabric amid steel sculptures and secluded circular banquettes, Vesta Dipping Grill maintains an invigoratingly sexy appeal right down to the menu.
Expect the unexpected from the kitchen, which specializes in eclectic mix-and-match dishes meant to be shared. Appetizers and entrees centering on grilled meats, fish, and vegetables come with your choice of several dipping sauces (hence the name) that range from the familiar—Carolina barbecue, peanut sauce, chimichurri—to the inventive (try bacon aioli, Asian pear chutney or rose blossom yogurt on for size). Desserts follow the same formula; order the caramel apple with hot fudge for you and your date, and you can rest assured the evening won’t end at the restaurant. Reservations are essential.
Read More
+
A Taste of Whimsy at Beatrice And Woodsley
bin in the Rockies, Beatrice & Woodsley is a mesmerizing place to be.
Executive chef Pete List’s romantic seasonal menu of small plates, by turns daring and quaint, only deepens the mood: from corn pots de crème with horchata froth and sweet potato croquettes with huitlacoche honey to sherried turtle soup for brunch, the descriptions read as dreamily as the dishes themselves taste.
Read More
+
Rocky Mountain Menagerie: Buckhorn Exchange
History buffs and extreme carnivores alike get a kick out of Buckhorn Exchange. Granted Colorado’s first liquor license granted over 100 years ago, it’s still got all the trappings of a rustic saloon, from the walls covered over with trophy heads to the cowboy-hatted country crooners serenading the crowd in the upstairs bar.
And the menu reflects the décor, featuring savory game dishes—slow-roasted buffalo prime rib, elk, pheasant and quail. Even yak pops up occasionally. Better still for the adventurous of palate are the appetizers: Fried Alligator Tail, Chile-Marinated Rattlesnake and yes, even Batter-Fried Rocky Mountain Oysters are available for the (gulp) asking. Food prices aren’t cheap, but the wine list compensates, with many bottles in the $20 to $40 range. Just a couple of light rail stops from downtown, this legendary joint has to be seen to be believed—even if vegetarians would rather look the other way.
Read More
+
Beers & Steers at Denver Chophouse & Brewery
railstation complex, this link in a small national chain hearkens back to Denver’s cowtown past, when beer and beef were what was for dinner most every night.
Handsomely high-ceilinged and woody, Denver Chophouse & Brewery is a decent place to dine (tip for filet fiends: order yours one shade pinker than usual). But it’s a better place to imbibe, with a good-sized selection of wines by the glass, generous cocktails, nearly ten housebrews on tap—including an oatmeal stout conditioned in Wild Turkey barrels—and bottomless bloody marys and mimosas for weekend brunch.
Read More
+
Potager: Where the Perennial Meets the Seasonal
The name means “kitchen garden,” and with good reason. Though Potager’s dining room is decidedly urban- with its high ceilings echoing cement surfaces, floor-to-ceiling windows, and exposed ducts- it leads to a positively pastoral back patio surrounded by, you guessed it, a vegetable and herb garden. Chef Teri Rippeto was espousing locavorism before it was trendy, and to this day her oft-changing menu is rife with farmer’s market finds and sustainably raised meats, be it Gnocchi with pea shoots, baby leeks, mint, bacon, and goat cheese or a Grilled Pork Chop with rhubarb sauce and pickled turnips. The wine list, too, emphasizes boutique labels. And Rippeto’s eco-consciousness doesn’t end there: Potager recycles, composts, and relies partly on solar and wind power. No wonder it’s perennially popular. On that note, be prepared for a wait at the bar: reservations aren’t accepted.
Read More
+
Can’t-Miss Mizuna
Downscale, upscale, Asian, Italian—as chef-owner of four of Denver’s best-loved eateries (including Bones and Osteria Marco), Frank Bonanno does it all. At small, elegantly low-key Mizuna, he does it with a contemporary bent that has won him acclaim for a decade and counting. With the exception of lobster mac-and-cheese—Mizuna’s neoclassic signature dish—most of the menu changes monthly, but the emphasis is always on seasonal, carefully-sourced luxuries: a three-course meal might run from crisped veal sweetbreads served with caper aioli over a garlic-potato fritter and grilled ramps, move on to rack of lamb with herbed goat cheese gnudi in a parmesan emulsion, and end every bit as lusciously with a lemongrass parfait or butterscotch soufflé. It might also run you a tab in the three-digit range—but what’s a special occasion for if not splurging?