July 23, 2006
“We load up on oat bran in the morning so we’ll live forever. Then we spend the rest of the day living like there’s no tomorrow.” – Lee Iacocca
MY GOSH, SO MANY NEW EATERIES, SO LITTLE TIME to get to them all but G and I will give it our darnest.
Tonite G and I are gonna have dinner at Steuben’s (523 East 17th Ave, 303/830-1001; www.steubens.com), an American café serving comfort food and other fine fare. I’m after the green chile cheesebugger and the lobster roll. Just opened a few months ago by Josh Wolkon and designed after his two great uncles’ famed Boston eatery from decades back. This promises to be as popular if not more so, than his other great eatery, Vesta Dipping Grill (1822 Blake St, 303/296-1970; www.vestagrill.com). Unlike Vesta, Steuben’s is open for lunch daily.
Yesterday G took a significant part of the Family Mob (without inviting me) for lunch at Virgilio’s Pizzeria Napoletana (7986 W. Alameda Ave, 303/985-2777; www.virgiliospizzeria.com) a new eatery across the street from Belmar at Wadsworth and Alameda. This was the day after the restaurant got slammed (the good kind) cuz John Lehndorff, the Rocky Mountain News’ paid belly, gave them a super A- review. Chef Gabriel is an old friend, having been making some of the finest pizza in the west metro area for years. But if you haven’t had his garlic knots you haven’t lived. This is just across the street from Belmar’s The Oven (7167 W. Alaska Dr, 303/934-7600; www.tarbells.com). It’s also just up the road apiece from Johnny’s New York Pizza (1000 S. Wadsworth Blvd, 303/935-8818; www.johnnysnewyorkpizza.net) home of not only a terrific New York style pizza, but the best brownies in The World. So here in a three-block area you have three terrific pizzerias, the best salad in town (The Oven) the best garlic knots and the best brownies anywhere.
The other nite G and I had dinner with two old friends (one of them very old) at Café Prague (209 Bear Creek Ave, 303/697-9722; www.cafepraguerestaurant.com) in Morrison. Oh my, I’ve had potato pancakes before, but these garlic-saturated spuds will set the standard for the rest of you. Sure wish the several New York delis in Denver that think they serve something terrific would take note. The rest of the meal was mostly terrific. I had a superb beef stroganoff. More after our next visit. Too bad they serve dinner only. Check out their deliteful patio.
There are several pubs in South Jeffco that will see lots more diners now that there is no smoking permitted.
First is Q’s Pub & Grille (10133 W. Chatfield Ave, 303/973-2905; www.qspub.com).
Not only is the entire menu terrific but also the half-pound hand-packed buggers are fantastic. Check out the chicken parm sangie, more food than you can believe for $6.95 and just wonderful. I start each meal with the super pork egg rolls b4 muh bugger with slaw. The menu is huge. Service is first rate. They have live music every Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening.
Due east of Q’s at Wadsworth is the North Shore Restaurant & Bar (7444 W. Chatfield Ave, 303/973-8611). The menu is similar to Q’s, altho my hand-packed bugger came well-done rather than the rare I ordered. It was purty good tho, as were the variety of munchies my companion and I ordered. I’ll have to check this place out again. They got pool tables. The owners are new so things are changing for the better every day.
Those of you who’ve never eaten at The South aka Hondo’s South (3535 S. Huron St, 303/789-9833) have not yet eaten at a real Denver institution. It’s in Englewood, across from the former Cinderella City. Been there since 1970, still run by ex-Bronco Jerry Sturm and still serving some of the finest Mexican and American fare in town.
I hadn’t been in the South for several years, altho as I drive by on Hampden Avenue regularly, I can almost taste the green chili it’s noted for, atop a maaavelous super size machaca burrito. About a month ago, before NS day, I was driving east on Hampden, and I “got the urge”. I was getting hungry but I knew the place would be packed and very smokey. On the way back to the office it was almost 3 pm, so I figured it was safe to stop. That burrito was just as good as I remembered. Been there four times since, altho now its no smoking except on the outdoor patio so I can go anytime.
I think some of the restaurants that catered to smokers will now serve lots more food. New customers will come cuz they can now breath the air and old customers ain’t gonna sit around sipping a cup of coffee and puffing away and not spending any more $$; they’ll eat and leave. So now the restaurant will turn the tables more often during mealtime. Yo! Ain’t life grand?
There are dozens of new eateries that opened in the past year or so that G and I haven’t been to but now that our four refrigerators and freezers are all empty, ceptin for some soda and mustard – y’all remember that power outage a few weeks ago? Yeah, everyone thinks that I eat out every meal every day. G really does cook. Sometimes. But we’ve always got food around the house cuz we don’t know which of our kids and/or grandkids are gonna be “in the neighborhood” during mealtime. Which they have defined as between 5 am and 11 pm. And I wish I knew who gave them all keys to the house…
David Query’s upscale Mexican eatery, Lola, is now happily serving meals in its new and larger location (1575 Boulder St, www.loladenver.com) just across the 15th Street Bridge in West Denver. And just cuz chef Jamey Fader ain’t got any hair, doesn’t mean he can’t cook. He generates so much heat in his kitchen he had to shave his hair off. Only open for dinner and Sunday brunch. If you ain’t been, go.
Javel Joe the Junart and I had a bugger at Hamburger Mary’s (700 E. 17th Ave, 303/832-1333; www.hamburgermarysdenver.com) last week, altho the place doesn’t “officially” open for about two more years. They say mid-August, but you never know with construction projects in this town. It’s temporarily located in the old Vino Vino space just east of the former Cliff Young’s, where HM is gonna really be located. The Vino space will be operated by the same owners but as a lounge. The bugger was good not great; perhaps just too lean for my taste. My rare bugger came very rare, and Joe’s medium bugger came well done. But that was OK; I got a tuna melt sangie to go. The menu sed the tuna was “Olive oil poached” and I didn’t understand that – still don’t_ so I had to try it. It was quite yummy. Quite.
There’s Sketch and Duo and Table 6 and a dozen more new really good eateries that G and I have never been to. There’s a new chef at Mel’s. Bob’s Steak and Chophouse has finally given up and it will be re-opened in August as a new steak house by new owners Scott Fickling et al. Scott is the former GM and regional GM for The Palm. Methinks he will be lots friendlier to us peons than he was at The Palm. Cuz every manager ever at The Palm ignores us peons. Now I know where that word came from.
I’m off to Akron (Ohio) for the First National Hamburger Festival (www.hamburgerfestival.com) next week, so Happy No Smoking!
Cya.
In his real life Jay Fox is a CPA. He offers all kinds of good tax planning advice, financial calculators and the latest in tax news at his website: www.jayfoxcpa.com. He just writes this column for the money.