Vine Street Pub

Talk about a place I wish were closer to my house. The Mountain Sun breweries have teased me for years with delicious beer and great food that is just a little bit too difficult to access. 

Mountain Sun operates three outstanding brewpubs along the front range. Their first two locations were both established in Boulder: Mountain Sun Pub and Brewery opened on Pearl Street in 1993, and Southern Sun set up shop in south Boulder in 2002. 

Most recently, Vine Street Pub opened near City Park in Denver in 2008. It operated without its own brewing facilities until April of this year. Now, its 5,000 barrel per year output capacity allows it to brew  over 50% more than the combined yearly capacity of both Mountain Sun and Southern Sun. 

Vine Street Pub & Brewery Exterior

Unfortunately, the three Mountain Sun locations don't jive well with our busy schedules and deep-in-the-south-suburbs living situation. Plus, even after the long trek to any of their brewpubs, they can be frustrating to eat at. Long, long, long waits are the norm at even non-peak hours, reservations are not accepted, and diners must pay in cash.

Several months ago, Mr. Oyster and I were super excited for a dinner (plus beer) at Southern Sun in Boulder. We were so excited, we took a picture of the outside:

Exterior of Southern Sun in Boulder

We had arrived just before 5 pm on a Friday night, only to find there would be over an hour wait for just the two of us. We had an event to attend later that night and couldn't wait around that long. Mr. Oyster had frequented Southern Sun in college, and had been looking forward to one of their hamburgers and a pale ale. Bummer. 

I visited Vine Street Pub for the first time this past February to meet up with some fellow bloggers. After waiting for over an hour, the five of us were seated. We proceeded to enjoy their (at the time) "imported from Boulder" brews, and I munched on a chicken burrito that was about as big as my head.

Since those two Mountain Sun encounters, I knew Mr. Oyster and I needed some time together at one of their brewpubs. We finally had the opportunity to head to Vine Street Pub on Memorial Day weekend, when we were in the City Park area for a visit to the Denver Botanical Gardens.

Vine Street Pub is located at 17th and Vine Street, just west of City Park. It made for a long drive from Highlands Ranch, but it was a holiday weekend and we were looking forward to a relaxing day of beer followed by flower-and-tree-ogling. 

We arrived right around noon on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Fortunately, there was no wait. In fact, although their patio seating was packed, indoors most of the tables were available. We quickly got situated and perused the drink and food menus.

It was noon, but beer was a priority. Vine Street Pub is generous in its "taster" sizes, serving up 8 ounce sample sizes for $2.8 each. We opted for a beer flight with the six most intriguing looking beers on the menu:

Beer Flight, clockwise from top left: Saison D'Ete, Bombshell Blonde, Pater's Pale Ale, Colorado Kind Ale, FYIPA, and Nitro Old School Irish Stout

The FYIPA was my favorite; it was very similar to Odell's IPA, with an intense Cascade hops flavor but a smoother finish than Odell's brew. I also enjoyed the saison; it was very traditional, with a mild peppery aftertaste. 

The menu at Vine Street - as well as its sister restaurants in Boulder - offers typical bar food plus various vegetarian options. From my experience, the food has always been very tasty and reasonably priced. 

We started off splitting an order of chips and salsa ($3.5, not pictured) plus guacamole (additional $2). 

Since we were all about sharing that day, we also split a Black and Blue Burger ($7.75), which was blackened with seasoning and sprinkled with blue cheese crumbles.

Black and Blue Burger

The burger came with very fresh onion, tomato, and lettuce, as well as hand-cut French fries.The fries were particularly good, although they weren't as heavy on the salt as I would've liked.

The burger was juicy and perfectly cooked to medium, and its taste was highlighted with the tangy flavor of blue cheese and blackened seasoning. However, I should have paid more attention to the denotation of a 1/3-lb burger patty on the menu. It was just too small for sharing, even for a midget-sized portion-watcher like myself. 

Not sure when we'd have a chance for another visit, we loaded up on a couple last tasters of beer: their very fruity Blackberry Wheat, and the XXX Pale Ale.

Blackberry Wheat and XXX Pale Ale

The beer at Vine Street is easily on par with what's turned out at Colorado's best known breweries. However, you can only get it at their brewpubs or via growlers. 

Mr. Oyster remarked that if Vine Street were closer to the house, he'd be there multiple times a week. I don't doubt that, and it's too bad that we don't make more visits to their restaurants. 

Casual Dining

 (9 of 10)

Pros: Great food, beer, and service

Cons: Long waits, cash only

Breckenridge Ball Park Pub

Heading to a Rockies game downtown last Friday night, we popped into the Breckenridge Ball Park Pub for some pre-game beer and food.

Originating in the Summit County ski town that bears the same name, Breckenridge is mostly known for its brewing operations, but the company is also creating a small empire of beer-centric restaurants.

The Ball Park Pub has been operating at its current location since 1992, or essentially since the birth of LoDo. Breckenridge recently opened the Ale House at Amato's in the Highlands, and they also operate an Ale House in Grand Junction.

If you're interested in seeing where they actually brew, you'll have to head to their original location in Breckenridge, or their tasting room in Denver's Golden Triangle.

We showed up around 5:30 pm - about an hour before the Rockies game - and met up with a couple of our friends.

Walking into the newly renovated Breckenridge Ball Park Pub, I was shocked at how large the space was. It's at a great location by Coors Field, but I'm skeptical that the restaurant can consistently stay anywhere near busy most nights. Even at the pre-Rockies-game time of our visit, there were still a few empty tables.

Since the Ball Park Pub is operated by Breckenridge Brewing Company, we expected an ample Breckenridge beer selection. We were disappointed to find they were sold out of probably their two most popular beers, the Vanilla Porter and the Ball Park Brown. They also don't provide sampler flights during Rockies games.

Thwarted on his top two beer choices, my husband settled for a Lucky U IPA, which he found to have an unbearably bland hop profile, followed by a much more palatable Oatmeal Stout.

Living in Colorado, we are spoiled with numerous amazing local microbrews, and we've become very picky about our beer. That being said, the beer at Breckenridge is nothing special. It certainly doesn't stand out in a local market saturated with Colorado-based craft beers.

Of course, the Ball Park Pub has consistently stayed busy for nearly 20 years now, so obviously some people disagree with me on that matter.

Anyway, getting to our food, Mr. Oyster ordered the Adobo Chicken Sandwich ($8.75).

Adobo Chicken Sandwich

I ordered the Bison Burger with pepperjack cheese ($9.95).

Bison Burger

Both dishes arrived with a side of "seasoned brew fries" and a pickle. The food was decent but nothing extraordinary; it tasted like standard bar food. My husband's chicken sandwich had a hint of heat from a roasted green chile. My bison burger was pretty standard; it was cooked properly to medium and served with the usual accompaniments.

The Ball Park Pub appeared to have growing pains associated with their new renovations. Our server seemed to have entirely too many tables. She couldn't bring us all waters at once because they were "out of glasses." We waited long stretches for our water to be refilled and our empty plates to be cleared.

The average food wasn't good enough to compensate for mediocre beer selection and clunky service.

Breckenridge Ball Park Pub has an outstanding location near Coors Field, and offers a typical bar menu and beer selection that seem to have mass appeal. But with so many other excellent beer and food options nearby, it's certainly not at the top of my list for a return visit.


Casual Dining

(5 of 10)

Pros: Easy to get a table, great location
Cons: Food and beer are forgettable, clunky service (maybe due to recent renovations)

Website:
http://www.breckbrew.com/food/breckenridge-ball-park-pub

Park Burger

About a month ago, Westword published a list of "Denver's Ten Best Burgers." Of the top ten, I had only tried one: the insanely good burger at Larkburger, ranked at #7.

So I was curious to discover just how good any of the burgers ahead of Larkburger on the list might taste. That led me to Park Burger, which took the #2 spot. We were able to get a few other friends to join us for the hamburger frenzy.

Park Burger is located at Pearl and Jewell in the Denver University neighborhood, just down the road from the rapidly-proliferating restaurant empire of the Den Family Restaurants (think Sushi Den, Izakaya Den, Ototo, and whatever else opens between now and when I post this article to blogger).

Park Burger was packed with a mixture of families, college students, and boring workerbees like my husband and me.

Their location reminded me a lot of Hops & Pie in the Highlands: small, way too narrow, brightly lit, and packed to overflowing.

Despite the crowds of hungry people waiting for a table, we were able to snag a spot for six with only a 15-or-so minute wait. Unfortunately, where we were seated was very close to the door, and even closer to where waiting patrons were milling about and trying to stay warm. We spent much of our dinner being cold and elbowing people out of our way.

Keeping things simple, we ordered a regular Park Burger ($6.25 + $1 for cheese), which comes with a 1/3 lb patty, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and "Burgersauce." We added on cheddar cheese for an additional $1.

Park Burger with Cheddar

So what does this locally-reknown Park Burger taste like? Basically, it tastes like "ehhh, I've had much better."

We had ordered the burger "medium," but it was more like medium-well. While a little overcooked for my preference, the patty otherwise seemed to be made of fresh, high-quality meat. One thing I didn't care for was that the meat had been flattened a la Smashburger. What is the deal with the popularity of flat burgers? Their flavor tends to be equally flat; I prefer a thicker patty over the bland pancake shape.

And Park Burger cheats a little bit when it comes to making a tasty burger: the buns were clearly coated with plenty of butter and greasy burger sauce. Tasty, but fattening.

The buns were light and fluffy, which was mostly a good thing, except they got soggy quickly with the above-mentioned grease absorption. The veggie toppings were fresh and crisp, and helped just slightly to balance out the fattiness of the burger.

All that left me scratching my head over Park Burger's supposed #2 spot on "Denver's Best Burgers" list. Granted, their high ranking seems to be based on their plethora of delicious-sounding burger toppings. Although not terribly unique for Denver, Park Burger's toppings include options like Brie cheese, guacamole, fried eggs, and even sauerkraut. I love a fried egg on my hamburger as much as the next overzealous food blogger, but I expect the burger to hold its own without distraction from its tastier toppings.

I definitely prefer the delicious simplicity of Larkburger.

We also ordered a basket of Sweet Potato Fries ($4) to share. And by share, I mean my husband and my friends nibbled on a few and I inhaled most of them.

Sweet Potato Fries

The sweet potato fries were tasty, although I have to say I'm very, very easy to please when it comes to sweet potato fries. They were fried up very nicely and had the perfect dusting of salt. However, I'm not convinced that they were homemade.

Service was friendly and very speedy, although the waitstaff was clearly needing to keep up table turnover to make room for more patrons. There was a mix-up with our waiter or the bar staff about our beers, leaving our table with duplicate beers (that's not really a problem for us). We were only charged for one beer each, which was appreciated.

I was underwhelmed with Park Burger, but to be fair I did try only a limited sliver of the menu. Nonetheless, my search for an amazing Denver hamburger continues.


Everyday Dining

(6 of 10)


Pros: Fast, great service, cheap
Cons: Watch out for tables near door, average hamburgers

Website:
http://parkburger.com/

Larkburger

There are so many hamburger spots in Denver that Larkburger never really made its way to my radar, despite the nonstop blogging hype and the weed-like proliferation of its restaurants across Colorado. That was, until a location opened up in the Denver Tech Center that was just way too convenient to pass up.

Larkburger labels their burgers as "gourmet" at every opportunity, and that's probably a result of their fine dining roots at Vail's Larkspur restaurant. That's also why you see truffle flavor permeating so much of the menu.

My husband, my mother-in-law and I arrived at Larkburger for lunch on a Saturday. Their Greenwood Village location is right at the heart of the Tech Center, in a fancy-ish strip mall that's packed to the brim all workweek long but is eerily quiet on weekends. As expected, Larkburger only had a few other customers during our Saturday visit.

The menu at Larkburger is very, very simple. You have a choice between various types of burgers (beef, tuna, turkey, mushroom) in a couple of different sizes, but that's where your options taper off.  The restaurant encourages a medium cooked burger, Tillamook cheddar is the only cheese option, and your toppings will be lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and sauce. Some people might find that constricting, I thought it was easy and perfect.

My husband selected the Larkburger with cheese ($6.5), I ordered the Little Lark with cheese ($4), and my mother-in-law ordered the Turkey Burger ($6.25). We also got an order of their Truffle and Parmesan Fries ($3).

Just a few minutes later, out came our food:

Left to Right: Larkburger, Little Lark, Turkey Burger  
Background: Truffle & Parmesan Fries 

One bite into my burger, and I completely understood what all the fuss was about. So good. Maybe it was the quality of the meat, or the fact that it was cooked so perfectly, or the buttery sauce or fresh toppings, but this an insanely good hamburger. I didn't even feel the need to add ketchup.

My husband loved his Larkburger equally. He made fun of the miniature size of my Little Lark, but I thought it was the perfect portion. I didn't try my mother-in-law's turkey burger but she loved it.

The fries were just ok. I prefer thick, steak-type fries, and these were very skinny and lacked the punch I was hoping for.

Overall, an outstanding hamburger for cheap. I'll be back.


Everyday Dining

(8 of 10)



Pros: Amazing hamburgers, great service, cheap
Cons: Some people may not like lack of menu options, fries were average

Website:
http://www.larkburger.com

Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs

Well, I suppose if Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs is a favorite of Anthony Bourdain's and if it's Susan Feniger's "Best Thing I Ever Ate", it's probably good enough for me and my amateur tastebuds. Biker Jim's has quickly become one of the most well known food spots in Denver, meaning it was time for us to get over there and see what the big deal was all about.

We showed up at about 5:30 pm on a Friday night just before a Rockies game. Surprisingly, only a few tables were occupied when we first arrived, but it soon became packed with customers after we entered.

Biker Jim's is more famously known for its hot dog stands, and just opened the brick-and-mortar location this past March in Five Points near Coors Field (across from my beloved Marco's Coal Fired Pizzeria). The Biker Jim's restaurant has order-at-the-counter service and indoor and outdoor tables.

My husband ordered the Louisiana Red Hot ($6), with cream cheese and grilled onions on top (additional $1). And a half order of the much-Yelped fried macaroni and cheese on the side ($2).

And what did I order? I'm going to get a lot of crap about this. Well, I already have from my husband. Brace yourself. I ordered a hamburger. It was the Off-The-Street Burger ($8) to be precise.

WHY you ask, did I get a hamburger? Well...

1. I'm not that big of a hot dog fan
2. The toppings sounded *%(@*$ fantastic. Fried green tomatoes, fried onions, roasted poblanos, garlic aioli and a gooey-yolk egg?  Yes please.

We munched on pickles and banana peppers from the relish bar while waiting for our plates, and we were greeted with the arrival of our food after only a few short minutes.

Left - Louisiana Red Hot dog with cream cheese and grilled onions
Right - Fried Macaroni and Cheese
Sorry my husband took such a bad picture and didn't even bother to unwrap his hot dog.

My husband was upset about my hamburger order, and I am upset with him for taking such a crummy picture of his delicious food. Underneath that tin foil wrapper is a wonderfully spicy Louisiana Red Hot dog, which was perfectly complimented by the cream cheese and sweet grilled onions.

And the shot of the two fried triangles on the right simply does not do justice to the insanely good Fried Macaroni and Cheese insides. It tastes like the richest, gooey-est, most wonderfully cheesy and with perfectly cooked pasta type mac and cheese that you've ever had. And then it's deep fried. Amazing. It lived up to every word of Yelp hype. Loyal readers (all 2 of you), you must try it if you visit.

And my order, the Off-the-Street burger:

Off-the-Street Burger

Let's start with the toppings I was so excited about. The fried onions, egg, and roasted poblano were all excellent, but the real star was the perfectly cooked, tangy fried green tomato. Clearly Biker Jim's really has their act together when it comes to fried goodies.

But sadly, my hamburger was a bit dry and flavorless. It certainly didn't have the punch of a Louisiana Red Hot dog. And the worst part about it was I was blasted with "I-told-you-so"s from my irritatingly smug dining partner. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH IT PAINS ME TO SAY THIS, but he was right. I should've stuck with a hot dog.

Unfortunately, along with the arrival of our food at the table, we were faced with what was no doubt my biggest gripe of the experience: there were flies everywhere. I spent more time trying to swat away the nonstop swarm of winged pests than I did enjoying the food.  Biker Jim's has two garage-door panels that they had open at the time - I assume to keep temperatures cool and smoke levels down - but they need to put up screens or do something to keep the flies away. A friend who's been to Biker Jim's on several other occasions confirmed he's seen the same thing, so it wasn't just an isolated problem.

Biker Jim's: Great hot dogs and great fried mac and cheese. Well worth any marital strife your visit may cause. Bring a fly swatter.


Everyday Dining

 (7 of 10)

Pros: Amazing Fried Macaroni and Cheese and hot dogs. Fast service.
Cons: Hamburger was disappointing. Beware the flies when doors are open.

Website:
http://bikerjimsdogs.com/