Cucina Colore

A couple weeks ago, we met up with Sizzling Cupcake and her friend for dinner at Cucina Colore in Cherry Creek. Neither of us knew much about Cucina Colore, but we had picked it from the list of Denver's savored.com restaurants.

Cucina Colore has an outstanding location at 3rd and Steele Street in the heart of Cherry Creek North. If you've never soaked in the atmosphere of Cherry Creek North before, let me just sum it all up by pointing out that there is a giant Lululemon store right across the street from Cucina Colore.

Our reservations were for a 7 pm dinner on a Thursday night. Inside, the restaurant was packed with attractive, well-dressed Cherry Creek types. It had a very lively atmosphere and certainly seemed to be a popular local spot.

Cucina Colore apparently offers "the contemporary expression of Italian cuisine." I'm not sure what that means, but the menu features an array of pizzas and homemade pasta dishes.

For an appetizer, we ordered the Baked Fonduta, which was a cheese dip including blue crab, spinach, and artichoke hearts, with mozzarella and fontina cheese. After assuring us that our appetizer would be "right out", we waited a significant fraction of an eternity for the fonduta to arrive.

Baked Fonduta

After our ridiculously long wait for the fonduta, we were faced with a bowl of baked cheese surrounded by a haphazard assortment of crackers. The fonduta was ok; I mostly just tasted lots of cheese and crab.

We ordered one of their wood-fired pizzas with Italian sausage, red onion, and red peppers.

Red onion, pepper, and sausage pizza

It's hard to go wrong with red onion, red pepper, and sausage as toppings. I particularly loved the spicy Italian sausage. The crust, however, was a disappointment. It was burnt at the edges but too soft in the middle. We actually ordered two of these pizzas at the table, and they were both unevenly cooked. 

As his entree, my husband ordered the Lobster and Shrimp Ravioli:

Lobster and Shrimp Ravioli

Like the pizza and the cheese dip before it, the ravioli was a letdown. The seafood filling was heavily pureed and lacked a noticeable lobster flavor. The pasta was covered with a cream sauce that was thin and weakly seasoned.

For dessert, we ordered tiramisu and cheesecake:

Tiramisu

Cheesecake

The presentation of the tiramisu was a little sloppy, and the portion a bit too big. I didn't detect much of a coffee or liquor taste, but it was basically a decent dessert.

The cheesecake, however, was extremely bland. It wasn't nearly sweet enough, and it lacked any noticeable lemon or vanilla flavor.

Even with our 30% savored.com discount, Cucina Colore felt too expensive. The tab was about $95 after our discount, including about $20 of drinks.

Cucina Colore looks and feels like a hip neighborhood spot, but tastes like a mediocre Italian chain. It also reminded me of every forgettable business lunch or dinner I've ever had. The restaurant has a great atmosphere, but service was slow and food was expensive and totally underwhelming.



Casual Dining

(3 of 10)

Pros: Great location in Cherry Creek North, lively atmosphere
Cons: Mediocre food, slow service

Website:
http://www.cucinacolore.com/

Le Grand Bistro and Oyster Bar, Take 2

We went back to Le Grand Bistro and Oyster Bar last weekend after a LivingSocial deal of $50-for-$25 was finally activated.

There seemed to be a theme to our meal of eating everything out of its original shell.

Not pictures were a zillion oysters that tasted just as fresh as the ones we had at our previous visit.

1/2 lb Crab Legs ($21)

1/2 lb Crab Legs

The crab legs were served in a traditional manner on an ice bath, with butter on the side. They were very fresh but basically tasted as expected.

Escargots ($9)

Escargot

I loved the presentation in the shells. The escargot were easy to remove, so they may have been replaced into their original packaging just before being served. The snails were meaty, buttery, and garlicky. They were served with a sauce of butter, parsley, salsify (a root vegetable), and parsnip. 

Moules Marnieres avec des Frites ($16)

Mussels

The mussels were served with a fragrant white wine sauce with parsley, tarragon, chives, sofrito and olive oil. They were large, fresh and mostly very tasty, except for the one I bit into that was extremely gritty. 

We wanted to try dessert this time around since we had to cut our meal at bit short at our last visit.

Le Grand's "house specialty" dessert is a Foie Gras Creme Brulee. It sounded intriguing, but we were skeptical that we could like any creme brulee more than what we had at Opus, so we opted for something different.

At our waitress's recommendation, or maybe subconsciously to stick with theme of eating everything in shelled form, we ordered the Profiteroles ($9).

Profiteroles

Le Grand went for a definite holiday feel with this dessert, with bay leaf ice cream, egg nog anglaise, and clementine chutney. Bay leaf was an ambitious flavor for ice cream, but it worked, and it blended well with the other flavors in the dessert. However, the whole dish was dragged down by the tough, chewy, and flavorless profiterole pastry. They would have been better off to just serve a bowl of ice cream. 

Le Grand serves some very lovely French food, but I still feel service is slow and the price tag is a bit steep.

Website:

http://www.legranddenver.com/

The Best Things I Ate in 2011

I ate a lot of great food this year, and a few of those foods were particularly memorable. In no particular order, here are my favorites from 2011:

Devils on Horseback @ Root Down

The Bronx Pizza @ Marco's Coal Fired Pizza

Guacamole @ Lola

Moules au Saffran @ Le Central

Roast Colorado Lamb Rack @ Restaurant Kevin Taylor

Cider Glazed Pork Benedict @ Duo

Any hot dog from Biker Jim's, AND the Fried Mac 'n' Cheese at Biker Jim's

The Larkburger

Vegetable Risotto (Served with Butter Poached Salmon) @ Opus

Glazed & Cinnamon Doughnuts @ Salt

Red Velvet Cupcake @ Euclid Hall

Salmon on Potato Chip @ Le Grand Bistro & Oyster Bar, 5280 Dines

Boneless Berkshire Pork Chop @ Vesta Dipping Grill

Panang Curry Chicken @ Tuk Tuk Thai Grill

Pork Tenderloin @ ChoLon

S'mores Tart @ ChoLon

IPA Mac 'n' Cheese @ Hops & Pie

Crispy Risotto Arancini @ Linger

Thank you for following the Rocky Mountain Oyster in 2011. Happy New Year Everyone!

Linger

Well, we finally made it to Linger. About six weeks ago, we had made two different dinner reservations at the restaurant: one for Saturday, November 27, and one for Saturday, December 17. Yes, getting into Linger on a weekend currently requires booking about four weeks out. That means the restaurant and I at least have one thing in common: we both have very busy schedules.

We ended up cancelling our first reservations at the last minute due to the irresistible appeal of craft beer at Hops & Pie. We stuck to our December reservations though, and met up with another couple for dinner last weekend to figure out why everyone's so excited about Linger.

Linger occupies the space of the former Olinger Mortuary, and plays on that history throughout the dining experience. In fact, the restaurant's name derives from Olinger with a simple subtraction of the "O". As a genius advertising maneuver, the "O" on the giant sign atop the restaurant that bears the former mortuary's name has been unplugged, leaving the brightly lit letters "linger" looming over downtown Denver.

Besides its influence on the restaurant's name, the "dead people" theme pervades Linger, from the decor to the menu to the beer options.

As the sister restaurant to Root Down a few blocks away, I had high expectations. Root Down is one of my absolute favorite dinner spots in Denver. Both restaurants advertise a commitment to environmental responsibility and good food, but Linger certainly seems to be the trendier, hottest-place-in-town restaurant of the two.

Linger specializes in a dizzying array of international street food, divided into world regions on the menu. They claim to be a "tapas-style" restaurant and they mean it. The menu offers only small plates, with each dish costing roughly $6 to $16.

The restaurant makes a point to cater certain dishes to food allergies, vegetarians, and vegans, although no one in our group had any dietary aversions.

The waitstaff recommends two small plates per person, a suggestion I completely disagree with. We ordered six plates between the four of us, and that was maybe one plate too many. Keep in mind that much of Linger's food is fried or at least very greasy, so it's hard to eat large portions.

Our meal started with complimentary togarashi-flavored popcorn. While I like the idea of popcorn as a light meal starter, I thought Linger's popcorn tasted stale and flavorless.

Our six small plates consisted of one "Asia" dish: Pad Thai with Wagyu Beef; three "Americas" dishes: Scallop Ceviche, Strongbow Cider Mussels, and Maple Leaf Duck Wings; and two "Europe" dishes: Devils on Horseback and Crispy Risotto Arancini. Though we hadn't necessarily intended them to be so, our selections were some of the most pedestrian offerings on the menu.

The dishes were served in two rounds of three plates each.

First up were the Devils on Horseback ($10):

Devils on Horseback

Linger's Devils on Horseback were comprised of goat cheese stuffed Medjool dates wrapped in bacon. These packed quite a sweet-and-savory punch, with an intense sugary taste from the dates.

While I enjoyed the little devils, Root Down offers a different interpretation of the dish - made with sweet-and-spicy peppadew peppers - that I prefer over Linger's.

Next was the Scallop Ceviche ($11), served with avocado and chips:

Scallop Ceviche

The scallops were fresh, light and citrusy, and were balanced with the creamy avocado and salty corn chips. The dish was apparently prepared with habanero peppers, but I tasted no spiciness whatsoever. This was good ceviche, but many other restaurants in town offer something comparable. For $11, I prefer the scallop ceviche at Vesta Dipping Grill or LoLa (just a block away).

Finishing up that round of small plates were the Strongbow Cider Mussels ($13):

Strongbow Cider Mussels

Besides the obvious Strongbow Cider component, the sauce included garlic, thyme, celery, and grain mustard. The shellfish were accompanied by grilled spicy cheddar bread. The mussels were tasty, but like the ceviche above, they were not terribly memorable.

It was time for our second round of tapas, starting with the Pad Thai with Wagyu Beef ($10 + $5 for Wagyu beef).

Pad Thai with Wagyu Beef

The pad thai tasted a little oily for my taste but was authentically prepared. It wasn't very spicy on its own and needed more heat from the chili sauce served on the side. The Wagyu beef was perfectly cooked, but it had simply been thrown on the side of the dish, with no attempt made at meshing flavors.

We also couldn't resist trying the Maple Leaf Duck Wings ($11):

Maple Leaf Duck Wings

I've had a million chicken wings in my life, but never duck wings. I was concerned that they might be too tough and chewy, but the meat was actually impressively tender. The wings were drenched in a sweet and tangy blood orange hot sauce, which made them extremely messy. I realize wings are supposed to be messy, but Linger felt a little too upscale for me to drench my face in wing sauce.

And finally, Linger's menu held one of the high points of my many 2011 dining experiences, the Crispy Risotto Arancini ($11 for three, we added a fourth for an additional $3):

Crispy Risotto Arancini

Arancini are apparently a traditional Sicilian food, comprising of fried rice balls filled with meat sauce. I'm afraid the above "as-served" photo makes them look more like the world's most confused donut holes and does not do justice to the their delicious innards. Let's take a closer look at a severed arancini:

Crispy Risotto Arancini

There it is: a creamy risotto exterior with a crisp, fried shell, filled with a delicious bolognese sauce. The meaty bolognese sauce was particularly rich and well-seasoned. Every bite of the arancini was outstanding, and they were one the few things I ate at Linger that didn't bring to mind a similar-but-better dish somewhere else in town.

Timing of our various small plates was a bit too fast; we were rushed into relocating food to different dishes and juggling too many items on the table. Also, our individual plates quickly became covered in sauces and straggling bits from various dishes. With the extreme array of foods served at Linger, these turned into a flavor hodgepodge that blended unfavorably with whatever subsequent item we tried to throw on the plate.

We finished off the meal with the dessert trio ($10), which included mini versions of the Peanut Butter & Jelly Cup, the Ovaltine & Oreos, and the Mississippi Mud Pie.

Dessert Trio. Left to Right: Peanut Butter & Jelly Cup, Ovaltine & Oreos, and Mississippi Mud Pie

Linger offers a couple more exotic dessert options, but they stuck to close to home with their dessert trio selections (so much for international street food!). The Peanut Butter & Jelly Cup tasted overwhelmingly of peanut butter. Similarly, the Mississippi mud pie was basically a very one-dimensional chocolate cake. The Ovaltine & Oreos dessert was a little more exciting, comprising of a very strongly Ovaltine-flavored Bavarian cream atop an "Oreo" made of chocolate cookies and mascarpone.

I'm disappointed and puzzled that Linger veered sharply away from their international street food theme and instead offers these very tame, all-American desserts. The world flavors that influenced their small plates menu could have easily produced a half dozen interesting and delicious sweet treats, but instead Linger serves boring mud pies.

Other than being underwhelmed by their desserts, Linger basically delivered on an ambitiously diverse menu. All the small plates were tried were well-executed, though only the arancini stands out as a superlative dish. I commend Linger for their commitment to environmentally responsible, quality food, but some of that backbone of substance gets diluted with distractions of the restaurant's trendy feel and the pervasive dead body motif.

Linger felt reasonably priced considering the quality and quantity of food served. As I mentioned earlier, one to one-and-a-half small plates per person is probably the ideal ratio. Visiting Linger with a large group will give you the best opportunity to sample multiple dishes.

As a side note, 5280 Magazine recently published an excellent Linger review in their December 2011 issue. The article discusses Linger's background in depth and reviews many of their small plates. It's well worth reading for more information about the restaurant, and I found myself in complete agreement with the author regarding Linger's food and service.

There are still a dozen or so dishes on the menu that I'm curious to try, and I need to check out the amazing patio views that everyone raves about. Linger is certainly worth another visit, but it may be another couple of months before our busy schedules can align.


Casual Dining

(7 of 10)

Pros: Good food and service, reasonably priced
Cons: Dessert was boring, hard to get reservations


Website:
http://lingerdenver.com/

Larkspur

It's a little-known fact: the tasty yet humble hamburgers at Larkburger's many front range locations actually have their roots at the high-end Larkspur restaurant in Vail, CO. Cashing in on the popularity of their Larkburger served at the bar, the management of the mountain restaurant decided to spin off the burger concept with a proliferation of fast-casual restaurants across the state.

And thus it was that our love of the Larkburger brought us to Larkspur during a recent winter fun weekend in Vail.

It was a big step up for us to go from stuffing our faces with the $5 amazingness of Little Larks and Truffle Parmesan Fries on the front range to the fine dining, ski-slope atmosphere of Larkspur, but we were prepared for the challenge.

Larkspur is situated at the extreme east end of the base of Vail mountain, making it close enough to the slope to ski up to for lunch. Except that during our early-season visit, the lifts near the restaurant weren't open, and Larkspur was only offering dinner service.

We had dinner reservations for 7:15 on a Friday in early December. Getting into Larkspur after exiting the cab required trekking through the deserted Golden Peak Lodge, with the restaurant tucked into the back corner.

Larkspur is spacious, beautifully adorned, and upscale. The bar area where the Larkburger was born lies at the very front as you walk in, and behind it in the main dining area is ample seating, including plenty of space for large parties. The restaurant was mostly full when we arrived and filled to near capacity by the end of our meal.

For those of you who have never been to Vail, it's a beautiful ski town bustling with an international assortment of some of the most beautiful and ritzy people you've ever seen. The top echelon of those beautiful people appeared to be dining at Larkspur during our visit.

We were greeted by our waitress and began the meal with drinks and complimentary multigrain bread and butter.

I should point out that Larkspur offers an impressively long wine list. I would elaborate on this point more except I'm completely ignorant about wine.

As an appetizer, we ordered Larkspur's take on a Shrimp Po'boy ($9.5), which was sort of a deconstructed po'boy served with cornbread slices and a mustard sauce.

Shrimp Po'boy

This dish is an unusual choice for a fine dining establishment in Vail, although we certainly enjoyed it. I couldn't find any mention of it in Yelp reviews, so I assume it's new to the menu.

The fried shrimp tasted just like the ones that my mom, a Louisiana native, uses in po'boys. The use of cornbread and mustard sauce is certainly not traditional, but it was very tasty and a pleasant sweet-and-savory compliment to the shrimp.

As my main dish, I ordered the Snake River Sturgeon ($28):

Snake River Sturgeon

The sturgeon was presented with a crispy crust and served on a bed of red beans. The fish was delicate, light, and perfectly seared. The red beans were extremely tasty; they were very well seasoned, and like the fish, expertly cooked.

My husband ordered the Veal Scaloppini ($32):

Veal Scaloppini

Veal scaloppini is a traditional veal dish prepared with floured, flattened veal cutlets. Larkspur's version was accompanied by creamed spinach, twice baked potatoes, and "lemon buerre fondue." It was an excellent, comfort-food type dish.

The twice-baked potatoes were particularly memorable; they were crisp on the outside and incredibly soft and creamy on the inside. They were served as slices rather than potato halves, with no additional toppings, which was unexpected. As far as the lemon beurre sauce, there's no reason to call it "fondue," it was just a cream sauce. The tartness of the sauce nicely balanced the rich flavor of the veal.

We finished the meal with the Brooklyn Blackout Cake ($11.5):

Brooklyn Blackout Cake

The cake was a simple, almost brownie-like chocolate rectangle. It was topped with what Larkspur referred to as "Fudgesicle Sorbet" and "Fox's U-Bet Froth." I have no clue what the froth flavor was supposed to be referring to, and the sorbet had a deep chocolaty but still light flavor.

Service was very good. Our waitress was helpful and friendly but seemed relatively new.

Larkspur was expensive, but so is everything else in Vail. For comparable food in Denver I would expect to pay about 10-20% less. That being said, I generally felt the food and drinks were appropriately priced for the quality and location. One exception was the dessert, which, for $11.5 seemed a little steep for such a simple preparation.

The food and ambiance were lovely at Larkspur, although for fine dining in Colorado I prefer Opus in Littleton. Larkspur is definitely worth a visit for a nice dinner in Vail.

Fine Dining

(7 of 10)

Pros: Excellent food and ambiance
Cons: Expensive, may be hard to get to without skis

Website:
http://www.larkspurvail.com/

5280 Dines

Denver's 5280 magazine hosted its first-ever 5280 Dines event last Wednesday to celebrate their annual 25 Best Restaurants rankings. On the menu were small plates prepared by chefs of six of the top 25 restaurants: Mizuna, Edge, ChoLon, Table 6, Colt & Gray, and Barolo Grill. The event was hosted at Le Grand Bistro & Oyster Bar, which opened only a few weeks ago at 15th and Curtis.

Le Grand was shut down for normal dinner service to host the event. The brand-new restaurant wasn't in 5280's Top 25 list, but they offered a few nibbles alongside the restaurants that made the list.

The moderately-sized restaurant was packed with tables for each of the participating restaurants, a few makeshift bar areas, a silent auction display, a DJ, and lively crowd of ridiculously attractive and well dressed attendees.

And I must not forget to mention: open bar!

For its small bite sampling, Mizuna served a light seafood salad:

Mizuna - Insalada Frutti Di Mare

This light salad contained calamari, shrimp, mussels, crab and lobster with celery, fennel and onions tossed in vinaigrette. Mizuna certainly didn't skimp on high-quality seafood. This was one of my favorite plates of the evening, a pleasant surprise after our not-so-great dining experience there several months ago.

Edge offered Blueberry Venison Sausage:

Edge - Blueberry Venison Sausage

The sausage was topped with a fall root vegetable hash, brussel sprout salad, and huckleberry sauce. The sausage was wonderfully rich in flavor and had just a slightly sweet taste.

ChoLon offered a "Banh Mi" bite (not pictured) containing duck terrine, foie gras, chicken liver mousse, pickled vegetables, and tarragon-Chinese mustard aioli. My husband loved it but I thought it had too intense of a meaty flavor.

Table 6 served Pho Duck Dumplings:

Table 6 - Pho Duck Dumplings

This miniature sample of pho contained a giant dumpling filled with duck meat. The dumpling was fantastic, but the soup was otherwise a bit average.

Colt & Gray stuck to its traditional "offal" offerings by serving Grilled Grass-Fed Beef Heart, below, and Crispy Long Farm Pig Trotter (not pictured).

Colt & Gray - Grilled Grass Fed Beef Heart

Accompanying the beef heart were roasted beets, greens, and a lemon horseradish vinaigrette served on grilled bread. The meaty, chewy beef heart and sweet beet cubes complimented each other perfectly.

The trotter, on the other hand, was disappointing. It was served as a miniature fried cylinder filled with something that vaguely resembled meat mixed with gravy. It reminded me of the mystery-meat-filled krokettes I've tried to force myself to like during travels to the Netherlands. I didn't know what pigs feet should taste like before taking a bite, and I still don't know.

Barolo Grill served Vitello Tonnato, a traditional Italian dish of cold, sliced veal. It was topped with tuna aioli, microgreens, and roasted pepper caper tapenade.

Barolo Grill - Vitello Tonnato

And finally, Le Grand may not have been in the Top 25, but they certainly seemed to deserve a place among the restaurants at 5280 Dines.

Le Grand - Seared Salmon, Pickled Oyster

Their two-part dish contained a pickled oyster with star anise, foie gras mousse, and butternut squash, as well as seared salmon with beurre blanc sauce atop a potato chip. Both bites were incredible. The potato chip - salmon combination, in particular, was a very satisfying combination of flaky salmon, salty and crunchy chip, and creamy beurre blanc sauce.

Unfortunately for my sweet tooth, dessert was limited to this little guy from Mizuna:

Mizuna - Fruit Tart

Very tasty but plain.

For its first go, 5280 Dines was extremely well organized and executed. Le Grand seemed to be a perfect venue. The atmosphere was lively and busy but not overwhelmingly crowded. The participating restaurants served some very tasty and high-quality small bites, especially considering the makeshift preparatory area.

My only complaints? Some long waits for drinks, and the protein-heavy dishes could have used some balance with starchy sides and a more adventurous dessert.

Hope to see you all next year!


Website:
http://www.5280.com/