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

Denver Biscuit Company

Any of you who have read my Silver Creek Diner review have probably been sitting at the edges of your seats since that post, wondering in frantic anticipation:


What happened to the quest for amazing biscuits and gravy in Denver?!


Relax, my friends. I shall put you at ease with my recap of our recent visit to Denver Biscuit Company.

Our meal at Silver Creek Diner failed to fill the void in my husband's life caused by insufficient hometown biscuits and gravy, but we have continued to keep our eyes peeled for a worthy contender.

Enter the Denver Biscuit Company. Recommended by a friend and seeming to be an obvious candidate for delicious biscuits and gravy, Mr. Oyster and a friend and myself all headed to their Colfax location last weekend for breakfast.

After hearing so much about the nomadic Denver Biscuit Company food truck, I was really expecting more a of a hole-in-the-wall place for their brick-and-mortar venue. Instead, the location - on an eclectic strip of Colfax just south of City Park - was surprisingly swanky and yuppie-fied. The spot is shared by Denver Biscuit Company, Fat Sully's Pizza, and the Atomic Cowboy bar, each with their own hours and contributions to the feel of the restaurant.

Denver Biscuit Company location shared by Atomic Cowboy and Fat Sully's Pizza.
I was wondering why there was a full bar in a breakfast place.

Oh, and I was also wondering why there was a giant cowboys vs. aliens mural-painting.

And our food:

My plate was the "Ellsworth", a biscuit sandwich containing buttermilk fried chicken with honey, stone-ground mustard and homemade pickles. Terrified of the sweetness of the honey, I asked for it on the side.

The Ellsworth, honey on the side

Ohh this was wonderful. The enormous biscuit was light and fluffy and not too buttery or heavy tasting. The fried chicken was perfectly seasoned, with a crunchy crust and very tender meat. I loved the spiciness of the mustard, and I was glad I asked for the honey on the side so I could add only the small amount I wanted.

Our friend ordered the biscuit French toast, which came with pineapple compote as the "compote of the day".  She asked for the compote on the side and received a ridiculously large, soup-sized bowl of it with the french toast.

Biscuit French Toast

I tried a bit of her dish and loved the unique flavor and fluffy texture of the biscuit French toast itself. We were all underwhelmed by the pineapple compote; the acidic sweetness of the pineapple seemed to have been completely cooked out, leaving only a sad mush behind.

And now, the moment we've all been waiting for, the verdict on the biscuits and gravy:

Biscuits and Gravy

Yes, it tasted as delicious as it looks. Giant, fluffy, flaky biscuits smothered in a generous helping of sausage-packed gravy. One pleasant surprise with this dish was the sausage was fairly spicy and a added a nice kick to every bite.

A couple of gripes: service was a bit slow, and I didn't order any coffee but they make you fetch your own coffee at their "coffee bar". If I wanted to fetch my own beverages I wouldn't have gone out to eat.

But there were happily filled stomachs for all. If you love biscuits, go to Denver Biscuit Company.


Everyday Dining

 (8 of 10)

Pros: Great food. 

Cons: You have to fetch your own coffee. Slow service.

Website:
http://www.denbisco.com

Strings

My husband and I must live under a rock, because neither of us had ever heard of Strings Restaurant, despite living most of our lives in the Denver area. That was, until several months ago when we headed to Strings for a meal after visiting the Natural History Museum.  We ended up having a very lovely brunch, and had been anxious to return to Strings for a dinner visit since then.

Strings is located at Humboldt and 17th near City Park, among a cluster of highly-buzzed restaurants including Parallel 17 and D Bar Desserts. For our Saturday evening reservations, we didn't even bother trying to find a parking spot, and went straight for the valet service.

Strings has been open for an impressive 25 years, and they certainly have the seating area to support a large and dedicated following. The interior of Strings is enormous, with a sprawling main dining area, bar tables, patio seating, a beautiful atrium, and private rooms. It would be a perfect spot for a large party, especially a business dinner.

We arrived about half an hour early for our 7 pm reservations after finishing some nearby errands sooner than expected, which, fortunately, wasn't any kind of problem that happy hour at the bar couldn't fix.

Strings's happy hour menu is limited in both beer and wine selections, but they do offer premium wells, a long list of girly sounding martinis, and some tasty-looking appetizers. I stuck with my usual choice of light beer, while my husband started out with a gin and tonic. We chatted with the bartender for a little bit, and soon learned that she was the buyer for Strings's bar. When my husband asked her for help in selecting a fancy scotch (his buddies drink scotch and he's trying to keep up), she gave us an impromptu lesson in scotch selection. She brought us about seven different bottles, letting us sniff each one, and she explained the fermentation process associated with each type. After selecting his scotch accompaniment for the evening, it was time for my husband and I to get seated.

The hostess seated us in sort of a corridor area, where three tables were lined along the walls on either side. As soon as we got situated, we realized that directly behind the table was the main thoroughfare for waiters grabbing water glasses and silverware. Deciding that the traffic was going to be obnoxious, we tracked down our hostess, who promptly seated us two tables away. In hindsight, considering how much I'm about to gripe about it, we should have asked to be moved a second time, because our new table wasn't any better. Behind where I sat was the hallway to the bathrooms and the bar area, and the non-stop traffic was just as bad in the new location. They could have minimized the traffic nuisance by putting two tables along the corridor area instead of three, but instead they got a little greedy with table space.

Anyway, moving on to something we really loved about Strings: the food. We started with the Crab Cake appetizers, which came with fruit chutney, cranberry puree, curry oil, and crispy onions. Sadly, in our excitement to eat it we forgot to take a picture of the two small crab cakes that arrived. 

Next was Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Bisque. I loved the flavor, although the red pepper was much stronger than the tomato, and there was zero effort put into the presentation.

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Bisque

For our entrees, I ordered the full-size Open Face Ravioli, which came with (directly from the menu) Confit Chicken, Egg, Asparagus, Serrano Ham, Sauce Normande. No matter the occasion, I almost never order pasta, but I was curious what open-faced ravioli would entail. What arrived was basically a crepe-sized noodle at the bottom of my plate, topped with the "filling" described. That giant white blob you see in the middle of the plate below was my favorite part of the dish, a poached egg that oozed yolk when I cut into it.

Open-Faced Ravioli

Overall a decent dish, especially the rich and salty serrano ham, but the chicken was a boring and bland choice of protein. I would have preferred something with more flavor and texture (shrimp maybe?).

My husband's entree choice was the Roasted Lamb Sirloin, which came with Confit Shoulder, Edamame, Pearl Onions, Pea Tendrils, Carrot.



Roasted Lamb Sirloin

 The lamb was well seasoned and perfectly cooked to medium rare. My favorite part of the dish was definitely the confit shoulder, which lay underneath the lamb sirloin and pea tendrils. I've never seen edamame included in a traditional lamb dish, and it didn't really add anything to the meal.

We finished off the meal with the Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake. It reminded us both of the Cheesecake Factory's Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple Cheesecake, but in cylindrical form.

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

It was, as expected, rich and extremely sweet and satisfying. However, it didn't offer anything that Cheesecake Factory couldn't.

Our bill came to $78 for the food described above (booze had all been paid for separately at the bar). All of the dishes we tasted were very well executed, and the staff was excellent. However, nothing really set the food apart from a good meal at a lot of Denver restaurants, and I can't get past how poor of a dining area our table was located in.


Casual Dining

(7 of 10)

Pros: Great food, endless seating options, excellent staff
Cons: Watch out for bad seating areas, food lacking in imagination and presentation for the price



Website:
http://www.stringsrestaurant.com/