Ignite

I was skeptical from the moment I first heard of Ignite, a new restaurant by Concept Restaurants, which recently opened in the Ballpark neighborhood on Larimer Street between 21st and 22nd.

Concept Restaurants is the group behind many metro-area restaurants, including Rialto Cafe, Woody's Wood-Fired Pizza, and Via Baci. Taking a quick look at Ignite's online menu, it seemed awfully similar to that at Via Baci, a casual Lone Tree pizza joint.

I've been to Via Baci many times, where I've enjoyed their spicy Diavolo pizza. While the food and ambiance are adequate to keep suburban families satisfied, I had a hard time believing it could morph into a sufficiently appealing spot on a restaurant-heavy stretch of downtown Denver.

And Ignite is surrounded by some outstanding downtown Denver restaurants. In a brave move on their part, they're directly across the street from our beloved Marco's Coal Fired Pizzeria.

We arrived at around 5:15 on a Friday evening, ahead of a 6:40 pm Rockies game. The main draw at Ignite seems to be their rooftop bar. I didn't get a chance to check it out - the wait to be seated upstairs was over an hour - but there was plenty of seating indoors on the ground level.

Mr. Oyster and I met up with a couple of friends, and we were all seated at a table downstairs. The ambiance downstairs was actually very nice. With high ceilings, an open floor layout, and windows along the entire west side, fresh air and late afternoon sunlight filled the room and lit up the bar area along the west side of the space.

As I stated earlier, the Ignite menu looked an awful lot like Via Baci's, although they seemed to be trying hard to put an "urban gastropub" spin on everything. Besides pizza and a few pasta dishes, the dinner offerings included burgers and chicken pot pies.

Mr. Oyster and I decided to share the Rosemary Chicken Pizza ($13.5) and a side of Mac and Cheese ($3)

Rosemary Chicken Pizza

The pizza was a letdown. The crust was too thick and chewy on the outside, and so flimsy at the center of the pizza that it was like soggy cardboard. The chicken pieces were dry and bland, and they were too large to eat easily off the pizza. The toppings were otherwise palatable, although the mozzarella could have used more flavor.

The Mac and Cheese was a complete disappointment.

Mac and Cheese

My husband only needed one bite before he announced "this is bad." The cheese was one-dimensional and bland. It tasted like nothing more than a tablespoon of Velveeta had been thrown in with the noodles. The portion was tiny, but that was irrelevant after tasting the pasta.

Ignite isn't cheap and the food is completely forgettable, particularly considering the quality of restaurants within a few blocks. The restaurant's redeeming value is certainly in its location and its rooftop patio.


Casual Dining

(3 of 10)

Pros: Great roottop patio and location
Cons: Below-average food, expensive


Website:
http://www.ignite-denver.com/

Parry's Pizzeria & Bar, Revisited

We were flattered to be invited to the soft opening of Parry's Pizzeria & Bar in January, and thrilled to discover that a great pizza-and-craft-beer joint was opening so close to our house.

Since then, we've made a couple more visits to Parry's for dinner, and also had some unsuccessful tries when we've turned around and headed elsewhere due to a very long wait.

Parry's has quickly become an extraordinarily popular Highlands Ranch restaurant and bar. That's no surprise, as Highlands Ranch is always hurting for non-chain, unique restaurants. Parry's particularly stands out for its selection of over 50 beers on tap, including many well-regarded local and national craft beers.

Parry's location at a giant Highlands Ranch strip mall is normally packed with a waiting area full of families and couples. If you can get past the crowds, however, an impressive beer menu and pizza selection await.

We've eaten in both the main dining area and near the bar. Unfortunately, their bar area is entirely too small. Only a handful of chairs are available, surrounded by a few nearby tables where you'll have to elbow away the remaining crowds of bar-area patrons who have nowhere to sit or stand.

But where else in the south suburbs can you get Russian River's Damnation and Dogfish Head Midas Touch (oh and an Odell IPA for Mrs. Oyster) on tap?

At a visit in February, we tried their Little Italys ($6) appetizer, which comprised of "round mounds of beef packed in bread crumbs, then delicately fried" (in other words, fried meatballs).

Little Italys

They were a little rubbery and lacking in flavor. As an appetizer choice, we much preferred the hot wings from our first visit.

Also at our initial dinner at Parry's, we ordered - and loved - their Summer of 2010 pizza. At a later visit, we tried the Five Boroughs ($20 for 18"), which was topped with pepperoni, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, green peppers, black olives and red onions.

Five Boroughs Pizza

The Five Boroughs was very average, it lacked punch and tasted like a pizza from anywhere. Since then, we've stuck to the Summer of 2010 and haven't left disappointed.

Parry's couldn't have chosen a better location for their pizzeria and bar. The restaurant feels a little like Mellow Mushroom, although Parry's has inferior pizza but a better beer selection and better wings. It's certainly worth a visit for anyone in the south suburbs who loves pizza and beer.


Casual Dining

(7 of 10)

Pros: Outstanding beer list, good pizza
Cons: Very long waits, some food is just average

Website:
http://www.parryspizza.com/parrysbar/

Osteria Marco

While Tamayo was certainly a bust last week, that didn't deter us from heading straight back toward Larimer Square for another dinner this Saturday. But instead of seeking pricey Mexican food, we headed across the street for low-key Italian fare at Osteria Marco.

Osteria Marco is one of many Denver-area restaurants operated by restaurateur Frank Bonanno. Mr. Bonanno is a pretty big deal in the Denver dining scene, although we haven't visited any of his establishments since a disappointing dinner at Mizuna about a year ago.

But we'd heard nothing but good things about Osteria Marco, his lower-priced and casual Italian restaurant on Larimer. We were looking to have an early dinner ahead of a show at Comedy Works's downtown location, and figured Osteria Marco was worth a try.

Located below ground level and dimly lit, the dining room at Osteria Marco felt like an expansive wine cellar. We met up with another couple and, at our request, we were seated in a high-backed booth near the bar-area televisions. The staff was very nice in accommodating us so that Mr. Oyster could watch the NCAA Final Four out of the corner of his eye, allowing him to continue his yearly, late-March ritual of suddenly becoming an avid college basketball fan.

The drink menu at Osteria Marco, as expected, offered a zillion wines. However, we were also pleasantly surprised to see a selection of great Colorado beers on tap, including my pick for the night, an Odell IPA.

Food-wise, we started off with a meat and cheese assortment ($24 including burrata), with burrata added as an "upgrade" for $5.

Meat and cheese plate with burrata

The plate was filled with three different cured meats, three cheeses (burrata is the big white dome on the left), blackberry jam, bread, and fried wonton-like strips.

The cured meats were all excellent, but the cheeses were the real star of the show. Each had a slightly different texture. The burrata had a firm shell and a rich, cottage cheese-like center. The blackberry jam was a perfect accompaniment to it. I would have preferred more bread and none of the wonton strips on the plate.

Mr. Oyster and I also split an order of the Arancini ($7).

Arancini

My first taste of arancini came at Linger last year in the form of their bolognese-filled, Crispy Risotto Arancini. These were more plain, like the croquettes that abound everywhere in Europe. They contained the requisite fried risotto outer shell, and a gooey cheese center. I preferred Linger's version, but my dining companions liked these at Osteria Marco much more.

The arancini were served with roasted garlic aioli (at left in photo above), which I actually didn't even try, as the arancini were rich enough on their own.

We also split the Braised Rabbit ($20), which arrived in a carrot broth and was prepared with with shitake mushrooms, kale, and carrots.

Braised Rabbit

For $20, this was a seriously cheap rabbit entree. And it was fantastic. The delicate rabbit was served with the vegetables mentioned above, all perfectly prepared, and a rich carrot broth. I loved the chewiness of the mushrooms with the crunchy carrots and the tender rabbit and kale. The dish did have some small bones in it, however, which I was not expecting and found annoying work around.

The friends we ate with ordered the Fig and Crispy Prosciutto Pizza ($14) and the Artisan Pizza ($12).

Artisan Pizza

For relatively cheap, these were giant, flavorful pizzas. I especially loved the sweet and savory combination of the fig and prosciutto. I'm not sure that these pizzas were quite as good as those at Marco's Coal Fired Pizzeria, but they were also a little cheaper.

Unfortunately, our meal ended there - we ran out of time for dessert as our Comedy Works show was about to start.

Osteria Marco offered some very, very tasty Italian staples at surprisingly low prices. We're looking forward to heading back for more antipasti and pizza, as well as the desserts we missed during this trip. Frank Bonanno certainly redeemed himself in our eyes with this visit to Osteria Marco.

---

Casual Dining

(8 of 10)

Pros: Great food, great beer selection, cheap
Cons: Bones in rabbit dish, similarly good pizza at other places


Website:
http://www.osteriamarco.com

Go Vote! 5280 Top of the Town and Westword's 2012 Best of Denver Readers' Poll

Westword and 5280 both have reader polls open for the best of Denver 2012:

Westword 2012 Best of Denver Readers' Poll

5280 Top of the Town Ballot

Westword's closes March 22, and 5280's closes March 18.

The polls pertain to all things local, but since I only leave the house to work, eat, and drink beer, I could only comment on the food and drink scene in Denver.

Oh, and feel free to vote for the Rocky Mountain Oyster as "Best Blogger"!

Below are my picks; I only voted when I felt strongly about a certain restaurant or food.


From Westword's Poll:

91. Best brunch
Duo

99. Best expense-account dinner
Opus

100. Best first-date restaurant
Root Down

101. Best restaurant for a last meal
ChoLon

108. Best bakery
Pierre Michel French Bakery

116. Best brewpub
Southern Sun

117. Best tap house
Avery Brewing Company

119. Best bottle beer list
Hops & Pie

120. Best draft beer list
Hops & Pie

123. Best house margarita
Lola

133. Best hot dog
Biker Jim's

137. Best mac and cheese
Hops & Pie OR Biker Jim's

138. Best pizza
Mellow Mushroom OR Marco's Coal Fired Pizzeria

142. Best free chips and salsa
La Loma

164. Best French restaurant
Pierre Michel Organic French Bakery OR Le Grand Bistro & Oyster Bar

165. Best American restaurant
Root Down




From 5280's Poll:

Bakery:
Pierre Michel Organic French Bakery

Breakfast:
Snooze

Brunch:
Duo

Burger:
Larkburger

Dessert:
ChoLon

Donuts:
Salt

Gluten-Free Menu:
Root Down

Hot Dog / Sausage:
Biker Jim's

Ice Cream / Gelato:
Sweet Action

Kid-Friendly Restaurant:
Parry's Pizzeria OR Mellow Mushroom (SouthGlenn)

Meatball:
Wooden Table

Patio Dining:
Lola

Pizza: 
Mellow Mushroom OR Marco's Coal Fired Pizzeria

Half Order of Curious Jorge French Toast at Snooze

Parry's Pizzeria & Bar

My husband loves pizza, he loves beer, and he loves locally-owned restaurants that are conveniently close to our house (not always an easy thing to find in Highlands Ranch). To his absolute joy, he recently noticed "Coming Soon" signs at a shopping area near our house for Parry's Pizzeria & Bar, which advertised over 50 draft handles.

Since then, Mr.Oyster has been ridiculously excited for the restaurant to open. He has repeatedly craned his neck while driving past to see how close Parry's might be to serving thirsty, hungry patrons. He has speculated as to what beers they might offer, and how good their pizza might be.

So we were very excited to attend Parry's "Friends and Family" grand opening this past Thursday at their Highlands Ranch location.

Parry's already has two other south-suburban locations, one in Parker and one in Castle Rock. I haven't been to either of those spots, but apparently they are smaller and are less beer-centric than the new Highlands Ranch location.

We arrived to a packed and lively Parry's Pizzeria & Bar. The restaurant has a definite sports bar feel to it. There's a large, separated bar room directly in front of the main entrance, where the famous 50 taps are showcased. The main dining area is also spacious, with seating in brick booths and flat-screen TVs everywhere.

Their extensive beer list included many local Colorado favorites, and other well known-beers from across the country. I ordered a White Rascal from Avery Brewing Company, and my husband enjoyed a Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat followed by a Rotator IPA.

We talked to their manager briefly about Parry's beer selection, and they certainly offer (or plan to offer) a wide variety of well-known local and national beers. There aren't many places in the south suburbs with such a sophisticated beer menu, so they will stand out from other restaurants with their beers alone.

As for our food choices, we started off with an order of their Buffalo Wings:

Buffalo Wings

Yes, that's steam coming off the top. The wings required a little bit of a wait, but they arrived at our table piping hot and fresh out of the fryer. The wings were very large, and were coated in a thick, spicy wing sauce which I thought had the perfect amount of heat for a "hot" wing.

We also ordered their "Summer of 2010" pizza, which contained pepperoni, Fontanini Italian sausage, jalapenos, and pepperocinis.

Summer of 2010 Pizza

I loved this pizza. It was cooked perfectly, and generously covered with cheese and toppings. The pepperocinis and jalapenos tasted freshly chopped, and added a pleasant heat to the pizza. The Italian sausage was extremely thinly sliced and well seasoned.

For dessert, our meal ended with a cannoli:

Cannoli

This was the only thing from Parry's I wasn't crazy about. I didn't get much of a ricotta taste from the filling, and it hadn't been piped into the center of the cannoli very well, leaving much of the cannoli shell vacant.

Parry's is likely to be a crowd-pleaser in Highlands Ranch, by keeping patrons entertained with sports, pizza, and beer, while also being a completely acceptable place to bring kids.

The staff was extremely gracious and seemed very enthusiastic about the new restaurant. Parry's apparently has large expansion plans in the works, and I'm sure they'll be extremely successful.


Casual Dining

Website:
http://www.parryspizza.com/

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/

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!

Hops & Pie

Let me break down the sequence of events that led us to Hops & Pie last night:

3:13 pm: My husband receives a photo of last night's Hops & Pie "Beers on Tap" list from one of his friends. The beer menu includes his beloved - and extremely hard to find - "Supplication" by Russian River.

3:14 pm: Unable to turn down the immediate potential for Supplication on tap, we cancel our reservations at Linger that we'd made a month earlier.

3:33 pm: My husband calls one of his beer aficionado buddies and informs him that he and his wife must join us on the journey for some craft beer on tap.

4:30 pm: We leave our place down south to head 35 minutes away for Supplication on tap. Sorry, Linger. Your international street food menu will have to wait.

5:06 pm: Hello, Hops & Pie.

And that is how we ended up at Hops & Pie, and not at Linger, on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving.

So Hops & Pie offers just about the best craft beer selection in Denver. And they sell pizza. It's really the simplest, most genius, and most inevitably successful business model imaginable for a front range establishment.

Located at 38th and Tennyson in the historic Berkeley neighborhood, Hops & Pie lies off the beaten path of Denver's main restaurant and bar scenes. Alongside Hops & Pie on Tennyson street are an eclectic mix of restaurants, coffee shops, a yoga studio, and an antique store that my mother would be happy to spend all day in.

Hops & Pie's location is small, really too small to accommodate the beer-loving Denver public. It comprises one long, narrow room, with the bar area taking up half the space.

Despite our early arrival just after 5 pm, the restaurant's tiny space and the fact that three groups of people had monopolized all available tables meant we were in for a bit of a wait. Half an hour later, after squeezing the four of us around a small table sandwiched between the bar and another table, we were all seated.

The beer menu at Hops & Pie is really unmatched by any other bar in Denver. They have managed to offer - either on tap or in bottle form - some of the absolute highest regarded and hardest to find craft beers in the country.

Unfortunately, this being complete beer-snob territory, the menu was extremely sparse on the light, "girly" pilsners and wheat beers that I prefer.

My husband enjoyed a 375 mL bottle of Pliny the Elder, an IPA from Russian River ($11), followed by a 375 mL bottle of Consecration, also by Russian River, a barrel-aged ale ($19). I drank water and longed silently for a Michelob Ultra.

Pliny the Elder IPA by Russian River

Consecration Barrel-Aged Ale by Russian River

For dinner, we started with their IPA Mac & Cheese ($7.5), made with cheddar, smoked ham, peas, herbed bread crumbs, and of course, IPA.

IPA Mac n Cheese

Think of an outstanding home style mac and cheese, made even better with the use of beer. The rich, cheesy sauce had subtle, pleasantly bitter IPA undertones. The addition of sweet green peas and large, smoky ham pieces further improved the flavor. The four of us ate every last bite.

The mac n cheese was followed up with one of their 16" Artisan pizzas, topped with prosciutto, mozzarella, sauteed spinach, banana peppers, cherry tomatoes, and roasted garlic ($17).

Artisan Pizza slice

After our excitement at Hops & Pie's beer selection and delicious mac n cheese, this pizza was a letdown. Basically, it was bad. The crust was bland, and there was no sauce. While I enjoyed most of the toppings, the banana peppers were straight from a jar, and their briny flavor overwhelmed everything else on the pizza.

Good pizza should be pretty easy to crank out, right? Especially by owners who are smart enough to tap into Denver's palate for craft beers, and who have enough kitchen skills to put together the incredible IPA Mac n Cheese we had just consumed. So I was perplexed that the pizza would be so completely disappointing.

I did notice, however, that surrounding diners had stuck to the "create your own" pizza selections made with hand-tossed crusts and served with their house-made tomato sauce and cheese blends. They looked much tastier than our pizzas, but of course I have no way to verify how they tasted.

Anyway, we couldn't walk away from Hops & Pie without trying some of their cereal-based marshmallow treats.  We ordered their Super Treat, containing Cocoa Puffs and Peanut Butter Captain Crunch ($3), and a Crispy Treat ($2), made of traditional rice crisp cereal.

Super Treat

Crispy Treat

Not to brag, but I'm pretty much a cereal-and-marshmallow-treat connoisseur, and I must say that all such treats should be evaluated based on the following criteria: 1) Ratio of marshmallow cream to cereal, 2) Ductility, 3) Butteriness

Both treats were a resounding success in all three categories, although I must say the butteriness of these treats was extreme, and some people may find them too rich.

The service at Hops & Pie was very good. Our waitress removed one of our beers from the tab when we notified her that it tasted basically awful (likely on the brewer's end and not Hops & Pie's).

By the time we got ready to leave, which was only about 7:30 pm, the small restaurant was packed with patrons mulling around the bar area as table and bar seating had long ago filled up.

If Hops & Pie can upgrade its pizza offerings, it will rule Denver. Otherwise, its still worth the long drive if you love craft beer, mac n cheese, and cereal treats.


Casual Dining

(5 of 10)

Pros: Unmatched craft beer selection, excellent IPA Mac n Cheese and Cereal Treats, good service
Cons: Not crazy about pizza, crowded