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/

5280 Restaurant Week

Denver Restaurant Week is coming up soon. From February 25 - March 9, you can enjoy a multi-course meal at many of Denver's restaurants for only $52.80 per couple.

Menus (and restaurants) are currently available on Facebook until January 20, after which the public can view them. You can find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/visitdenver, and at their main webpage at http://www.denver.org/denverrestaurant/.

There are nearly 300 restaurants participating in the 2012 Denver Restaurant Week, and I've sampled a small fraction of the menu items of maybe 40 of those restaurants.

Many of Denver's top restaurants participate in Denver Restaurant Week, including 9 of 5280 Magazine's 25 Best Restaurants of 2011: Mizuna (#3), ChoLon (#5), Luca D'Italia (#6), Olivea (#15), Duo (#17), Rioja (#19), Edge (#23), Il Posto (#24), and Vesta Dipping Grill (#25) are all participating restaurants. Those restaurants, and many others, will fill up fast.

Of all the restaurants I've eaten at, ChoLon is one I'd really like to return to for Denver Restaurant Week.

You can read full reviews for the following restaurants participating in 2012 Denver Restaurant Week that I've reviewed for dinner:

ChoLon Bistro

Row 14

Root Down

Le Grand Bistro & Oyster Bar

Euclid Hall

Vesta Dipping Grill

Restaurant Kevin Taylor

Lola

Mizuna

Marco's Coal Fired Pizzeria

Strings

Beatrice & Woodsley

Wooden Table

Please remember to tip generously during restaurant week!

Lamb Poutine @ Euclid Hall

Fruition

Slowly but surely we've eaten our way through many of 5280's 25 Best Restaurants of 2011. Fruition has been at the top of our list for a while, mostly because it's been near the top of the 25 Best list for a while (#2 in 2011). We finally had a chance to visit in early January with another couple.

Fruition is located at 6th and Downing, between Cheesman Park and the Denver Country Club. Our reservations were for a Wednesday night at 7:30 pm. Before even entering the restaurant, we were already irked by the upscale establishment's lack of a valet on the very cold January night. After walking in, the hostess was unavailable, and we had to wait a few minutes before being seated.

Fruition is a small, intimate space, with dark lighting and tables stuffed in very close to one another. The restaurant was full to capacity except for our reserved table when we arrived.

It was hot inside the restaurant. Really hot. Bikram yoga hot (ok, not that bad). So after griping about how cold I was during my short walk from our parking spot to Fruition, I was abruptly faced with overheating during my meal. 

We started off with drinks and complimentary bread and butter. Perusing the menu, Fruition seemed to offer many of the same foods as other well-known restaurants in Denver, including things like pork belly, duck confit, and fancy-sounding pasta topped with a runny-yolk egg.

Our waiter was very knowledgeable but disappeared for a couple very long stretches during the meal.

Between the four of us, we selected the following appetizers: Pasta Carbonara ($12), Confit Duck Leg Cassoulet ($12), and Nantucket Bay Scallops ($15).

Pasta Carbonara

The dish included house-cured pork belly, home made cavatelli noodles, and a "six minute" egg. I loved every bite. The egg had a fully cooked white and a runny yolk that melded well with the perfectly cooked pasta. The pork belly - aka bacon - was fatty, salty, and rich; coupled with the egg, it tasted like breakfast. But with pasta.

Confit Duck Leg Cassoulet

This traditional French stew included house-made duck sausage and white beans. Perfectly seasoned and filled with large chunks of savory duck sausage, it was an excellent comfort-food dish. On the side was a duck crackling salad that was less memorable.

Nantucket Bay Scallops

Yes, those are scallops, and not some kind of newfangled breakfast potatoes. The scallops were chopped into small pieces, seared, and served with veal sweetbreads, Meyer lemon gnocchi, Palisade pears and a heavy cauliflower soubise sauce. The natural flavor and texture of the scallops was completely drowned out in the searing and by the addition of so many other foods. The dish reminded me of the messy, greasy, too-much-stuff-on-the-plate gnocchi appetizer at Root Down.

We enjoyed the cassoulet and pasta carbonara appetizers, but we weren't crazy about the scallops.

As main courses, I settled on the Crock Pot Veal Cheeks ($28), and my husband ordered the Tender Belly Farms Grilled Pork Chop ($27).

Crock Pot Veal Cheeks

The slow-cooked veal cheeks were incredibly tender, and fell apart easily at the press of a fork. They were complimented by a wonderfully creamy sweet carrot crema. Atop the veal cheeks was a roasted chestnut and foraged mushroom salad with Pommery mustard vinaigrette. My only complaint about the dish was I felt the salad dressing was too liberally applied. Coupled with the fattiness of the crema and veal cheeks, it made for a very heavy taste to each bite. On the salad was a gnarled potato galette that I suppose was more for garnish than flavor.

Tender Belly Farms Grilled Pork Chop

The pork was served with a spaghetti squash rosti, and a caramelized brussel sprout and apple salad. The pork chop was very tender, but it was very weakly seasoned. The accompanying vegetables were tasty and well-prepared but not memorable. My veal cheeks were definitely better.

We finished off with one of their long-lived desserts, the Lemon Meringue Pie ($8):

Lemon Meringue Pie

The "pie" was a cylinder with a graham cracker crust, blueberry compote, and a torched whipped topping. It had a sharp lemony tartness, which I enjoyed, but I appreciated the small portion as the strong flavor made it hard to eat more than a few bites.

Everything felt like a bit of a letdown after our extremely high expectations for the restaurant. We generally liked the food, but it wasn't good enough for the price we paid. The service and atmosphere were sub-par for a fine dining experience. Fruition seems to have a loyal neighborhood following, but with our long trek to dine there, it just didn't seem worth it.


Fine Dining

(6 of 10)

Pros: Mostly very good food, high-quality ingredients
Cons: Way too hot during our visit, service sometimes inattentive

Website:
http://fruitionrestaurant.com/

Left Hand Brewing Company

Left Hand Brewing Company brews up some fantastic local Colorado beer, and that should be evident by the fact that we drove all the way up from the south Denver suburbs to Longmont to check out their tasting room.

Most breweries and their respective tasting rooms are in giant, ugly industrial buildings. So I was thrown off to find Left Hand's tasting room was in this quaint, house-like abode:

Left Hand Tasting Room

We arrived just after the tasting room opened at 12 noon on a Friday. With wood paneling, a large bar area, and plenty of tables, it felt a lot like a neighborhood bar. Except for the gift shop, of course. 

It was a low-key, quiet afternoon at the tasting room. The staff filled us in on the details of the day's tap beers while we nibbled on pretzels at the bar. 

We ordered their sampler of eight beers:

Left to Right: Polestar Pilsner / Nitro Sawtooth Ale / Stranger Pale Ale / 400 Pound Monkey

Left to Right: Biere de Garde / Black Jack Cask Ale / Fade to Black / Nitro Milk Stout

Left Hand's Nitro Milk Stout is undoubtedly their most famous and well received beer, and it's one of my husband's favorites. The Sawtooth on nitro was unique to their tasting room, and Mr. Oyster loved the smooth nitrogen effervescence in Sawtooth just as much as with the Milk Stout. 

Nitro Sawtooth Amber

Left Hand's tasting room had a really laid-back, friendly vibe. We got to sample all their standard beers, plus a few gems unique to the tasting room. Coupled with Oskar Blues right down the road, it made our long trip to Longmont worthwhile. 

Website:

http://www.lefthandbrewing.com/blog/contact/#tasting-room