JWest

my meal the other night was overall very pleasant. Service was friendly but not so experienced (notice I didn't say "professional"). If you have a chance to check out the private wine room, they have a F&W Best New Chefs 2006 Chef's Jacket all signed by big name chefs including E.Ripert, Keller, Boulud, Bouley, Jean George, etc. The desserts were tasty...I like the candied Walnuts, very crunchy and not the kind that sticks to your teeth. Apple Sponge Cake was very dense but it was pleasurable. I really liked that it was soaked in some kind of rum syrup. A little dissapointed in the decor....I just don't think it matched well, especially with the style of food that they were trying to achieve. They should use white linen table clothes or even just bare tables. The two strips of green linen that drapped over the table were just in the way and kept wading up. As well as the fact that everytime you wanted to move something such as a wine glass...forks were going with it. I, myself enjoyed the saltiness of some of there dishes... but if you have complaints...I could see why. A bit expensive, so bring good company to share the evening with (atleast just so you can try out different dishes)

With Colorado having such great farmers, I was wondering whats the best way to get in contact with these farms? Where are all the Farmer's Markets around the Denver/Boulder area?

Last year, I actually dined at Mizuna and Solera. Both of which were good dining experiences. Flavors, portions, and service were just superb. It's a great chance to go out and support the local independent restaurants during the slowest time of the year. It's also a great chance for you to see what these restaurants are about without having to risk a high dollar bill. This time I just hope I'll go to more restaurants.

Found a website... Trezo Mare

Im not sure if you're into sushi or not but... I forgot to mention Sushi Den. I've had great experiences over there as well.

Here are some of my notable places that you might want to take in consideration... Table 6 - Very neighborhood-like, it's small and the service is just awesome. It's an open kitchen and you'll even see cooks and chefs come out to see how you're food is doing. Very good bistro food with some flare. My favorite go to restaurant for just a good time with friends over some great food and wine. Mizuna - It was very comfortable, the service did exactly what you could ever want and really did an amazing job of staying out of the way. The food was executed perfectly, nothing too special but really good food. It was a very enjoyable evening. Rioja - I've been twice and both times were good. Both times we ordered a bunch of appetizers and then seperate entrees and desserts. I think thats the best way to go at it. A slightly more colorful than Mizuna (not in a bad or good way) Cafe Star - You're going to get extremely well executed tasty food and really nothing more. Restaurant Kevin Taylor Very high dollar, you're going to get 4 star 4 diamond service, Amuses, and excellent wine service. The food is high end but nothing that will change your life. Vesta Dipping Grill Very fun and unique atmosphere and a great variety on the menu. If you got time for lunch...I hear Steuben's is worthy for a shot. I would say my three favorite restaurants were Table 6, Vesta, Mizuna, and Rioja durring my two years in Denver. Although, I will be moving back later this month so I do look forward checking out the restaurants and participating more on the SouthWest-Western Forum.

well if you insist... 1. Cassis (Town Center Plaza) was better than I expected...My favorites were all of the classical French preparations and the appetizers. 2. "Traditional Menus" at Chinese Restaurants, Thanks to DaveCrum for introducing me to the Traditional Menu at Fortune Star (119th&Metcalf), I had the chance to see what these restaurants are really made of..including Bo Lings (Country Club Plaza). (Also, to credit U.E.'s Blog on Chinese Restaurants) 3. Pizza 51 was my favorite summer "any day" type of restaurant. Great pizza and somewhat different with the outside patio seating. Also, gotta love the bottles of honey for your crust. 4. Carrot Cake Ice Cream at Murray's (You all know that) 5. Brunch at Room39....it's not only for sundays but everyday and I love how you can get a lunch option or a breakfast dish so it suits for everyone. I take all my "novice eater" friends here before anywhere else. Im sure I'll think of some more...

With the new year here... What have been the good/bad restaurant surprises of 2006? Anyone go anywhere for the first time? Any new "Favorites"? Where do you want to go in 2007?

I noticed that the other day...How can you resist a Rootbeer Float?

BTW, another reason to go to Room39 instead, be prepared to pay a mandatory 20% service fee as your tip. and no...you're not getting the Per Se staff to serve you.

If you've seen Seinfeld's "The Soup Nazi" episode...it's like that except in this case the food doesn't come near to "making your knees buckle". Rule #1- Don't ask for substitutions of any kind allowed..even for a religious reason. Rule #2- No vegetarians of any kind allowed. Rule #3- No photography in the dining room. If you follow these rules, I think you'll be safe from having a disgruntled chef screaming profanity at you. Im just glad it didn't happen to me. If you want bottled water, call ahead to see if they have it or not. I've heard that they don't have bottled water but that was a few months ago also I've heard they run out of wine glasses quite often. Although, his wine pricing is very reasonable. I believe it's a la carte menu now but last time I went, it was tasting menu only. I'd go for the offal and braised items that seems to be Peterman's forte. I would try to avoid anything that requres a correct meat temperature (i.e duck breast, beef, veal chops, rack of lamb, etc). Not one item was cooked correctly, either it was extremely over cooked or it was raw. Plus, it's hard to eat those kinds of food with a butter knife (thats all they offered in my last visit). Personally, I'd go to Room39 for about the same pricing. But I'm glad I had my one visit and I do look forward to hearing how your experience differs from mine.

I've always enjoyed marrow butter on steak... I've seen it made into a flan as well...it's very thick and creamy like.

If they don't hold very much juice, then how do they sell bottles of the juice by itself? Is that the main reason why it cost so much?

It really wasn't a comment towards you but merely a group of thoughts based off of my anger from reading a few of your comments throughout this thread. So again, these are just thoughts to be thrown out in the mix of it all: I've watched my grandparents slowly downsize there farm to where they stopped spending time on family vegetables and even started going to the grocery store because there wasn't enough people buying from them. Why supply when there's no demand? Also, I have been in contact with Campo Lindo Farm and they mentioned because of the warmer weather, they weren't able to raise organic free range turkeys. All I wanted to do was get a turkey from a local area but Campo Lindo wasn't able to supply that because of weather problems. Sometimes, you just can't get local. Again, theres people who care about this but it's just a small percentage...of course there are probably others but that case can be made with any side. The average person couldn't point out a bulb of fennel much less know the understanding of eating local foods. I've lived in this area for 20 years, Im not wrong about this...just because you can count three individuals who are proven supporters of this cause doesn't mean there's reasonable amount of others in the mid west to follow. You need a lot of people to ask for this stuff. You can't just make restaurants and farmer's lose money in the short term. There needs to be a way where restaurants and farms can be connected to where there's a consistent movement from farm to restaurant without the hassle of playing phone tag. Then you also need people to recognize that and support those restaurants which supports those farms serving to those restuarants. It's not just one problem, it's many problems but one thing that people can do to help is by simply asking restaurants why they aren't serving local foods and eventually restaurants will respond back with what their customers want. For those restaurants that aren't active in this cause, they find a comfort in calling their local food proveyor and mainting food costs at a consistent level. Im a firm believer in local foods but I don't see why it's such a terrible thing to use ingredients from outside sources??? No more olive oil from Italy? I guess the folks on eGullet don't want us using Okinawa Sweet Potatoes? I'd much rather see restaurants in Kansas cook seasonally first while using the best available ingredients. Also, just because it's local doesn't mean its the best but in most cases it's a lot better than the stuff you get from Sysco. My question is, will it be enough for farmers to survive if they had restaurants buying from them? Do they need a bigger turn out at farmers markets? What is necessary to keep the farms alive? Also, What are the demensions of the term "local"? Are we talking about 100 miles or something different? and are we trying to get restaurants to sell ONLY local ingredients or most of the menu to have local ingredients? What would you, MR. IML like to see in a menu if you sat down for dinner in Kansas? and how do you justify what is allowed to not be local? Are we all just going to eat Kansas Beef and Crappie? Should we start asking sushi joints where they get their tuna from? Why can't we just follow the rule that the best sardine is better than the not-so-good lobster? I think I just don't understand where you stand... please explain what you think is appropriate for a restaurant to be serving. You've obviously shown your dislikes with the "expensive restaurants" in KS FedEx'ing fish in. I, myself think it's great that they are pairing qaulity filets of fish and I don't understand why the turnip needs to be creatively cooked when it probably tastes best simply cooked with salt and pepper by not destroying the integrity of the vegetable. I side with ChefCAG that it's difficult to be completely loyal to the cause especially in the winter months. I find IML's comments to be absolutely rediculous by using sly phrases to point the finger at "high end" and "expensive" restaurants in Kansas. DaveCrum and BigCountry's input is your awnser to what we should do.

The average food minded person will not recognize or even care if the restaurant they dined at last night stayed consistent with local foodstuffs on their menu. Only a small percentage of diners will take notice, embrace it, and demand it. They only care if A) The food tastes good and B) Was it a good overall experience?, so with that being said why should a restaurant take that "short term" risk if all they need to do is fulfill those attributes? Besides for obvious reasons of supporting local farmers but to make those who seek for local foods happy. That's all chefs want to do, just to make people happy. But if the people in Kansas (or wherever the case may be) are not seeking that then don't you think it's going to be hard for farmer's to supply something that isn't be sought out for? Much less, restaurants selling those items? I personally feel there's a bigger issue that would impact this issue in a positive way. I strongly feel that it would be almost impossible to find a home in Johnson County, KS who is having dinner with out a single commercialized, mass produced, convienent food item. Yet, it's one of the wealthiest counties in the country but in general the public doesn't seem to have an idea how to cook for themselves nor do they have any idea what they should be buying at the store. If a more diverse and bigger group of people in this area would be more food minded and purchase their food at farmers' markets or purchase good wholesome quality local ingredients at the store then it will be a given that the independent restaurants will exceed expectations. No one ever lowers their standards about the food when they go out to eat at a restaurant. So, if people had higher standards in their own home, wouldn't it be possible that their standards for restaurants will be much higher? With that, restaurants will be out looking for more local foods and those farmers will then be getting the business that they need to expand their horizons. Restaurants like everyone above has mentioned are doing a great job trying to increase the volume of local foods but if not a lot of people are embracing it then there's not going be much of a change. Yes, restaurants can dictate the way people eat in the area but only to an extent for a small group of people. There's just way too many people buying convienence food products for dinner and going out to the Cheesecake Factory. People have been brainwashed and their palates have been demented by all sorts of factors that they don't understand or have the knowledge about what it means to walk down the market with a baquette in your hand and sack of fresh greens for lunch or on the way home for dinner.

This is something that I've noticed but a friend of mine recently asked me if I knew there was a signifcant reason for French Laundry Alumni and the blue/white stripe aprons or not? He thought it might be for those who go off to their own kitchens with recommendations from Chef Keller. I just thought it was a personal choice for fashion reasons. Anyone know?

Wow that sounds great...The Nacho thing sounds very cool! I can't wait to eat here some day. Thankyou for the detailed descriptions!

Here's a website.... if you haven't seen it already. Sounds like another promising addition to my long list of new restaurants to dine at!

I don't remember anyone posting about this but.. Foo's Fabulous Frozen Custard is open now at the Mission & 95th Street Location next to Chocolate Soup by the McDonalds. I noticed they have a decent sized lounge area in the back with a fireplace and seating. I had the Mint and Oreo Cookie Crumble Concrete thingy and it was extremely smooth and of course with the cookies being coarse and crunchy. I grabbed a couple of Christopher Elbow Chocolates as well..mmm tasty.

I recently had "Cake and Cream" ..a flavor at Murray's that consists of Vanilla Ice Cream, Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Icing, Vanilla Cake, and Vanilla Icing. It was really good. Oh and I had it with one of their handmade waffle cones dipped in chocolate and rainbow sprinkles (you gotta have sprinkles on your birthday cake, right??).

They've got four different types of burnt ends: Beef, Pork, Ham and even Kobe beef burt ends, which sell for $59.95 for two pounds. ← The "burnt ends" I obtained from Gates was a fine mince of jerky. My cats wouldn't feast on them either. ← I've always had great experiences with Arthur B's Burnt Ends at the Brooklyn Ave Location.

The picture on the online article was the big hint for me

Yes, it sounds funny the way she had described the pizza; but it seems plausible. Correct me if I'm wrong but can't the bottom crust of the pizza be crispy and the outside pillowy crust be soft and chewy? Although, she should have described the sensation of having the two different textures but being in different parts of the actual pizza.

Such an insightful interview in many aspects.

I just got a new ice cream batch call from Murray's... they currently have carrot cake ice cream but it will be the last time before they close for the season! I can't remember when they close but I'm guessing soon. Gotta go get myself a qaurt of the stuff before its all over!