Last up for this week...

For our final dinner of this official Restaurant Week adventure, we went to the Barolo Grill in Denver.

Rich and I agreed that this was our favourite of the three; we had a simply wonderful evening. Though the place filled up while we were there, it was never noisy.

Rich started with prosciutto with shaved fresh horseradish, and I had arugula with toasted pine nuts, shaved parmigiano-reggiano cheese, olive oil & lemon juice. Both were delicious.

For the pasta course, Rich ordered spinach tagliatelle served with bolognese meat ragu and I ordered the risotto with fresh crimini mushrooms, which I thought was just divine. We switched plates partway through as we often do, and we both liked what we ordered the best.

The entrees were delicious too! I had the seared salmon with lentils, spinach, and micro fennel salad. The fennel gave the dish a slightly licorice-y taste, and it was sublime. Rich had the beef short ribs with polenta, carmelized onions, and swiss chard which he raved about. He let me try the polenta but he didn't part with even one tiny bite of the beef. It must have been good! lol

Dessert was the same for everyone; a vanilla bean panna cotta with apricot passion fruit tapioca. The panna cotta was so smooth and creamy- with intense vanilla flavour, and the tapioca was citrusy and tart, a perfect complement to each other. We ate it in the tiniest little bites to make it last!

We both had the wine pairing to go along with everything and all the wines we tasted were really good.

Besides the food, what stood out for me was the service. The servers flitted between tables, always around, but never intruding and they were so friendly! They genuinely appeared to like their job and it was relaxing and lovely to eat there.

So. Overall, The Barolo Grill wins in our book. Great ambience, great service, sublime food- what more could you ask for? We will definitely go back.

PHANTOM!!!

Yesterday Rich and I took the girls to see "The Phantom of the Opera" at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. We bought the tickets months ago and it seemed then that the day would never arrive.

WOW. We all just loved it! It was truly spectacular. The singing, the costumes, the orchestra- the whole experience was just incredible. There is nothing like live theater, that is for sure. It's too bad we couldn't take photos, but we are not likely to forget the details for a bit...

We took the light rail into the city and it was such a nice day. We stopped and had pizza on our way home. A great day all the way around!

Here are a couple of photos we took in front of the theater. Not as exciting as Phantom photos would have been, but oh well! lol

Up next: Il Posto

We went out again last night (Wednesday) for a go at another new restaurant, this time Il Posto in downtown Denver.

I was going to rant a bit, but decided I will just list the good and bad, starting with the good. I am no restaurant critic, but I know what I like and what I don't.

THE GOOD
1. The food was delicious- Rich says better than Opus, but I disagree
2. The servers were really friendly and knowledgeable
3. Once they let us move to the window, we had a nice view

THE BAD
1. They made us wait for almost half an hour, even though we made reservations (which they called to remind us of)
2. Too crowded- the servers had barely enough room to move around- which means service wasn't very attentive
3. Too noisy

Rich laughed at me when I threw his own observations of dining out back at him! When we go out to a nice dinner, attentive service is part of the experience, and I didn't enjoy being so crammed in. I DID however, enjoy Rich's company very much, as I always do. And so any time we are together, is a darn good time!

The food really was good and I guess we will go again sometime to see if the overall experience is any better.

Spring?

I was just out watering my front garden- yes WATERING- because according to my friends/neighbors, this is what we do this time of year when we haven't had enough snow. That's the small price we pay for having a light winter. Thus far at least. Everyone keeps saying March will be winter. That's okay by me.

But somebody had better tell that to my plants out front... they seem to think it is spring! Things are starting to turn green! The early tulips and daffodils are up a few inches. I have had crocuses blooming for almost two weeks. And I did this watering in a t-shirt and jeans- and felt grateful for the misting of water the hose was throwing at me because the sun is so lovely and warm. What a change from what we are accustomed to. Wow. I have to tell you, I really love the weather here!

I guess because our house faces South and it gets the best of the warmth from every day, it would be easy to confuse those poor little plants. And I can't think the ground is even that cold, we haven't had any snow last more than a couple of days at most. We have only rarely pulled out our winter coats and boots, as light jackets- or no jackets- are usually enough. Colorado natives insist that this is an unusual winter, even for them, but I for one am very happy to have been broken in so nicely to our new climate.

We have seen neighbors landscaping and much of today's talk (I went out to lunch with a ladies' group that my neighbor invited me to accompany) was about gardening, birds, and the coyotes we have out back. I guess I had better get a move on and get planning what I am going to put where. And then, dang it, it will be time to go out back and clean out the space I want to use for all the veggies I think I am going to grow. Well, it will be well worth it if I can grow even a fraction of what we bought at the market last summer. WOO-HOO!

We are Foodies!

Every year at this time, Denver has Restaurant Week and this year we could finally go!

This is what the web site says about it:

"Denver Restaurant Week is a seven-day celebration of the culinary scene in Denver. For one week, participating restaurants will offer a multi-course dinner for the fixed price of $52.80 for two". 5280 is the number of feet in a mile- and Denver is the Mile-High City, for those who wouldn't know that (like me, before I met Rich). 5280 is also the name of the Denver magazine. We get it and it is a great resource...

Last night was the first night, and we chose Opus in Littleton. We have been there for lunch, back in the summer, but wanted to try it for dinner. Opus was chosen by the Denver Post as one of the top ten places to try during this event.

When we eat out, we usually try to get different things so that we can both try more. Rich had French Onion Bisque which came with toasted brioche in the bottom of the bowl, topped with goat cheese and chive oil. I started with a salad of leafy greens with walnuts, brie "croutons" (delicious!), topped with white balsamic. We also went with the wine pairing that was offered, so we got champagne- oops- sorry- sparkling wine with this course. I love sparkling wine! lol

For the entrees, Rich got Braised Beef with Celeri Potatoes, exotic mushroom sauce (and darn it, we forgot to ask what kind of mushrooms they were, they were so good!), red wine cabbage, and black pepper pumpkin seeds. I got Pacific Salmon stuffed with barley, shallots, and spinach, over persimmon butter sauce and with shaved fennel. Absolutely delicious, all of it. Rich got red wine of course, and I had a choice between red and white. I chose red, since I prefer that.

Dessert was a Granny Smith Apple crisp in an oat crust with vanilla bean ice cream (I LOVE homemade ice cream! Good thing we have an ice cream maker!), and caramel sauce drizzled on the plate. There was a candied burnt caramel garnish on top that was very elegant and tasty. We got a dessert wine with this that was divine!

The restaurant was packed and so it was a little noisy, but all in all, an outstanding dinner with terrific service and we would definitely go back another time.

We have reservations to eat out twice more this week- and two out of the three we have chosen were in the top ten to try. So stay tuned for more reports on our foodie experiences.