A Few Recent Restaurant Visits

Busy few weeks. But hey, you gotta eat. Recent visits: Brasserie Ten Ten, Boulder CO Hopping, fun place. The menu is printed to look just like a parisian bistro, and all comparisons to the real thing can stop right there. In spirit, it is Parisian, and the food here is certainly decent, even good, but there is a kind of soullessness here that I found a bit depressing. The meals themselves were tasty but frankly unexciting. Worth a visit, and maybe you'll have better luck than I - I'd try this again, as it has gotten enthusiastic reviews from my friends; perhaps I caught it on an off night. Twelve, Denver CO Had dinner with a good friend from the wine business: the meals here are uniformly delicious, the kitchen is consistently excellent to a fault and the staff is always friendly and knowledgeable. The willingness of Chef Osaka to wipe the slate clean every month (hence the name; twelve menus per year) is courageous and risks putting off less adventurous diners; but I have never missed a departed menu item more than I've enjoyed new ones. If you are wanting the exact same dish every time you go out, this place is emphatically not for you. The only complaints I have here are minor: the floor is sometimes understaffed (adding one person would probably take care of this; service can be less than smooth if things get busy), and that the wine is not stored properly - the reds always come out warm. Still, this is probably my favorite place in all of Denver right now. The meals are vibrant, fresh, beautifully prepared and full of unexpected surprises, and the service is so nice it's hard to stop smiling while I am in here. Owner/Chef Jeff Osaka can do no wrong! Plus, I can walk up here from my apartment. How great is that?

Wine Loft, Denver CO Nice selection of wines by the glass, but really indifferent food. A nice space, the floor staff was good, but the bartender that night wasn't much interested in doing anything other than talking to his buddy at the bar. Why is it on slow nights many service professionals think it is OK to provide slow service? TAG, Denver CO Surprisingly grand experience. We sat at the kitchen bar, which I typically hate, but the kitchen staff worked really clean and smart (this is a well-trained and experienced pirate crew), the floor staff was generally on top of things, and the food was surprisingly good. I had heard such wildly variable things about the quality of the meals I wasn't sure what to expect. I liked it! The wine list is decent, though a heavy on what I call "the Usual Suspects." For a menu this adventurous, a riskier wine list is entirely appropriate. H Burger Co., Denver CO An actually decent burger. The build-it-yourself salad is also great - even my non-red-meat-eating girlfriend really likes it. Haven't looked at the wine list or the bar. Still, the Jax burger is better. Farallon, San Francisco CA Really lovely, well-made food, but fuck me, it's expensive. Yes, yes, yes, Union Square, downtown San Francisco, blah blah blah, but $14 for 4 slices of beets with a few greens is a bit steep. However: kudos to the wine director, this is a lovely and well-chosen list with LOADS of surprises and off-the-beaten path wines. E&O Trading Co, San Francisco CA Came heavily recommended from a friend but overall ... disappointing. We got seated upstairs, a no-man's-land compared to the vibrant main floor. Dishes were decent but not overwhelming; a particularly weird standout was a coffee-dusted spare rib dish that was both sweet, acrid and bitter, satisfyingly strange. Chez Panisse Café, Berkely CA How many ways can you say lovely? That pretty much sums it up. Everything was achingly simple and deeply satisfying. It takes courage to let ingredients stand alone like this; it's an impulse that is against much of the current of American cooking these days (even locavore restaurants often overload their ingredient lists in a need to surprise and intrigue). Lovely wine from the Jura with dinner - an Arbois Chardonnay made much like vin jaune, then a pitch-perfect Rioja. Wow, wow, wow. Mateo, Boulder CO The first visit here a few months ago was overwhelmingly loud; my girlfriend and I texted each other across the table about the excellent plates in front of us. Second time was lovely: her meal, especially, was great; mine, a tad heavy, but delicious. Decent wine list. Reasonably priced. Worth a visit. Osteria Marco, Denver CO This is a great place to graze the apps and small plates: the house-made burrata is alone is worth a visit. Also good is the braesola. I've never been overwhelmed by the main courses, but the salads and small plates more than make up for it. This visit I had lunch with Matthew Frank, who I met in Barolo and who has written a book about his experiences living in a tent for a harvest and picking for my friend Luciano Sandrone. It's a fun, funny and well-written account, full of surprising sidetracks about the region and its people - places and people in the Barolo I've never gotten to know as I have been so focussed on the wine side. We both ordered pizza: this is a treat. Thin crust, beautifully done, and showing minimal effects of cooking at altitude. A very fun wine list of all-italian selections. Kudos for the good by-the-glass selection The Market, Denver CO Great for coffee or a sandwich. Bursting at the seams with interesting and tasty foodstuffs. Also a great place to slip into if you need a toilet on Larimer Square. Bones, Denver CO All good and tasty but somehow the whole is less than the sum of its parts; it's an intriguing idea that just hasn't quite taken off. For me, the downhill slide started 5 minutes after arriving with the waiter who couldn't even pronounce the name of a wine - and this from a very short and sweet list. C'mon, a little more training would go a long way here. The noodle bowls are good, but just too "noooooodly" - they are more work than fun. A standout was the roasted marrow bones app. Decent, but nothing special - I'd rather spend time at two of owner Frank Bonnano's other places: Mizuna or Osteria Marco. JAX, Denver CO This is right next to my home and liking this place is like rooting for the home team ... fortunately, the home team does not disappoint: even after 15 (?) or so years in business, the food is still well-prepared and delicious, the service crisp, knowledgeable, efficient and friendly, and the space has aged well. Kudos to the staff for keeping this place vibrant, especially the GM, Adam, who I have never seen at less that "beaming." A really fun wine not on the list but in the cellar: The Arbois rouge from Jacques Puffeney. (This is about the most perfect red wine with fish, with the possible exception of chilled Samur-Champigny rouge from the Loire.) Try it with the blackened catfish, the lobster BLT, or the arctic char in any preparation (this last one is a favorite here). Ask for the hand-written reserve list for fun and unexpected wine choices. Also, the burger is phenomenal. I am lucky to have such a great place not 200 feet from my front door.