A Couple Days in Denver

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Denver for the first time. I had a long list of restaurants to visit (and pre-booked reservations) but Winter Storm Riley had different plans for me – instead of departing Boston on Friday so I could spend the entire weekend having fun in the sun, I departed Sunday night and arrived just before midnight Denver-time. That cut my trip down from 4 days to 2, which meant I had to pack in as much deliciousness as possible!

I was visiting Denver for a conference Monday and Tuesday of last week, and luckily I didn’t have to be at the convention center until 12:30 pm on Monday. That left all morning open for exploring a little bit of downtown and first on my list was Union Station.

Union Station is still a fully operating train station centrally located in the LoDo district, in addition to housing a couple beautiful hotels, restaurants, shops, bars, and cafes. I read here that Snooze is THE PLACE to go for breakfast or brunch, so my friends and I headed straight to the hostess stand to put our name in. Although it was a Monday morning, the wait for a table of 4 ended up being 45 minutes! Following Christine’s suggestion, we put our name on the list and headed across the lobby to Pigtrain for a latte to combat the jet-lag.

As it turned out, our name was called shortly after receiving our Pigtrain lattes, so we waltzed back across the lobby and the staff at Snooze were nice enough to let us bring our coffee with us.

In addition to allowing ‘outside’ coffee, the staff at Snooze was immensely cheerful and helped explain the menu, because it was LARGE. The interior of the restaurant had a 50’s diner vibe with brightly colored décor and a retro typeface on the menu, detailing the many different breakfast options ranging from hash, to eggs benedict, to waffles, to pancakes. I am one of those people who gets paralyzed with indecision at brunch because I like savory breakfast food AND sweet. Luckily, Snooze had the perfect solution for me: instead of receiving the standard hash brown side that comes with eggs benedict, you could swap the hash browns for a single pancake of your choosing. THIS WAS PERFECTION.

The menu consists of 6 different eggs benedict options and 9 different pancake options, so narrowing down my selection wasn’t easy. After considering each option carefully, I decided to order the Bella! Bella! Benny that swaps Canadian bacon for prosciutto, and is topped with taleggio cheese and a balsamic glaze to add an Italian flair to the dish.

When ordering eggs benedict you know you are in for a decadent treat, but the addition of the taleggio cheese and the hollandaise sauce laced with cream cheese made it so much more indulgent! I absolutely loved the saltiness of the prosciutto, and the eggs were poached to perfection (did you see my Instagram?). The acidic tang from the balsamic glaze cut through the hollandaise sauce to keep the creaminess from becoming overwhelming. I was extremely happy with my decision on the Bella! Bella! Benny and I was even more happy with my decision to substitute the hash browns with a pancake! I think the salty, savory hash brown would have put me over the edge and I was desperate for some sweet relief. That sweet relief came in the form of a single Pineapple Upside-Down Pancake:

My mom made pineapple upside-down cake for my brother and I growing up, and this pancake brought me right back to my mom’s kitchen. The pancake tasted just like the cake my mom used to make! It was a buttermilk pancake studded with caramelized pineapple and topped with vanilla crème anglaise and cinnamon butter. I ended up scraping off the cinnamon butter because the cinnamon overwhelmed the pineapple flavor, but oh man. IT. WAS. SO. GOOD. All that was missing was a maraschino cherry on top!

After the conference wrapped up for the day, I made my way to The Pig & The Sprout for dinner with a group of girls. I had heard good things about this restaurant and it ended up being a perfect fit for our group: the carnivores in the group could order from the ‘pig’ side of the menu, and the vegetarians among us could order from the ‘sprout’ side of the menu.

We ended up ordering a bunch of small plates to share and passed them around the table.

I had low expectations for the eggplant bruschetta, but when we received the dish and tasted it, I realized that it packed huge flavors in such a small bite! The eggplant was nice and crispy and not bitter at all like eggplant sometimes can be, and the smoked tomato jam paired perfectly with the creamy boursin cheese. I could have eaten all 5 of these without blinking!

These shrimp tacos were good, but they didn’t really impress me. The shrimp wasn’t even close to being blackened, and the toppings weren’t as bright as I expected. You can’t really go wrong with cilantro crema and pickled onion, but I’m not sure I would order these again.

Here we have the hatch green chile poutine, carnitas street tacos, and the braised red cabbage. The street tacos fall into the same category as the shrimp tacos: good, but not great. The braised red cabbage was cooked down with apple, red wine, and onion and made for a nice veggie-forward side dish to the French fries and tacos. The cabbage was cooked down so it was nice and soft and savory, and it was seasoned well.

I’ve heard that hatch green chiles are popular in this part of the country and judging by this poutine, I can understand why! The poutine was simple, with just white cheddar cheese curds, green chiles, and scallions topping the fries, but it was absolutely delicious. The cheese was melted to the point where it pulls apart with every bite, and the chiles were full of flavor without the burn-your-mouth-off spice. This was definitely a dish that got fought over at the table!

The other dishes that got fought over were definitely the brussels sprouts and the cheddah’ pig fries – both of which were outstanding! As I’ve mentioned before, I am a big fan of brussels sprouts, and these sprouts now rank high on my list of favorites. Cooked with bacon and a maple cider vinaigrette, the sprouts had a perfect balance of salty and sweet and they were roasted to the point of having crispy edges (just how I like them!). And if the green chile poutine wasn’t fattening enough, the cheddah’ pig fries definitely checked all the boxes for delectable, craveable food. These fries were topped with old bay seasoning, bacon, cheese fondue, and scallions. All delicious things, and even more delicious when combined onto one plate!

Overall, we were very pleased with our choices throughout the meal. We ended up ordering even more small plates to share, and even included some of the larger entrees to split between 2 or 3 people. I was fully committed to the pig side of the menu and even ordered a cocktail that was served with prosciutto!

Following a full night’s sleep (I may have had more than one of those prosciutto cocktails!) and a long day at the conference, my coworkers and I decided to eat at the restaurant in our hotel, Panzano, for dinner. We had heard from locals that the food was good, but in all honesty I didn’t expect anything too spectacular from a hotel restaurant.

BOY, WAS I WRONG.

We ended up ordering three dishes to split amongst us, and every single dish was out of this world. The first ‘course’ we enjoyed was the Bolognese di manzo, consisting of beef and veal Bolognese served with cheese tortellini:

This pasta was unbelievable. The Bolognese sauce was full of umami flavor and extremely well-balanced. The combination of meats was nice and tender, and the tomatoes imported from the Puglia region of Italy were sweet and tangy. While the sauce was amazing, the tortellini was the star of the show. The server let us know that they make all their pasta in-house, and you could taste the care that was put into the dish. The pasta was rolled thin and cooked to perfection, leaving us with these delicate little gifts full of cheese. I cannot recommend this dish enough!

Following the tortellini, we ordered the tagliatelle alla carbonara, which was everything you want in a decadent carbonara.

Again, the pasta stole the show! The tagliatelle was cooked to a perfect al-dente so it didn’t fall apart when you tried to twirl it onto your fork. There was the right amount of chew to each creamy bite, punctuated by the salty crunch of the pancetta, and the sunny-side up quail egg on top added just the right amount of extra sauce from the runny yolk!

Our final course of the evening, and the trip to Denver in general, was the breve costola di bufala, otherwise known as braised bison short rib.

While delicious, this was the only dish I couldn’t rave about from the nearby mountaintops. Short rib is a tough cut of meat that needs to be cooked low and slow in order to become tender, and I feel that the meat we were served could have been cooked for a little while longer. The short rib ended up being a little on the chewy side, but on the other hand, the rosemary and sage polenta was creamy and full of flavor! I’m not usually a fan of cornmeal-based foods (like polenta or grits) but this polenta was outstanding! The rosemary flavor was easily identifiable and the polenta was smooth and free of lumps. With such a decadent dish, the wilted kale was a nice accompaniment!

If you've made it this far, I salute you! I know this was a long post, but I hope you enjoyed hearing about my food adventures in Denver. Although it wasn't quite as jam-packed as I would have liked, I had a great time exploring the Mile High City. Where do you recommend I eat the next time I have a chance to visit?