400 E 20th Ave
Denver, CO 80205
Denver, CO 80205
This place is pretty new so there aren't any pictures available, so you will have to get inside my mind and imagine its glory.
It used to be the Painted Bench which was ok-good and then the Dish I think, which I never tried, but apparently didn't work because it went from semi-fanc to winebar/pubby thing. It refers to itself as a gastropub which I found to be an unsettling term but apparently it means pub with gourmet food and not shartfest 2008. Good for me.
There are a couple of things to note about this place.
1) The atmosphere is super. It is kind of a wine bar in the sense that they have a shitload of wine - but it isn't pretentious like most wine bars. It does have more of a pub feel - but in a shabby chic - not pam anderson cutesy shabby country look, but a well designed shabby comfy kind of way - lots of oddly placed chandeliers and ugly but works fabrics and such. Real real loungey and not in the way Denver tries to get loungey with their overly fancy bull honkey.
2) They have a very large selection of Colorado brewed beer which is great if you like to experiment - and also great if you want to get crunk.
3) They have the best goddamn fries I have ever tasted in my life. Why are they so goddamn good you ask? Well, they are pricey (what isn't - you slap the word gourmet on anything and the price immediately reaches 10 smacks) but fucking gorgeous and I will tell you why. First, there are three options - a truffled one which I didn't try because truffle fries are so 2005 thank you very much Forrest Room Cinq. There was a macc and cheese with bacon (yummo) and a blue cheese and hot "frank" (should have called it wing) sauce which was super yummo in my tummo little Gummo. Here is the thing about those fries - they took everything I love about hot wings ie the blue cheese and the hot vinegar sauce and left out everything I hate about hot wings (the chicken) and put them on something I love FRIES. I was in freedom fry heaven last night.
4) The dinner was a little pricey - I had a fancy schmancy version of shepard's pie - which don't get me wrong I love me som Shepard's pie - but it was lamb and spinach gnocchi - good but had I known I would be eating two pounds of delicious fries - I would have said no thank you on the dinner. Good but totally unnecessary. Their menu is small but interesting and even though the term slider makes me throw up in my mouth a little - I might even try one of theirs...if I can ever get my hands out of their fancy freedom.
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