My brother and I have birthdays about a month apart, and this year was my brother’s 40th birthday. Talking with him, eventually the idea of doing a ‘brother trip’ came out. He had recently been to Denver, and thought it would be a spot I would enjoy a lot. Eventually, we decided to pull the pin and do a long weekend out in the mile high city. I’ll go ahead and state for the record that our choice to visit Denver wasn’t for the obvious reason; while recreational marijuana use is legal out there, our purpose was to visit a unique part of the country, with a beer culture that could be the best on the planet. I know that’s a debatable statement, but I am just saying – We were there for the BEER, and to hang out 1 on 1 – something that we haven’t done for an extended period of time for years.
You’ll notice that the title of the post is ‘Part 1 – Food’, so you can plan on a few more posts to come, relating to Denver, and the surrounding cities. When you’re a foodie, going to a new city is almost as exciting as Christmas day was when you were 8 years old. When you’re only going to be in town for a long weekend, you really want to do your research and find some places that you hope will not disappoint. My technique is to lurk hard on Yelp and local websites well in advance, and put together a list of potentials. At this point in my foodie life, when searching for food destinations, I use a few rules and techniques to create my list. I start with Yelp:
Step one: 3-star places and below are a ‘NoGo’. 4-star and above are usually safe bets.
Step two: You’re on vacation, don’t be afraid to go ‘$$’ or above – My stance when on vacation is to not hold back on spending. You want a great experience, you gotta pay for it sometimes.
Step three: Don’t read anything, just look at the pictures. You eat with your eyes first, as they say – thumb quickly and you’ll be able to tell if the place is serving up ‘basic’ stuff, or if it’s got an edge. Look for an impressive looking dish that shows up many times as you scroll through – you’ll want that dish!
Step four: Thumb through the reviews.. If there are only 8 reviews, they could all be friends of the owner or staff, it’s a new place, they want to make it look good. I want to see 100+ reviews on 4+ star places. I don’t really need to read – you can if you want, but I’m looking to see a bunch of 5-star reviews, with some 1-star reviews sprinkled in. 1 star reviews are usually left by people that have no clue what it’s like to be in the restaurant industry or had something occur that was sometimes entirely unrelated to the overall food experience (ie: “My baby cried, and the manager asked me if I needed help – how dare he!” or “A waitress spilled a drink on my reebox crosstrainers and no amount of sorry’s could dry up my wet sock!” or “they had a picture of a clown in the bathroom and I hate clowns”. Seriously). Or they could just be the competition. If you see a lot of 4-star reviews, then maybe the place is really just a 4-star place.
Step Five: Add it to your list, then when you’ve got a handful of locations, take to the local foodie blogs boasting ‘restaurants you have to try’ and see if your places made their lists.
Sounds a little involved, but this really shouldn’t take more than 45 min.. And if you’re as passionate about food as I am, then it’s actually a lot of fun.
So here are a bunch of pictures from our trip to Denver / Boulder / FortCollins. Not everything we ate is on here, but the good stuff is present!
Stop 1 – Euclid Hall Bar & Kitchen:
A portion of the Beer List:
Big Ear Pad Thai – Super tasty!
Sausage sampler, wth various mustards – My brother and I both thought the Blood sausage was the most complex and interesting (far left).
Green chili & pork poutine. A little salty, but went well with the beer we were drinking.
Stop #2: Denver Biscuit Company – This place is actually in a building with a couple other businesses, and it was a dead ringer with all 5 steps of my restaurant selecting technique!
Check out the beer list – it wasn’t even 10am yet, but I could have had a beer – love it.
And here was the sandwich that we ooh’d and awe’d over. (The franklin, with an egg on it!)
Every component of this sandwich was incredible – especially the biscuit, which usually plays second fiddle to the other components of a sandwich like this. It was so perfect, it just melted in my mouth into a rich, buttery blast of flavor. (and yes, that’s fried chicken)
Stop #3: Briar Common – This place was in walking distance from the Air BnB we stayed at, and was a craft brew place, that just happened to have some decent food too! Shrimp Corn Dogs, Deviled Eggs, and a killer burger with a runny-ass egg on it!
That is a f*ck ton of garlic aioli on there – and the burger was notably cooked very well.
Stop #4: Root Down – This one also hit all of the above criteria, and also came highly suggested by a fellow foodie. Killer bloody Mary with a pickled golden beet in the garnish, in case you’re wondering. Both of the sandwiches at this place were amazing. The combination of flavors and textures were absolutely on another level at this place, and the restaurant itself was a funky spot with a lot of personality.
Egg sandwich.
Lox sandwich
Stop #5: Avery Brewing Co. While this should be in one of the next parts of my series of Denver blogs, I’m separating the food experience from the beer experience, so we can keep things collated!
We started with a Das Jalapeno Pretzel, which was super good – actually had a pretty good kick to it!
Then… The meatloaf sandwich… That goddamn sandwich was probably the best sandwich I’ve had in years. I knew it was going to be heavy and rich, but it was so good!!! I only ate half of it, and ate the other half before going out later that evening.
#6: Airport 🙁 I was sad to go, but I let Denver fill me up one last time with a BLT with Avocado and spicy mayo on fresh baked rye bread, then later – after being delayed 3 hours – a killer breakfast sandwich. It was about this time, that I realized… EVERYTHING I ATE IN DENVER WAS A SANDWICH!!!!!! HOLY CRAP!
And of course, a bloody mary – a little hair of the dog to knock down the gruesome hangover I had going at this point.
The food scene in Denver, while all I had was sandwiches, lived up to the hype. There were certainly more high-end options available that we could have explored, I had a great time experiencing Colorado with my brother through the channel of food.
Part Two – Coming soon!