From Casa Bonita to Colt and Gray

Todd and I visited both Casa Bonita (his idea) and Colt and Gray (my idea) one night in February, and the only other thing that connected them was that I acted like a crazed photographer at both, to the point of annoying Todd (and probably other people). And racing around that way didn’t do much for my photographs either.Beth Partin's photos, Denver attractions, Denver restaurants

I realized later I could have sat down at our table at Casa Bonita and eaten “dinner” (my taco salad was a relatively safe choice), Beth Partin's photos, Denver travel, Denver attractions, Denver restaurantstalked more to our dinner companions, and then taken photographs afterward. Probably, I would have gotten the same quality photographs without bouncing up and down like a Jill-in-the-Box. But I had just bought a new camera 5 days earlier, and I couldn’t wait to try it out.

It was a humbling experience. My new Canon 60D is a great camera, but the limits of its flash were fairly apparent at Casa Bonita. The pop-up flash wasn’t powerful enough for the dark interior. It worked well enough for members of the mariachi band, who stood close to our table. Denver attractions, visit Denver, Denver travel, mariachi bands
But it didn’t work so well when I tried to capture the acts near the waterfall.

Denver attractions, Casa Bonita cliff diver, visit Denverfire, juggler, juggling, Denver attractions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those two photos had to be lightened up considerably, even after I bumped up the ISO to about 1,000.

Taking a photo from behind the waterfall gives some sense of the size of the place. Beth Partin's photos, Casa Bonita divers, Denver restaurants

I think that the waterfall is behind the tower shown here. Denver travel, Denver Mexican restaurantsOur seats were on the top level, and there is at least 1 other level, possibly 2—I can’t remember. I know that we entered the restaurant, stood in this line, which reminds me of the security line at DIA,flash photography, Beth Partin's photos, Denver restaurants

and then walked up a ramp to get to our seats (right by the waterfall).

I wonder how much money Casa Bonita makes in an evening. There’s no reason to linger over dinner, but it’s worthwhile to hang around to watch more acts like this magician, Beth Partin's photos, Casa Bonita magician, Denver attractionsbuy cotton candy or toys, and play games in the arcade. One of our companions goes every year for her birthday. I can’t see myself going that often, but I would go back with a better flash and more time to concentrate on photography.

Colt and Gray is almost the complete opposite of Casa Bonita. The former is a small restaurant on an urban street in Denver’s Central Platte Valley neighborhood. It focuses on local, lovingly prepared food, and its bar features “mixologists” and locally made liquor such as the Leopold Brothers’ products shown here. Denver mixologists, Denver restaurants, gastropubs Its dinner menu includes the category “Offal.” There is one similarity, though, between CB and C&G: it’s fun to sit at the bar and watch the bartenders in action.

So far, I’ve had the Spaniard, the Martinez with Old Tom Gin (spilled on me by an overly vigorous bartender, who promptly replaced it with a mix of tequila and mezcal and spicy vermouth), and the Fernet cocktail. Todd has had the Fancy-Free, which like the Fernet is on the current cocktails menu. But my favorite drink by far came after I requested a drink with chocolate. What I got in the absence of chocolate in the bar was a mixture of Root liqueur, Upslope Brown Ale, Bourbon bitters, and a whole egg. Root liqueur, Beth Partin's photos, Denver restaurantsIt was luscious, growing sweeter toward the bottom. It also caused the most annoying photo-incident of the night, because I had great difficulty getting the flash to focus. I finally managed it, but Todd was not happy about the strobe-light effect. And I was not happy when I went to edit this picture and discovered the white balance was set to tungsten (I had forgotten to change it to AWB after taking pictures at Casa Bonita). Thank goodness for RAW files.

I’ve been served one dinner at Colt and Gray (on an earlier visit) and lots of snacks. This burger was cooked properly (that is, I asked for medium and got a burger that was pink inside), Denver gastropubs, Denver gastro pubs, Denver gastro-pubsbut the real star of the meal was the broccoli with rosemary anchovy dressing. Broccoli is not my favorite vegetable, unless it’s grilled and has this salty dressing poured on it. Then I could eat it all day.

The gougeres crusted with blue cheese were nice enough, warm and bready, but I wasn’t as impressed by them as I expected to be. Denver restaurants, Central Platte Valley restaurants

What I wanted from Colt and Gray that night (besides something to wash the taste of Casa Bonita food out of my mouth) was a sweet, and the rich drink didn’t change that. I ordered the sticky toffee pudding with bourbon ice cream. bourbon ice cream, Beth Partin's photosThe sticky toffee lived up to its name, but the best part of the dessert was the whiskey-flavored ice cream. Colt and Gray is a Denver restaurant to visit again and again, for dinner or for snacks and drinks. As Todd said on our first visit, “It’s a good day when you get grease stains all over your notebook.”
Casa Bonita on UrbanspoonColt & Gray on Urbanspoon

Denver Restaurants: Paris on the Platte, Again

On my way to Sanctuary on Sunday, I stopped in at Paris on the Platte for lunch and decided to try something new: cambric, or Earl Gray tea with steamed milk and cinnamon on top.

I was a little startled when this pitcher appeared, but the waitress assured me it was the smallest size (16 ounces). I drank all 3 or 4 cups, loving the taste of tea plus steamed milk plus cinnamon, even though I knew the entire time that I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep that night. Why is it that tea keeps me up but coffee doesn’t?

For lunch I ordered Zorba the Greek, which was better than the house salad I had on my last visit. To be honest, the two salads are built on the same foundation of romaine lettuce; in this case, cucumbers, feta, olives, red onions and a balsamic vinaigrette made it “Greek.” The salad wasn’t gasping for air under gobs of feta, and the dressing was just a little sweet.

I find lately that I like eating olives a lot more than I did in the past. Must be the change of life.

There was a suspicious incident at the end, when the bill came with a charge for a small pitcher. The waitress corrected the amount, and I paid.

Now I’m curious to see what the small pitcher looks like. It would probably keep me up for a week.
Paris on the Platte on Urbanspoon

Denver Photos: More Blossoms of Light

Since I bought a MacBook last December, I’ve been flailing around a bit in Aperture, reading the manual and watching some tutorials. It definitely has more options than Zoombrowser, the program that came with my Canon Digital Rebel. At the moment, it seems like too many options, but I’m enjoying learning my way around.

I took this picture of a blue-topped tree in the Japanese Garden at the Denver Botanic Gardens. I’m not including the “master” here; the first “version” has shadows turned all the way up. Now you can see the house in the background.In this version, I left shadows alone and increase the tint and vibrancy settings. I also played with the black point setting. As far as I can tell, upping the black point setting has the same effect as upping the contrast.And in this one, I turned hue and saturation down and luminance up.I liked turning the top of the tree white without having to do any spot editing (which I don’t know how to do yet).

None of these pictures seems really sharp, despite my use of a tripod. Right now I don’t have a way to take pictures without touching the camera, so I think I was moving it just a little.

Denver Photos: Blossoms of Lighthearted

Every year I go to Blossoms of Light at the Denver Botanic Gardens. I prefer it to Wildlights at the Zoo. (For those readers in south Denver, there are also lights displays at Chatfield Reservoir and the Wildlife Experience. I haven’t been to those.) Here’s a close-up of that blue tree, which was difficult to photograph, since it was across a walkway from a pond. My favorite display was this fountain at the end of the Perennial Walk.I played around with the image a bit in Aperture to achieve this effect, which, I admit, is silly,but it reminded me of this picture I took at Carlsbad Caverns almost 3 years ago. The sign above it reads, “Favor de tocar esta formacion.” In other words, touch this one all you want, but don’t touch the real formations in the cave, because you’ll damage them.

For more photographs from this visit to Blossoms of Light, check out Girls Trek Too.

Denver Restaurants: Forest Room 5 in Lower Highlands

A last, short, Christmas Eve post this week: after my shopping travails, I needed nourishment. I thought of the House of Commons, a tea shop near Common Era, and of Sushi Sasa around the corner on Platte, where I haven’t been for years, but the House of Commons looked too crowded with cheery groups that sometimes make me feel even-more-singleton than I am. Sushi Sasa, by contrast, was empty, and I was planning to have sushi on Christmas Eve anyway.

So I trudged across the 15th Street bridge over I-25 to Lower Highlands, which I suppose is elevated enough above the South Platte River to deserve its own moniker (though it’s still quite a ways from 32nd and Lowell, the heart of the Highlands neighborhood) and found Forest Room 5 to be just right.Forest Room 5 exterior night Dec 2009

You can’t tell from the picture of the exterior above, but it was quite dark inside, so dim that the helpful bartender gave me this big candle so I could read the menu (that blurry thing in the foreground). The blue patch on the right is part of a movie that was showing above the bar. Forest Room 5 bar dark Dec 2009I had to rest my camera on the bar itself in order to get any semblance of focus, and that was at ISO 1600.

The 5 or 6 other patrons at the bar (the tables along the wall were empty) looked askance at my gyrations, but they didn’t say anything.

The ostensible reason for the lack of light on the winter solstice: Forest Room 5 is renovating its back room (where Lighthouse Writers often held readings) to be a “venue”: in other words, a real stage. Somehow that affects the amount of light in the long front room, which was never very well lit on my previous visits.

After the bartender figured out that I wanted to order food instead of sit at the bar and eat my own food as some patrons have requested, he took my order for the risotto with eggplant and butternut squash and a Woodchuck cider. Unlike the risotto-soup I had at Brio Tuscan Grille in Kansas City, Forest Room 5′s dish was the real thing: Forest Room 5 risotto Dec 2009thick with a cheesiness to some of the bites that couldn’t be explained simply by the parmesan shavings on top.

Having not had that many risottos in my life, I did wonder, are they all so pale? Is that traditional?

I was certain that the squash was zucchini, not butternut, and the chef confirmed it. (No doubt you’re thinking, “Of course that’s zucchini there in the lower left-hand corner,” but please keep in mind that I used a flash for this picture. I really couldn’t see what was in the food.) Where the eggplant was, I’ll never know. I could have eaten one-quarter of the dish and had enough, but I didn’t stop until all the rice pearls were gone.

Forest Room 5 is one of my favorite places in Denver, partly because I associate it with poetry (Lighthouse) and activism (I’ve been to meetings there) and partly because I once ordered the hot chocolate, which involved a massive mug of cocoa and peppermint schnapps and a selection of cookies. That is no longer on the menu, but the memory of it keeps drawing me back for more good things.

Denver Shops: Unity and Common Era

I was raised Catholic. Maybe you’ve heard the Jesuit saying attributed to Francis Xavier, “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” Well, the Catholics had me until twice age 7. I never did turn into a man (perhaps that was the problem?) or remain Catholic past high school.

But the legacy remains in a certain ascetic streak exacerbated by my current life and the holiday season. Sometimes I just can’t stand how much stuff I buy, and yet I don’t want to stop. I know I’m not cut out for the pure subsistence lifestyle, but I can’t see my way out of consumerism either.

It was in this mood that I continued my shopping on Monday after buying a fish pillow at Tomte Modern Craft. First I visited Unity, Unity South Platte exterior Dec 2009whose store on South Pearl I covered last December, and then Common Era (on the right below),Common Era South Platte exterior Dec 2009 which also has a store in Boulder just east of the Pearl Street Mall.

Don’t know what it is about these stores grounding themselves on Pearl and Platte streets, no matter what the city. I do know that both increase my shopping ambivalence, probably because they’re designed for teens and twenty-somethings, not 47-year-old women with a BMI of 25. Having said that, I was seriously tempted by Unity’s DVLP hoodie at $100. The fact that DVLP hails from Denver and is committed to building an international fashion scene in my city doesn’t hurt.

Neither did these storm trooper cufflinks. Unity South Platte storm trooper cufflinks Dec 2009I can think of quite a few people who would like them, but they’re not on my gift list. Too bad for them.

Unity’s tiny shop on Platte Street (right next to Sous le Lit) has been open 3 months and features women’s clothes; the South Pearl store had more of a men’s selection. Brands include Lento (“slow” in Spanish), which makes biodegradable hats (now that’s a niche); Livity Outernational; Tom’s Shoes, which donates one pair to a child for every pair bought; and Threads 4 Thought, which makes delicate patterned T-shirts for slender women.

It was only a few steps across Platte to Common Era, Common Era South Platte exterior detail Dec 2009which is in between Paris on the Platte and Wen Chocolates. Luckily for my BMI, Wen is not open on Mondays, but that didn’t ease my craving for a Milan truffle.

After checking out a few of the “cutest clothes you’ll ever own,” I decided that everything in Common Era was made in China, but then I found (and tried on) 3 pairs of Closet pants made in the USA and priced around $30.Common Era South Platte Closet pants Dec 2009 How is that possible? I don’t know. I’m not sure I would have gone for the wide legs even if they had fit. Still, Common Era does know how to display the goods.Common Era South Platte hats Dec 2009

Which is my problem.

Denver Shops: REI

I’ll open my review of REI with this quote from the website:

What began as a group of 23 mountain climbing buddies is now the nation’s largest consumer cooperative with more than three million active members. But no matter how large we grow, our roots remain firmly planted in the outdoors. Our passion for outdoor adventure is clear, whether you walk into one of our 100-plus stores, phone us, or visit the REI website.

By staying true to our roots, we’ve earned a place on FORTUNE magazine’s list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” every year since the rankings began in 1998. We work hard to earn our reputation for quality and integrity every day. Our commitment remains the same as when we started out in 1938: to inspire, educate and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure.

REI was established in the Pacific Northwest. Even though it isn’t a homegrown store, I think of it as a local institution. It has several locations in the Denver Metro area, including the Denver “flagship” store, off 15th Street near Platte in the 1901 Denver Tramway building. (This picture was taken at the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek. Fifteenth Street is off to the right.) REI from across Platte Denver 2009I both love and hate visiting that store. As you can see from this picture, REI long view from fireplace Dec 2009it’s huge and has a large selection, but walking up the stairs always gives me the willies. Unfortunately, the women’s clothing section is located upstairs. Every time I go, I ask myself, “Do I really need to look at clothes? I could just stay on this floor and look at backpacks!” If I stay downstairs, I can sit and relax by the fireplace, or read in the bookstore (off to the left in this picture). REI fireplace Dec 2009

I’m a little more comfortable in the Boulder store, which is constructed around a raised central area designed for readings and meetings.

As a member of REI, I get a dividend every year (usually about $20). I can order something online and have it delivered to any store I want for free.

My main complaint about REI is that almost everything in the store is an import. You will find some products made in the USA, such as Patagonia clothing. Last year I found hats made in Boulder and bought two, one for me and one for Todd.

I can’t think of any other store in this area that has such a comprehensive selection of outdoor gear.

Denver Restaurants: India’s Pearl

India’s Pearl has been a rumor in my ear for some time now, but it wasn’t until last Saturday India's Pearl exterior 2008that I actually sat down in the restaurant and had a proper meal. I’m not yet willing to award it the title of best Indian restaurant in the Denver Metro area. Possibly because of nostalgia, I’d still give that title to Royal Peacock in Boulder.

The restaurant itself is beautiful inside; India's Pearl entrance Dec 2009we sat in the main room, facing the wine display. There’s a bar upstairs where they have karaoke on Wednesdays. It’s more laid-back upstairs, though I wouldn’t call the main floor formal, just elegant.

The obligatory pappadums came with tamarind, mint, and onion chutney nicely arranged on a glass tray. Sometimes I wish servers would ask me if I wanted it; I suppose that’s like complaining about chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant. Our appetizer, the vegetable lettuce wrap, wasn’t bad for comfort food. India's Pearl veggie lettuce wraps Dec 2009The peas, onions, potatoes, carrots, and bell peppers spiced with cardamom were hot and slightly firm but not at all spicy, as we’d asked.

India’s Pearl has one of the most intriguing menus I’ve ever seen at an Indian restaurant, including beef, scallops, lobster, duck, and quail along with plenty of chicken and vegetable entrees. So far I’ve tried only 3 dishes: a chicken korma that was darker, heavier, and less sweet than any other I’ve had; the chicken saag I ordered; and Todd’s Tandoori beef. India's Pearl Tandoori steak with lemon potatoes Dec 2009It was a novel sensation for me, tasting Tandoori spices on a relatively tender steak, and I would recommend it for that reason alone. But it was also very good, although the “lemon potatoes” should have been called “rosemary potatoes.” Todd thought my saag was heartier than most, and the blend of garlic, onion, and turmeric still tasted as good the next day.India's Pearl chicken saag Dec 2009

The naan, one of my favorite breads in the world, had been left sitting too long.

And that’s how it went at India’s Pearl: simple things were not executed as well as they should have been, but the more complex dishes really shone. I wish I lived closer to Denver’s  South Pearl neighborhood and had an excuse to try India’s Pearl more often. But with two Indian restaurants much closer to home, and another two—my favorites—in Boulder, India’s Pearl has a lot of competition.
India's Pearl on Urbanspoon

Denver Restaurants: Jonesy’s EatBar

Today I had every intention of writing about Scribbles in the South Platte River neighborhood, “a unique stationery and invitation boutique with a modern sense of grace.” Whatever. But my dated pictures of Halloween decorations stopped me from doing so. I need Christmas cards, so I’ll visit again and give you a more contemporary update soon. (Seriously, go check out the “About Us” page. It’s cute.)

In place of that, I give you Jonesy’s EatBar, a gastropub in Uptown. I’ve eaten there twice in its current incarnation, but I remember when it was the Painted Bench. I was taking a screenwriting class from Lighthouse Writers in 2002, and after many of the classes we would get dinner at the Painted Bench, on 20th Avenue west of Park Avenue, just a block or two from the instructor’s apartment.

I had charcuterie there, which was good. Sometime after 2002 the restaurant turned into the Dish, which I never visited. Then the owner of the Dish decided to simplify her life as a high-end restaurateur, and Jonesy’s was born in 2008.

Last spring, I went there with Denveater and had the Lamby Joe sliders with bacon, blue cheese, and caramelized onion, and the buffalo fries. Jonesys EatBar lamb sliders Uptown Denver 2009The blue cheese and hot sauce on the fries seemed like an afterthought, but the sliders had this tender, moist meat that I still dream about.

Denveater ordered the mac-and-cheese to take home, which I tasted. The “un-fancy, down-home” style didn’t make much of an impression. Perhaps I’m just a sucker for multiple cheeses a la Dazzle or D Bar. But when Todd and I went back months later and ordered the split fries (both mac-and-cheese fries and truffle and aioli fries), Jonesy's EatBar truffle and Mac and Cheese fries Oct 2009I changed my mind. It may have been the combination of potato and cheddar and bacon that made the difference. I ate most of them and left the truffle fries for Todd. Again, the topping there seemed incidental.

As if to make up for that indulgence, Todd ordered the Caesar Salad and I the Thai Green Curry Veggie Bowl. Jonesy's EatBar Thai gree curry veggie bowl Oct 2009Todd’s salad dressing had enough garlic and anchovy to be spicy and rich, whereas the veggie bowl was merely spicy without a lot of coconut or other flavor to make up for it.

One of Jonesy’s more endearing traits is its focus on Colorado craft beers and interesting wines. Neither of us drinks much beer, so we went for wine: in Todd’s case, the Aveleda Fonte Vinho Verde, which smelled of litchi and tasted of grapefruit; in my case, the Santa Rita Reserve Cabernet (Chile), which had very soft tannins and a warm fruit aroma.

At happy hour (M-F, 5-7, and Sunday night), wine is half-price and certain beers are $2.50. If you like a quieter dining scene, I suggest going then. Jonesy’s gets pretty loud when it’s full.
Jonesy's EatBar on Urbanspoon

Denver Restaurants on Capitol Hill: Bones

Bones
701 Grant Street
Capitol Hill, Denver
303-860-2929
Bus directions: take the 0 from Market Street Station to Broadway and 7th. Walk east on 7th to Grant.

Bones is, at heart, an economical restaurant. It doesn’t waste much time on signage, for instance. I was walking down Grant thinking it was on 8th and had to call the people I was meeting to get new directions. When I did get to the intersection at 7th, nothing presented itself except Luca d’Italia, Mizuna, and the Lancer Lounge. I asked the guy with the spotted dachshund if he knew where Bones was, and he said he’d never heard of it. Presumably a man walking a dog comes from the neighborhood, so that boded badly.

Finally, with trepidation, I approached this door.Bones's front door, Denver 2009 You can’t tell from the picture, but “Bones” is painted above the door in tiny type, and in larger type to the left of the door. It’s a small place, about the size of D Bar Desserts. At 5:30, it was full.

Turned out that I was supposed to have been there at 5, which I would have known if I didn’t go on email strike on the weekends.

Turned out that the same man, Frank Bonanno, owns Bones, Mizuna, Luca d’Italia (all on the corner of 7th and Grant in Capitol Hill), and Osteria Marco in Larimer Square (Luca and Marco being the names of his sons). He’d probably buy the Lancer Lounge if he could and turn that into yet another restaurant. Or expand one of the others, since Bones and Mizuna are both small.

To me, running so many places implies an economy of effort. A person that busy has to know exactly what to do and when to do it, or the restaurants all come crashing down.

Yet he still found time to come by our table twice in the three hours we were there, and even signed my grease-stained one-page menu. If he devotes the same level of care to his staff as he does to his customers, his restaurants must be great places to work.

Our waitress took good care of us too.

And the food, Beth?

Oh, yeah. Since I arrived half an hour late, Denveater and our other dining companion had already started, but they were kind enough to leave me a steamed bun with suckling pig (shaped like a taco rather than a traditional pork bun), a beef eggroll, and some bone marrow, which was a treat for me. My first thought was to compare it to pâté, but its texture was less firm than most pâté, more like silky blobs of cooked fat, and its flavor was more meaty. I can see why Denveater loves it so much.

Also, there’s something about sticking a knife into the bone and prying out your food.

My favorite, though, was the black cod tempura.bones-black-cod-tempura-denver-2009 The batter was more delicate than your typical tempura from a Japanese restaurant, and on the first bite, my mouth filled with a light fish flavor. The jalapeño added the right amount of heat.

Almost everything I ate at Bones, with the exception of the eggroll and the steamed bun, was wet and soft and fatty. I did wish the escargot potstickersbones-escargot-potstickers-denver-2009 had been crispier on the outside (and I also wish I had focused a little more carefully).

But then, wet is appropriate for food at a noodle bar. My egg noodles with duck leg confit (meat cooked in its own fat) and oyster broth were delicious,bones-egg-noodles-with-duck-denver-2009 but I had to take a break for a while because I was so full. The duck was lovely, but the oyster broth didn’t really register with me.

In case you can’t tell, I’m in over my head here. It’s been so long since I’ve had either escargot or oysters that they taste new.

If I stick around Denveater long enough, I’m sure I’ll get used to them, since she loves oysters. She was entertaining us at Bones with stories of how she got from “I don’t care if it’s good. I just want to eat” to the food writer extraordinaire she is today. Be sure to check out her (future) blog post on Bones, especially her take on all the namazake (unpasteurized sake) that we drank.

Did I say, at the beginning, that Bones was economical? Well, we got the bill. Considering all we ate and drank, it was a fair price. But if you go there, don’t let the low prices fool you. They add up pretty quickly.
Bones on Urbanspoon

Denver Restaurants on Capitol Hill: City, O’ City

City, O' City exterior, Denver 2009City, O’ City
206 East 13th Avenue (next to Watercourse Bakery)
13th and Sherman
Capitol Hill, Denver
303-831-6443
Open until 2 am every night
Bus directions:take the 0 from Market Street Station to Broadway and 13th; walk east to Sherman

On an extended mosey up 13th Avenue to see the off-Colfax regions of Capitol Hill, I came upon City, O’ City. As soon as I stepped through the door I got a big welcome city-o-city-welcome-sign-denver-2009and went to sit at the bar.

I had heard this place was a hangout for the Capitol Hill crowd, but it looked far too laid-back for that. It was also fairly empty on a Saturday. And I soon realized it was a vegetarian restaurant, which I hadn’t expected at all. I must have decided in my head that it was a wood-paneled, dark, very masculine kind of place that served large helpings of meat.

I ordered one of the specials, a Garden Pie, which sounded intriguing. While dreams of quiche filled my head, I sipped my cup of Jasmine Pouchong tea, one of their top-shelf selections at $2.53 per mismatched cup and saucer.

The 10-inch Garden Pie was not quiche, of course, but a pizza unlike any I’ve ever had before:city-o-city-garden-pie-denver-2009 no cheese, drenched in the reduction, and covered with small pieces of arugula and tomatoes and asparagus and onion. When my waitress in the low-backed dress put it on the bar in front of me, it was steaming. Amazingly, despite the reduction everywhere, the crust was still crisp through the first and even the second pieces (I ate three and had to leave the rest because I didn’t want to carry it around). It was not elegantly presented, but for a salad on pizza crust, it tasted good and provided a lot of nourishment for $9—enough food for two people, or even three who wanted a light meal.

Sometime during the second piece of pizza, my leg began to go numb. I sat at the bar so I could talk to the staff, but I think a table would be more comfortable than the wobbly black-and-silver bar stools. The music, described as “down tempo” on the website, was funky and vaguely new age by turns. Behind me sat a young woman in a white beret, reading; another skinny young woman in black leather leggings came in to order some coffee.

One of the servers, who had corkscrew brown curls and was wearing a shiny red-and-black-checked shirt, city-o-city-interior-denver-2009told me that Watercourse Foods had been here until a couple of years ago, and after it moved to a new location in Uptown Denver, the owners opened City, O’ City in the old space. Right next door is Watercourse Bakery, where you can get gluten-free baked goods.

So the name has changed and the menu has (mostly) changed and a wall was knocked out, but the vibe is the same. Politicos come by for lunch or a drink and sit down with their opponents and relax. Then they go back to the Capitol and resume their battles. But it’s not just lobbyists and lawyers: the young artists who attend the Art Institute of Colorado at 12th and Lincoln like the cheap food too.

So what is City, O’ City, besides a place with a funny, vaguely poetic name? A vegetarian restaurant? A pizza joint? A coffeehouse? A bar that stays open until 2 am?

I suspect it will require more investigation.
City, O' City on Urbanspoon