DENVER ― I never thought of Denver as much of a foodie destination, though Frasca, a 30-minute drive away in Boulder, gets heaps of well-deserved praise. But on a weekend trip a few months ago, I encountered a few meals ― and a few drinks ― that have me eager to return.

The LoDo (lower downtown) area has undergone an amazing revitalization and now is crowded with restaurants and bars and young professionals eager to sample them. The turnaround began with the 1988 opening of Wynkoop Brewing Co., a small-batch brewer-cum-restaurant-cum-pool hall that lured people back downtown. It’s a good place for a brew and burger; the signature pour is the Rail Yard Ale (Denver’s Union Station is just down the block) along with such creations as Rocky Mountain Oyster stout. The restaurant end offers the usual comfort-food classics, plus the occasional delicate touch (wasabi-pea-crusted ahi salad, anyone?), and the ploughman’s platter, an array of locally produced sausages and cheeses with house-made beer mustard is your best choice (but get a pretzel or two). Grab a take-home bottle of the beer mustard on your way out; I did, and I’ve used it all up already.

A bit farther away, in central Denver, sits Colt & Gray; it calls itself a neighborhood pub, but the dining room is far more handsome than any pub I’ve seen, with white tablecloths, padded leather chairs and a roaring, two-sided fireplace. The menu offers solid dishes such as grilled quail, Duroc pork chops and local trout meuniere, but the real treasures are among the bar snacks and small plates, where you’ll find an array of snout-to-tail goodies, including crispy pig trotters, braised lamb tongue over curried lentils and remarkable, thin-sliced beef hearts with beets, grilled bread and greens dressed with horseradish vinaigrette. Save room for the “potted cheesecake,” a hinged minijar with cheesecake custard and a salted-caramel topping, from which juts an orange-tuile cigar.

Back in LoDo, ChoLon is a “modern Asian bistro” with a region-hopping menu and a handful of fusion dishes you’re likely to love or hate. My friends, for instance, were split on the novel soup dumplings, which were filled with onion broth and Gruyere cheese, essentially becoming French onion soup dumplings. (For the record, I loved them.) Another novelty tops cubes of toasted bread with coconut jam alongside a dipping sauce called “egg cloud,” whipped egg whites with salt, pepper and a little sugar. The ping-pong sweet-salty interplay can be wearying, but locals swear by it. Straightforward dishes include pork-belly pot stickers with ginger mustard sauce, black-pepper short ribs with Chinese broccoli and house-made chow fun noodles, and chili-spiced crab rolls alongside a smear of sriracha mayo. The dining room is crowded, dark and deafeningly noisy, making the atmosphere yet another acquired taste.

A short cab ride away to the Highland neighborhood, you’ll find Linger, a young-people’s magnet set on a hill, offering terrific city views. The place originally was called Olinger, back when it was a mortuary, and water comes to your table in squat brown bottles meant to remind you of formaldehyde containers.

Ahem. The globe-trotting menu is organized by geography, making the selections literally all over the map. Linger isn’t really a food experience, but you’ll probably enjoy the “fries” of saag paneer planks served with rhubarb ketchup, and devils on horseback, which are bacon-wrapped, goat-cheese-stuffed dates with a spicy sambal sauce.

By Phil Vettel

(Chicago Tribune)
(MCT Information Services)