Bonus!!!

The Westword Menu Affair
Fillmore Auditorium
Thursday, October 18th
In Attendance:
Ang., Jen, Marie, Caroline and Katie
(The Lovely Chadwick and MC Ro-Land were bonus babes for the evening!)

You call it an Affair, I call it a One Night Stand.

This year the event was held at the Fillmore Theatre…Ugh!!!
It just did not have the upscale feel that it had the year before at Mile High Stadium (yep, I’m one of those, can’t really bring myself to call it by it’s corporate name!)
The Fillmore seemed so much more crowded and, yet, empty at the same time. The lines were usually long but they jutted from the tables rather than wrapping around and snaking through the whole thing…good or bad, I dunno just didn’t’ seem as efficient.
There was definitely not enough seating, even though the balcony and the west side area of the Fillmore was not being used at all.

Before we get to the food, I want to say something quick about the "live entertainment". This is a freakin' music venue...could anyone hear the band...anyone??? And the Iron Chef Denver thing was boring...problem was, they had it on the stage while any spectators they might have had were in the audience pit. Even though they had the jumbotron out no one could see what these guys were doing...word of advice, people might have been more interested it you would have had this demonstration at eye-level. Just a thought...throwin' it out there.

Now...the food affair.

There did not seem to be as many “vendors” as last year and the variety of food was just not present. But…if you were in the mood for Green Chile, well…you had come to the right place because I think there were about 3 or 4 places that had it. There were barely any vegetarian items and some of the restaurants didn’t seem to think of how people were going to actually eat their food.
There really wasn’t anything there that blew my mind (Note: I did not have the duck crepes and they seemed to be evening favorite!) The only thing that I really super enjoyed was the Tuna Tartar but I could not tell you the name of the restaurant that it came from because if I hadn’t been standing in line at the back corner bar I would never have come across them.
OH…I did love the organic, eco-friendly chocolates (this makes me sad that I cannot remember their name…but they were the cute little gals that were taking back their little foil wrappers for recycling and not the guy with the boxes and boxes of bars that he wasn’t giving away!) And the Danger Coffee…yum!!!
Anywhoo…the night wasn’t a total wash…there might have been no Chambord but there was plenty of vodka and that Amarula Cream stuff makes my belly happy!!
So…thank you again, Roland, but this year just didn’t really make me want to say MMMMMMMM.

The Mercury Cafe

Thursday, Oct 11, 2007
The Mercury Cafe
Jen's Pick
2199 California Street
Denver, CO 80205
Hours not posted on website
Attendees: Ang., Caroline, Jen, Lara

I picked The Mercury Cafe as it seemed to continue with my trend of choosing granola-y, kooky, vegetarian-friendly restaurants. I remembered it as being fun and atmospheric from the days when we used to hang out upstairs to watch our favorite band but had only eaten here once and hardly remember it. (Now I know why)

Altho they list an email address, the website says they would rather speak in person. This is curious as I emailed "marilyn" (who I believe is the owner) to let someone know we were coming. I'm pretty sure the website did not state that they would prefer to speak in person at the time I emailed or I would have just called. Either way, I never received a response. Makes me wonder why you would post an email address at all!? At any rate, I'm going to call it strike one.

Lara & Caroline arrived first and were sipping wine at the bar when Ang. & I arrived. I had to search for someone to seat us and finally approached a bar and asked someone. After some waffling, we were seated at a table in the middle of the room. There was a large book club or something next to us and apparently that is why it took our waitress what seemed like an eternity to get to our table. She was quiet, and somewhat spiritless and I had to ask her to repeat herself several times as she was very hard to hear. We ordered a bottle of wine and our dinners and wondered how long it might be...... We nibbled on the dry, flavorless bread while we waited.

In the meantime, there is this guy who seems to "work" here and he is wearing a fuzzy hat. For the life of me I cannot figure out what his job must be but I digress. He walks from the kitchen toward the bar and he is chewing food -- with his mouth open. Ewww - I think this is really gross and in poor taste. I do not mention it to the girls. Strike two.

I got a salad with my dinner - I chose the feta dressing. It was nothing special and the dressing was on the bland side. It was ok, but like I say, nothing special. Our dinners arrive, I ordered the Tempeh with Black Bean Sauce and quinoa - I find it surprisingly tasty. The tempeh is sliced not-to-thick, not-to-thin, and the black bean sauce is a nice distraction from the dryness of the tempeh. The quinoa was, quinoa, which is nice but the vegetables were probably my least favorite as the green beans were kind of... hard? Undercooked? I'm not sure, but they were weird.

Lara & Caroline ordered the "Tea" dinner so they got desserts with their dinners. Our dinners were gone but our plates sat in front of us, even as desserts were served. This is totally annoying to me - a total peeve. The desserts plates actually looked awesome, I think I had a bite but am not much for sweets right after dinner. So I do not count the desserts toward my review and offer a strike three for the dirty plates that never left our sight.

We finally paid our bill and got the heck outta there. The "Merc" doesn't accept credit cards, by the way, so keep this in mind should you choose to attend. I am pretty sure I was the most disappointed by this dinner but I'll let the other gals speak for themselves. I personally won't return the Mercury Cafe by my own choosing - I'll have to be forced.

On a positive sidenote - I love the water-recycling toilets at The Mercury Cafe. This is brilliant and should be used everywhere!