Chocolate and Cheese

d-Bar desserts
1475 E 17th Ave
Denver, CO

Dinner Date: October 8th, 2009
Attendees: Katie, Ang., Jen, Caroline, Marie

Bittersweet, like chocolate, and that song...is my assessment of Denver's d-bar desserts.

Bitter: The Wai-aaaa-ting Is The Hardest Part.

At the d-bar, you will wait. It seems everyone waits...you could probably go alone and have to wait. There are probably people waiting for the door to be unlocked when they open. The place is small and no matter where you stand you are in the way...of other people wanting to get in to wait, the wait staff or people who are actually lucky enough to be done with their waiting.
Let me reiterate here...this place is small. They have one large table that seats 8, and those 8 people are not usually a group of 8 but several smaller groups. They have a few cafe like tables against the wall, 4 tops and 2 tops, booth seating against the wall and chairs on the outside. Then there is bar seating at the counter and along the window on one side.
Naturally, d-bar does not take reservations because they want you to wait. They want you to be seen by the traffic on 17th to be waiting...it's great advertising and it's all free!

I will point out that we were a party of five and there can be up to 8 of us at any given dinner. I would personally like to thank the girls that didn't make it to dinner or there is no way we would have been seated if all of us had showed. I cannot even imagine what our wait time would have been. At the end of a very slow glass of wine...the 5 of us were seated at the bar, not really an ideal spot for a party of five considering we could not really enjoy conversation with each other, but after our particular wait time, we were happy to be sitting at all.

Sweet: Food, Glorious, Food!

We started our evening with an order of the special appetizer fries. First...these should be on the menu at all times. They were DIVINE!!! In fact, I want them right now. Perfectly cooked skinny fries covered with their signature 4 cheese Mac and Cheese sauce...there was other stuff in there but don't ask me what it was because I was too busy gorging myself on my share of these that I couldn't tell you. Holy moley...I am salivating like Homer Simpson at Lamar's Doughnuts right now just thinking about these fries! My guess is that even though they were a "special" you could probably get these folks to serve them up to you anytime as Mac and Cheese is a staple on their small food menu (I had a bit of Katie's Mac & Cheese and wowsers...you can guess that is a house favorite.)
For my dinner I had the special Flatbread pizza with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Organic Pepperoni...it was simple and perfect and delicious.

Now for the reason this place exists and people will wait:
Dessert, and let's not mince words with their logo...that is dessert with a capital "D". As mentioned above, we were seated at the bar and pretty much got to watch the dessert gal (the I-Do-Not-Smile-And-Being-Engaging-With-Customers-Is-Not-My-Job dessert gal) make everything on the dessert menu was quite the treat. You would think that sort of thing would be of assistance when ordering your dessert, but you would be wrong. I had the hardest time deciding on what to have. I finally went with the Molten-Cake Thing That Everyone Seems To Have...a steamed chocolate cake with a truffle hidden inside, topped with 3 kinds of berries and the most delicious cherry I have ever eaten in my life, with chocolate sauce smear and topped with pistachio ice cream...holy jeez whiz...freakin' amazing!!! I couldn't finish it all but pretty much decimated the little plate so their was no salvaging leftovers there.
As for the other girls they will have to tell you about their dinners and desserts cause I'm having a little trouble typing, what with all the mental drooling I'm doing right now.

Bittersweet: It's Bittersweet, More Sweet Than Bitter, Bitter Than Sweet, It's A Bitter Sweet, Surrender.

I liked the d-bar. I'm glad we went to the d-bar. I probably will never go back to the d-bar. It really is a one-time-only kind of thing. It's just too small, the wait is just too much, the food was awesome but maybe they should just be a coffee and dessert place and skip the dinner thing, that way they can turn over more customers and alleviate some of the waiting. It's a treat place, it's a date-night for dessert place or a dessert before dinner hipster hangout. It's lovely and like I said, I'm glad we went but in the end, I'm just not that hip, and as hard as that is to believe, it's true, really, I'm not.


PS...Helpful Hints or as I like to call 'em, If You Go Notes:
Go early...
Go when it's warm out...they have a nice size patio and can probably accommodate twice as many customers outside as in...

xoang.

Go Veggie!

Watercourse Foods
837 E 17th Ave
Denver, CO 80218-1467

Dinner Date: September 10th, 2009
Attendees: Katie, Jen, Ang., Rhonda, Caroline, Lara, Cat

Watercourse Foods is a Denver institution. They, without dispute, make the most amazing gravy (as in biscuits and gravy) in the world. I am dying to have it sent to some sort of culinary lab to have it decoded so I could make it at home. I have known employees and ex-employees that have sworn they don't know the secret of the gravy. It's also not your typical vegetarian/vegan restaurant...there really is something for everyone, even the most die-hard carnivore that will go on a tirade about not climbing to the top of the food chain to eat tofu can find something that will totally appease and satiate them.

Until Thursday night, I had not been to Watercourse since they moved to their location on 17th Avenue nor had I ever eaten there for dinner. Besides parking being what it is on 17th (not that I remember we had that much of a problem or a walk) the restaurant is very lovely...open and airy, with a long, wrap-around bar and the walls are tastefully colored with artwork everywhere. Which is a good thing because we spent a lot of time at the bar, waiting.

And as far as things go, we spent a lot of time waiting everywhere that evening.

I'll admit, Thursday there were 7 of us girls, an odd number, sure, but it seems doubtful that our wait would have been any less had there only been 6 of us. Looking around there didn't seem to be any tables to accommodate parties more than 4...which is fine, but our wait at the bar had to be on the closer to the 45 minutes to an hour side.

Once we were at the table things didn't seem to move at any quicker a pace. It seemed to me (and I could be wrong about this, if I am I'm hoping one of the other gals will correct me in the comments section) that we had to wait a significant amount of time not only for our order to be taken but for our food to arrive. I just remember having the thought at one point that quite possibly my napkin is made out of some biodegradable stuff that could be fit for human consumption. But, admittedly, I'll just throw in that we could have ordered appetizers at the bar, we didn't and that is our fault, so really, quit with the whining already, eh?

As for the food...no complaints. Everything was delicious and except for the gals that ordered the Portabello steak sandwiches, I tried a little of everyone's dinner. I decided to go with something I had never tried before, seitan. For those, like me, unfamiliar, seitan is sometimes referred to as "wheat meat" as it is made from wheat glutan. I had the Seitan Fried Steak with Mashed Potatoes, and smothered with that famous gravy it was fantastic. Here's what I love about Watercourse...just because it's vegetarian and vegan does not necessarily mean it's "healthy" or bland at all...like I mentioned before, there really is something for everyone, you just have to have an open mind, an adventurous spirit and be willing to try something you might not even thought you wanted to try.

Due to our wait time, we were all pretty much starving once our food arrived and our chatter pretty much died away as we ate, quickly. By then it was past nine and some of us were tired and just wanted to go home and go to bed, so we got our bill and divvied it up. And that's where things seemed to take a weird turn. As any restaurant is well within their rights (and I say I approve of this practice) Watercourse Foods adds an 18% gratuity to parties of 6 or more. It all worked out, the bill was sectioned, each of us paid our portion, including all the glasses of wine that were consumed during our wait at the bar before dinner... and then Cat, deciding she just had to have one more glass of wine, got up from the table and went to the bar and purchased another glass of wine. I don't know, maybe it is common practice everywhere but the bartender added 18% gratuity to her glass of wine purchase. It was weird and rubbed me the wrong way considering our server (who's name I cannot recall nor did I write down) did not serve her the glass of wine nor was it ordered at the table. Needless to say it ended the evening on a rather strange and sour note.

But overall and in the end, I had a great dinner in a great restaurant that I will frequent over and over...their menu is just too-too to-die-for! And as long as that gravy exists and that is the only place I can get it, well...wait or no wait, I'll be there.

xoang.

This Side of the Border

The Pioneer
2401 S University Blvd
Denver, CO 80210

Dinner Date: July 9, 2009
Attendees: Jen, Lara, Ang., Rhonda, Caroline, Cat and Marie

(Confession: It's been awhile since our dinner at the Pioneer...the dog days of summer having made us lazy in the old blog department...but I have my notes so here goes!)

Mexican food...give it to me...tortillas, corn or flour, I don't mind...beans, black, pinto, fried, refried, borracho, yeah yeah...chiles, I'm an admitted dead-center medium on the old Scoville scale, but yes, I love me some chiles....and we won't even go into how I have a self-imposed margarita limit, for a good reason.

As for the Pioneer Tacos and Margaritas, I can safely say I remember liking it, but that's about it...it was like, not love.
I had the Al Pastor Tacos...pork with a really yummy garlic and pineapple salsa...but that was it. That was it as in that was all that was on my plate...no beans, no rice, no sides...except for these pink, pickled onions that were okay but I still can't figure out their purpose or why they were pink. Also...my tacos a) not hot and b) not edible by hand as the second I picked up the first one, the bottom fell out and I ended up having to use my fork.

What I should have ordered were the Chile Rellenos...cause Rhonda, sitting next to me ordered them, I had 2 bites. They were really good, deep-fried stuffed poblanos, cheesy and delicious.

That's pretty much all I got on the Pioneer...Joe, our server was very nice, friendly and attentive as I recall, and their patio was lovely and not too bad for being right on University but the margaritas were pretty much middle-of-the-road but at Happy Hour they are $3.00 and throw in an extra shot for 75 cents! so they were worth it, for sure.
Overall, in summation , I liked the Pioneer but there are just too many, non-chain, Mexican restaurants in this town that are far superior that I probably wouldn't go back unless somebody else invited me and then I would be sure to remember to order the rellenos or the beans and rice.

xoang.