My husband and I were lucky enough to take a recent trip to Denver, CO to visit our friends Grant and Abbey who have been living there for about two years now. Upon my request to stay with Grant, he was immediately excited to take me to some of his favorite restaurants in Denver…of course, I was game! I should begin by saying that this was my first trip to Denver and loved it! It’s a great town that has many restaurants, shops and bars within walking distance of many apartments and houses. The other thing that I noticed about Denver that is different from Cincinnati, was how big breakfast/brunch is here, which I loved! I don’t often eat breakfast at home, but I love going to breakfast on the weekends.
Our first morning there, Grant and Abbey took us to their weekly brunch spot called the Hornet. The first thing I heard about this place was $2 mimosas and $2 bloody mary bar. I have tried many times to love bloody marys, but I haven't been able to yet. I didn't end up getting one here, but I did try my husband's and have to say, it was the best I have had. Just look at these pictures to see how fun this was :
Everything on the menu sounded awesome. I went with the omelette which had asparagus, feta, and a couple more things that I can’t remember, but it was excellent! The potatoes were just okay, a little too crunchy for me and I would like more potato. The fruit was delicious as well. I was glad to see there wasn't any honeydew....I feel like a lot of fruit cups have too much honeydew and I don't care for that. My husband went with Grant’s favorite the Dixie Chicken, which I also tried, and it was really good! Can't go wrong with fried chicken and gravy.
That night, after a couple drinks around town and a visit to Red Rocks, we stopped at one of their favorite pizza places: Wyman’s. This place offers thin crust and Chicago style pizza, which I usually am indifferent to. I started with a salad which was fine….but the pizza was awesome!! This was sooo good! The crust was almost like a corn bread, which sounds weird, but it was good. The pizza is very filling though. After that salad I was full from one piece (I think the beer had something to do with that too). We finished off our meal with a game of Taboo. We loved that Wymans had a wall of board games, so we had a blast munching on our food and playing the game.
When Grant told me about this place, I couldn’t wait to try it. He said this restaurant makes their own biscuits and tops it with basically anything you can imagine. Sounded fantastic! The restaurant was very modern, as many of the places are in Denver. It had a bar in the center and was very busy. We sat in the back and looked over the menu. Once again, everything sounded great. There were biscuits topped with gravy, eggs, and cheese, “French toast” biscuits topped with a fresh compote of the day, and a shrimp and grits biscuit, just to name a few. I wanted to try it all! However, I decided to do a “build your own” with scrambled egg, cheese, ham, and gravy….very healthy. :)
This was soooo good! I loved it! This place was so fun, different, and affordable! I should note that I had ordered a side of their homemade pickles because I love pickles, but our waitress forgot to bring them. It was okay though, I was stuffed from this delicious biscuit! I really wish we had a place like this here in Cincy!
I love Italian food. So when Abbey and Grant suggested a place called Shells and Sauce, of course I wanted to try it. We went there wanting to sit on their covered upper patio; however, it was not open that evening. So, we sat outside on their front patio. It was a bit chilly out that night, but our wine quickly warmed us up. They served warm bread with a fantastic balsamic dipping sauce. This was sooo good, I probably could have just eaten this. Grant ate almost an entire loaf by himself before we ordered.
Grant and I each started with a spinach salad topped with red onion, mushrooms, and gorgonzola, and Abbey and my husband had the Caesar. These were both very good salads.
I ended up ordering one of the specials, which was a bison stuffed ravioli with mushrooms, onions, spinach, cheese…I don’t remember everything, but I know that this was one of my favorite Italian dishes I have ever had! It had a wine sauce that was light enough for this dish and all the components were a nice touch, including the pine nuts. I loved this!
My husband and Grant got the chicken parmesan. This was the biggest piece of chicken I have ever seen for chicken parm. AND it was good!! I liked this as well; but it wasn’t nearly as good as mine J
All in all, Denver was amazing and the food was definitely as equally fantastic as the views. If you ever find yourself visiting this area, take into consideration some of these places. They were all fun, different, and affordable! I can’t wait to visit again and have some more brunch, Italian, and chicken! Special thanks to Abbey and Grant for a great trip!
~Kate
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-RK