Hey y’all, my dear friend Rebecca Caro, cooking instructor & author of the blog From Argentina With Love, has launched a puerta cerrada (closed-door) supper-club series at her pad, aka Casa Azul in Littleton. You can find the details for the 1st 5-course feast, which includes a sparkling cocktail & 2 glasses of wine, here; I was once invited over a for a Christmas feast of lechon (roast suckling pig), & it was some kind of awesome, so go forth & have a ball.
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Another dear friend, Judy Anderson, is the founder of PlatteForum, an arts-education program for at-risk youth; to celebrate its 10th anniversary, it’s hosting the unGala at the Infinite Monkey Theorem’s new facility on Larimer—a dance party/fundraiser replete with live music & DJs, artists’ demos, IMT wines & eats from Carmine’s on Penn & the Denver Cupcake Truck. More info here.
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Finally, the Tap Room at Broomfield’s Omni Interlocken Resort & Spa is holding the kind of promotion I usually ignore, but this one caught my eye for its cleverness. Called Simply Street Food, it’s based on a culinary competition among affiliated hotels around the world; from among some 100 recipes, 6 were chosen to be featured on a menu that’s being served through the end of March.
Apparently the Tap Room has been undergoing renovations for awhile; I’d never visited before I was invited in to check it out, so I can’t speak to its previous incarnation, but it’s a woody, handsome sports bar, with foosball & pool tables & soon-to-be 26 taps devoted to Colorado craft beers (16 at present)—about which bartender Nick Zepeda, a furniture designer by day, knows all. He was also quick with quips like “You could put that dip on a rock & it would taste good” (& “the smaller they are, the more there is to say,” which was hilarious at the time, though I don’t recall what it means anymore).
Hotel sous chef Troy Micheletti was a sweet host, bringing out samples on paper plates (food here seemed otherwise to have been served on regular dishware, so I guess it’s part of the theme) & explaining their origins. Here’s what my pal (& Twitter wit) Mo Smith & I happily noticed: the kitchen’s really adept at meat cookery. While the whole lineup was fun, in every case the protein stood out—from the lamb braised with citrus & ancho on the tostadas (pictured middle) & the duck confit in the fried empanadas with lightly pickled slaw & smoked-tomato mayo (bottom)
to the sumac-marinated musakhan chicken in the Palestinian-style pita sandwich with curried mustard & chili ketchup
& the short rib on the especially fine grilled sandwich with cheddar, arugula & Breadworks brioche (top). I mean really delectable meats!
The Southeast Asian-inspired char kway teow (bottom) was oversauced, & I’m guacamole seemed unnecessary on the Bahian acarajé de orixá (1st picture, top) with smoked shrimp. But the black-eyed pea fritter itself was nice, most & robust, the overall concept was a kick, & I have a thing for out-of-the-way hotel bars. So I may just get back there sometime, along with Baca at the Inverness.