Denver Dining: First Round

I know that there is nothing more annoying than that person who has to take pictures of their food, and NOBODY can touch their plate/food until that annoying person gets finished taking said pictures.  
I am that person. Suck it.

Denver has such a great dining scene that if there is an upside to being here for the next few months it is that I have time to hit all the great places ~ meaning that I've pretty much been eating my way through Lodo (Lower Downtown, for those of you not in the Denver-Cool-Kids-Know).
  

My entree: delicious melt-in-your-mouth artichoke and goat cheese pasta. 

The day before The Big Guy went into the hospital we went to Rioja with Griff and Nancy. We all had an amazing dinner, but since this is mostly about me, I'll share my entree's and pictures.  I had the Goat Cheese and Artichoke Stuffed Pasta in Artichoke Broth, with Truffle and Queso de Mano. Our entire meal was ahhhh-mazing; from the appetizer to the crazy raspberry dessert.

There is a raspberry meringue under that crazy mound of spun sugar.

Then a week or so later, on "Day Zero," Denny and Karen came to town to lend their love and support and we died and went to heaven at Ocean Prime.  

My Halibut, with fennel, sun dried tomatoes, shiitakes in a garlic cream beurre blanc

Of course we started in the bar with martinis ~ we were celebrating Big's new birthday, after all. From the truffle popcorn to the tuna tartar to the entree's of halibut (mine) to the sea bass (Denny's) to the scallops (Karen's)...everything was sensational. The chocolate peanut butter mousse was the perfect ending to a stressful day.

Dessert, at Ocean Prime.

The next morning we hit thee hot spot for breakfast: Snooze. Oh my Gawd, the Velvet Elvis pancakes went perfect with a hangover, or so we heard, so Dennis ordered them...for me and Karen. Red Velvet pancakes, peanut butter cream cheese frosting and bacon maple syrup, bananas and peanuts! Yes you heard me....bacon maple syrup!

The Velvet Elvis

Karen and I also shared the Shrimp and Grits Benedict. YUM!  This place is worth the wait. Go early, just go!

Eggs bene with shrimp on a red pepper grit cake

This is where I stopped being one of those annoying people who take pictures of their food because I FORGOT to snap my next two places. Anywho....

My daughters, the Know-It-All and Hates Everything were coming to town for the weekend and if there are TWO things that I know that Hates Everything will eat it's tacos and pizza, probably in that order.  

    For lunch I decided to take them to Pinche Taqueria, which was the next place that I wanted to cross off my list. Well, Hates Everything hates everything on the menu, so she just orders the chips and salsa. Really. I'll admit the menu is funky, but it's simple and it's real Mexican (check it out here) and there must be a legit reason that their food truck has an obsessive following. I ordered her the queso a la plancha, which is pretty much a cheese taco, which she did not love. The Know-It-All and I ate our way through the rest of the taco menu, except for the beef tongue taco. 

The following day I took the girls to Osteria Marco, which has to-die-for-pizza, not to mention panini's, pasta, and salads, among other things. Anyhow, Hates Everything takes one look at the menu and says she doesn't want anything because there is nothing on this menu that looks good. She's killing me here! Where did I fail this child??? 

     I order the wild mushroom and robiola pizza, add house made sausage and I am in hog heaven. The Know-It-All is now on some crazy diet so she shows restraint and orders a salad, although I would have given up my first born (oh wait, that's her) if she would have ordered the fig, goat cheese, fontina, speck and arugula pizza, because I am dying to try it. I HATE people with will power when it comes to food! Mostly because I have none.
     Anyhow, because Hates Everything passes, I mentally go ape-shit for a second and then call our server back to the table and order her a cheese pizza, which is pretty much just a cheese pizza, only with really good cheese, because I just ain't having it. We are in the BEST DAMN PIZZA JOINT in Denver and she wanted pizza five minutes ago! If I were Catholic I would be saying a whole bunch of hail-mary's just to keep myself from killing her. Buuuuuut, at the last minute she saved herself because she didn't hate it! Hall-e-freaking-lujah!

But back to being one of those annoying peeps....My sister is coming to town and Lola, Zengo and Root Down are next on my list.
     More pictures to follow, because you know.... I AM one of those people!