Brunching Around Denver: Part Two

Brunching Around
Denver: Part Two
By Stephen L. Brauns
W
elcome to part two of Brunching Around Denver. In
our June/July issue we offered five spots to enjoy
your well-deserved weekend respite. If you missed
part one, you can read it anytime by visiting our website
www.indulgeindenver.com. We’ve enjoyed quite a few brunches
since the last issue and whittled down the list to bring you three more
brunch destinations worth seeking out.
Beast + Bottle
For a restaurant to be declared as having one of the best brunches,
there has to be good reason. Certainly the food must rate highly,
ambience is important and service should be exceptional. Brunch is
more than breakfast and lunch stuffed into a single word. Brunch
happens most often on Saturday or Sunday; for most of us it’s a time to
relax and enjoy. This repast is inherently intended to be slow, a break
from the frenzied pace of the work week. A dream brunch would be
in a white cottage with mimosas flowing slowly, yet ever so steadily.
Being with a close companion or a few friends—outdoors with
perfect Denver weather—and attentive unrushed service; that’s what
brunch should be. That dream is a reality at Beast + Bottle. It is so
absolutely delightful we went twice in one week.
Eggs Benedict is not always what you think it should be. At Beast +
Bottle your Benedict will come with a Béarnaise sauce that is perfect.
The house standard will be paired with gravlax or your may choose
either bacon or ham if desired. Your eggs will be freshly laid by
their own flock of Rhode Island Red hens. “The Ladies” as they are
referred to, produce very lovely, delicious and dark-golden yolked
eggs. One of the dishes we most loved was the sourdough waffle with
brandy-infused plums and almond brittle. At two weeks in the making
from starter to your table, the result is an incredibly light and fluffy
waffle and with just the right amount of maple syrup, it can go head
to head with any waffle, anywhere.
Beast + Bottle’s staff is very competent. The food is excellently
prepared by Chef Paul C. Reilly and his kitchen staff. One of their
specialties is breaking down whole animals in which every usable
part is incorporated into the menu in a humble, yet straightforward
way. Don’t let a brunch order go without at least one order of Jesse’s
thick-cut, smoky bacon. Other standout dishes are the Welsh style
griddle cake with dried cherries, pistachios and lemon curd (shown
on the next page), and the chicken-cherry sausage served with eggs,
mustard hollandaise and sage over crostini. Everything we tried was
simply elegant, allowing the ultra-fresh ingredients to really shine
through. This is a wonderfully warm and hospitable gem.
Beast + Bottle is located at 719 East 17th at Clarkson in Denver’s
Uptown neighborhood, 303-623-3223, www.beastandbottle.com
Bistro Vendôme
James Beard award-winning Executive Chef Jennifer Jasinski and her
partner Beth Gruitch know a lot about how to do a restaurant just right.
Each of their three restaurants, with distinctly different personalities,
are all first-class operations (the others are Rioja and Euclid Hall). So
when it came time to map out the second half of our Denver brunch
tour, we knew that Bistro Vendôme would have to be one of the stops.
Brunch at Vendôme was exactly what we wanted. The French press
coffee as a starter is pure delight. Smooth and pleasant, it is a great
foundation before slowly allowing a royale or two—available in
blackberry, peach, pear or raspberry—to carry you through the flavorful
assortment of Chef de Cuisine Dana Rodriguez’s fabulous brunch
creations.
The quiche is an over-the-top silky custard laced with smoked ham,
black truffles, scallions and wild mushrooms. It stands high above others
we have tried. Served with a spinach salad with warm bacon vinaigrette,
it is a perfect brunch dish. Another amazing treat is their whimsical
version of French toast. Instead of the usual offering, Bistro Vendôme
offers pain perdu aux amandes, an almond-crusted brioche served
with milk jam, coffee syrup and brûleéd banana. It could easily push
traditional French toast into extinction. The side of extra coffee syrup
for dipping is beyond decadent.
We are also particularly fond of the porc braisé et epinards crémés,
an incredibly moist and flavorful braised pork Benedict with creamy
spinach, poached eggs and Dijon hollandaise over house-made brioche
buns. Served with Lyonnaise potatoes and divine house-made pickles,
this dish is a home run. If you’re a fan of French cuisine, do visit Bistro
Vendôme.
Bistro Vendôme is located at 1420 Larimer Street in LoDo, 303-825-3240,
www.bistrovendome.com
Zengo
If you’re at all familiar with Denver’s dining scene, the name Richard
Sandoval should be one that is quite familiar to you. Sandoval’s Denver
restaurants include Tamayo, La Sandia, Al Lado (reviewed on page
23) and Zengo. All of his restaurants provide an outstanding experience
from the moment you walk in the door until the moment you leave.
Richard Sandoval is an exceptional chef and restaurateur with a lifelong passion for food and a keen sense of what customers want from
a restaurant experience. His 30 restaurants encompass 19 different
concepts spanning from New York to California and extending to
Dubai, Qatar and Mexico.
Zengo is a Latin-Asian fusion concept serving nightly dinner and weekend brunch. We’re particularly drawn to their brunch which includes
unlimited small plates and bottomless brunch cocktails and coffee for $35.
Bottomless brunch is also available without the cocktails for $22.50.
If you’re one of those people who has to earn your just rewards, there
is even a Saturday boot camp at 8:30 a.m. which includes a significant
outdoor workout at Commons Park (across the street) led by Qi
Denver, followed by a Bottomless Boot Camp Brunch for $35, of which
10 percent is donated to a local charity. So whether you prefer to sleep
in and slide into a later brunch or hit the ground running and earn your
meal, Zengo is a great choice.
We started our brunch with a Zengo Mimosa with blood orange and
mango, and a guava mimosa which were both delicious. One after
another, small plates arrived as our trio took time to slowly explore and
savor each one. Before declaring ourselves officially stuffed, we had
the shrimp and vegetable pot stickers, Thai chicken empanadas with
mango salsa, achiote-hoison pork arepas (corn cakes), salmon Benedict
with a chili hollandaise, pork carnitas hash (shown at right), Peking
duck chilaquiles, crispy tofu with baby bok choy, and ancho bacon &
eggs. For dessert we sampled the pandan waffle with strawberry guava
sauce, roasted plantains with ginger mojo, and churros with a raspberryyuzu coulis. While we didn’t come close to sampling all of the smallplate options (many gluten free), we had a wide enough variety to be
reminded that Chef Sandoval does indeed know what people want.
There was not a single dish we tried that we didn’t adore. Everything
was brilliantly executed and beautifully presented.
Photos: Opposite page,
brunch on the patio,
photo courtesy of Bistro
Vendôme. This page from top: Welsh-style griddle
cake with dried cherries,
pistachios and lemon curd,
and Dean Machine juice
at Beast + Bottle by Taryn
Kapronica, carnitas hash
photo courtesy of Zengo.
We’ve always been fans of small plates meals and often find it more
fun and interesting to explore many different taste treats rather than
have a large serving of one item. For this, we offer up our thanks to Chef
Sandoval and his chefs for dreaming up these delicious creations. We
would also like to thank general manager Kelly Berger and the great
staff who took such great care of us.
Zengo is located at 1610 Little Raven Street in Denver’s Riverfront Park,
720-904-0965, www.richardsandoval.com/zengodenver
August/September 2013 • INDULGE IN DENVER
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