Luca D'Italia - Restaurant Review

Luca D'Italia - wow!  Dana and I arrived a little early.  Our reservations were for 5:15, yes very early.  We felt a little under-dressed at first but I remember what my colleague Jeff told me early on when we moved here, you can't be under-dressed in Colorado.  The waitress assured us this was true, saying, "you have clothes on!"  The setting is simple and elegant.  White napkins and table cloths.  All quite quaint!


Our friends Jackie and Parker arrived shortly after us, missing management's request to switch tables.  No biggie, logistics are logistics and we are low maintenance.  The wine list was well selected and the sommelier was very knowledgeable of the wines.  I consider myself knowledgeable but I am also frugal and value oriented.  We went with the Super Tuscans and he pointed us to the Ruffalo.  The initial taste had an almost astringent tannin quality.  He assured us that with a little time it would open and drink quite nicely.  He was spot on, great value there.

So here we are with a nice setting and wine and the conversations are just rolling.  We all had trouble getting to the point of the menu.


In the nice rectangle box are the artisanal meats and cheeses.  They are all made in house, and I convinced the table that this was the place to start.  We were not disappointed.  Delicious little samples of delicacy.


We finished up the appetizers in a verrrrry slow relaxxxxxed fashion.  I almost felt like I was in Italy.  Certainly at this point the quality of food had made me feel that NYC was not so far away. 


Also of note by this point the service was impeccable.  Multiple roll players in the production of serving us, and they filled their roll very well.


A  glimpse of the artisanal meats and cheeses:

Parker and I both ordered the Dry Aged New York Strip.  Jackie had the Seared Diver Scallops that (I could use "which" here but then I need the comma and I hate trying to find commas) she was kind enough to share.  My lovely wife went with 2 Primi (that's fancy for appetizer sized dishes) pastas: Butternut Squash Agnolotti and Fusilli.  We have a negotiation at all restaurants about what we will both order.  We aim for different so we can share and experience a fuller spectrum of the menu.  I highly recommend this approach...good for the taste buds and good for the marriage!

So the food has been served:

So I ate cooked (not sure of the proper verb) bone marrow.  Wow right up there with Kobe Beef and Foie Gras (yes I know Foie Gras is evil, but it tastes incredible so it serves as a reference point).

The strip steak was not in a strip nor did it seem like a steak.  It was darn close to Kobe Beef but at significantly cheaper pricing.  Incredible.  Jackie's Scallops were delicious, very moist and tender, no fishiness.  Oh I almost forgot we also got little mushroom appetizers to start ala the chef, they were good in a simple clean way and mushrooms are also big on the umami scale.  Dana's pasta dishes were also flavorful and exquisite.  Not overpowering but very simple and tasty.  In general the chef uses reduction sauces as a garnish and they are perfect.

For dessert (see I have not mastered this yet, no menu picture and hence no exact memory).  But it was number one we were certain of, chocolate cake with ice cream and cherry sauce.  The waitress (hmmm seems overly simplified as a title given her role in our evening and server seems no better as the noun) helped us choose the almond ice cream cake combination.  Both were delish!  We got another chef's thank you of oatmeal cinnamon cookies, which (I hate the comma but I also despise repetition in writing style) were exquisite as well.

Great food, great conversation, great atmosphere!  The bathroom was clean and small and simple.  The paper towels were the fancy kind so I love them, but they make me feel guilty to throw away.  The staff replaced everyone's cloth napkin if they went to the toilette (sophisticated using French for the bathroom).  Great service all around.  No ostentatious presentation by the sommelier.  He spoke to us like human beings but shared lots of knowledge.

So my first restaurant, Table 6, on this 5280 project was a B+, and in hindsight that might be high, but we will let it stand.  However, I give Luca a solid A with only an A+ above it.  It was pricier, but I left feeling like I had experienced "dining" in Colorado and altogether more comfortable living here.  And those 5:15 reservations felt great when we left at 8:30!

Happy Dining

Table 6 - Restaurant Review

So last night was the first stop on our 25 restaurant tour of the Denver Metro area.  The 25 restaurants my wife and I (plus whoever joins us) will try to eat at over the next year are the Top 25 listed in 5280 Magazine.  Yes I realized after the fact it's kind of like the movie Julie and Julia (decent flick, we watched a couple of days after deciding on this project), but purely coincidence.  It did motivate me that it's a decent idea.

So Dana and I decided to try Table 6.  We got reservations for 6 with our friends Susan, Roland, Sarah and Jonathan.  Seating was prompt, no waiting when we arrived.  The waitress was quick to get glasses of water in front of us (I realllllly appreciate that, having just run 6 miles before we arrived).  The restaurant has pretty funky ambiance inside, kind of seems like half restaurant, half market.  The bathrooms were clean, and no overly fancy paper towels.  I prefer this instead of the paper towels that seem more expensive than our cloth towels at home.  My favorite is cloth with a basket to wash and reuse, but cheap recycled style paper works good too.  The only negative thing I would note is Dana slipped a little on the copper sheet metal covering part of the wood floor.

Dana and I shared an order of the Marcona Almond Tater Tots (the theme of the restaurant is modern versions of old school comfort foods).  The almonds were my favorite part.  The horseradish was spicy (or that burning feeling of a vacuum stuck to your nose pulling on your brain a little bit, ala horseradish or wasabi).  Tater tots are still tater tots, good but nothing particularly interesting.  The wine and beer list had some reliables, Ravenswood Red Zinfandel and Za Zin Red Zinfandel for our table, but I may be a bit rusty on my menu reading as I noted nothing particularly noteworthy (blame me more than the restaurant on this).

For my meal I decided on the Black Angus Roast Beef.  Dana decided to try the Rabbit.  The other two guys had the Beef and the gals had the Chicken.  I realize in hindsight I should have taken a picture of the menu (which changes every day, pretty cool) so I would know exactly what I ordered and the description.  Alas this is my learning experience too.  I thought the beef was cooked well and very tender.  The flavor was clean, nothing overpowering in the accompanying vegetables.  Dana's rabbit (we always share) tasted like ham.  I remember rabbit tasting like chicken, maybe how it's prepared, not sure.  Similarly, the meat was cooked well.  It may have been a bit fatty.  But also nothing overpowering.  This brings me to my one complaint about the dishes.  I believe they lack Umami.  For the non-foodies out there, this is considered the 5th flavor the mouth senses.  It is a Japanese term.  It is also real.  Things that can add Umami to a dish, soy sauce, red wine with strong tannins, smoked fish and anchovies, tomatoes particularly dried, dried mozzarella, etc.  It is consider to be "savory" and comforting, which I find odd these dishes lacked, since these are comfort foods.  When I cook at home I guess you can call me an Umami snob as I keep Umami type foods on hand to add a little extra to a dish.

Now the highlight of the night was the desserts.  We all shared the Chocolate Beignets (like little donuts/elephant ears/or just fried dough-goodness) and the Rhubarb Pie.  Both were delicious.  The beignets were very light dough with a smooth and silky chocolate sauce.  The rhubarb tasted incredibly fresh.  Both had nice light ice cream on the side.

So my overall thoughts, one this restaurant suffered a little from outsized expectations as my friend Barb considers this I think her favorite restaurant in Denver and she was very strong in her advertising.  Second, this is my first on the list so I can't go crazy with the rating (like an Olympic judge watching the first performer).  But here are the takeaways, good service, clean restaurant, tasty food but nothing out of this universe, a manageable drink menu and excellent desserts.  That warrants a B+ for my first restaurant on the 5280 list.  I think most ratings will be B- or higher.  I think generally a C or less will be described for an awful experience and I will be open about what in particular caused that experience.

Happy Dining!

What is this blog

So I decided to start writing about my gourmet experiences, since I love to cook and love to eat.  We currently reside in Colorado, not the biggest epicurean center in the world but some pretty good options.  We've lived in Chicago and New York and visited many cities throughout the world.  So my top 10 list of restaurants I have personally eaten at:

Daniel - New York City
Guy Savoy - Las Vegas, Caesars Palace
Picasso - Las Vegas, Bellagio
Spiaggia - Chicago
Julia Child's Kitchen - Napa Valley California
Sushi Yasuda - New York City
Le Cirque - Las Vegas, Bellagio
Nobu - Las Vegas, Hard Rock
Matsuhisa - Aspen Colorado
Morimoto - New York City

By the way this list is not in order but the first two are 2 of the finest experiences I have ever had.  Daniel was with my brother and his fiance and my wife.  Alan Greenspan (at the time was darn close to the president being there, prior to the Great Recession) was there that night.  The 2nd was for my birthday just me and the wife.  So I consider myself well versed in the world of fine dining.  Sometimes I have been more of a gourmand than a gourmet.  But I did an Ironman (hence the play on Iron Chef and Iron, blah blah) last year which got me in good shape and ready to roll.  So going forward I'll be doing some dining adventures and posting some reviews here.  I may occasionally let you into my kitchen or grill.  We shall see.  So first up, 5280 magazine published the top 25 restaurants in Denver.  We will try to visit each over the next year, and I will post reviews accordingly.  1st on the list next Friday, Table 6 with my wife and friends.

Happy Eating!