Four dinners in Colorado

Eastside Road, December 20, 2017—

MUCH OF THE LAST week was spent in Colorado, where we flew to see a granddaughter receive her doctor's degree — the first I know of in my family. I have tremendous respect for Eve, who worked hard and tenaciously to accomplish this while dealing with two small daughters, their father, the household, and who knows what other complications. But all that's another story, and we're here to eat.

"Dinner" the first day of the trip was a hamburger at the airport. This was our first domestic flight in years, and we found limited options at SFO — but the hamburger wasn't bad, the fries were actually good, and the beer helped.

•Go Bistro, South Terminal, San Francisco International Airport

Thursday, next day of the trip, we ate at home — Eve's home. She bake-roasted a couple of chickens, and the other women pitched in — three generations of them: plenty of experience there! Chicken and potatoes, and snow peas on the side.

     🍷Rioja, Roda I Reserva, 2005: a little rough and woody to my palate, but a fine wine of its type

Friday we ate out: ten adults and three kids under six aroud a big table in a place celebrated for its fried chicken. I like chicken well enough, but not necessarily two nights running. Besides, we're in Colorado, and beef seems a logical alternative, and the steak-frites here is said to be delicious.

As you see, it came rare, to my specification, with a generous garnish of arugula and chimichurri, and those fries were good. It was a man-size plate, no doubt about it; half a pound of skirt steak. But it was delicious.

     🍷Pinot noir, Santa Rita "120" (Central Valley, Chile, according to the menu: serviceable)
•The Post Brewing Company, 105 West Emma Street, Lafayette, Colorado; 📞+1 (303) 593-2066

Saturday night, after a second ceremony at Colorado University, we ate at home again. Shawn likes his rib-eye, and he'd laid in three enormous steaks — very nearly standing roasts, in fact. He grilled them while the women fixed mashed potatoes and made Hollandaise sauce for asparagus spears. (And, in my case at least, for the steak as well.) This was a fine repast. I don't mind beefsteak twice running, not at all. I don't think any of us did.

     🍷Cabernet sauvignon, Stag's Leap, "Artemis," in two vintages: 2005; 2015.
      (Of the two I preferred the younger, which seemed to me much more interesting. Both were true to varietal and to terroir, but I thought more thought had gone into the grapes in the 2015, whereas the 2005 seemed more generically Napa Valley. But I could be wrong.)

All this beefsteak and chicken was very fine, but it had been a long time since I'd had a Margherita — pizza, that is. So for our final meal together we stopped in at another local standby — one of three branches of a truly impressive pizzeria. I won't say this was a perfectly authentic Margherita — but then, it wasn't billed so. The menu stated

Fresh Mozz — San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella & organic basil

but the basil was skimpy, julienned to make it go farther. (I'm not complaining. This is Colorado, we're a mile above sea level, and it's December.)

The pizza was beautifully cooked, the pastry thin and crisp, and the cheese was really quite good. When we left I asked a cook where the mozzarella came from: made in house, he said. Must be a chain, I told the Contessa, and it turns out there are three locations: Denver, Louisville, Niwot. From their website:

Our Chefs make dough fresh every day from organic Colorado flour; It’s hand stretched, topped with locally sourced ingredients and cooked in a hand-built brick oven. We work with local farmers and ranchers to change our menu with the grow season. … We source the best local and domestic producers we can find. During the summer, our produce comes almost exclusively from Isabelle farms in Lafayette, CO, and Oxford Gardens in Boulder, CO, as well as our own organic garden. Our pork comes from Cone Ranch in Julesburg, Colorado, our eggs from Wisdom’s Natural Poultry in Haxtun, 100% grass fed beef from Colorful Ranch in E. Denver, Colorado.

The pizzas was what I had been hungering for: piquant, crisp, straightforward, clean.

     🍷Sangiovese, a (much) lesser Chianti of some kind. I don't generally cotton to Chiantis, but this one was unassuming and pleasant.

•Lucky Pie Pizza, 637 Front Street, Louisville, Colorado 📞+1 (303) 666-5743

Cold though it was, after dinner we stepped next door for some ice cream — because this is a very good ice cream maker. I had a simple gelato al limon, just what I needed to close this sentimental revisit to Italy… •Sweet Cow, 637 Front Street, Louisville, Colorado; 📞+1 (303) 666-4269

Thursday or Friday, I don't recall which, on a walk "downtown," we visited a chocolaterie-cafe our daughter had discovered, which she knew would appeal to us for its Dutch theme. Sure enough, the couple behind the counter were Dutch, and began responding to my questions — in my own limping Dutch — in their native language. There were dozens of kinds of chocolates at hand, and — more to the point when we first visited, having been deprived of espresso for a few days — a machine. We asked for cappuccinos and a croissant the next morning, and returned a couple of days later. The chocolates are delicious — we tried several. And the cappuccinos are quite satisfactory as well: a little milk-heavy, but then Netherlands is a country of dairy cows. I was very happy with this place, and recommend it:

•Chocolaterie Stam Lafayette, 103 N Public Road, Lafayette, Colorado; 📞+1 (303) 800-8201

☛RESTAURANTS VISITED, with information and rating: 2016      2015     2017