Denver Restaurant Week is a good way for diners to expand their horizons, get an awesome deal and be able to eat at restaurants that broke, 20 something's (such as myself) wouldn't normally be able to.
It's also a good way for those of you who fucked up Valentine's Day to redeem yourselves, being that it falls the week after.
D did not ruin our Valentine's Day but we do love food and we do love Restaurant Week so naturally we ventured out. We ended up at Row 14 yesterday evening on a whim. It wasn't on our original list but one of the investors happened to come into the shop and end up in my chair. We discussed food and the fact I was beginning a "food" blog so long story short he told me I should check out his spot and let him know. So I did, I made a reservation and there we were.
Our reservation was for 7:45 but given the circumstances of the week, we had a few minutes to kill. Obviously we headed to the bar where we were greeted by the nervous yet friendly bartender that suggested a red blend because she had sold a lot of it...
Come to find out its her second day, during Restaurant Week, so I thought it was endearing actually. I have an insane amount of respect for people that give it to me straight and basically say, " I'm pretty sure this is good. Wanna try first"? Or " seriously, if you hate it, tell me and I'll get you something else." Turns out my glass of wine was legit and D's drink of reposado, basil infused blood orange juice, and a kaffir lime leaf ( she smacked the leaf in some fancy way so the oils leached out) was reeeeeaaaallllyyyy good. It was basically pink so of course I gave D shit and said, "pinky up" while he drank it.
We sit, I love our server, we order. Yes, the menu is prixe fixed. For those of you that hate that, don't do Restaurant Week ( why, or am I supposed to still be capitalizing that? I told you...) and go to Country Buffet where your options are endless. I lust over arugula in general so I requested the arugula salad as my first course. This was not just a bed of arugula, this was a SALAD. A beautifully crafted salad with poached pears, roasted shallots, walnut-crusted goat cheese truffles and a cider vinaigrette. The pears were lovely, not soggy. The texture and the creaminess of the truffles was fantastic. The shallots were perfect (I'm such an onion/garlic lover, and they were in abundance) they were silky and translucent but still had crunch. The cider vinaigrette was the perfect amount of acidity to balance out the sweet, peppery, creaminess. Why can't all salads be created equal!? D had the ricotta gnocchi with asparagus in a parmesean broth. The gnocchi was perfectly light, the asparagus was sliced thin and delicate and the broth was a little salty and funky (good funky). I sipped my riesling, D worked on his rye cocktail and we waited for round 2 with smiles on our faces.
Lamb bolognese with fresh pappardelle and house-made ricotta? Duh. As I mentioned before, pasta is god and I have little to zero will power against it. The noodles were fat and perfectly al dente (soggy pasta is SO bad), the sauce was thick and sticky and the teeny bits of carrots added just enough sweetness to balance out the acidity from the tomatoes. The lamb? It was delicious. It was clearly bathing in tomatoes for god knows how long so how can you go wrong? Ricotta that's made from scratch is clearly the shit. It's not grainy like store bought stuff and rounded out that pasta dish like nobody's business.
D's pork shoulder and butternut squash polenta was phenomenal. It had apple-bacon butter so gimme a break. What other explanation do you need? That pork was cooked beautifully, crispy on the outside and buttery on the inside. It was was great... But pasta trumps all.
I finished another glass of wine and waited for dessert (Like we needed dessert. Okay, we did.) and decided that I wouldn't have changed a thing. The service was stellar (minus the FREAK hostess that was so beyond frizzle frazzled and over the top. She managed to break a candle holder and drop the coat rack on fellow patrons. Entertaining none-the-less.) Our food and our drinks exceeded my expectations, and then our dessert arrived. My brownie topped with peanut butter ice cream was killer. Just enough crust on the outside, chewy and black cherry-studded on the inside (I know, black cherries with peanut butter and chocolate? Trust.) And the ice cream ? Please. It's peanut butter and it's ice cream, it was divine. And then there was D's not-so-spectacular donut holes. They were meh. Not awful, but not comparable to the rest of our meal which is why I won't go into detail.
Overall, Row 14 did it's thang and I was satisfied. So get out there while you still can, guys. Go when you're starving ( not only was I starving but I did a double workout in preparation) and go with an open mind.
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