Monday, July 20, 2009

Hapa Sushi: What's the haps?

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Though I returned to Colorado, my hectic weekend (now nearly week) wasn't over yet. I flew into Denver International around noon and was picked up by KS and WP, but we weren't heading home to Fort Collins—we had tickets to see Death Cab for Cutie, Andrew Bird, and Ra Ra Riot perform at Red Rocks Amphitheater that evening, so we were spending the day (and night) in Denver.

After making our way to JP's apartment and dropping off our things, the four of us went to Hapa Sushi for a late lunch/early dinner. It was happy hour, and we were hungry, so we ordered an enormous amount: two salmon-avocado rolls; a yellowtail roll; a California roll; a Philadelphia roll, a "Rock 'n' Roll" (spicy rock shrimp and cucumber); and tuna, salmon, and eel nigiri. The quality of the sushi was average—not great, not terrible. I'm assuming it's more the slick, hip vibe of the place that's gained the restaurant its popularity.
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We also got one of Hapa's special rolls, most of which had naughty monikers ("Foreplay," "Climax," "Booty Call"). This one was the "69 Roll," which was described as a "shrimp tempura, crab mix, and cucumber roll wrapped in salmon, sweet soy, and baked with cream sauce." I'm pretty wary of crazy fusion sushi like this, and while the roll didn't taste bad, it also reaffirmed my initial feeling that sushi shouldn't be covered in a blanket of heavy mayonnaise/cream sauce. Or baked until hot. Or be served with an inexplicable strawberry garnish. Okay, so the whole thing was kind of an abomination.
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Nevermind! Once lunch/dinner was finished it was on to Red Rocks, where we spent an hour or two before the concert tailgating in the parking lot, during which a double rainbow and an amazing sunset made their appearance.
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Death Cab for Cutie, performing Transatlanticism

Unfortunately, by the time we finally we made our way into the amphitheater both Andrew Bird and Ra Ra Riot had already played. I was kind of sad we had missed the opening acts, but I didn't think about it long, for we were just in time to see Death Cab come on stage. The Red Rocks Amphitheater is an amazing place to take in a concert—the sky above is vast and open, the natural rock formations curve up on either side, and the city lights twinkle in the distance. Seeing any performance there would probably be awesome, but seeing Death Cab made it just so much better.

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