Now covering the 303!

With a new zip code comes a new column. In the past few months I graduated from my MFA program and moved from Fort Collins to Denver—leaving behind restaurant reviewing for The Coloradoan, but taking on happy hours, dining, and food events for 303 Magazine's blog. Check out my first two posts, below, and if you want even more Salty / Savory / Sweet, be sure to subscribe to the Facebook page!


Fork It: The Über Sausage: "While Denver isn’t new to gourmet hot dogs, the recently opened spot The Über Sausage is bringing a new perspective to the table.…"


Happiest Hour: The 9th Door: "Enter The 9th Door’s darkened lounge, complete with flickering candles, lush red sofas, and sultry music in the background, and even the most stoic won’t be able to help but feel a tingle.…"

I wouldn't Alta a thing

The Whole Shebang. How many times had I heard people mentioning the craziness that is Alta's definition of the term: every damn thing on their extensive small plates menu for a total of $350? I'd wanted to indulge in this forever, but though opinions on how many people are necessary to consume this spread vary, one thing seemed certain—five people is way too few. So with only four other friends to explore the menu with, we did the best we could without getting it all.

I started with a mint julep, just to get things rolling. Mmm.


We ordered a number of small plates, and above are the crispy brussels sprouts, lamb meatballs with lebne, a bacon-wrapped olive stuffed with an almond, and sauteed broccoli rabe. Of these the tender, savory meatballs were the hit, followed by the sprouts, which had been paired with crème fraiche, pistachios, and an apple cider reduction. To me the bacon-wrapped olive, despite being, y'know, BACON, was salty and just alright, but the others scarfed them down.

I loved the crisp, tangy fried goat cheese balls, which arrived atop a sweet, gooey puddle of lavender-infused honey. But there was something odd in the flavor of the smoked eggplant and lebne dip; the menu describes za'tar, honey, and mint lemon zest, but there seemed to be something else present too that I can't put my finger on (helpful, I know). It was okay.


The "coca," described as a Catalonian flatbread and covered with roasted mushrooms, fresh ricotta, and truffled cheese, disappeared lickety-split. So did the chorizo-wrapped shrimp, four large, crisp specimens to an order. Less so the ricotta parmesan gnocci, which while tasty were a little bit too rich and heavy for the day. Tuna tartare, which came with hearts of palm, chorizo, and macadamia nuts, was something more like a salad and while fresh and light tasting, could have used a bit more acidity and/or salt somewhere, I think.

For dessert there was a cold cantaloupe soup, with an herbal note from either mint or basil (I can't remember which). I think I couldn't get used to the texture of the soup, which was almost as if it had been thickened with corn starch. I liked the flaky tart better, which was filled with sticky apricot (I think). Most of us were too full to take more than a bite though.

Alta was pretty good overall and perfectly charming; romantic, too, if you want it to be. Though nothing stood out as being super amazing in particular, most of what we ordered was tasty. I feel like I've sampled enough so that I don't need to be all crazed about doing the Whole Shebang, but still, I might be back again if I'm looking for an interesting place to eat and drink.

Tiny plates from a pan-Asian home: Kuma Inn

To meet with BH, WK, and CY one night, I found myself wandering around the Lower East Side hunting down Kuma Inn, a place whose name I'd heard floating around for a while now. Tucked between the entrance to a large bar and an abandoned-looking building, the narrow steps to the cozy upstairs restaurant would barely be noticeable if not for the placard sitting on the sidewalk in front. Good thing.

Here the food is "tapas-style," a concept I still haven't made my peace with yet (most of the time it just feels like tiny plates charged at just-below-entree prices). But it's also BYOB (with a corkage fee), which to us, who had arrived prepared with our own bottles of vino, meant that we had even more leeway in ordering lots of dishes. Which we definitely proceeded to do....

We started off with steamed edamame in Thai basil-lime oil; sautéed Chinese sausage with chili-lime sauce and Thai sticky rice; and a special, which was grilled beef tenderloin paired with a carrot/daikon slaw. Though I didn't taste much basil or lime in the edamame, these three were all tasty, especially the sausage and sticky rice, which was set off exceptionally well by the bright and pungent chili-lime sauce.


Then there was a small plate of lumpiang shanghai, the Filipino-flavored version of Chinese spring rolls; pancit bihon, thin, stir-fried rice noodles with bits of pork, Chinese sausage, bean sprouts, and carrots; and "sake braised beef," which tasted like regular soy-braised beef, paired with "Asian root vegetables"—daikon and carrots. The "mixed seaweed chuka salad with sesame and chili," was good but utterly typical, the same salad served in your average generic sushi joint. CY even pointed out that you could buy this stuff frozen in the supermarket.

Another special, which the server had described as being "Chinese roast pork buns but filled with pulled pork, and with peanut sauce on top" wasn't quite what we had expected. On the plate were two mantou, each split and filled with shredded pork that had been mixed with peanut sauce. There was hoisin sauce on the side for dipping, but the meat was plenty sweet without it.

Finally, we got "sautéed tofu, Thai basil, and wood ears in spicy soy mirin," and a grilled fish (I don't remember what kind), which was another special. I thought the flavor of the fish was just slightly stronger than it should have been, although CY and WK disagreed. The tofu dish, despite its long, fancy listing of ingredients, tasted like nothing more than tofu braised in brown sauce, albeit with the herbal punch of basil.

I'm not sure what the hold-up was on our desserts (were the frozen sweets being churned to order?) but at least our dish of rich, spicy chili-chocolate ice cream ended up being comped because of the lag. The lemongrass coconut panna cotta tasted exactly like Thai green curry in room-temp custard form. I suppose if it had been advertised as such it wouldn't have been so jarring, but with the blueberries on top, it was just more strange than anything else.

For the most part, I found the food at Kuma Inn good but not particularly outstanding. Most of the dishes felt very homestyle, which I know is sort of the point, but I think for someone who does a decent amount a home cooking, small portions of dishes that aren't much awesomer than what I can whip up on my own don't draw me.