The Gabby Gourmet 2007 Restaurant Guide is out today – and I’m hungry.
Pat Miller has been writing and publishing this annual guide to Denver, Boulder and mountain-town restaurants since 1984 – and it’s grown to 488 pages with reviews of more than 500 eateries. All for $14.95. If you eat in Denver, you gotta have it.
Her rating system has been tweaked various times over the years – most recently adding “heavenly” as the highest rating a restaurant can receive, reserved for the bestest of the best. Last year she called this short list “flawless.” Every one of them is both.
The envelope please. The 2007 “heavenly” restaurants are: Barolo Grill, Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse, Frasca Food and Wine, Restaurant Kevin Taylor, L’Atelier and Mizuna. Wait a minute! They’re the exact same six as last year!
“They just remain a step above everybody else,” says Miller. And she’s right.
Miller has added five restaurants to her next category, “To Die For.” Deluxe, Elway’s, Potager, Solera and Sushi Sasa.
“In general, the state of eating here is really good,” says the Gabbala. “We really have some darn good restaurants.”
Let them eat steak
Scott Fickling’s Prime 121 opened with a party Friday night – the wall still sticky with varnish. A string quartet played for the first 90 minutes, then David Booker, a.k.a. The Captain, got the joint rocking. The VIP gang drank huge martinis and ate steak.
For now, the steakhouse is open for dinner only, menu items include shrimp cocktail, $14; crab cakes, $15; cheese plate, $12; blue cheese salad, $9; mashed potato, $6; mac & cheese, $7; bone-in ribeye, $36; 14 oz. filet, $45; scallops, $22. There’s a bar menu with tenderloin sliders, $18; wedge salad, $6; hamburger, $12. And the bar menu is half price 4-6 p.m. for happy hour. The wine prices are fair.
Two days after Prime 121’s opening, Elway’s quietly celebrated its second anniversary. Each table at brunch and dinner received a gift certificate for a bottle of wine.
There goes the judge
The Little Black Dress Affair is a party Nov. 30 that’ll celebrate the my favorite fashion statement of the past 50 years. Yes, the LBD – and I was invited to be a judge for the Best Little Black Dress. But I’ll be outta town, dagnabbit.
I will be in town Nov. 15 for the Kempe Foundation’s party at bd’s mongolian barbeque as a guest griller. But I won’t be wearing a LBD.
City spirit
Local director Michael Drumm is having a good year – with a cable project coming out this fall with Wanda Sykes, Steven Wright and Roseanne … Mel and Janie Master have hired Adam Mali, formerly of Restaurant Kody in Evergreen and Ajax Tavern in Aspen, to take the toque at their upcoming Montecito restaurant … An in-house concert with Trey Anastasio topped off opening weekend for the new Twist & Shout Sunday night … Sez who: “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.” Groucho Marx
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Husted also appears Tuesdays and Fridays on “Good Day Colorado” on Fox 31. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com. Take a peek at Husted’s next column at denverpostbloghouse.com/husted.
