Let’s get one thing straight about Poppies, a totally welcoming bar-restaurant on South Colorado Boulevard: It’s not about the food.
Sure, they have just-fine ribs, serviceable burgers, and passable Mexican entrees. They even have, if you choose very carefully and hit the kitchen on a night when they’re paying attention to the noodles, a couple of not-bad pasta dishes.
But for the most part, the food at Poppies is like the furniture: It’s there because if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t know what to do with yourself.
No, Poppies is about people.
It’s about the people behind the bar, enthusiastically shaking cold martinis and lovingly pulling cold drafts.
It’s about the crowds of people surrounding the bar, cheering on the Nuggets (or whoever’s playing, it doesn’t much matter at Poppies) and scarfing down wings.
It’s about the pairs of people engaged in a weekly tête-à-tête in the dining room, sipping martinis with pinkies extended as if they were at the Brown Palace, even though they know that they really – really – aren’t.
And it’s about the good people back in the kitchen, putting together hot, unremarkable-but-it’ll-do plates of hot, unremarkable-but-it’ll-do food.
Poppies is also about the drinks. You suspect this as soon as you walk in, because the restaurant is overwhelmingly dominated by the splendid wraparound old-school bar, and there’s almost no one in the joint (save maybe one or two patrons during the sparsely attended weekend breakfasts) without one.
When choosing your drink, go with your gut and have a straightforward Manhattan or Scotch-rocks rather than an appletini or anything else off the misguided but (sadly) mandatory cocktail menu. Something about Poppies calls for classic drinks, not convoluted ones, and the bartenders are able mixers of good-old-days libations.
If you’ve come for a meal and have a choice between eating in the bar (there are several booths) and eating in the dining room, go with the bar. It’s livelier in there, and not just because of all the flatscreens. This is where the people are.
Low lights and wood accents are the hallmarks of the room, done up in unremarkable, nondescript, central- casting “restaurant” décor which could just as easily be in Palm Springs, Peoria or Paris, Texas.
For lunch, your best bet is the French dip sandwich au jus, a fine example of the gooiest, messiest sandwich this side of the tuna melt. Also a wise choice, the pecan-studded chicken salad with coleslaw.
Skip the open-faced roast turkey, which is better enjoyed in seedier surroundings (like your favorite local diner) and save your Reuben sandwich money for your next trip to sandwich mecca Toast down in Littleton.
Suppertime calls for a half- rack of baby back ribs, which, unlike most area ribs, really do fall off the bone as promised. Not oversauced and not underseasoned, they come with a choice of two: baked beans, coleslaw or fries. Choose the baked beans and slaw, naturally.
Chicken-fried steak is another solid choice, which surprised me – generally, chicken-fried steak is best enjoyed at truck stops and 24-hour diners. But Poppies’ CFS is adequately moist, sufficiently sauced in brown-gray gravy, and just greasy enough.
There’s a whole Mexican section on the menu, offering required dishes like cheese- doused combo plates and sizzling fajitas. Choose the Sonora platter (ground beef taco and ground beef enchilada), an inauthentic but yummy taste of 1970s-era Cal-Mex cuisine.
You won’t miss much if you don’t order the rellenos, and in case you haven’t guessed it by now, if you’re looking for “real” Mexican regional cuisine, you’re in the wrong place.
But you didn’t come here for a delicate chicken mole anyway, and you’ll clean your plate.
Burger patties, served hot on grilled buns, are suspiciously perfectly formed. Order them loaded with fixin’s, because they’re better enjoyed as delivery systems for cheese, bacon and ketchup than as entrees unto themselves.
And so what? Throw a couple of fries on the plate and bring me another beer, and I’m good.
Warning: Poppies, like many restaurants, errs on the side of underdoneness with their burgers, so if you like yours medium-rare, order it medium. And if it’s not done right, send it back for another visit to the broiler.
The concept of Happy Hour was invented by and for places like Poppies. Come between 3 and 6 p.m. Monday- Saturday and they’ll shave a dollar off the price of your drink. They’ll also feed you, cheap. On the buck-ninety- five menu: potato skins, beef tacos, or guac and chips. Available for $2.95: a cheeseburger and fries, Buffalo wings or steamed mussels. None are amazing, all are fine.
Service at Poppies is no- frills but just friendly enough; unlike some neighborhood bar/restaurants where newbies are sized up or even scowled at when they first walk in, the staff at Poppies will simply nod, show you a table and offer you a drink.
Which makes me, a guy who’s generally suspicious of too-effusive welcomes in the first place, feel right at home.
Can I, or would I, laud the food at Poppies as spectacular or irresistible? Nope. A meal at Poppies is a low-impact, no-brainer way to kill an hour and fill your belly. No more, no less. You won’t be wowed by the cuisine or awed by the atmosphere.
But Poppies is good people. And sometimes that’s just fine by me.
Dining critic Tucker Shaw can be reached at 303-954-1958 or at dining@denverpost.com.
Poppies
American
2334 S. Colorado Blvd., 303-756-1268, poppiesdenver.com
* 1/2 | Good, Very Good
Atmosphere: Classic American bar-restaurant with low lights, deep booths and plenty of flatscreens to follow your game of choice.
Service: Professional and efficient.
Wine: Skip the grape juice and have a cocktail or a beer.
Plates: Starters, $5.75-8.95. Sandwiches and burgers, $7.50-9.95. Entrees, $7.95-17.25
Hours: 11 a.m.-1 a.m. Monday-Friday; 8:30 a.m.-1 a.m. Saturday-Sunday. Kitchen closes at 10 p.m.
Details: Credit cards accepted. To-go menu. Parking lot out front. Happy Hour specials. Great for families with kids, or large groups.
Four visits.
Our star system:
****: Exceptional
***: Great
**: Very good
*: Good
No stars: Needs work.
