More than 30 locally owned restaurants have banded together to form the Denver Independent Network of Restaurants (DINR, get it?). Working with Colorado Proud and the wine board, the group created a Harvest Week celebration of local ingredients, producers and chefs Saturday through Sept. 12. Here are three to get you started.
Vesta Dipping Grill
The LoDo mainstay will serve a four-course meal, paired with Colorado wines, for $60.
The meal begins with a “chef’s taste” of heirloom tomato and tiny greens with truffle syrup, followed by lamb bresaola (thin-sliced aged loin), smoked Haystack Mountain goat cheese, Rocky Ford melon and arugula. The entree, a chile- rubbed hangar steak, comes with charred Palisade peaches, Olathe corn fritters and green chile gastrique. Dessert stars peaches, too. The peach “Melbarado” comes with wildflower honey ice cream, Colorado organic almonds and raspberry coulis.
Sutcliffe Vineyards petite verdo, Garfield Estates cabernet franc, Bookcliff Vineyards viognier, and Two Rivers riesling will accompany each course.
“The mission of Harvest Week is to make all plates as local as possible, especially the star ingredients,” said executive chef Matt Selby. “Being a Colorado native, all of those ingredients are second nature to me.”
1822 Blake St., 303-296-1970
Kristen Browning-Blas
Pulcinella Ristorante
Pulcinella Ristorante’s Harvest Week menu gives Colorado ingredients an Italian spin. Each course offers three choices, $45 per person, $65 with wine pairing.
“I come here from fisherman family, farming family,” says chef/owner Antonio Race, a native of Naples, Italy. He prefers to buy local ingredients, but says it’s hard to find them here.
His Harvest Week menu features prosciutto with Rocky Ford melon, Colorado potatoes, corn and heirloom tomatoes, Alamosa farm-raised sea bass and Western Slope peaches.
Entree options: sea bass with a corn and tomato coulis; a sampling of beef tenderloin with a cherry-zinfandel sauce, apple-glazed pork and lamb with roasted red pepper; or gnocchi with local tomatoes, onion and basil.
Fruit stars in a summer berry soup or poached peaches on sponge cake with Chantilly cream.
Pulcinella, known for its northern Colorado pizzerias, opened in January of 2007 downtown, with warm gold walls, tables topped with black linens and leather couches in the bar.
1800 Lawrence St. 303-382-1444
Kristen Browning-Blas
Encore
After conquering Platt Park with their Black Pearl restaurant on South Pearl Street, executive chef Sean Huggard and owner Steve Whited turned their focus to Colfax, where they took up residence adjacent to the Tattered Cover in the old Lowenstein Theater late in 2007.
Here, after a slightly noisy start (remedied with some acoustic tinkering) they’ve created a relaxing, straightforward neighborhood dining experience, focused on accessible American (ish) cuisine and a friendly wine list.
And not for nothing, an unobtrusive piano sits at the end of the long bar up front, an unexpectedly perfect accompaniment to a martini and burger with gruyère and blue cheese.
A good move: Come for lunch. Load up on books at the Tattered Cover, then revive yourself with a spritzy glass of something and a chopped salad.
2550 E. Colfax Ave., 303-355-1112,
Tucker Shaw
Get the complete list of Harvest Week restaurants at .
