Although it’s been around only since 1990, the Rocky Mountain Diner at 18th and Stout streets feels a lot older.
Perhaps it’s because it’s housed in a resurrection of the historic Ghost building, which used to be on 14th Street and Glen arm Place before its dismantling and relocation from 1974 to 1984. The interior, with spacious booths, a wide horseshoe-shaped bar and windows opening onto the grandiose federal courthouse across the street, feels solidly old-school.
Or perhaps it’s because of the menu, which, aside from a few contemporary diversions, is as homey and old-fashioned as any in Denver.
The marquee dish is the pan-fried half chicken with mashed potatoes, biscuit and slaw. Crispy skin, moist flesh, deep chicken flavor, this is a well-seasoned, well-cooked example of a dinner that many others in town get wrong.
It takes 20 or so minutes for the chicken to get to you (25 minutes, according to the menu) but you’ll sip your beer slowly and wait patiently, because the wait is worth it.
Also worth it: the buffalo meatloaf, served with the same mashed potatoes and plenty of brown gravy. Savory and satisfying, it’s a modern- but-not-really version of the ubiquitous diner meal.
Most of the entrees on the menu are under $20, not exactly cheap for diner food, but the ingredients and preparations are a cut above here. The one item that’s more expensive, the $21.99 so-called Cowboy Steak (peppered, pan-seared ribeye with fixins) was well-seasoned and beautifully cooked, outshining many of the much more expensive ribeyes I’ve encountered of late at area steakhouses (I’m talking to you, Ruth’s Chris).
Rocky Mountain Diner has its share of Trojan horses on the menu, like the jalapeño onion loaf, a pile of thin-sliced onion rings dusted with breading and pressed into a loaf. You tear it apart with your fingers, dipping your handfuls of onion into the chipotle-ranch sauce.
It sounds good. And for the first three bites it is. But by the fourth bite, you’re pushing this gut-buster to the edge of the table and hoping a busboy wanders by to remove it.
Like any good Colorado diner, this one devotes a small section of the menu to Mexican food (called “Mountain Mex” here). And as at any good Colorado diner, the Mexican offerings aren’t bad. But they aren’t great, either. The sauce accompanying the duck enchiladas lacked character; the green chile that smothers most of the rest of the dishes (including the huevos rancheros and chicken chimichanga) lacked edge.
The diner’s greatest asset, particularly at lunchtime, is its location, shoe-horned into the deepest part of downtown. Midday meal options in this busy business district are limited — a glut of super-cheap (and super-bad) submarine sandwich shops crowds one end of the spectrum; theme-y tourist traps and too-expensive-for-everyday steakhouses round out most of the rest.
The Rocky Mountain Diner is a rare, relatively affordable sit-down lunch spot where it’s needed most. Good thing the BLT (fresh bread, crisp bacon, and a slather of guacamole) is a winner. Skip the fries (your cardiologist will be proud) and opt for a side of mixed greens.
Don’t expect effusive service here; staffers are all business with an eye to getting plates on the table. They don’t spend a lot of time chatting or discussing the nuances of the daily blue-plate specials. Which — being that this is a diner — is fine with me, even if some of my dining companions have found it offputting.
One massive bummer: The diner doesn’t serve breakfast on weekdays. This is too bad; given the tasty pancakes it serves up for weekend brunches (and the potent Bloody Marys), something tells me this joint could own the downtown weekday power-breakfast market.
But the Rocky doesn’t open until 11, and aside from an all-day-offering of huevos rancheros (which are just fine, if not great) and a small brunch menu on weekends, the fare here is strictly lunch and dinner.
Happy hour fires on all burners as post-final-whistle folks gather around the bar and throw back shots of whiskey and, as they call it on the menu, “cactus whiskey”—tequila.
Will you, on leaving, immediately feel the jones for another visit? Probably not. The food, while good, is not remarkably so, and you won’t be wowed by the hospitality.
But the Rocky Mountain Diner is consistent, reliable, affordable and not too challenging. And sometimes, that’s all you really need.
Tucker Shaw: 303-954-1958 or dining@denverpost.com
Rocky Mountain Diner
American/Mexican. 800 18th St., 303-293-8383,
** RATING | (Very Good)
Atmosphere: Spacious downtown diner with wide booths, an open kitchen and plenty of windows.
Service: All business.
Wine: Try whiskey. The list is substantial.
Plates: Lunch entrees, $7.29- $14.99, Dinner entrees $7.99-$21.99.
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday.
Details: No reservations necessary. Street parking. Wheelchair access.
Three visits.
Our star system:
****: Excellent.
***: Great.
**: Very Good.
*: Good.
