In addition to boasting the largest ballroom between Denver and the Canadian border (take that, Wyoming!), the nearly one year-old Embassy Suites in Loveland has its own herb garden.
The chefs who run the vast hotel kitchen already have deep roots in the area. Executive chef Chris Cole and executive sous- chef Florian Wehrli have created a menu that reads — and tastes — more like a fine local bistro’s than a hotel restaurant’s.
Wehrli, a founder of the northern Colorado’s Cache La Poudre chapter of Slow Food, achieved a local following when he ran Chimney Park Bistro and, later, Chef’s Basket in Windsor. Cole, a Johnson & Wales culinary graduate, spent 10 years at the Fort Collins Hilton. They both have young children and plan to raise their families in the area.
“People come into a hotel thinking they’ll get the standard fare, but we want to set ourselves apart, especially in these times,” Cole says. To that end, the specials menu at the Rocky River Bar and Grille changes twice a season. The hotel partners with area growers — Grant Family Farms, Windsor Dairy, Red Barn Bison and Oberle Botanical — to offer local foods on its restaurant and banquet menus.
Once the weather warms up, diners in the restaurant will see raspberry canes, currant bushes and mint flourishing outside the west-facing windows.
The chefs are in the process of writing their late-winter specials, but we hope they carry the “Vegetable of the Moment” just a little longer: red cabbage braised in red wine so piquant and soul-satisfying we ordered seconds.
A note on the NoCo dining front: On a revisit to La Creperie last Sunday, we found the service, the food (and the portions) to be perfect. Seriously. Now that its bakery is open, we have a steady supply of the best croissants this side of Paris, too. (163 W. Mountain Ave, Fort Collins, 970-224-2640).
Kristen Browning-Blas: 303-954-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com.
Rocky River Bar and Grill
American. Embassy Suites Loveland Hotel, Spa and Conference Center, 4705 Clydesdale Parkway, Loveland, 970-593-6200. Lunch and dinner daily.
