With Valentine’s Day coming up, lots of local restaurants are dreaming of ways to help you romance your beloved.
, whose accolades include Bon Appétit Restaurateur of the Year, has created special menus at Zengo and La Biblioteca’s.
His Valentine’s Day Menu will be available from Feb. 13 to Feb. 15, and exclusively on Valentine’s Day. Menu highlights include the featured cocktail Kaffir Kiss; choices ranging from lobster roll to tuna tataki salad for first course, and options that include miso-glazed black cod and Korean BBQ beef short rib for the main course.
The four-course menu is $69 per person, and reservations are recommended. (Zengo and La Biblioteca, 1610 Little Raven St. 720-904-0965.)
Over at the new restaurant Blackbird in Washington Park, there’s a special three-course menu for $50 on Valentine’s Day that includes oysters, entrée choices of grilled petite filet, roasted black cod or grilled cauliflower and dessert. (Blackbird, 305 S. Downing St. 303-733-3923.)
Its sister restaurant, Atticus, plans a four-course dinner on Valentine’s Day for $60. Entrées choices include seared yellowfin tuna and braised short rib, with such sweetheart dessert options as lemon ricotta short cake, strawberry coconut panna cotta, and drunken chocolate mousse. (Atticus, 1135 E. Evans Ave. 720-459-8273.)
In Cherry Creek, Harman’s offers its own brand of romance, with special menus and “lover’s desserts” that include flourless chocolate cake dreamed up by Chef John Little and paired with two pours of Italian Brachetto for $16. And all week they’ll be featuring a Colorado wine: Anemoi “Lips,” a syrah out of the Grand Valley. 303-388-7428. Harman’s, 2900 E. Second Ave.
In Boulder, has created a four-course prix-fixe dinner menu for $75 per person. Dinner choices include Maine lobster with blood orange maltese and fennel and Nantucket bay scallops with passion fruit vinaigrette. 303-444-3622. (Oak at Fourteenth, 1400 Pearl St., Boulder.)
Four Diamond awards
Six restaurants in Denver’s thriving food scene made the coveted list of Four Diamond status for 2015 by the American Automobile Club, a trusted source that many tourists use to select where to dine. They are Panzano, Rioja, Colt & Gray, Edge Restaurant & Bar, Mizuna and Palace Arms, which are all repeat winners.
Only 689 restaurants in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico qualify for Four Diamond status, which is based on visits by AAA’s professionally trained inspectors who use published guidelines to conduct unannounced restaurant evaluations, assigning Approved establishments a rating of One to Five AAA Diamonds.
No new Denver or Colorado restaurants were added to the list, and 2014 winner Restaurant Kevin Taylor has closed.
Colorado has one Five Diamond restaurant, which is the highest rating: The Penrose Room at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.
Here’s the complete list of Four Diamond restaurants elsewhere in Colorado on the 2015 list:
Aspen: Chefs Club by Food & Wine, Element 47
Beaver Creek: Grouse Mountain Grill. Mirabelle at Beaver Creek. Spago, Splendido at the Chateau
Boulder: Frasca. The Flagstaff House Restaurant
Colorado Springs: Summit
Keystone: Alpenglow Stube, Keystone Ranch Restaurant
Manitou Springs: The Cliff House Dining Room
Telluride: Rev Restaurant at Hotel Madeline Telluride
Vail: Kelly Liken
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083, coconnor@denverpost.com or twitter.com/coconnordp
