Without fail, someone will comment on this story and any others that provide information on available meals at a number of Denver restaurants. The reader will say something along the lines of “thatap too expensive; learn to cook at home.” While I don’t disagree with both premises, the point is really elsewhere.
As we finish 2020 in Colorado, nearly 80% of restaurants are considering closing their doors permanently, according to the Colorado Restaurant Association. Those businesses have laid off more than 60,000 workers in the past year. Short of government aid, local restaurant owners and workers can do one thing to keep themselves afloat, and thatap to make us food.
So, here are 10 businesses that will spend their holidays cooking for you.
Bar Dough is offering a “grandmother’s table” New Year’s Eve dinner inside its heated, individual greenhouses. The Piedmont-inspired meal is multi-course ($95 per person) and ends with truffles.
The Binderyhas multiple options for New Year’s Eve at home, including oysters and lobster dinner, short rib dinner and pierogi dinner ($49-$360). Or you can order a New Year’s Day brunch spread with bagels and lox, duck hash, chilaquiles and more.
The Curtis Hotelwill provide the King room for a night, the Champagne, the spiked hot chocolate and a table set for two with dinner catered by local restaurants Urban Farmer and Tamayo. The whole package starts at $279 and includes a self-guided walking tour of Denver’s downtown Parade of Lights.
Morinbrings back its fried chicken and Champagne “buckets and bubbs” special for New Year’s Eve. You’ll pay $16-$34 for a five-to-10-piece chicken bucket, then add on your choice of brut or a Miller High Life six-pack anda la carte sides like macaroni and cheese gratin, parker house rolls, chicken liver mousse and caviar.
Noble Riotwants you to “take a sharp object to 2020,” according to co-owner Scott Mattson. The natural wine bar is hosting a virtual sabering or sabrage class at 9:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. The cost is $59 per person and includes a bottle of bubbly wine, a “weapon” for sabering and live virtual instruction. Add-ons of more wine, fried chicken and take-and-bake lobster mac and cheese are also available.
Restaurant Olivia‘s three-course New Year’s Eve dinner starts at $75 per person for three courses including lobster spaghetti, braised pork shoulder and pineapple tarte tatin. You can add on a traditional caviar service with Champagne ($195) or Champagne cocktails ($35 to serve two).
Rootsin Broomfield is offering two versions of a throwback “Gatsby” meal for the holiday. The first features a Waldorf salad, croquettes, beef Wellington, an Imperial cocktail and trifle or tiramisu. The second features all-vegan versions of those options ($70 or $90).
Sushi Denchef Toshi Kizaki created a special holiday bento box that can be ordered between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, with 48 hours’ notice. The triple bento combines sushi, sashimi, seafood, izakaya menu items and dessert for two people for around $140 (market price, varies by day).
Tavernetta‘s New Year’s Eve party kit comes with a bottle of 2009 Dom Perignon, black truffle butter and parmigiano-reggiano popcorn and party favors for four ($185). You can add it on to an already blow-out meal from the restaurant.
The Wolf’s Tailor gives you a take-and-bake bo ssam (slow-roasted Korean pork shoulder and fixings) to celebrate the end of 2020. The meal, for two to four people, consists of bo ssam, half-smoked chicken buldak (Korean “fire” chicken), Szechuan pork belly, smoked brisket, bibb lettuce, 12 bao buns, a sauce kit, fried rice kit, miso-kimchi stew and a pickle plate ($125).
