Dazzling Boulder Dishes?

Happy Saturday, with more snow expected today. So I'm a little slow getting to the Friday magazine in yesterday's Daily Camera, and I find its feature is "14 plates that dazzled our dining critic in 2014." The dishes are wide-ranging both in cuisine and geography, coming from restaurants all over Boulder County and beyond. Since I haven't eaten at any of them, I clearly need to get out more, much as I enjoy cooking at home. You can get the lowdown on these 14 dishes from the Daily Camera here.

Denver Restaurant Week Coming Up

Which also includes some options in Boulder like Cafe Aion and the Greenbriar. Running from this Saturday August 23rd through the 29th, the participating restaurants are offering multi-course dinners for just $30 per person. Check out the Restaurant Week website for all the options, and to see the Boulder ones, once you click Browse Menus Now (the tomato stuck with a big fork), just pick Boulder in the location field.

Restaurant Week Coming Up

Cooking at home is fun, cozy, and with the right planning, healthy too.  But you can't do that every single day, right?  So keep an eye on Denver Restaurant Week, including quite a number of Boulder restaurants despite the Denver moniker, that runs from February 23rd through March 8th.  During that time, the participating restaurants will have special multi-course menus for two at $52.80 (for Denver's altitude).  Check out their website for menus all around the area, including a section on those in Boulder.

Wine Kudos for Frasca

Departing briefly again from home cooking, we're so lucky to have the restaurant scene that we do in a town the size of Boulder. Frasca continues to make headlines, this time in the wine department. Last week, the news was its being named a finalist for the James Beard Foundation's outstanding wine service award, so stay tuned on that one. Today, I opened my April issue of Food & Wine magazine to find an article on food and wine pairings that names five "pairing meccas" across the country, and you guessed it, Frasca is one of the five. Wow.

Boulder Fine Dining Deals

I rarely comment on Boulder's wonderful restaurants since I'm usually busy cooking at home, but the fabulous deals on the horizon just have to be mentioned. First, several Boulder restaurants will be participating in Denver Restaurant Week, 2/20-3/5, where a multicourse dinner for two is $52.80. Check Boulder Eats for most of the participating places, plus The Black Cat, the Greenbriar, and the Red Lion have since been added (plus some restaurants outside the city). Also, the 14th Street Bar and Grill will be holding a Buttonwood Farm wine dinner on the 24th for an astonishing price, $30 per person plus tax and tip.

Sad Boulder Restaurant Closings

Very sad news making the front page of today's Daily Camera, that Dolan's has closed after 15 years due to taxes. Sadder still is the laundry list a few paragraphs down of other Boulder restaurants that have closed within the past few weeks.

Boulder Dining Scene

Hope you caught Cindy Sutter's article on the growth of Boulder's sophisticated dining options that appeared in this Sunday's Daily Camera. If you missed it, you can still view it here.