Veggie lunch

A quick summer lunch snack that won't make you sweat too much. Halve (have) an avocado, stab a knife in the pit and twist it out. Sprinkle lemon juice on the avocado meat, and throw both halves on the grill for a minute or two. We spooned roasted tomatoes and chopped cippolini (cipollini?) onions in the middle.

Saw this car downtown the other night

Live Basil Pizza

Tom Ryan (he came up with the McGriddle, Smashburger, Tom's Urban 24 and more) and Rick Schaden (he's worked with Ryan on Tom's Urban 24 and Smashburger) have launched their latest fast-casual concept, Live Basil Pizza, with plans to open 100 around the country in the next four years.

Live Basil Pizza takes Steve Ells' Chipotle Mexican Grill concept (natural ingredients, customizable entrees, made quick, with an option to have liquor) into the fast-casual pizza world.

Basically, diners queue up and grab a menu card. They choose what kind of thin-crust 11" pizza they want (or choose customized ingredients themselves) and mark their choice(s) on the card. They hand it to someone behind the counter, who starts ladling on the sauce. The pizza moves through the line with each worker adding various ingredients til it gets put into an oven that cooks the pizza in just 2.5 minutes (150 seconds). "It's fast, fresh pizza, made before your eyes," Ryan says.

Balls of pizza dough get prepared into crusts

 

The dough is rolled, sauce and other ingredients go on

It goes in the oven for 2.5 minutes

 
A handful of shops in California also have tried quick-cook pizzas (think 800 Degrees in LA or Blaze). Ryan and Schaden are posturing their chain as an option for lunch or dinner. There are some booths but also high top tables and stools. Live basil plants are key to the decor.

***

Live Basil offers 13 different kinds of pizzas (menus will be localized for different states, like Ryan does with Smashburger). The pizzas do well at layering flavors so that you want to take more bites to taste everything.

Examples of menu options include the Live Basil Margherita (left) and Arugula, Truffle and Wild Mushrooms (right)




There's also The Hot One (below), which includes pepperoni, spicy giardiniera, jalapenos, red pepper flakes, spicy oil.

 

Other notable ones include The Colorado (ingredients include bison sausage, green chile, goat cheese, roasted sweet corn, cilantro, Italian cheese blend), Maui BBQ Natural Chicken (includes smoky bbq sauce, fire-roasted pineapple, cilantro). Gluten-free crusts for the pizzas are available ("This is Colorado," Ryan quips.)

Smoothies made with Haagen-Dazs sorbet and fruit (peach mango or mixed berry) and salads also are on the menu for those looking for lighter fare. 

The cooler is stocked with Boxed Water is Better water, Mickey's malt liquor, cans of Fat Tire beer, etc. Chardonnay and Malbec also are available. The soda machine has Boylan sodas.

Some light reading

You may have noticed couple of new links there under the "Check It" section. They're for two blogs we've been reading that have been making us laugh.

Thank You For Canada is by the same guy who's behind the Waffleizer site (and soon-to-be book).

The other one should under no circumstances be endorsed nor recommended by anyone. It's profane, inappropriate, and discusses little more than drinking/behaving badly/drinking. And yet....here it is, Cats In Your Pants.

Running home from work

We laughed when the wellness coach at our day jobs suggested we take our jogging gear to work so we could jog home one day instead of walking home. Images of jogging with dress clothes flapping from one clenched fist and a lunch bag stuffed in the other floated through our heads. But then the Wall Street Journal wrote about this guy, who really does run to work, with his other clothes on his back. Puts us to shame.

Fresh Guacamole

In case you missed it, here's the shortest film ever nominated for an Oscar:

Doors Open Denver

Doors Open Denver is that one weekend of the year when you can check out some architectural treasures around the city for free. If you missed it today, many buildings will be open again tomorrow, 4/14.

Some of the spots we stopped by today weren't quite as awesome as we thought they might be. (You can only walk through the ground floor of the Campbell House mansion at 940 Logan St., e.g., and these days the mansion is being used as office space, so it's completely not exciting.)

But it was cool being on the third floor of the McNichols building and seeing the views of the Denver Art Museum, City and County Building and Civic Center Park from its big windows. Here's a view of the third floor, where the work of Denver artists is on display:

A peek out the window gives you a closer view of the detail on some of the columns:

Not too far away is the Byers-Evans house, owned by William Byers, who founded the Rocky Mountain News, and later William Evans. Tours during Doors Open Denver are free but only go through the first floor. Here's some shots of one of the first rooms you enter:

The entrance to the next room has this overhead:

 And this is in the kitchen:

 

<< So there's another angle on the stove. On the front left is the waffle iron. On the front right are clothes irons.








But the real highlight of our day was seeing the Mathews-Gotthelf Mansion. The Victorian-era home is being restored. So the outside looks like this:

The drawings look like this:

And the inside is still being restored:

Jimmy Eat World

Jimmy Eat World has its new video up at www.IWillStealYouBack.com

Populist, Corner House, Tables

Team Delicatessen has been trying a bunch of new restaurants lately, thanks to Foodie Friend Mike's funemployment and his need to fill his time while waiting for his next assignment. Here's the team's initial thoughts on a couple newer Denver spots. It should be noted, we've only been to these places once and haven't tried everything yet.

POPULIST: This cozy hipster restaurant on 32nd and Larimer, diagonal from Infinite Monkey Theorem, fills up quickly and doesn't take reservations for parties smaller than six. The place had filled up by 6 p.m. on a recent Saturday, so we passed the time waiting for a table trying some drinks. Two sommeliers in the group thought the wine list seemed really esoteric.

As our server explained, the dishes are plated so they could be shared. The menu has very simple descriptions ("bacon and egg," "pork and rice," e.g.), inviting conversation with the server to find out more. And yet, the place was SO LOUD, that it was so hard to hear anything out of our server's mouth. We assume the dining experience will be more enjoyable on the patio, once it opens. In any case, the mussels and marrow was fantastic, with fresh mussels and a big hunk of bone filled with marrow. The scallop dish had a perfect sear. A pork sausage dish served with a dollop of mustard and what I think our server said was poached pear (?) and pea shoots had a lovely almost sweet, wine-like flavor on the pork. There was a dish with carrots done 3 ways. The winner on that dish was the pureed carrot. Mmm! We tried the lemon tartt, which had an almost brittle-like bottom layer. Served with dollops of yogurt. We'd try this place again, but perhaps early on a weeknight when the place may (who knows) be a little calmer?

CORNER HOUSE has a lovely space in Jefferson Park. Exec chef Matt Selby was working the kitchen when we stopped for lunch and was bringing plates out to customers too. The curry chicken thigh panini, grilled avocado salad (w/arugula and citrus), and short rib chiliquiles were fine, but we want to stop back for dinner, which has some tantalizing menu items including a Roasted Winter Squash Soup with lobster. Original cocktails also are an emphasis here. Foodie Mike tried ordering one, only to be told that bar manager Gerard Collier would have to be the one to make it, and he wasn't in yet. (The place stays open til 10 p.m., and we were there in the afternoon.) After he arrived, the said cocktail was made. Foodie Mike got the Western Slope, a deliciously dangerous mix of whiskey, absinthe, sloe gin & elderberry soda.

This isn't that new, but we finally got to TABLES, which recently put out its spring menu. Cute neighborhood place, incredibly knowledgeable servers, laid-back feel. It's not a cheap place, but one thing we'll say: Try the basil gnocchi! Terrific flavors and great texture/taste on the gnocchi.

It's Epic

Vail Resorts Inc. (which has sponsorship deals with Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White) had these white chocolates made up to market their Epic Pass offerings for next season.

The Epic Pass will include 5 days of access at Verbier, not just 3. Buyers also get access to Eldora all season long, in addition to Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Breckenridge, Arapahoe Basin in CO; Northstar, Kirkwood and Heavenly in Tahoe; Mt. Brighton (Michigan); Afton Alps (Minnesota). What the what!

Denver Restaurant Week

Team Delicatessen went to Panzano for Denver Restaurant Week (restaurants across Denver let you get a multicourse dinner for two for $52.80, alcohol and tip not included.) (UPDATE: Come to find out, we could've gotten many of the same dishes for less during Panzano's happy hour. Oh, well. You live and learn. More proof that Denver Restaurant Week is increasingly not all you think it will be)  Here's the four-course menu of small plates that Panzano is offering. You get to choose one item under each course listing.

When the servers recommend that at least one person at your table get the mushroom crepe, they are not kidding! Earthy mushrooms and a delightful sauce. The fried brussel sprouts with pistachio and thin green apple slices is also tasty, and you get a nice serving size. For the second course, most of us tried the spinach salad, with maple dressing, gorgonzola, pear slices, walnuts.

For the main course, two of us got the gnocchi with rabbit, leeks, tomato, mushroom. Getting all those ingredients together in one bite is a really nice, well-rounded, flavorful bite. Mr. P discovered he actually likes rabbit. The other two got Pollo Marsala (chicken breast) on top of mushroom risotto, w/ fried prosciutto and truffle oil on top. I found the chicken on the dry side, but it is a decent-sized plate. The gnocchi comes in a small little pot. Though it looks small, it's the right proportion for a 4-course meal, but it looks so small!

 Also tiny are the desserts, though for your health, it's probably just right. The creme brulee was vanilla-flavored on the night we were there. The lemon tart had a thin crust with meringue on top, and it was laid on top of a plate with raspberry preserve ladled on it. Tiramisu: solid. Service was attentive. It's fun to watch the staff in the open kitchen.