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Serenades "Come Home"

Serenades "Come Home"

Tivi

Tivi says it's going away ... and it's having a RIP sale of whatever's left. Enter code RIP to get 20 percent off your purchase at their store

M83 adds tour dates

M83 is coming to Denver! April 30 at the Ogden.

Here's this. Get in the mood:

Satchel's on Sixth

As A says, Satchel's on Sixth is making its way on to our list of favorite places in Denver to eat, joining Fruition and Sushi Sasa. (A also likes Parallel 17 for weekend brunch, Domo and Jelly. (C also likes those, plus the pesto breadsticks at The Walnut Room that are half off during happy hour, but now we digress).

The reason for our ardor for Satchel's: The butternut squash soup!!! A, S and C all tried it this past weekend. It's got a maple flavor, and it's thicker than your typical soup, making it the perfect thing to warm up your soul on a chilly day. It happened to be our soup of the day, which I guess means it's not on the menu every day, to which I have to say, "Why???" It's fantastic!!

We also tried the duck mac and cheese. They had us at "duck." Then A ordered the braised short ribs with a parsnip puree. Soft tender meat, as you would expect, with a rich flavor mellowed by the parsnip plus some greens. S and C both got the scallops (nicely seared with roe on top), with butternut squash risotto with that al dente type feel, little chunks of squash.

Tried the rasta chai (chocolatey) and the orange/cranberry cheesecake (just fine, but no need to splurge for it)

Atmosphere is relaxed, comfortable. I think Chocolat was the movie playing with no sound on the big screen in the background. Friendly staff. Small, open room. Neighborhood vibe.

Bittersweet restaurant ... to be continued

So far, we've only tried 3 dishes at Bittersweet on Alameda, so can't really form a full opinion yet. But we did try the bacon, eggs and toast, a dish of three thin slices of toasted bread topped with pork belly and poached quail eggs. A delicate, decadent appetizer. We also tried the grouper with cippollini and cauliflower salad, with a smoked mussel sauce underneath. The smoky flavor comes through. This is a meaty fish, balanced with the lighter cauliflower and cippollini. A got the butter-poached lobster tail served with mussels, potato fingerlings cooked in duck fat, and andouille. The lobster picks up the distinct vanilla/corn flavor of the sauce. The andouille adds some kick. The lobster tail was fresh and fat. Other than that, this is a cozy restaurant split into two intimate rooms. We sat in the one with the small bar and fireplace adjacent to a patio.

We would've eaten more at Bittersweet, but we were tempted into stopping at The Lobby first for pumpkin pot stickers (delicious! but more like a dessert than an appetizer. 5 small potstickers come with a sweet cream and candied nuts) and a half portion of mushroom risotto (the half portion was plenty! Nice thick texture to the risotto, good mushroom flavor.)

Charcoal restaurant

On a sunny, cool Denver morning during Thanksgiving weekend, while seemingly everyone else was either hitting the slopes or watching college football, we supported small business Saturday by brunching at Charcoal on 9th and Acoma.

Charcoal's chef is Scandinavian, the menu is solidly European, but on weekends, the brunch has lots of Swedish touches thrown in.

Here's what A and C thought:

The tasting menu is the way to go. C got the semla swedish pastry. The fluffy brioche and cream were very filling, the almond portion was heavy, and the warm milk made the thick bread go down easier, but this was way too much of one sort of flavor and entirely too sweet for one person for breakfast. But if you're a jelly doughnut or lover of stacks of waffles and pancakes, perhaps you'll be able to swallow the whole thing.

A got the tasting menu _ a brilliant idea because you get to taste the more traditional brunch offerings, plus the special Charcoal ones. "All the courses were delicious, but most of them were so flavor-intense that a full platter of any single one would've led to taste bud fatigue/boredom. The 5 courses were vanilla yogurt parfait with granola and dried cranberries and fresh raspberries and blackberries; cardamom french toast with hazelnut cream, syrup and tiny chunks of watermelon and grapes underneath; potato pancakes with lingonberries and pecan smoked bacon; brisket hash with pickled golden beets; chocolate souffle with mousse. The French toast was fantastic, as were the potato pancakes with lingonberries and bacon. Bacon was nice and crisp. Pecan-ness was very subtle, I barely noticed it even knowing it was there. Golden beets were too vinegary for my tastes (most pickled things are), but went well with the hash. I probably could have enjoyed an entire dish of the hash, with little or no pickled beets. Souffle was too dry for my tastes, but the dryness was offset by the mousse. A bit of a shame, I love dark chocolate and its potential dryness doesn't bother me, but I expect cakes to be moist," A says. "The service was attentive and friendly without being overbearing. Caveat: We were there at the tail end of brunch, so the dining room was fairly empty."