Restaurant Chains

It seems like all the important events, all the important periods, of our lives have been somehow associated with restaurants.

I'm pretty sure Katherine and I discovered we were in love over beef combinations at That Mexican Place in Copper Mountain.  And of course there was The Riviera from about the same time period.

We went to see JAWS at a matinee at Century 21.  Afterwards, we had a early dinner at The Riv.  Any long time resident of Denver knows The Riviera.  They had cable reel tables on the patio and margaritas that went down like Seven-Up.  I always ordered the beef combo and it came out smothered in green chili.  The chile was great, but I never could precisely identify its particular shade of green.  After JAWS, we sat inside at a table near one of the aquariums filling the place and kept checking out the water inside to make sure we would be alright.

In the early days of our marriage, we were devotees of three places.  Barry's in Arvada for breakfast.  Whenever we drove down Wadsworth to get to the place (usually on Sunday mornings) we made the boys promise to act just like the Brady kids.  Nate and Chris, always ready to jump at a chance to perform, were perfect replicas of Greg and Bobby.

The Lakewood Bar and Grill was another killer breakfast joint and since breakfast could be had there for under two bucks, we went there a lot.  The Italian sausage sandwiches at lunch were also terrific.

The other joint in our three restaurant rotation was The Monterrey House close to Jefferson High School.  Franny was just a toddler at this time and she was famous at the place for wolfing down their enchiladas smothered in green chili.  The green chili at The Monterrey House was incendiary with big chunks of pork floating in the middle of the sauce as it was ladled over most of the dishes at the place.  I don't think it is too much of an exaggeration to say that nearly every Friday night we were either in a corner booth at the place, or eating take out at home.

In the spirit of accuracy, we also liked the take home pizza dough from Vinnola's.  If we didn't have Monterrey House on Fridays, we were making pizzas at home to eat around the television set and the Friday night line up.

In a few years, we left our pretty little house in Wheat Ridge and moved closer to school.  We were also making a little more money; therefore, our restaurant rotation improved.  Now, we went to The Morrison Inn for Mexican.  Not nearly as good as The Monterrey House, but it didn't take 45 minutes to drive there.

We would drive down Alameda to Federal for wonderful Vietnamese food at The T-Wa Inn.  The soft shelled crab there is something I'll never forget.  Franny loved the food there.  We all did.

When we wanted to get upscale, there was no better choice than the 240 Union.  They had a fried liver and onion entree that I looked forward to for days before going there.  I think the 240 was the first restaurant in our lives where the waitstaff recognized us and treated us like old friends.  Great place.

Since the 240 was acclimating us to haute cuisine, we next ventured down to Cherry Creek and Mel's.  There was a jazz combo playing there on weekends and the food--Frank Bonanno was the chef--was the best I had ever tasted including my sister's cabbage rolls which are better than anything.

We also added Tante Louise to our rotation.  Corky Douglas continues to be the best host I have ever encountered and the food was almost as good as Mel's.  We liked taking Kathie's folks to Tante Louise because, to Ruth Ellen's way of thinking, it fulfilled every idealistic criteria of what a great restaurant should be .

Mizuna, the restaurant Frank Bonanno opened after he left Mel's, was the next step up on our restaurant odyssey.  We had dinner there with Franny the night we saw THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES and it was a magical evening.  Franny had the lobster mac and cheese and her life was changed.  For a long time we went to Mizuna at least once a month.  Every time we walked in the door it was like a family reunion.  I haven't been there in a while and I miss it, a situation I can easily rectify.

But we couldn't eat all our meals out at upscale places, so we found some great choices closer to home.  T-Bone Night at The North Woods Inn was a frequent date for our whole family.  The night Kathie learned she had breast cancer, we met Chris at the Inn and had a long and memorable dinner.  Chris, as always, rose to the occasion and was entertaining enough to help us forget, for a moment, the reason for our get together.

Romano's in Littleton was almost a weekly destination when it was just Kathie and I and Franny, the boys gone off to work at Disneyworld.  That was another place where it was a family reunion whenever we walked in.

Nowadays, our favorite thing to do is tour the DAM and then have lunch at French 75, Frank's awesome take on a French bistro.  After that, we like to walk down to The Milk Market, another Bonanno venue, and get the best fried chicken in town at his new version of Lou's.

If breakfast is in order, it is usually because we are coming back from some early morning doctor's appointment at Kaiser and so we like to stop at The Original Pancake House on University close to Southglenn.  The last time I was there, I discovered their green chili.  It was a revelation.  No more corn beef hash and eggs for me.  From now on, I'm getting green chili on everything.

We don't go out so much anymore and if we do go out to eat, it is usually for lunch rather than dinner.  It is just easier to get places at lunch time than dinner; besides, dinner ends up being way past my bedtime.

I've also noticed that most of the places I've mentioned no longer exist.  Oh well, as my Aunt Annie said repeatedly, "It is hell getting old."

Bon Apetit.