Right on the cusp of leaving (I write this on the plane home) we finally had some memorable eats in America. Denver is certainly a big enough city to have a modern restaurant scene, but last night we found the first couple of hot spots we tried to be full and so ended up in a noisy and so-so Italian place. We were determined to do better on our last lunch.
Today we squeezed in quite a hike around the middle of Denver, and confirmed my suspicions from yesterday. There is no heart to this city. Locals presumably know exactly where the big malls are located, the air-conditioned consumer temples where you can shop all day without letting the sun kiss your skin. But they certainly aren’t within walking distance of downtown.
Just about within walking distance is the art gallery district of Santa Fe. The tourist maps are deliberately misleading, shading in an area four blocks wide and ten blocks long. In fact all the galleries are on one single street and pretty much along a six block stretch of it. Still, there are a good bunch of working galleries showing a wide range of work. It all feels pretty nascent though, and in bad need of some cafes and a few more shops selling gifts and crafts other than purely decorative/display items.
And so we had our lunch in a bar and kitchen place called Euclid Hall. As befits Denver they had an extensive beer list and some interesting beer-based cocktails. Mine was pretty good, but left me feeling that beer is not the most obvious base for a cocktail. The food was smashing, though. Bone marrow on sourdough toast, curried boudin noir, pigs ear pad thai, chicken & waffle. Having glanced at the menu I couldn’t not go in.
So we had a triumphant culinary end to our Yellowstone holiday (ignoring the excerable tortellini on the plane home) and all-in-all two weeks with a great mixture of wildlife watching, stunning scenery and diverting attractions. I might struggle to find a reason to go back, I do feel kinda like we’ve “done” the area, but it was worth the trip.
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