Mouthing Off

Eggs-pensive: Where in town can you drop more on a meal than at the Flagstaff House? Why, at Beluga, the exclusive new club at 1523 Market Street, in the bottom floor of the same building that houses Tapas and the hopping Club Velvet (same owners for all three, as well as Fettoush and the Purple Martini, both just across 15th Street). Beluga specializes in caviar, natch, but you get to enjoy it here only after you've paid the $600 annual membership (a corporate membership runs $1,000 but garners three membership cards).

To maintain that Caribou Club feel, memberships at Beluga are limited, and once the club's reached capacity, future members must be recommended by established ones. In addition, members must be over 25, submit to a credit check and memorize the secret fish-egg handshake (okay, I made up that last one). The club is open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., and in addition to caviar, tapas from Tapas and all kinds of high-end liquor and wine are available. If you absolutely, positively, must join immediately, call 607-9249. And remember, since free valet parking's included with membership, this could be a real deal: In LoDo, a vacant parking place is more precious than the finest caviar.

There's plenty of parking at Dave & Buster's, the giant adult-entertainment (no, not that kind of adult entertainment) palace that just opened last week at 2000 South Colorado Boulevard. "There's no place quite like it," D&B says of the concept that originated in Dallas. My source, who sampled some of its 48,000 square feet--filled with shuffleboard and billiard areas and both high- and low-tech games--will drink to that. But watch out: The large, windowless dining room, oddly billed as "historic" (although on Colorado Boulevard, maybe a place seven days old qualifies for that designation) has a certain Titanic quality.

There's no business like dough business: According to the Colorado Restaurant Association, this state's restaurant industry raked in over $5.1 billion this year--the fourth-highest take in the nation. (The Cheesecake Factory collected about 5 percent of that.) And that was before D&B opened or Beluga collected its first membership fee.

Go figure.

-- Wagner