No city is more revered for its culinary prowess than Paris, and certainly, its restaurants boast gastronomic delights without equal. Still, after several visits and many, many meals there -- sometimes I ate two dinners in a day just to get to all of the places "they" said I had to "experience" in order to get my culinary card punched -- the meal that I remember most fondly didn't cost $200 and wasn't in any guidebook.
Q. Crutchfield
Is The Biscuit a great local cafe? Mais oui!
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303-831-1297
Hours: 7 a.m.-3 pm. Monday-Saturday
Closed location
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After landing in a warm, cozy hotel bed after a long plane ride, I'd tossed and turned all night. So when dawn finally broke, I got up and out into the misty Paris morning. I found myself walking along the Seine -- all the while, of course, delightedly repeating to myself, "Hey, look at me, I'm walking along the Seine!" -- and then spied a little café across the street that was just throwing open its shutters and sweeping the dust off the sidewalk. I settled into a tiny table under the awning, ordered a pain au chocolat and a café au lait, and proceeded to feel like I was a part of Paris in a way I never had before and never will again. Street cleaners buzzed up and down the boulevard, merchants picked up their copies of Le Mondeas they opened the gates to their shops, and the folks around me acted as though I were just another Parisian out for that first jolt of joe before the day kicked in.
Seventeenth Avenue isn't the Seine, but The Biscuit has that same je ne sais quoi, a connectedness to the city's routine that makes it seem like it has always been part of the urban landscape. Actually, this funky, quirky little café just opened in January, and it's still a work in progress. Although a string of eateries has filled the space -- most recently Petit Louis -- it's never before looked so adorable. Normally, I'd raise an eyebrow at the rolling pins and other kitchen utensils that hang on the walls, but here they work. And removing the mirrors that covered the windows allowed natural light to come through, giving the room a warm glow that's reflected in the cheery staff. As those employees take the pulse of their customers, they add and subtract ideas and objects; the menu is expanding, too. But watching each step of this evolution has been a joy.
Over the past few months, I've become a regular at The Biscuit -- not that they know it. Part of the beauty of this place is that you can choose how to use it. You can hide behind a newspaper, or you can get as much attention as you think you need and deserve. You can sit inside at one of the little tables, lulled by the low, soothing hum generated between the friendly, always-busy employees and customers placing their orders at the mahogany bar, a fine acquisition from a Minneapolis tavern that adds a lot of class to the surroundings; or you can sit outside in the warm sun and listen as the clink of root beer bottles on faux-marble tables cuts through the continual drone of traffic.
The Biscuit is the brainchild of Sean Kelly, who a few years ago gave us the exquisite Aubergine Café. That eatery's former baker, Hillary Gallagher Webster, is a managing partner at The Biscuit, along with Chuck Rojo, who owns Luna coffees. Rojo had been looking for a café-type place to serve as Denver's exclusive Luna outlet; he found it with The Biscuit. The restaurant's hours were another good fit: While Aubergine is a dinner-only restaurant, The Biscuit serves just breakfast and lunch, so much of the food can be prepared at Aubergine's kitchen a dozen blocks away and then trucked over twice a day, at 7 and 10 a.m., to beat the big rushes.
And what fabulous food it is. Like Aubergine, The Biscuit is awash in the Mediterranean. Although here those flavors are offered in more casual ways, the emphasis is still on the sharp, pointed tastes that come from fresh, top-notch ingredients, including locally produced organic eggs, hormone-free meats, and herbs and greens just picked at local farms that morning. Tracy Thuiller now makes the baked goods for both Aubergine and The Biscuit, freeing up Webster to oversee latter's operations and concoct made-to-order items in its limited kitchen.
At breakfast, which runs until 11 a.m., those items include poached eggs, which arrive still warm, wet in the middle, and sided by large, thin slices of Denver Bread Company bread that have been lightly toasted and liberally brushed with a melted European-style sweet butter. You can get the eggs with prosciutto ($8) or four slices of a beautifully smoked salmon ($10); the salmon also comes on a plate with thick-cut, house-pickled red onions, capers and toast ($8). Naturally, The Biscuit does biscuits, as well as scones ($2.25) and muffins ($1.50). Although the selection changes daily, I can vouch for the chèvre-and-chive biscuits ($3) -- cream-colored, faintly oniony, sharp from the cheese but oh-so-soft and feathery -- as well as the blueberry scones, which crumbled and then melted in my mouth, releasing big, sweet hits of fruit.
