American Idyll

Now, there are hundreds of ways the kitchen could have prepared these vegetables -- good ways and bad ways and plenty of ways in between. But it chose the absolute worst: marinating and holding them in what amounts to lukewarm, generic Italian dressing. This is an awful preparation -- sour and viscous and heavy and abysmal -- and also, to me, exactly right. One bite and I was ten years old again, out for dinner with my parents at some upstate, cut-rate family diner where all of the vegetables were done this way, served with no expectation of anyone ever eating them, preserved in their goop (and my memory) forever.

It couldn't have been a mistake. It had to be deliberate -- proof of a dedication to regional flavors so deep that even the bad ones are copied with obsessive precision, evidence of Wolkon and Selby's undying loyalty to American culinary arcana.

Mark Manger

Steuben's has something that will satisfy everyone -- and probably piss them off.

Location Info

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Steuben's Food Service

523 E. 17th Ave.
Denver, CO 80203

Category: Restaurant > American

Region: Central Denver

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Details

523 East 17th Avenue, 303-830-1001, www.steubens.com. Hours: 11 a.m.- 11 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.- midnight Friday; 10 a.m.-midnight Saturday; 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Sunday

Crabcakes: $12
Deviled eggs: $4< br>Gravy fries: $5
Fried chicken: $13
Cioppino: $20
Crab dinner: $25
Lobster roll: $16
Cuban: $9< br>Green-chile cheeseburger: $6
Baby vegetables: $3

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More About

• Josh Wolkon
• Matt Selby
• Kraft Cheez Whiz
• Food and Cooking
• Eating Out

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I forced myself to chew, to swallow, to listen with my eyes closed to my dad telling a story about my little brother back in Rochester. And though I hated every nuance of that bite of squash, no one would have known it to look at me, because I was so happy to be ten again, even if only for a moment, that my smile stretched ear to ear.