All the Way

"This was one of our big impetuses for buying Le Chantecler," Carol told me as we were finishing up our conversation. "We could have the building, the land. We could do what we wanted to do."

No one from the Chautauqua Association would have a say, no other partners would have a say. "We would control the land, control everything that we wanted to be," she concluded. "And now, to have all of our values, our beliefs line up with how we spend our day? Brad tells everyone that he's living his dream. And how many people get to say that?"

Leftovers: With the coming of spring come the new spring menus. They're popping up everywhere -- all sweetness and light and microgreens and lamb in myriad preparations. One of the more noteworthy new boards is at Euro (231 Milwaukee Street), a fresh turn for chef Marc Carmean, who took command in the galley after the departure of chef Olav Peterson. Though Euro has never been the most stable restaurant in Denver (having shuffled menus, chefs, concepts and staff faster than even the hottest card sharp could follow), this spring menu (full of lamb T-bones with sweet-pea orzo, soft-shell crab cioppino and simple steak frites under a veil of maître d' butter) represents the second full change executed by Carmean.

Also in Cherry Creek, Mel Master has handed down the word: The final dinner at Mel's will be on April 28. But after that, he'll give Denver diners plenty of other options. His new joint, Montecito, has been going for several months now at 1120 East Sixth Avenue, serving great California-style cuisine courtesy of chef Adam Mali (check out the blog for details). And the Master family (Mel, wife Jane and son Charles, late of Brix) are set to open both another Montecito in the former Ventura Grill space, at 5970 South Holly Street in Greenwood Village, and Anabell's -- upscale American comfort food, rather like Brix without the Continental accent -- right next door, at 5960 South Holly, in the former home of Ocotillo.

Finally, Jason Parfenoff, the owner of Toast (2700 West Bowles Avenue in Littleton), dropped me a line to say that after his place won this year's award for Best Breakfast, it did its best business to date that Sunday: 380 covers. You read that right -- 380 covers in a dining room that can't possibly hold more than fifty, in a restaurant that's only open until three in the afternoon. And Parfenoff said that Toast is now averaging 350.

In order to cope with this massive upsurge in business, Parfenoff said he's "in the planning stages" of a remodel on the attached space next door that will give him thirty or forty more seats on the floor and a new prep area for the guys in the kitchen.

Jason, let me give you a piece of advice:

Hurry.