The Rest of Denver

Even more telling than the number of excellent restaurants that opened this past year was the number of excellent restaurants that didn't get awards in the Best of Denver 2008, including perennial favorites like Vesta Dipping Grill (1822 Blake Street) and Rioja (1433 Larimer Street). To honor them this time, I would have had to create new categories, because the ones they've won before no longer apply. Vesta, for example, could've been Best Dipping Grill, but that would have been a one-dog fight. It's still an excellent restaurant, the best at what it does — what it has been doing, with very little alteration, for more than a decade — but it's no longer the Best Fusion Restaurant (that went to Izakaya) or the Best First-Date Restaurant (9th Door). Rioja is another fantastic restaurant — I love chef Jen Jasinski's pastas and recommend this place all the time — but with so much high-end Mediterranean/Italian action in the city right now, it didn't rise to the level of hands-down best, and I didn't give a Best Mediterranean at all. As for frequent winner Deluxe (30 South Broadway), while it continues to crank out phenomenal California cuisine, any awards are on hold until its expansion is complete and the staff settles in.

While some longtime Best of Denver winners got bumped this year, others retained their positions. Bud's Bar, for instance. I'm beginning to think that no one will ever dethrone this joint in Sedalia from its Best Burger perch. My Brother's Bar came close, but when push comes to shove, I'll always be a sucker for a place that does burgers and nothing but burgers. Capital Grille (1450 Larimer Street) repeated as Best Steakhouse; in my mind, it's the Apollonian ideal of steakhouses, and will probably remain so until Peter Luger decides to open a location here. And how is anyone ever going to top the ramen served at Oshima Ramen?

Those laboring here at Bite Me World HQ (i.e., me and my editor) are actually thinking of retiring some of these awards to make space for newcomers, discussing how we might create some kind of lifetime-achievement prize or permanent award of honor recognizing that certain restaurants (Domo, Sushi Den) or certain departments (the wine cellar at the Palace Arms, the moules-et-frites station in the Le Central kitchen) have accomplished feats of excellence that may never be matched. But so far, that's just talk.