Here are five mid-summer menus we find particularly intriguing:
We've been digging ChoLon Modern Asian Bistro's posted specials, which have recently included a watermelon salad and a beef carpaccio with fresh vegetables and edible flowers. But we're also eager to sample the new dishes, including a porterhouse with watermelon, tomatoes and corn puree; a lobster roll; and a new pho dish. The crew also brought back one of our all-time favorites: the cold, tart green papaya salad with fresh green beans, tomatoes and tamarind sorbet.
Summer's brought all sorts of changes at EDGE Restaurant & Bar, the restaurant in the Four Seasons, and the dinner menu now features items like foie gras with cherries, halibut with English pea and sweet corn ragout in a huckleberry gastrique. But we're arguably more interested in the More Than Just a Sundae Supper, a Sunday night three-course prix fixe menu that ends with ice cream sundaes like the Carnal Caramel -- dulce de leche ice cream topped with chocolate-covered potato chips -- and the Campfire, an ice-cream-and-topping combo meant to mimic s'mores. Plus, if you don't like one of EDGE's options, you can craft your own.
We're on a major radish kick this summer, and we're particularly digging the crisp, spicy vegetables done simply in a little salt and butter. We've seen that exact dish on the menu as a special at Table 6 and, more permanently, at Colt & Gray.
Potager is just back from its summer break, and it reopened its doors with a menu that celebrates some of the best aspects of summer produce. We're lusting after the baked goat-cheese soufflé with grilled peaches; fresh mozzarella with a tomato-strawberry salad; and the hand-cut noodles tossed with corn, green beans, basil, tomatoes and more peaches.
Boulder's Cafe Aion varies things on a daily basis, and the menu is rife with local finds. Recent favorites include house-cured coppa and mission figs, minestrone with pea sprouts and peas, broccoli with a smoky bread-crumb salsa, turnip salad and -- one of our favorites -- beer-battered squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta.