Enter the bento box.
See also: First look: Root Down at DIA opens Monday (and the soaring space is incredible)
"We found that there was an elegant simplicity in Japan when it came to cuisine -- the food over there was some of the best I've had -- and the bento evolved on some level as an idea that it's a meal that represents efficiency, a quick business lunch," explains Asher. "You sit down," he adds, and "you ask yourself what you can order that's all encompassing, clean, healthy and nourishing? -- and what makes for a fine-dining experience but is still casual enough to be affordable?"
And it was the bento box, continues Asher, that was the answer to his questions. "In Japan, the bento is a way of expressing a multi-course meal experience in a moment, and here, it's our way of wrapping all of those concepts into one idea," says Asher, adding that "visually, a bento box is exactly what food should be: a stunning way to honor ingredients."
All the boxes are comprised of blistered edamame beans and wild mushrooms glossed with a citrus-rice wine vinegar; a ginger-miso dressed organic arugula and carrot salad; a mound of multigrain rice specked red and black; and a duo of terrific ginger-coconut macaroons. Each box is also stamped with a choice of a protein: sustainably-fished, miso-glazed and roasted cobia; Korean-style barbecued beef tenders; chicken breast slicked with a sriracha-teriyaki glaze; or a vegan box with squares of deep-fried katsu tofu sourced from a company in Boulder. And the boxes, all of which are gluten-free, come with a small drift of organic pickled ginger.
"We initially tried this at Root Down DIA, and people loved it," says Asher. "They wanted something that was fast and slow -- as in slow food, and whether you're a vegan or an omnivore, there's a bento that works, plus it's a great way to represent our ingredients and present them in a way that jives with what Linger is all about: a clever re-imagination of street food that works for Denver."
The bento boxes, which rolled out this week, are available between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. "We had them as a special every day for the last few weeks, so time will tell how they evolve and what different incarnations we come up with," concludes Asher.
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