Saying goodbye at Ondo's

"This might be the last time, you know?" Laura said. "Our last chance." And she was right. While Curt and Deicy Steinbecker and Ondo's might just be starting out in Denver, we were finishing up, doing last things, handling final details before aiming ourselves west and making for the distant...

By Jason Sheehan

January 5, 2010

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"This might be the last time, you know?" Laura said. "Our last chance." And she was right. While Curt and Deicy Steinbecker and Ondo's might just be starting out in Denver, we were finishing up, doing last things, handling final details before aiming ourselves west and making for the distant coast, the stones and salmon of Seattle. Our house was a wreck. Our things all in boxes behind us. And I'd been waiting months for Ondo's to open, tracking it with the fanatic focus of some Brooklyn towhead pawing through baseball cards and building fantasy lineups on his bedroom rug, talking with Curt, watching the long-dormant website, hoping that Laura and I would get to experience their Spain before we turned our backs on home and headed for parts unknown.

Yesterday, I told you all the places I decided not to do for my final review in Denver. And now you know what I did.

I couldn't have picked a better place. After months of waiting, I was excited to finally try Ondo's. And not only that, but there was something nicely cyclical about starting out my tour of duty in Denver with green chile and Mexican food and ending it with a long, lovely hit of modern, worldly Spanish tapas.

It was a perfect goodbye. And if what's happening right now in the kitchen at Ondo's is any measure of where Denver will be heading in this new decade, I'm a little jealous of all the millions of meals you people will get to eat while I'm kicking it wetly in Salmonville.

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