Every Tuesday through the end of March 2009 (when we unveil the Best of Denver 2009) we'll be posting a list of some of our favorite Denver dishes/restaurants on Cafe Society. Have a request? A comment? Post it below.
Jason Sheehan just reviewed Elway's Downtown, which he says is no fun at all compared to the original Elway's in Cherry Creek.
But there are plenty of other hotel restaurants where you can have fun -- and good food. Following are a half-dozen of our favorite hotel restaurants, as well as one that transcend's definition:
Major fun 1. Corner Office, 1401 Curtis Street. Whiskey with your chicken and waffles? That's no problem at the Corner Office, a crazy party of a hotel restaurant that has a great happy hour and late-night crowd.
2. Churchill Bar, 321 17th Street. Even if you couldn't smoke in this clubby spot tucked into the Brown Palace, it would rate as one of the best hotel bars in town for its ambience and stiff drinks alone.
3. Cruise Room, 1600 17th Street. The food comes from the nearby McCormick's, but the atmosphere in the Cruise Room is all original. Designed after a saloon on the Queen Mary (a food forty years after the Oxford Hotel that houses it opened), this is an elegant throwback with a great free jukebox.
4. Rialto, 934 16th Street. This isn't your father's Courtyard by Marriott. From Rialto's perch spot on the 16th Street Mall, there's great people-watching -- both inside and outside the restaurant.
Major bucks 5. Palace Arms, 321 17th Street. Have a couple hundies burning a hole in your pocket? That might, just might, cover your first course and cocktail at the Palace Arms, the elegant restaurant in the Brown Palace that still requires men to wear jackets.
6. Restaurant Kevin Taylor, 1106 14th Street. Kevin Taylor is a restaurant legend in this town, and a meal at his elegant, eponymous restaurant in the Hotel Teatro helps explain why.
Simply amazing O's Steak and Seafood, 10600 Westminster Boulevard. Meet Mr. Wizard, Ian Kleinman, the chef who makes magic at O's. By any definition, this is a very good hotel restaurant -- but the molecular gastronomy meals that Kleinman turns out here have to be seen, and tasted, to be believed. If all hotel restaurants were this good, we'd never check out.
