And you know what? Losing the fun at a place like Elway's is tantamount to losing the restaurant's soul.
Sure, the steaks at Elway's Downtown are good. But this is Denver; we've got good steaks all over the place. We've got good steaks and bad steaks and every kind of steak in between. And even when the service at Elway's Downtown is on its game, service alone isn't enough to put a place over the top.
Consider The Palm. Provided you're rich and important (and sometimes, even when you're not), the service at The Palm is excellent. And I still don't like that place at all. I'd rather go to the Capital Grille, where the service is almost supernaturally talented and the steaks are good, too.
A goofy sense of humor was what set Elway's -- the original Elway's in Cherry Creek -- apart from the rest of the herd, so to speak. It was what made the hundred-dollar tabs tolerable and the crowds less annoying than they might've been under more staid or formal circumstances. And even though this new Elway's tried to make itself fun, it seems to have completely lost the sense of humor that is woven through every facet of the original Elway's experience.
Oh, well. It's not like I have a lot of cause to be hanging out at the Ritz-Carlton, anyhow. At least I can still enjoy the original Elway's.
Or The Corner Office, a great hotel restaurant that I revisit for this week's Second Helping. Check it out, and then check in. -- Jason Sheehan