But because all of you out there in Hotcakesland are being so helpful, I've decided to return the favor by answering some questions and offering some helpful links to some of you commenters who have apparently missed or lost track of some of the better reviews we've run over the years. There's no form or order to this list; it's no judgment on the restaurants named. It's just a little guide through the seven-and-a-half-year-long jungle of words I'll be leaving in my wake. So let's get to it, shall we?
Howdy Neighbor suggested that I ought to check out Tables as a plast review. And while yes, I would dearly love one more night there, pressed up against the glass on a cold night, eating a big bowl of oysters, sausage and potatoes, I've already done exactly that. And while having already been reviewed does not exempt it from possibly being my last review, Tables isn't exactly what I'm looking for.
Reading Your Mind made several suggestions. Among them were D'Corazon (which I wrote about in April of last year), Szechuan Chinese, home of some of the greatest dumplings in the state of Colorado, which figured heavily in my October, 2006 review, and also Casa Bonita, for the reasons detailed above, I assume.
Nic suggested Colt & Gray. And he kinda got his wish, too. I mean, it wasn't my last review, but it was close and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Denverscener offered up the breakfast burrito at the Original Chuuby's. Beat you to it, scener.
David Constantino suggested Taqueria Patzcuaro. His reason? Because I ain't never gonna find Mexican food that good in the Pacific Northwest. And you know what? He's probably right. One thing though? Looking back, I realized that Taqueria Patzcuaro was actually one of the first restaurants I reviewed in Denver. Not the first (that would've been Venice), but maybe the second or third. More to the point, it was the first one I reviewed while actually living in Denver. Anything before that, I was still commuting back and forth between Denver and Albuquerque. Thus, my original Patzcuaro review (from back in July of 2002) is full of references to my old car (an Oldsmobile Toronado, bought for four hundred bucks off a dishwasher at the last real restaurant I worked in), dessert heat, the Owl Bar, atomic zombies and, eventually, tacos. Patzcuaro is definitely going on the list of possibles.
I'm Nobody came up with several suggestions--all of them rather selfish because he was basically just looking for me to weigh in on something in his neighborhood. Still, I'm all for looking out for number one, so I had no hard feelings. Oh, and one other thing? I've already had my say on virtually all of them: Marco's Coal-Fired Pizza, Snooze (which I've actually written about three or four times) and Buenos Aires Pizzeria (which I reviewed years back, and followed it with a piece on the now-closed Buenos Aires Grill). He also suggested Twelve, Hi-Rise and the Lobby. Twelve is a definite possibility...
J Sullivan offered up a trio of Mick bars: Clancy's, the Irish Snug and Dougherty's. Of those, I've only officially weighed in on the latter--in a review that was really little more than a love note to yet another of my neighborhood bars. Still, though, I think I said all I needed to on Irish bars during a couple weeks at the beginning of the year and all my crowing about the opening of Katie Mullen's downtown.
Okay, so that about covers the back-tracing of the most adamant commenters' suggestions. The reviews linked above are all interesting in their own ways, all historic, all benchmark pieces about the Denver dining scene. And all I'm looking for now is to be able to write one more before I go.
I'm still accepting ideas and mulling my options. The final review will run in early January.