Best French Fries 2001 | Triana | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best French Fries

Triana

The "Shoestrings and Romesco" tapas offering at Triana, a snazzy restaurant named for a barrio in Spain, sounds more like a singing group than the area's most fabulous French fries. And, in fact, these are actually Spanish fries: long, thin-cut, skin-on potatoes that have been deep-fried and then liberally sprinkled with salt and -- get this -- sugar, so that the sugar caramelizes just slightly and both heightens and is heightened by the salt. Served in a paper cone set jauntily in a wire hanger, the fries also come with a small ramekin of romesco, a Spanish dipping sauce made from almonds and roasted red peppers. But these spuds don't really need any augmentation: They sing all on their own.

Best Breads

Tasteez Market & Bakery

Tasteez is a very well-bread market. Pastry chef/chocolatier Michael Bortz creates artisan loaves with crackly, chewy crusts and soft, textured interiors that hold the scents of hearth and home. Every day, Bortz sets out boules, baguettes, ciabatta and brioche -- a sweet, raisin-studded bread that makes first-rate French toast -- along with specials that include stollen, the German Christmas yeast bread that's filled with dried fruit and encrusted in sugar. This bread is a real slice of life.

Best Breads

Tasteez Market & Bakery

Tasteez is a very well-bread market. Pastry chef/chocolatier Michael Bortz creates artisan loaves with crackly, chewy crusts and soft, textured interiors that hold the scents of hearth and home. Every day, Bortz sets out boules, baguettes, ciabatta and brioche -- a sweet, raisin-studded bread that makes first-rate French toast -- along with specials that include stollen, the German Christmas yeast bread that's filled with dried fruit and encrusted in sugar. This bread is a real slice of life.

Best Place to Score With a Forty-Something Who Has Season Tickets to the Rockies

Fadó Irish Pub

Now that the wife is gone and the kids are around only half the time, these guys can spend time -- and money -- on whatever they want. And what they want is to take themselves out to the ballgame, then over to Fadó for a pint o' Guinness and other belly-enhancing carbos such as mashed potatoes in gravy and fat, greasy sausages. After day games, Fadó's deck is the perfect place to let that belly hang out while ogling twenty-somethings in skimpy attire. Food of choice: the Ceili spuds, basically Tater Tots for grownups. Well, almost-grown grownups.

Best Place to Score With a Forty-Something Who Has Season Tickets to the Rockies

Fadó Irish Pub

Now that the wife is gone and the kids are around only half the time, these guys can spend time -- and money -- on whatever they want. And what they want is to take themselves out to the ballgame, then over to Fadó for a pint o' Guinness and other belly-enhancing carbos such as mashed potatoes in gravy and fat, greasy sausages. After day games, Fadó's deck is the perfect place to let that belly hang out while ogling twenty-somethings in skimpy attire. Food of choice: the Ceili spuds, basically Tater Tots for grownups. Well, almost-grown grownups.

Best Osso Buco

Ambrosia Bistro

Chef Mark Gordon, late of Coos Bay and Mo-dena, has fine-tuned his adventurous menu at Ambrosia, a handsome east Denver bistro featuring a lovely patio. But he has made no changes in his matchless rendition of osso buco, the classic Italian dish of sautéed veal shanks, veal stock, white wine, a touch of tomato, vegetables and herbs. Simmered for five hours, Gordon's masterpiece is fragrant with mingled scents of red pepper and orange zest, and it all but falls from the bone at the touch of a fork. To find a better version, you'll have to go to Italy.

Best Osso Buco

Ambrosia Bistro

Chef Mark Gordon, late of Coos Bay and Mo-dena, has fine-tuned his adventurous menu at Ambrosia, a handsome east Denver bistro featuring a lovely patio. But he has made no changes in his matchless rendition of osso buco, the classic Italian dish of sautéed veal shanks, veal stock, white wine, a touch of tomato, vegetables and herbs. Simmered for five hours, Gordon's masterpiece is fragrant with mingled scents of red pepper and orange zest, and it all but falls from the bone at the touch of a fork. To find a better version, you'll have to go to Italy.

Best Grown-up Drink

Lemoncello

Campo de Fiori, a recent Italian transplant from Aspen and Vail, makes a lot of things from scratch, but it's the thought of Campo's super-sweet, lemon-blendy Lemoncello that really gets our mouths watering. To make this intoxicating elixir, the staff fills a vat with 100-proof liquor -- vodka, grappa, whatever's lying around -- chokes it with lemon peels and then lets everything sit for about a month, until the rinds have softened, sweetened and started to ferment. After a good straining, the lemoncello is sent to the freezer. When it's nice and cold, it's doled out in little grappa glasses. Trust us: That's all you'll need.

Best Grown-up Drink

Lemoncello

Campo de Fiori, a recent Italian transplant from Aspen and Vail, makes a lot of things from scratch, but it's the thought of Campo's super-sweet, lemon-blendy Lemoncello that really gets our mouths watering. To make this intoxicating elixir, the staff fills a vat with 100-proof liquor -- vodka, grappa, whatever's lying around -- chokes it with lemon peels and then lets everything sit for about a month, until the rinds have softened, sweetened and started to ferment. After a good straining, the lemoncello is sent to the freezer. When it's nice and cold, it's doled out in little grappa glasses. Trust us: That's all you'll need.

Best Chicken-Fried Steak Omelette

Rip Griffin's Truck Stop

Next stop, Kansas! But before you leave the state, stop off at Rip Griffin's and refuel with "The Fill-up," a giant omelette stuffed with chopped chicken-fried steak and American cheese that's glued together with white gravy -- the same white gravy that's poured all over the top. That should hold you till Topeka.

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