Delicious Designs: Eat this restaurant

Have you ever stood outside a restaurant late at night, hazily looked up at the edifice, and thought, Yeah, this place looks good enough to eat! Well, now you can!...kinda.

April is Colorado Architecture Month, and the Colorado chapter of the American Institute of Architects has come up with quite the creative way to celebrate: Delicious Designs, a program pairing restaurants with architects to create desserts resembling a variety of structures around Colorado.

The restaurants involved: Cucina Colore, Root Down, Steuben's, Carelli's in Boulder and Baron's at Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs. Until the end of April, I'll be posting an architect's sketch of each dessert, as well as the final outcome.

First up: Steuben's, the Best of Denver 2009's Best American Restaurant.

Executive Chef: Brandon Biederman
Architect:  Semple Brown Design
Firm: Semple Brown Design
Dessert Run Dates: through April 30
Dessert: "Steuben's Marjolaine." Chocolate hazelnut meringue wafer with blueberry creme Anglaise and soft serve ice cream.
Structure Represented: A loose interpretation of the building/entry/patio of Steuben's.

"I thought it was a neat idea to work with an architect on creating a dessert," says chef Biederman. "It's a cool concept from the AIA."

He hopes to participate again next year, and already has some ideas. "We talked a lot about the Capitol building or the Denver Art Museum," he says. As for this year's dessert, "It's selling pretty well, and people may not know what it's actually for, but it's really good."