Grape Expectations

For chef Matt Franklin, the Wine Experience Café concept was a perfect fit. It’s a wine shop with a restaurant attached. (Or, in my world, a restaurant with a wine shop next door.) All of the bottles and glasses served in the restaurant are available for sale in the shop;...

By Patricia Calhoun

June 17, 2008

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For chef Matt Franklin, the Wine Experience Café concept was a perfect fit. It’s a wine shop with a restaurant attached. (Or, in my world, a restaurant with a wine shop next door.) All of the bottles and glasses served in the restaurant are available for sale in the shop; most of the bottles in the shop can be cracked and poured in the dining room. All of the cuisine (and there’s a lot of cuisine here, an almost incalculable amount) is keyed to the wines; is designed by Franklin, with his weird, six-way sense for ingredient combinations, to complement the bottles or be shocked against a certain pairing. He does wine dinners; he does tastings. He does the whole chef-plus-wine-guy shtick. And so the Café would seem to have everything going for it…

And yet, the first time I stopped in, the place was empty.

That worried me, because in this part of town -- Southlands, where there still seems to be money to spare -- a place like Wine Experience should be jumping. Fortunately, it was packed the second time I visited for this week's review, and no doubt will continue to be for some time.

And there's more wine news around Colorado -- from the Blending Cellar in Boulder to Brix in Cherry Creek. And finally, with wine on the brain, I spent Friday afternoon relaxing on the patio of Cork House, and returned, somewhat sodden, but with a fine look at what’s become of the former Tante Louise since Corky Douglass left the building. -- Jason Sheehan

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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