Best Gourmet Burger 2003 | Opal | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Gourmet Burger

Opal

There's a lot of talk these days about the hamburgers in Manhattan out-pricing each other, but why hop a plane to taste the Big Apple's beef when we've got a perfectly elegant version right here in Denver -- and for less than $10? The Kobe beef burger at Opal -- which uses shoulder-cut American Wagyu rather than the purebred, pampered Japanese Kobe -- is served blood-warm, with only red-leaf lettuce on the soft roll to accompany the rich, fatty, roundly flavored meat. No matter how you cut it, it's the juiciest thing we've encountered between two buns.

Best Bison Burger

Ted's Montana Grill

Ted Turner will be remembered for CNN, colorizing movies and the Tomahawk Chop -- but the bison burgers served at Ted's Montana Grill are his true bid for immortality. Big, juicy patties of ground bison (not buffalo) are cooked to your specs (and better specify them rare or medium rare -- this is bison, not E.coli-ridden beef), then served on soft buns with an assortment of sides and condiments. Wash your bison burger down with beer, wine (no hard liquor at Ted's) or Coke -- served in two six-ounce glass bottles. For an added dose of flavor, try the Ted's in Larimer Square, where the turn-of-the-century setting actually dates from the turn of the last century.

Best Bison Burger

Ted's Montana Grill

Ted Turner will be remembered for CNN, colorizing movies and the Tomahawk Chop -- but the bison burgers served at Ted's Montana Grill are his true bid for immortality. Big, juicy patties of ground bison (not buffalo) are cooked to your specs (and better specify them rare or medium rare -- this is bison, not E.coli-ridden beef), then served on soft buns with an assortment of sides and condiments. Wash your bison burger down with beer, wine (no hard liquor at Ted's) or Coke -- served in two six-ounce glass bottles. For an added dose of flavor, try the Ted's in Larimer Square, where the turn-of-the-century setting actually dates from the turn of the last century.

Best Way to Fit as Many Meats as Possible Between Two Buns

Crown Burger

Go on. You know you want to. Forget the squawking of your self-righteous vegetarian ex-girlfriend, forget your waistline, screw PETA and just order the Royal Burger at Crown Burger. One chopped-beef patty, lettuce, tomato and "special sauce" -- that's good for a start. But add roast beef, ham, pastrami and bacon, and now we're really talking. This burger is a true carnivore's dream, wrapped up nice and neat in waxed paper for the bargain price of $4.25.

Best Way to Fit as Many Meats as Possible Between Two Buns

Crown Burger

Molly Martin
Go on. You know you want to. Forget the squawking of your self-righteous vegetarian ex-girlfriend, forget your waistline, screw PETA and just order the Royal Burger at Crown Burger. One chopped-beef patty, lettuce, tomato and "special sauce" -- that's good for a start. But add roast beef, ham, pastrami and bacon, and now we're really talking. This burger is a true carnivore's dream, wrapped up nice and neat in waxed paper for the bargain price of $4.25.

Best Route-66-Style A-Frame Drive-Thru

Griff's Burger Bar

Finding a great classic drive-thru on Route 66 wouldn't be a surprise -- but in the middle of busy Broadway? Still, the traffic on this artery can make you feel like you're on an interminable road trip without even leaving the city limits, so pull over and treat yourself. Griff's serves up burgers wrapped in waxed paper, along with fries and shakes at prices better suited to a time when the cost of gas didn't make just idling in the drive-thru lane the most expensive part of dinner.

Best Route-66-Style A-Frame Drive-Thru

Griff's Burger Bar

Finding a great classic drive-thru on Route 66 wouldn't be a surprise -- but in the middle of busy Broadway? Still, the traffic on this artery can make you feel like you're on an interminable road trip without even leaving the city limits, so pull over and treat yourself. Griff's serves up burgers wrapped in waxed paper, along with fries and shakes at prices better suited to a time when the cost of gas didn't make just idling in the drive-thru lane the most expensive part of dinner.

Best Wings

Wingman

Mark Wolfe, owner of Wingman (formerly Woody's Wings), is a brave guy. Not only did he open a hopping little spot dedicated (almost) entirely to the art -- nay, the majesty -- of cooking the humble chicken wing, but he then took his wings and carefully crafted sauce to Buffalo, the temple of the chicken wing. And was he laughed out of town during the first annual Chicken Wing Festival? Was he sent packing simply because he came from the wrong side of the Mississippi? Nope -- he did Colorado proud. And we couldn't have picked a better ambassador, because Wingman's wings are the best in town.

Best Wings

Wingman

Mark Wolfe, owner of Wingman (formerly Woody's Wings), is a brave guy. Not only did he open a hopping little spot dedicated (almost) entirely to the art -- nay, the majesty -- of cooking the humble chicken wing, but he then took his wings and carefully crafted sauce to Buffalo, the temple of the chicken wing. And was he laughed out of town during the first annual Chicken Wing Festival? Was he sent packing simply because he came from the wrong side of the Mississippi? Nope -- he did Colorado proud. And we couldn't have picked a better ambassador, because Wingman's wings are the best in town.

Best Fries

Bistro 250

So many indignities have been heaped on the humble potato. So many wrongs have been done in its name. So many cooks have been content to just dunk fistfuls of frozen potato pieces in hot oil and shovel the resulting pasty, greasy fries out to diners who don't expect much more. But not Joe Sinopoli. First at Adde Brewster and now at Bistro 250 (in Adde's old location), Sinopoli has elevated the maligned tuber, putting out plate after plate of perfect pommes frites -- the Apollonian ideal of a potato's existence. Blanched first in hot oil, left to sit, then dunked again until golden brown, this process results in crisp, nutty, even slightly sweet fries -- thin as shoestrings and lightly touched with salt -- that will forever ruin you for the limp, oily and pallid fare of the local drive-thru.

Best Of Denver®

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