Looks Are Misleading at Cherry Crest Restaurant & Seafood

On a Saturday night, Cherry Crest Restaurant & Seafood Market is all business. There are twenty entrees on the menu, not counting pastas or salads; the chalkboards and dry-erase boards are full of daily specials; and the kitchen -- an open hot-line arranged in a tight, cramped square -- is...

By Sean Cronin

October 3, 2007

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On a Saturday night, Cherry Crest Restaurant & Seafood Market is all business. There are twenty entrees on the menu, not counting pastas or salads; the chalkboards and dry-erase boards are full of daily specials; and the kitchen -- an open hot-line arranged in a tight, cramped square -- is tiny. Three guys are banging around inside, bumping shoulders, slinging sizzle platters, saucing, topping and arranging a dozen different fish, pulling live lobsters from the tank with the calm coolness of veteran executioners…

Oh, yeah. It’s hang ‘em and bang ‘em time at Cherry Crest -- the least hip restaurant operating in Denver today and, of course, one of the busiest. The parking lot is full of murderous old men and a woman with an enchilada fetish, but inside I found a great lobster dinner and the best piece of salmon I’ve had in I don’t know how long.

For full details, come back to this spot in a few hours. You’ll also find my rant about that ubiquitous taste of Denver: the awful Denver omelet. Isn’t it time to break a few eggs and come up with another culinary mascot? – Jason Sheehan

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