Fireplaces: Highland's Garden goes cold, but Matador should be hot today

Looking for a cozy spot for dinner tonight? Highland's Garden Cafe had one of our favorite dining-room fireplaces -- but when that restaurant closed for the season, it closed for good: Chef/owner Pat Perry sold the spot. Chef Mark Ferguson, a native of Denver who's been cooking in Vail, and...

By Patricia Calhoun

December 5, 2013

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Looking for a cozy spot for dinner tonight? Highland's Garden Cafe had one of our favorite dining-room fireplaces -- but when that restaurant closed for the season, it closed for good: Chef/owner Pat Perry sold the spot. Chef Mark Ferguson, a native of Denver who's been cooking in Vail, and his wife, Andrea, "will be taking on their newest endeavor in the spring of 2014. Renovating the historic Highland's Garden Café on West 32nd Avenue in Denver Colorado and turning the restaurant into the new Solitaire, something that is extraordinary and unexpected," the Solitaire website reports. "A Diversified Eatery that will entice any well known 'foodie' out there."

Let's hope that renovation doesn't remove the fireplace.

In the meantime, Highlands Garden Cafe is knocked off the list of five best fireplace restaurants that we compiled on a cold, cold December day two years ago. But the other four should be hot today, and we have a worthy replacement for the fifth, just down the street from the former Highlands Garden on West 32nd Avenue.

The Matador opened two weeks ago, just in time for this cold snap. And take a look at the fireplace that's right by the bar:There's been some debate over whether this part of northwest Denver needs another quasi-Mexican restaurant -- but there's no question that Denver diners can use seating like this today.

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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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