Lunch at the Zoo--oddly similar to shopping at Costco on Saturday, but more crowded

We went to the zoo last weekend. We just got a membership so we were exicted to be able to go for just a couple of hours. Our original plan was to go & brave the cold for a couple of hours and then get home in time to eat lunch. The weather was a little warmer than we'd expected so we ended up staying longer. Being a not-too-busy winter day, not a lot of the concessions were open, so we thought we'd zip over to the Qdoba on 17th for lunch. Sometime between making this plan and getting to the exit, our children decided they were really hungry (and really cranky about it). The goldfish I'd packed for a snack were long gone and the smashed up nutrigrain bar that had been at the bottom of the diaper bag for who knows how long just wasn't cutting it. As we neared the exit, we discovered the restaurant by the exit was open. In a moment of desperation, we decided to give it a try. Now, I was expecting low-quality, high-priced food. After all, we were at the zoo. The prices were a bit lower than I expected, but the food was definitely low-quality. We got two cheese pizzas. Our friends got mac-n-cheese for their kids. Tasting both of these lunch items, I was reminded of shopping at Costco on a Saturday afternoon...you know...when they give out all those samples near the frozen food section. Both of the mac-n-cheese and the pizza were definitely assembled in their entirety in some place far far away from the zoo. I recently read Omnivore's Dilemma. As a result of what I learned in that book, I'd also guess that both of these food items contained a lot more corn than you'd probably think. The pizza crust resembled wonder bread and it was covered with a flavorless red sauce and an oddly smooth sheen of white cheese. The mac-n-cheese had that lovely orange color which lets you know that at one point this "cheese" was in powder form. Interestingly, the food was not the worst part of the experience. The dining area was jam packed with tables. It was so tight in there that it was nearly impossible to navigate through let alone with a stroller, even on the permiter of the tables. I managed to push a table away here & there to get my stroller through but then I came face to face with another family trying to go the opposite direction with their stroller. What a mess! They had highchairs but I literally had to carry it over my head to get it to the table & I still think I bumped into several chairs on the way!

Maybe next time, we'll just pack a lunch. However, the question still remains about where to eat it until the weather gets warmer. I noticed some people had brought their own food to eat into the restuarant we ate at. But I don't think I want to set foot in that overcrowed dining room again!

Northstar Brewery

We all went to Northstar Brewery (32nd & Tejon) for dinner on Friday. The front room has pretty tightly packed tables and is often rather busy. However, there is another room a little farther back that we typically have to ourselves on Friday nights. The waitstaff at Northstar was friendly and helpful on Friday as usual. My husband and I both got the pulled pork sandwich. I got mine with fries (which were a wee bit overcooked, but in a good way--pleasantly crispy) and he got his with tater tots, which are pretty good since they are deep fried (way better than the oven cooked version you remember at Grandma's house). The sandwich arrived with a huge mound of pulled pork piled on top of a bun. Atop the pulled pork is some cole slaw. The barbecue sauce on the pork is more of a vinegar-based than ketchup-based variety and it has a nice zingy flavor. The cole slaw is made with red cabbage and is tasty because it is not too mayonaissey (is that a word?). I like it when restaurants serve pulled pork with cole slaw because I like to pile the cole slaw up on the sandwich for a little contrast in texture and flavor (and to give myself the illusion of actually eating something more healthy than a huge pile of meat on a bun--yeah...coleslaw--that makes it healthy!). It is nice when it already comes with the coleslaw because then I don't have to feel like a pig because I'm ordering two side dishes. The sandwich was yummy as usual. Even my 1.5 year old gave it the thumbs up.

My daughter ordered the macaroni and cheese which comes with carrot and celery sticks. The mac-n-cheese, though not as good as the stuff my husband makes, is way better than what you typically get for a kids' meal. The color somewhat resembles actual cheddar cheese, which makes you think that this here mac-n-cheese actually has more dairy than corn oil in it. The texture is just a bit too smooth though, which leads me to believe that there is at least some percentage of "pasturized cheese food product" in it as well. But heck, both my kids gobbled it up and my 4 year old gobbled up the carrot sticks as well, though she turned her nose up at the celery and the "sauce" (ranch dressing).

Overall, I'd give Northstar the thumbs-up as a casual, family friendly dinner destination in the 'hood. It has been near the top of our list lately because in addition to pretty good food, they have a nice beer selection, including both their own brews and some of those from Wynkoop. We enjoyed the Wynkoop IPA the other night. Good stuff. Even though it is essentially a bar, I'd call it family-friendly. It is loud enough that no one is bothered by your kids using their (er...) "outside voices," they have highchairs and boosters, the kids menu has food that is actually made from something other than corn oil deriviatives, and the waitress is super nice and tells you how cute your kids are/big they are getting, etc. Plus they bring you scratch paper and a big old cup of crayons. Finally, good beer for mom & dad. What else could you want?

Beau Jo's

We stopped at Beau Jo's in Idaho Springs for lunch after a morning of skiing on Friday. My husband and I each got the salad bar and the split a "one pounder" with sun dried tomatoes and roasted red peppers. My daughter got the chicken nugget kids' meal. The salad bar was pretty typical with all of your basic salad bar ingredients. It definitely was not designed for short people though. I had to just sort of reach into many of the little buckets with the provided utensils and hold up the ingredients to see what they were. I got the ranch dressing....it had that poured-from-a-large-vat taste to it....not bad, just nothing to write home about. If you haven't ever eaten at Beau Jo's, they feature Colorado-Style pizza. Never heard of it? Well, to the best of my knowledge, you can't get Colorado-Style Pizza anywhere but Beau Jo's (maybe it should be renamed Beau Jo's style pizza?). All in all, it is pretty good pizza. It is just very unique--not the kind of pizza I'd want on a regular basis. The crust is a little on the thin side in the middle but the outside part of the crust is huge. It is probably an inch in diameter at the part where you'd hold the pizza to eat it. It is a nice enough crunchy crust. There are bottles of honey on the table for you to dip that big ol' hunk of outer crust in when you are done with the good stuff. I'd never shared a pizza at Beau Jo's with just one adult before, so I've always gotten a pizza that was bigger than the one pounder in the past. I think I prefer the larger sizes of their pizza. When you take that big outer crust and put it around a pizza that is of a small diameter to begin with (maybe 8"?), you just don't end up with much room in the middle for toppings. As a result, the actual pizza to crust with honey ratio seemed even more out of whack with the smaller pizza.


Now the kids' meal...they had a fancy placemat that mentioned that they served hormel corn dog nuggets (complete with the corporate logo), so I have to say, I had low expectations. My daughter ordered the chicken nuggets....I expected them to arrive in the shape of stars or some other disturbing shape. While we waited, I commented to my husband that whenever I see such a fancy kids menu (complete with corporate logos and fun activities on the placemat), I have visions of the salesman for the food distributor saying making his pitch ("If you buy our complete kids' meal package, you'll get the mini corndogs, the macaroni and cheese bites, the premade peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches--just defrost and serve, and the chicken nuggets shaped like space ships. Plus, we'll throw in, at no extra charge, the kids' meal menu placemats and the little packages of 4 of the world's lowest quality crayons!). I'm often surprised when restuarants where the adult food is a far cry from Applebee's have very Applebee's-like kids meals. Kid's meals shouldn't be that hard...just make smaller (maybe less spicy) versions of your grown up food. I've never run an restaurant before, but shouldn't that be cheaper and easier? But I digress....

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with my daughter's chicken nuggets. They were irregularly shaped and appeared to be breaded in some sort of yummy breading that looked homemade. She enjoyed dipping the nuggest in the honey (why not?) and reported that they were good. I tried a bite and I had to concur. They tasted like chicken. Imagine that. The nuggets were served with a tub of tropical fruit, also so pleasant surprise (instead of french fries or chips). Overall, it was a good lunch. Much better than we would have gotten on the mountain and surely cheaper!

Happy Cakes

We went on Saturday to pick out cupcakes for dessert for my husband's birthday (Sunday). My daughter was especially excited to go to the new cupcake bakery in the 'hood: Happy Cakes (on 32nd Ave. in West Highlands). It is a little place, with cupcakes displayed behind glass. The very thoughtful owners had placed little stools in front of their display so young children could step up and see all the cupcakes....very nice! We all picked out our cupcakes, brought them home & put them in an airtight container as instructed (not in the fridge). Even though they were a day old when we ate them, they were delicious.

I had the Chai cupcake, which was very yummy. Both the frosting and the cupcake itself was laced with spices. The cinnamon definitely came through, but the flavor was more complex than that. There were definitely other spices in there.

My husband picked out the chocolate on chocolate. His initial review was that there was too much frosting. However, after he ate a bit of my son's Vanilla on Vanilla, he changed his mind. His main problem with the Chocolate on Chocolate was that it was just too much chocolate. If you are the type of person who thinks that there is no such thing as too much chocolate, this is probably the cupcake for you. I think my husband will probably get a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting next time.

My daughter got the Hot Chocolate cupcake, which was a chocolate cupcake with a white buttercream on top, garnished with a mini marshmallow. The frosting was less vanilla-y (vanilly?) than the vanilla buttercream and a little sweeter. I think they were going for a marshmallow buttercream.

The cupcakes were moist (even at a day old) and the buttercream on all of them was delicious. It tasted like it was made from butter, nothing at all like that yucky stuff you see piled on cupcakes in the grocery store. Happy Cakes is definitely a great addition to our neighborhood!

Arvada Grill

We went to the Arvada Grill last night. It was my husband's birthday. He did a little research and came across this place, which is a sister restaurant to Limon. We ate at Limon once for lunch (without kids) and liked it, so we decided to give this place a whirl. It is in Olde Town Arvada at the corner of the two main drags (Grandview and Old Wadsworth, I believe).

The decor of the place is kind of hip and funky for the 'burbs. It is decorated in chocolate brown and light blue with abstract art all around. The tables are wood with dark chocolate brown stain and the chairs were the same wood with nice padded seats. There is a big, kind of funky, curvy banquette in front for sitting on while waiting. The lighting is kind of dark, giving the place a cozy feeling. It wasn't a super loud place, but noisy enough to feel ok going there with children. The place had a nice vibe.

The menu is heavily focused on home-cooking, comfort food type meals. I ordered the chicken and dumplings pot pie, which was sort of like an upside down pot pie. There was a yummy cornbread like substance at the bottom with chicken and gravy poured on top. It included big chunks of rotisserie chicken along with peas and carrots. Not good for the diet, for sure, but tasty. I managed to polish off the entire (rather large) serving.

My husband ordered fried chicken, but alas, they were out of that item. Instead he ordered the Bison meatloaf, which was served atop a pile of mashed potatoes with a large serving of corn on the side. He gave it the thumbs up.

The kids meals are $5.99 and include an entree, side dish (choice of french fries, mashed potatoes or fruit, if I recall correctly), and a sundae. My daughter got the mac-n-cheese with fruit. I was so happy to see that the mac-n-cheese was not the strangly orange costco type variety that is so often served for kids' meals. Instead it was a plate of homemade, creamy, cheesy deliciousness. The fruit was indeed fresh (as in, not from a can or a jar) but it looked a little sickly. I can't fault them for this though. After all, it is January and my daughter did eat it. My son (17 months) shared the mac-n-cheese. He loved it. Whenever I tried to sneak in a bite of something else, he said, "no no no no." We had cupcakes at home for dessert, so you'll have to wait until our next visit to get a review of the sundae.

I have just two complaints (interestingly, both are kid related):
1. Without even asking us, they brought the kids meal first. I know some people think this is the way to go. I don't get it. When the kids meal comes first, the child is often done eating (or nearly so) when the parents' food arrives. Then you have to entertain your child (who is ready to go) while you are trying to eat. I personally think it is much easier to entertain your child when you are not trying to eat yourself. We've put a lot of effort into trying to teach our children that we all eat as a family. This practice of bringing food to kids early undermines this. I know the server was trying to be nice, but in my opinion he should have asked.
2. This is going to make me sound cheap again, but oh well. The child's glass of milk cost $3! I don't get it. Why does there need to be such a huge mark up on milk? In the end, the child's meal ends up costing about $9. It was good food, so probably worth it, but a bit more than we are used to spending.

Overall, we liked the place. We noticed that they had sandwiches and burgers on the menu as well. We will definitely visit again!

Why I Really Don't Like Parisi

I know this opinion is probably unpopular.

Last night, after our failed attempt to eat pizza at Gemelli's, we ended up at Parisi. I have this idea that Parisi has good food. We don't go there very often because my husband has a pretty negative view of the place. I think I've finally come around to his point of view. Don't get me wrong, I still think the food is good. However, I do think that the portions tend to be small for the price you pay. Maybe the portions are sized according to what I should be eating, but this is not a discussion of my diet. The fact is, last night, like pretty much every other time I've eaten there, I left hungry.

The real kicker is: I think this place is very child unfriendly. Sure, it meets one of my first criteria for being a child-friendly restaurant: it is loud. But the child-friendliness ends there in my opinion. The place works along the same lines as Noodles & Company. You wait in line, order your food, sit down with a number and then someone brings you your food. For some reason, I like this set up at Noodles. I think it because Noodles has more of a fast food identity. Once they bring you your food, they are done with you. The staff at Parisi brings you your food and then sort of waits on you. The tables don't turn fast enough. So the line gets backed up. Kids in line get antsy...start getting the wiggles....start invading the space of the folks in line near you, etc. etc. Get out of line and wait elsewhere with the kids, you might suggest. Nope. There is really nowhere to wait. The whole place just feels crowded.

Two last rants about this place:
1) You pay when you order (ala Noodles & Company), but since they give you a little extra table service here, I feel like I should tip. I paid with a credit card. It feels yucky to be asked for a tip before you are even waited on (plus I was in a bad mood from dealing with kids in line). I did have some cash last night and thought, I'll just leave the tip at the end. I almost forgot.

2) The tables are pretty packed in. This is ok sometimes. I live in a small house. I am used to cozy. But these tables have legs at all 4 corners. The result, you have to lift your legs over the chair to sit down. Try that with an antsy 4 year old in your arms!

Now, about the food. We got the quattro formaggio pizza without the gorgonzola (my husband is not a fan of the blue cheeses), so I guess it was a tre formaggio. We also got a couple of side salads and the Syrah to drink. The pizza was good. I like the thin crust, the sauce is good, and I liked the 3 cheeses. Definitely a good pizza. The salads came with mixed baby greens, a mixture of sliced olives and tomatoes with a balsamic viniagrette. This was also quite good. I wasn't a huge fan of the Syrah--I thought it tasted a little watery. My husband liked it though.

Maybe I'll head back to Parisi sometime without kids, but probably not because there are so many other places to go with no kids!

Failed Attempt at Trying a New Restauraunt

A new pizza place just opened up in our 'hood. It is called Gemmelli's & it is located just south of 44th and Tennyson (just across the street and a few doors down from Parisi, a pretty popular pizza/pasta place). We arrived and were informed that they only had one highchair and it was being used. Very disappointing!