Patio at Owlsley’s Golden Road, The Hill, Boulder, CO (Honorable Mention)
Oak at fourteenth
I Need a Miracle “Thrill me to the marrow and I’m in that rendezvous”
After perfecting their respective crafts in a number of the region’s finest restaurants, Chef Steven Redzikowski and Bartender Bryan Dayton opened Oak to acclaim in the Spring of 2010 but it was shut down by a fire in the ceiling mere months later. Most new restaurants don’t have the resources to recover from such a loss, but the Oak team perservered and re-opened in 2011, quickly becoming a staple of Boulder/Denver best of lists, eventually spawning, Acorn, Denver’s #1 restaurant in 2015. Oak’s centerpiece is their enormous wood fired oven with its perfectly executed breads and meats. Their cocktail program, without surprise, is the best in town.
River and Woods
Uncle John’s Band “Come with me or go alone, he’s come to take his children home”
Taking over the iconic tiny house on East Pearl, formerly the home of John’s Restaurant, River and Woods found itself off the beaten path and with a tall order to fill. Taking inspiration from the home and its history, Chef Daniel Asher and his team created a concept around family recipes, submitted by members of the community, including iconic dishes once served by Chef John in the seventies. Remodeled to take advantage of every inch of available space, River and Woods serves family dinners of extraordinary quality and creativity at very reasonable prices. Designed from the get go to be kid friendly, River and Woods is the new go to place for moms and dads who want a nice meal, a craft beer or cocktail, while keeping the children happy and baby-sitter free.
Rayback Collective
Truckin’ “Pick a place to go Just keep truckin’ on”
In turning the old Rayback Plumbing Supply property, in a non-descript corner of town into literally Boulder’s hottest hotspot, the team at the Rayback have achieved a remarkable act of alchemy. Featuring a rotating array of food trucks, some from all over the country, Rayback is a movable feast, offering something new every night. The yard full of games and fire pits, the bar with the dozens of taps and curated craft beers and ciders, live music, large TVs, and couches to sprawl, not to mention its entrance right off one of Boulder’s many bike paths, have turned the barely year old Rayback into a nightly destination of choice for both the young and hip and their future slightly less hip versions with the kiddos in tow.
Black Cat
Let It Grow “Round and round, the cut of the plow in the furrowed field.”
While Chef Eric Skokan was making his reputation as one of Boulder’s most exacting and down to earth chefs, an early adherent to the now ubiquitous farm-to-table concept, he slowly found himself gravitating from the table to the farm. Black Cat is now both one of the area’s longer tenured fine dining establishment and one of its finest small farms, delighting Boulder Farmer’s Market customers every Saturday with perfect produce and even more perfect farm raised meats. Chef Eric is usually there himself to offer up culinary advice to those unsure how to handle some the of the unusual vegetables he and his family grow. But in the evenings the goods from the farm wind up in his signature dining establishment or in his small pub next door, Bramble and Hare, both serving fare that is low-key, authentic and truly delicious.
Cafe Aion
The Other One “Spanish lady come to me, she lays on me this rose”
Opening a fine dining restaurant on University Hill in Boulder had always been a bit of an iffy proposition until Cafe Aion came along. The Hill with its college-centric bars and cafes is Boulder’s other downtown and while the student population frequently crashes the Pearl Street scene, more mature Boulderites rarely go the other way. So when Chef Dakota Soifer and his team opened Aion in the space which had formerly housed a breakfast joint and the old Aion Bookstore, bets were that it wouldn’t succeed. But on the strength of Soifer’s food and the team’s vision for the space, Aion has become a regular on the best of lists for the Denver area. Known in particular for its take on Spanish cuisine and Tapas, Aion is warm and cozy place to swing by when you are on the Hill, and looking for a respite from the otherwise raucous college bar scene.
Sushi Bistro TASUKI
China Cat Sunflower “Copper-dome bodhi drip a silver kimono like a crazy-quilt star gown through a dream night wind”
Shhh. Many Boulderites remember the original, now shuttered Sushi Tora, where they were first introduced to jet-fresh delicacies direct from Tokyo’s original Tsukiji market by Chefs Nobu-san and Saito-san. What many Boulderites don’t know is that long after they decamped Tora and seemingly disappeared from the Boulder restaurant scene, they have returned to create very special food at TASUKI. Boulder punches far above its weight in outstanding Japanese sushi bars – Japango, Amu and the venerable Zanmai are still among my favorites – but TASUKI is the best of the bunch, hiding in plain sight, as so many great sushi joints do, in an unadorned building in a row of strip malls. Nobu-san and Saito-san still prepare the most authentic, least fussy, both hot and cold traditional delicacies in Boulder.
Jax
Wharf Rat “My name is August West And I love my Pearly Baker best, more than my wine”
Don’t sleep on Jax. Still the flagship restaurant of the Big Red F group of restaurants, notable alumni mentored by founding chef Dave Query include Top Chef Season 5 underdog winner Hosea Rosenberg. Jax brought a particular East Coast seafood vibe to Boulder, and despite Boulder’s landlocked location, Jax has always seemed like a perfect fit. Presenting a classic martini and raw bar setup upon entrance, Jax serves up a selection of both East and West Coast oyster varietals combined with fresh fish, in regional preparations, from around the world. In the more than 20 years it has been running, I have never received less than outstanding food or less then outstanding service at the restaurant.
Blackbelly
Eyes Of The World “But the heart has its seasons, its evenings and songs of its own.
Speaking of Chef Hosea, the former engineering student from the University of Colorado is now the proprietor of Blackbelly, a seasonally focused eatery with its emphasis on whole animal butchery. While meat is the star of the menu, from the charcuterie aging in the dining room to the consistently inventive mains, the cocktails and bar menu shine on their own. The bar team build their seasonal menu of libations from classic rock albums – each song a different cocktail. Past menus paid homage to Pink Floyd, Talking Heads and Van Halen. Located on the Southeastern edge of Boulder’s “warehouse district,” Blackbelly includes the evening fine dining establishment along with the Butcher shop, market and cafe, the latter of which just happens to serve the best breakfast burrito in Boulder
The Kitchen
I Know You Rider “I’d shine my light through the cool Colorado rain”
The Kitchen restaurants – including the eponymous cozy and brick walled original, the family friendly space Next Door and the communal, small plate, beer and wine focused Upstairs – are not only among downtown Boulder’s most consistently excellent all occasions dine out spots, but also Boulder’s biggest food export to the rest of the country. Created in 2004 by techie turned chef Kimbal Musk – yes, that guy’s brother – The Kitchen was among the first regional restaurants to source their menu from as many local Colorado farms and purveyors as possible. In the decade since, as the resistance to the industrial food supply chain has grown, The Kitchen has begun bringing this concept to other areas of the country where, unlike affluent Boulder, no such choices were available. All of that said, the Boulder flagship is still the place to go for every meal of the day and plates where each ingredient is given its due respect.
Under the Sun
Scarlet Begonias “The sky was yellow and the sun was blue. Strangers stopping strangers just to shake their hand”
The nearly 25 year old Mountain Sun Pub and Brewery has long since become a local legend, its communal Deadhead vibe and celebration of home brewed beer, itself inspired by the eclectic McMenamin’s resturants in Oregon, have since found expression in the countless craft beer watering holes that it has inspired all around the country. No matter the year though, Proprietor Kevin Daly and his crew have stayed remarkably consistent to their roots at the Mountain Sun and its sister pubs – cheap food, good beer brewed onsite and a funky atmosphere where strangers are friends. So when they took over the South Boulder space beneath their Southern Sun location, to open a fine dining establishment, I was a skeptic. Too many successful restaurateurs try to go upscale and fail. But Under the Sun surprises. By far the best restaurant in South Boulder and one of the best overall, Under the Sun crosses the Mountain Sun with a brasserie and delivers remarkable food – not too pricy and consistently excellent.