786: TASTE Travels: Colorado

21:48Johnny Curiel:No, I think it's definitely a place where it competes with any city out there. It competes with, it's not New York, it's not LA, it's not Chicago, but like our diversity and our food is like any restaurant that you eat in Denver could be worthy of being in New York, worthy of being in Chicago, worthy of being in LA. So that's the way that we need to look at it and understand. A few more spots that we have to go to in Denver, like restaurants or it could be anywhere that you want to recommend. I always recommend Molino Chido. That one's going to be in Aurora at the Stanley Marketplace, that's Chef Michael Diaz de Leon.

22:20Johnny Curiel:He does an amazing job. I think I was telling you, he's doing the Molino, but he's adding some elements on there that really speak to who he is. And that's like Michael. Yeah, he staged in India. Yeah, he staged in India. So he's got some elements of that going into his Molino. And then another place that I like, it's Barbecue Spot. It's called Riot Barbecue, with Chef Manny Barrella. And it's Mexican barbecue. So like you find everything that you need in Mexican, but you also find it in a great barbecue spot. So he's doing it amazing. So that's cool. Like let's unpack that. So it's definitely, is he doing his own tortillas and having like a little bit of - He's doing his own cornbread and they produce the tortillas from his own bite, from his own tallow that he uses for the barbecue.

23:00Johnny Curiel:So it's smoked tallow. So it's like everything that he's doing is just so unique. Again, it goes back to a story, right? Like it's not just barbecue. It's amazing story and barbecue. He's from Monterey. So when you think of Monterey in Mexico, it's like, hey, it's meats. You get the meat sweats anytime you go to Monterey. So he's doing an amazing job, but there's everything. And there's a restaurant that we frequent a lot and it's called Kawani. And is it like a Japanese izakaya? And it's like, man, like you go in there, they're tamakis, they have like kimchi uran noodles. So think about a carbonara, but with kimchi.

23:33Johnny Curiel:And that is like, again, it's Chef Bill. He's doing his own version of what, he's been in Japan many times and he was just there for months and he does it. He does his own version. Kawani is on our list. We missed that one too, man. We might, maybe we'll sneak out and go to the Kawani tonight. And then one of my favorite restaurants is U.S. Thai. That one's in Sloan's Lake and it's a true Thai restaurant. And it's like almost like, this is how we do it. And if you don't like it, this is how we do it. But it's one of those places that you go in and you're like, hey, like, I appreciate this. I appreciate that you're speaking from the heart and you want to share the heart.

24:07Johnny Curiel:And it's great. But I can name a hundred restaurants in Colorado that are amazing. You've done a great job in just outlining it. And it's certainly, you did not say a steakhouse. No, of course not. It's so crazy that it still persists that Denver is a steak. And maybe because there's a steak named after, a cut named after it. That is true. Perhaps. Maybe there's that history. Well, I want to close and ask you, we are here in Fondamais. Like basically in your dining room. It is literally day zero of the restaurant today. Your staff are coming in to train. Tell us a little bit about this project.

24:38It's years in the making. Really excited to hear about it.

24:42Johnny Curiel:Two years in the making. we already went through a whole seeding and harvesting of corn obviously it took a lot to get to where we are today but it's it's my love letter to corn I think when when I when I think about corn and fonda maiz it's like okay like there's so much to that our diet in Mexico is corn related right like almost every day every table has tortillas every day you go to a tortilla idea, but it's not just tortillas. Everywhere that you go in Mexico has different versions of how they use corn, right? Some do the telas, some do the memelas, some do molotes, some do, like everybody just does different things.

25:21Johnny Curiel:So when, when we were coming up with this idea, it was like, how are we able to incorporate corn into a place? And we came with, up with Fonda Maíz and we came up with an 18 course tasting menu that you'll see corn throughout the whole menu and not necessarily in a heavy way. It's not 18 tacos. It's not 18 sopes, but like you will get to taste different elements of corn. And we wanted to share that. We wanted to share the fine dining side of Mexico as well, because I feel like we've done a really great job at just showcasing hole in the wall and like Campesta restaurants. And at this point, it's like, okay, like we have Mexican fermentation lab.

26:01Johnny Curiel:We created a Mexican fermentation lab and we're going to talk about pulques at all agrio. We're going to talk about a lot of things. And it's like, how can we incorporate that to our daily use now? And it's going to start at my ease. But what goes to tell you that whatever our staff learns, for example, this is going to be like the University for Fondafino Hospitality. So the opening team, three chefs from the other restaurants came in. And then in six months, they will go back and one chef of each restaurant will come in. Rotate in. Yeah. I see. So we want to make sure, I mean, every, when I was young, I had the dream of working in a three Michelin star restaurant, doing a tasting menu, doing the tweezer work.

26:40Johnny Curiel:I never got the opportunity to do it because I couldn't afford it and I couldn't leave Colorado. So I'm hoping that I can build that here in Colorado. So the people that cannot leave get to experience it. And at the same time, learn from it. So when you go back to Altenio or you go back to Alma Fonda Fina or Mescaleria Alma or Kozovi, you either bring that with you and make it better, right? Because at the end of the day, I think that life is about giving and life is about teaching. And that's the last thing that I can do. It's like, I hope that I can set a great path for the next generation and they are even better than me.

27:14I love that sentiment. It's really, really from the heart, it's obvious. And I think it's also smart strategically to have your staff learning all the time and bringing the ideas back to your other restaurants. An item on the menu or two that you want to share from this tasting menu.

27:28Johnny Curiel:For this one, we have a tamal colado. So we have a tamal with hoja Santa chlorophyll and a little bit of Santa Barbara uni that's going to be served in a rock counter. So it's going to be a, think about like an Icuatole almost. And then we're also going to have one of my favorite things, our welcome drink. I'm from Guadalajara, Jalisco, and Tejuino. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. So it's a fermentation of maíz in the cook down with piloncillo, and we're going to serve that welcome drink with our corn mezcal maíz from Bozal. So I'm super excited about those items. I'm excited about every single item because it's new.

28:05Johnny Curiel:It's new to me. It's new to the team, and it's collaboration. At the end of the day, we're together for the next five weeks trying to come up with this menu, And it's like, we're going to leave and breathe and make sure that whatever comes on those plates is one of the best things. And it's not a traditional restaurant space. No. It's kind of, I don't know if you call this an office park, but you have smokers outside. You have gardens and raised beds outside. It's a beautiful space. The build that is gorgeous. And I think it's cool. Like you want to sometimes as an operator, you don't want to always be in a hotel.

28:41Yes. Or always be in the main street. Of course. You want to be like tucked away. Johnny, this has been really, really great. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining This is Taste.

28:46Johnny Curiel:No, thank you very much for inviting us.

28:52Rhino to me is sort of like Williamsburg circa 2005, if you will. This is Laura Young of The New Denizen, a Denver-based online magazine covering Colorado's exciting food and drink scene. Today, she's taking us on a tour around some of the city's most exciting food neighborhoods. This neighborhood that we're at right here, tell us a little bit about it. So we're in Five Points right now, and this is kind of a historic neighborhood. So, you know, up until like the 1950s, it was historically a black neighborhood. And since then, like starting in 2000s, it's sort of gotten gentrified. So there's a lot of stuff kind of going on here in terms of like new and old.

29:34Also a cable car directly behind us. Yeah. Yeah. Which is like the best part about being in the city. We have RTD coming on through here. So, I mean, it's still really a neighborhood, I think, in transition in terms of like the food scene and then in just in terms of the businesses that are around here. I love and respect Laura's passion for food and the work she publishes at the New Denizen. But this wasn't my first time hanging out with her. Laura previously lived in New York City and in the early 2000s ran the influential music blog The Modern Age. We go back to the days of shows at Brownies and Pianos on the Lower East Side and all those ironic t-shirts.

30:14But that story is for another day. When you moved here, did you understand what you were getting into with the scene? Because, I mean, Denver is not New York. Yeah. And this was years ago, right? I think now it's obviously closer to New York. And I mean that as like an egotistical New Yorker thinking that we're like the center of the world. I think you can connect with that, obviously, as somebody who came from there. But did you realize that this scene was kind of on the upswing when you moved here? The thing that appealed to me was that there seemed to be just opportunity. So there was energy and the scene is small enough that you could really get a handle on it.

30:49And also because of the fact that we're a smaller market, I think for chefs and people who want to open up businesses, there are opportunities to do that. where you can maybe experiment with the type of food that you want to do and maybe you don't have to put too much capital down. We start our journey at Queen City Collective Coffee. They are an exceptional specialty coffee shop and roaster with six locations around the region. I visit with one of the co-owners, Scott Bennington, who runs the roasting and offers me a pour over, an exceptional geisha from Victor Bermudez in Colombia. I also check out the coffee wall, which is full of surprises.

31:25So this is like my husband and my favorite coffee shop in Denver, just in terms of the quality and everything. And I mean, they've been here for a number of years. So they've been sort of part of that first wave of restaurants and coffee shops that have kind of come up in this neighborhood, I would say. When you're buying coffee or when you're looking at the menu, what is what is the typical order for you? I mean, so the go to is definitely this one, the Manos de Piedra from Costa Rica. I mean, this wall of coffees is just incredible. Looking at the sourcing that they do, like, you know, you've got coffees that are from Guji, from Ethiopia.

32:03You've got coffees from Nicaragua. And it's very rare to see a roaster have this kind of range of this. After our first coffee of the day, we head to Stowaway, a beloved all-day cafe from chef Amy Cohen. The menu is inspired by Amy's time living in Australia, as well as her Japanese heritage. So Laura and I talk about our meal. First off, thank you for that recommendation. So great. Tell me why was that? What was important to get like a kind of a traditional, at least in terms of the format, brunch? Why was Stowaway the spot? I mean, it's the place I always tell people to go to if they're looking for a breakfast spot or a brunch spot here in Denver.

32:44I just think the vibe that is there is so much fun. And then the food is colorful and tasty, but also wholesome and pretty healthy, too. But you can also get a little bit, if you have a sweet tooth, you can get some of those donuts that she has on the weekends, which are amazing. But then also go in the opposite direction and get like a, you know, karaage sandwich, which is indulgent and definitely has all of the, you know, the umami and the savory side. Okay, let's start with that donut. I mean, wow. Like, I love that there were both the donut and the hole, so you could have a little snacker there.

33:23I love the yuzu cream. It was like a strawberry glaze. Are you always ordering the donuts? I mean, I am sort of a savory person for breakfast, so it's not always my go-to, but I definitely agree with those donuts. Having the little hole, I mean, who doesn't love a little extra something? It's always great to start with just a little bit of sweetness and then go into the savory. Speaking of savory, you were really gravitating towards the salmon rice bowl. Yeah, the Asago Han. Yeah, talk about that. I really loved that. But it took me to East Asia, took me to like, you know, L.A., Japan, Japanese restaurants.

34:02I mean, it's very much like a sort of more traditional style Japanese breakfast. You've got your rice component and then salmon and then these beautiful vegetables. Some of them are, I think, slightly pickled as well. And to me, it's the type of thing that you get it in this bowl. You can sort of just dig into it and it just feels really good going down. And at the end of the meal, it's like you feel like you've just gotten a hug from somebody, you know, just really satisfying and always tasty. I mean, Amy's doing really great things in terms of building that flavor, putting in little, you know, dashes here and there to make it a little bit more than just, you know, a bowl of rice with vegetables and pooch day.

34:44And, you know, back to the sweeter side, but kind of like in between sweet and savory was this black rice pudding with the tropical fruit notes. Tell me, what do you think of that one? I mean, I love that because, as I was just saying, I'm not like a super sweet person for breakfast. But I think a dish like that with the black rice pudding, you've got a little bit of like shaved toasted coconut on top of that and a bit of mango. I think it kind of really was like right on the line in terms of sweetness. Not too sweet, but really, really satisfying. And you get like a little bit of sweetness, but it's not overwhelming.

35:21After a short car ride, we parked down the block from Cafe Trace, a new Cuban bakery and coffee shop that serves classic Cuban pastelitos. We are greeted by the bakery's young owner, Michael Solis. I love this opportunity to visit a brand new place. And I love the trajectory from from farmers markets and kind of like local cottage baking buzz to the brick and mortar. And we're walking up on it now and it's a really cool space. It just looks like white with like a little blue trim. Yeah, it's got this sort of like Yves Klein blue electric, almost electric style blue. When we go inside, you'll see all that he's done with the space, which is very, very small.

36:07But he's made some really nice design choices, given how small the space is. Hey!

36:13Johnny Curiel:Hi, how are you? Good, how are you? Good to see you. This is Matt. What's up? Mike, congrats. Nice to meet you. So cool. After a quick chat with Michael, we sample many of the bakery's famous pastolitos, washed down with Cuban-style espresso. Laura and I talk about our discoveries on the way to our final stop. Mike or Cafe Trace is doing these great pasalitos, which are Cuban pastries. And he's doing a mix of savory and sweet ones. And it's really great to see, to have that here in Denver, because he's really one of the only people that is doing that style of pastry. You know, the one that I had today was the naranja.

36:49And the flavor on that was just amazing, was like so tart and light. And I love the lamination on it. And then also for the savory, we had the carne one. And the flavors on that, on the meat itself, was really, really just fantastic. Yeah. He's building these flavors. I love the guava and cheese. I just thought that that is what I want all the time. I think guava is such a great fruit. It's very sweet. But then when you balance it with the actual, you know, with the cheese, it's perfect. Yeah. And, I mean, that one's a classic on his menu. He always has that. It's one of his best sellers. So the carne and the guava and the cheese are like the top two, and those are always on the menu.

37:32And then everything else sort of rotates in based on his inspiration or whatever is in season. And that's really nice to see as well. We head towards our last stop, a restaurant that is sometimes called the heart of five points. So, Laura, our last stop. We've made some ground. We have. I'm excited about this final meal. Tell me about it. So we're headed to Welton Street Cafe, and this family has been running restaurants here in Denver in Five Points for several decades. So I think about over 40 years, different types of restaurants or different names of restaurants, but they've been in the business a really long time.

38:16And they really represent a restaurant that brings this community together. So Five Points was historically a black community up through like the 1950s. and welton street cafe they do soul food and also caribbean food so this is going to be a little bit something different yeah but they are so well loved in this community i mean i i did some research uh for this trip and this name kept popping up as a place i needed to visit and what a what a combination caribbean and american soul food yeah cannot wait yeah so um the family that owns it they originally moved from the U.S. Virgin Islands so I think that's where the inspiration for some of these Caribbean dishes that are on the menu comes from and then also being in this historically black neighborhood and just being a family that's been here a long time creating a space where you can actually get really great soul food I think was really important yeah yeah well it's a we're here so can't wait to chat about our meal yeah let's do it well in street cafe is packed with large groups of friends and families some celebrating birthdays and some just enjoying the fried chicken catfish mac and cheese and greens well in street cafe really delivered and it's been such a great day like the work you do at the new denizen is really important that you're you're covering new openings and just like looking at the scene holistically and you really pick some some really like wonderful spots and um i feel like denver it might is it is it stretch is it underrated i mean probably i would think so we i mean as you can see like we've got all of these different types of restaurants and food places opening up and that is only continuing to grow i've lived here for 10 years now and the scene has i feel like the scene has only just begun to start to pick up steam so it's been really exciting to see how changes have happened over these years yeah i've been following from afar I have family here and I love visiting.

40:19And, you know, this has been just a small slice of the city, but I just I'm going to keep reading your publication. Thank you. And Laura, thank you so much for showing us around the city. Oh, it's been my pleasure. I hope you had a lot of fun. I sure did. Thanks to Laura Young of the New Denizen for the Great Denver Food Tour. And make sure to check out our Instagram for up close profiles of restaurants we visited.

40:45Hi, Matt. How are you doing? Eliza, you know, I'm excited to be back from Colorado. You know, we had such a great trip, Clayton and I. We were driving all around the state. And I wanted to talk about some restaurant visits and some experiences we had. I'm skipping any of the feature interviews in this episode. So, you know, we had other meals that aren't mentioned here. But, of course, I'll talk to the folks at the restaurants in person about that. We started in Grand Junction, the far western side of the state. I think this is the one part of Colorado that I've been to, actually. It is the most stunning part of Colorado.

41:22Not to play favorites throughout the whole state, but gorgeous vistas. We were down in Palisade, which is a really great wine region. And we started in Grand Junction. We landed quite late and we wanted to have a bite because obviously plain food is not really what we were looking to do on a food tour of Colorado. Totally. We found a 24-hour taqueria called Los Gilberto's Taco Shop, and it delivered. You know, right off the plane, you just, like, feel in your body. If you land in, like, California or Texas or Colorado, you want Mexican food sometimes. What did you guys get? It was crispy rolled tacos.

42:00Okay. You know, I mean, very, very, very, like, smothered in cheese with refried beans and rice on the side. Satisfying. We had cabeza and fish tacos. We had carne asada fries that were wrapped into a burrito. That feels very West Coast to me. Super West Coast. I think the style here is like Colorado, Tex-Mex kind of. I mean, green chilies like throughout the trip, we saw green chilies everywhere. So this place is 24 hours and it seems like it's kind of a late night place post bar. There are some signs on the wall that implied that things might get a little rough there from time to time. And I loved it.

42:36It was like full. It wasn't on the visit we had. it was quite quiet, but I thought the tacos really delivered. I mean, that sounds like the perfect way to kick off the trip. What did you guys do next? We were in Palisade and we wanted a quick bite and we went to a really cool cafe called Fidel's Cocina and Bar. And it was kind of like an all day cafe vibe. We were there for lunch. And, you know, for me, it was like really sunshiny. We ate outside and we had this rainbow goddess salad it was like a spring mix of arugula and and lettuce and there was some flamed corn in there and and chili roasted pistachio and um you know seeds and it was just like such a beautiful salad and i and by that point i like wanted more greens you know as you will on the road and i just thought they did a nice job they also did a pulled king mushroom taco with caramelized onions and citrus jalapeno slaw.

43:35Whoa. Yeah, really nice tacos. And we had Bedia as well, which was great, queso Bedia. And I thought for a quick bite in Palisade, it was definitely the place to go. Okay. What was next on your agenda? I'm sure you ate at a million places. Well, you know, we were definitely moving our way towards Denver. So we were in Grand Junction, a little bit of Palisade, and we made it out to Aspen, Colorado. and we visited a bakery called Paradise Bakery. I'm familiar from your recent three things. Yeah, well, you know, we mentioned three things a few weeks ago because I wanted to really call it out then, but I have a little more information about it.

44:14And for me, this is a place that came recommended from two people, some food writers and friends who know Aspen. It's a 50-year-old locally owned establishment and they get between 250 ,000 and 300 ,000 visitors a year, which is pretty cool. And they're known for all sorts of baked goods, cookies and muffins and brownies and all sorts of croissants. But for me, it's the muffins. But really for me, this was a really cool place to go to. We had a banana chocolate chip and Morning Glory muffins. And you can just tell it's a local spot that really, really is supported by the community. It's called Paradise Bakery.

44:53Okay, what was next? Well, we finally make it to Denver. So this is like the ultimate road trip. Right. We're going from west to east. We get to Denver. Which also, this is kind of, it can be perilous to be driving in Colorado. I remember when I drove through, there were all these kind of intimidating signs on the road that are like, truckers, don't let up now. Huge descent coming ahead. You know, you have to be a good driver because, I mean, if you're driving anywhere, you should be paying attention. The roads rule, though. Like, they're really good roads. And I think that the drivers in Colorado are better than the East Coast drivers, I'll tell you that.

45:27Probably. So much better. Low bar. Yeah, and it was really easy to get around the state. I feel like that's a big part about driving around Colorado. You've got a lot of territory to cover, and really, it just makes sense to me. And so we ended up in Denver, and we were at a restaurant from Johnny Curiel, and it's called El Teño. First thing to mention, it is at a hotel called Clayton, and our fearless producer was there, and we took some snaps in front of it. But Clayton did tell me this, and he also told me that he was disappointed that you did not reserve hotel rooms at the Hotel Clayton. We actually stayed at the All In Hotel, brand new on East Colfax, and it was great.

46:09It was like kind of a renovated mid-century hotel with a terrific restaurant and bar, coffee, bar all day. Like really kind of a space that you want to hang out in. And in fact, when we were there, a lot of locals were kind of discovering their new hotel in their neighborhood. Yeah. And I love the rooms. And definitely, that's where we stayed. So not the Clayton. I think that's fair because Clayton's middle name is All In. So it works either way. Clayton is also like an All In producer. Exactly. Like he's All In always. But I'll tell you, I really want to tell you about this restaurant because it is Johnny's fourth restaurant in Denver.

46:46and I was really, really impressed with so much of it. You know, we speak with him on this episode and it's a great conversation and I just had to try his food. This hamachi aguachile with cucumber habanero broth kicked us off really, really well. There was a jalapeno cornbread with smoked honey and black truffle. I love those early courses and really one of the best dishes I had on the entire trip in Colorado was a sweet potato. if you can believe that. There was, it was slow roasted with salsa matcha and this fennel whipped cheese on it. And it was such a delicious, like well-conceived bite.

47:28You know, Johnny thinks deeply about many of his dishes and this has become one of his signatures and we were so happy to have it. We had many other things. We ordered all the tacos. One highlight was the gringa el pastor, which arrived as kind of an open-faced quesadilla on a sourdough tortilla with Oaxacan cheese. I love the way this composed taco arrived and thinking about he does the corn tortillas with the nixtamalization in-house. And then on the flour side, he's doing sourdough, naturally fermented tortillas. We had a great ribeye that was really simple with a crown of chives, lime on the side and more of those flour tortillas.

48:10I love this restaurant, Altenio. I know he's opening or planning to open them around in a couple other markets. I'm not sure if he told me that on the record or not, so I won't see the markets. But he's really somebody to watch, and I loved catching up with him. I know the Colorado meals kept on coming. So where did you go next? Absolutely. You know, it's hard to pick one or two favorites out of this great trip. And really, Colorado has such a diversity of produce and cuisine. I mean, it's not just steak and potatoes. I think that's such a cliche that you think about, of course, there's great beef there.

48:43But one of my favorite meals was at Sapsua, which is a really well-regarded Vietnamese restaurant in the East Colfax neighborhood. You know, for me, this is the type of modern Vietnamese cooking that I've had in New York at a few really favorite places. And really, this restaurant has been regarded by many in the industry. It was on Esquire's 50 Best New Restaurants, BA Best New Restaurants in 2024. And it was a semi-finalist for the James Beard Award. And really, it all kind of checked out because it was such a delicious meal. It's from the husband-wife team of Ni and Anna Nguyen. And really, I'm so impressed with this cooking.

49:31Whenever I see Chaka Lavang on a menu, it kind of makes my heart flutter. I've been fortunate to visit in Hanoi, the original restaurant where this dish came from. And it's a turmeric catfish that's braised and has lots of dill showered atop it. That's the traditional version. I've seen it in many different forms around America because it's just such a delicious pairing of fish and catfish and turmeric. And in this version at Sapsu, it was honestly like the coolest and my favorite riff on it. They do it in fish stick form with a turmeric dill aioli and nakcham on the side. So good. I mean, delicious balance.

50:13The nakcham was perfect with the aioli, which I think is a cool way to bring those two spreads together, those two condiments together. And really, like, this menu kept going. There was a bonzeo, and it was their version of it. It was like this is very modern, and they kind of make that very clear that this is their version of it. It's not traditional bonzeo. They did theirs as a beef tartare with a Thai chili kosho is what they call it. That's in quotes on the menu. There's lots of quotes on the menu, which I think they're nodding that this is our version and it's not traditional. I had a raw egg yolk, peanuts, and a turmeric cracker.

50:47So you're kind of like doing basically the tartare and scooping it up with this great cracker, which I think is like really true to the classic bonsai-oh in many ways, but with their own spin on it. They also did a hamachi collar with coconut caramel glaze over steamed rice. And probably my favorite dish there was simple. It was a soft scrambled egg with fish sauce and brown butter. And it was just served over rice. And you just scooped through this beautiful omelet into the steamed rice. And you had that perfect egg and rice bite. It's a really good restaurant. Yeah, I don't even like eggs and that sounds good to me.

51:22So that really is a testament to how delicious everything sounds. Yeah, really, really good. I would be there a lot if I lived in Denver. It's definitely one of my favorites. That's Sapsua. What's your next spot? My next spot is we woke up early for breakfast at this restaurant, El Taco de Mexico. And this is a restaurant that was honored by the James Beard Foundation in 2020. It was in America's Classics, which is a really high designation for restaurant. I believe they have to be open at least 40 years. And this one has been open that long. It was founded in 1985 by Ma Luisa Zanabria, and she came from Mexico City and opened this place.

52:00And many, when we were prepping for this episode, many folks were like, I eat there all the time. I eat there multiple times a week. And it's really, really all about the green chili smothering the burrito, or the wet burrito as it called in some parts of the world. Delicious burrito. I loved it. I also had some tacos. I had a lengua, cabesa, and a tripe taco. And really, it's kind of you order at the counter. They got the Formica counter there and quickly make the tacos. And I loved it. I know it's open late, and it's kind of a late night spot. We happened to be there on breakfast. It was like a nice slow roll into the morning.

52:38And I loved having these dishes before 10 a.m. It worked really well for us. Were they doing breakfast tacos also? Certainly were. Okay. Absolutely doing breakfast tacos as well. But you struck out your own way, which I appreciate. We just went. We just went for the – we had to get one of the green chili burritos. And you could have it filled with eggs as well. Okay. What's next? The next visit was a pizzeria that was on my radar called Joy Hill. What I like about this pizzeria, and it's from somebody who I know actually, Julia Duncan Reutman, friend of a friend. And I knew her from Brooklyn where she and her husband worked at Bell House.

53:18Union Hall and Floyd. I know that they were part of management there and did a great job. Those bars are great. And you can tell walking into the space, there's a really great eye for design. But what I like about this pizza is it's naturally leavened, which means it has a little bit of a sour address to it. And it's just absolutely full of flavor. I think the process is a two-day, 48-hour fermentation. And really, a lot of pizzerias don't put in that kind of work with the dough and it really shows there. Well, some of the signature pizzas include the chilies and pep, which was basically just like caciocavallo, grana padana, cupping pepperoni with pickled jalapenos, honey, and Sicilian oregano.

53:59Kind of a slice you'll see in New York, some spots. Totally. Kind of a classic. What we don't really see in New York is a pie they're calling the Mahalo Rado, which is a lot of fun. Fresh and shredded mozzarella, green chilies, and a pineapple compote with bacon. So green chilies and bacon with a little bit of pineapple. Really cool combination. Delicious pie. I think the big thing about this place is they have this incredible rooftop patio and you can see red rocks from it. It has a beautiful view of the mountains. And I love this place. It's called Joy Hill. It sounds like a very creative pizzeria and especially being able to see Red Rock, so special.

54:40And Eliza, you know, that wraps up our visit. It was really whirlwind. We traveled throughout the state. So many more places to see on a future visit. Yeah, and I'm really impressed with how many places you and Clayton did go to. I guess I'm curious if you were going to summarize your experience of the Colorado food scene, what would come to mind? It's a great question, Eliza. I've been thinking about it a lot, and it goes back to just the diversity of agriculture there. You can just tell that all of these places we're going to are using the land, be it the great beef, be it the corn for freshly made tortillas or the wheat for freshly made flour tortillas.

55:16I think that there's incredible produce there. There's so much sunshine and the farms are incredible. I also just think that there's a really diversity of people living in and around Colorado. And I think we're seeing incredible Mexican cuisine. We're seeing Mexican-American spins. We're seeing Asian cuisine. It's like we're seeing pizza, of course. We covered that. And I just think Colorado, again, maybe gets a reputation for being meat and potatoes. And that's so far from the truth. I think if you're visiting Colorado for outdoor adventure to go skiing, there's always a great meal around the corner.

55:52It's just really such an impressive state. Well, I feel really excited for when I get to go because it seems like there are a lot of places I should check out. Absolutely. Thanks for hearing me out. Yeah, thank you for all of the FOMO and for the great restaurant recs.

56:09Matt Chaucer, welcome to This Is Taste. It's so cool to be here at your restaurant. Thank you. Thank you for coming out. I mean, I appreciate it. Tell me like a little bit. We're here in the restaurant. This is Palisade, Colorado. Yes, sir. I think like we're going to talk about passion, the restaurant you've built here. but when you started thinking about opening your own restaurant and thinking about colorado produce what were you what were you what was in your mind i i wouldn't say that everything was deliberate right out the gates um so ashley and i at the time we had aria francis our two girls um we were working up at the high loans and ranch in tebec and we were coming in the grand junction every day we would basically put our kids into daycare crossfit and then grocery stores markets and then shoot back up to the ranch and prepare for lunch and dinner service so it was coming through palace that we'd take this back highway 50 instead of just getting on the interstate take this rural right or you know this route through and it was like blames blames farm stand that we're stopping at grabbing our peaches grabbing our tomatoes for the ranch where it was like this produce is right here and it's accessible um it's very seasonal uh but when it's in it's awesome and when we realize that you know we're getting to the point where it's we got to figure out something you know the ranch has been great but what's going to be the next step uh we have to start to find more of a balance of we've got kids responsibility shifts so what do we want to do in terms of starting to settle down and making sure that you know we can be great parents but also still feed the love yeah for food and cooking well let's back up a little bit about your career because you know you're not from here and I think you're you're most known for your six years at Alinea you you really were you know in leadership there tell me about your time at Alinea and what you were building as a chef, just kind of the creativity, but also some of the, like the way that you integrated products.

58:19And we were talking off mic about, you know, at Alinea, you overnight produce from around the world to cook there. So it's so produce driven in many ways. The Alinea shift in my career professionally, you know, up until that point, you know, I started in small town, New Hampshire. I was working for Michael and Sarah Buckley at Michael Timothy's Bistro. I remember as a kid, that was like the, the foundation of you're going to learn how to cook. Um, the, the challenges of literally taking a raw protein and then seeing it all the way to the plate, you know, and then going to school and then, you know, traveling abroad.

58:58And then that transition, um, or to be honest with you, when I came back from London, I was like, I don't know what I'm going to do next. And it was a close friend of mine that I had worked with in London, Justin Albertson, literally called me one day and he's like, there's this restaurant in Chicago. You need to come see it. And we had known about it when we were in London because one of the chefs had the gourmet magazine review where it was an M1 restaurant in America. So we knew whispers of Grant, but I didn't really know Grant yet, what Chef Akis was doing. So when I got that call from Justin, I was like, you know, I've got some money.

59:38I'm going to shoot out to Chicago, see what this is all about. So I shot out on September 11th of 2007. You know, at the time I smoked and I remember reading about, you know, chef had just been diagnosed. And I was like, there's no way I'm walking into that restaurant. Yeah. like clean and tight black shoes black pants white on the shirt you know clean shaven tight haircut you know like this this is the next level yeah um and i remember on my stage um just walking in and just being absolutely mesmerized like i've never seen the level of precision matched with discipline. Which are two different attributes.

1:00:32And I love that you kind of parse them out. It's, you know, very, very different skills. Yes. And it just like there was that draw. So let's talk about Pesh, because I think we're sitting in this restaurant. It's an open kitchen. It's really cool. I mean, it feels casual, but I just know your pedigree. It's just like you've got that dichotomy. It's very inviting, but it's also your cooking. And I want to ask you how a meal unfolds at PESH when you book a reservation. I think the design is really unique and exciting. Yeah, so, I mean, we do have your traditional a la carte menu set up. So appetizers, mains, desserts.

1:01:13Really, the style of food has kind of taken on its own identity here at the restaurant. I mean, when we first opened, I thought it was just going to be one plate compositions. Interesting. And then we started to really pick it apart as time went on. It was like, how can we start to break these things down and separate them out and challenge ourselves to keep it all delicious, which is the root of our cuisine. Like, it's not a linear food. We just try to be true to the art of cooking. Stay disciplined. A souffle is a souffle. If we're going to do a classic Eggs Benedict, we're going to make the hollandaise from scratch.

1:01:57Those are the things that that's my draw as a chef. And kind of cycling back to just what's available to us in terms of produce and what's accessible here in the Valley. With it being so drastic, the seasonality of the food. You know, the first couple of winters we hit, it was like this struggle of like, what is our identity going to be? Are we going to say that we're doing all this stuff and we're going to be getting corn in October and, you know, making this, stretching everything? Or do we just jump in to these cookbooks and dive into the repertoire of cooking? Let's challenge ourselves. And that really has defined our identity in the course of the last six years.

1:02:44It's like, okay, if nothing's available and we got to bring stuff in, well, let's bring in lemongrass. Let's bring in galangal. Let's bring in all these ingredients and let's start to cook globally. Yeah. And create compositions where we're still learning, you know, because it's learning for me, you know. Yeah, but the guests, it's to their benefit. I mean, if you only were cooking locavore and farm to table, it would be very limiting. And you've laid out the case why it's a very tough place to grow produce. Um, so you blend the two. So at Pesce, just give us like the current menu. Like what, what are we looking at right now?

1:03:21And like, how does that represent your style of cooking this global approach, but also using local products? So we have your classic French bistro slash American steak frites. Yeah. That's on the menu. That's available all the time. Um, we can take you to Thailand, take you to China. we can take you to 1950s New York slash you know you look at the origins of chicken parmesan it was eggplant parmesan because those proteins weren't you know accessible in Sicily and we do chicken parmesan right now is on the menu we just call it chicken parmesan because everybody has this expectation of what it is and then we get to do what pesh does with it yeah and uh mu pang right now.

1:04:08So just basically pork skewers, coconut curry. Well, I mean, this is really exciting. I think when you have restaurants that are truly Western Colorado cuisine, but then you've got your place, which is doing this diversity of cuisine, it's really, I'm sure, an attraction for a lot of people. On that note, why visit here? I mean, this is an incredibly beautiful part of the world. But also as we unpack the way food culture is progressing in Western Colorado, there seems to be just so many other things happening with cuisine and like tourists are coming here and the wineries talk about that as well.

1:04:48You know, what is the draw? Yeah. I mean, first of all, the climate is beautiful. I mean, we're in t-shirts today and it's going to be in the 70s, if not the 80s today. It's going to be gorgeous. But yeah, we're just, we're surrounded. I mean, there's so much you can do. I mean, you can go to a winery this afternoon. You can hop on a bike and do some extensive mountain biking. Hiking is unlimited. Fly fishing is everywhere. I mean, my best friend right now is down at the East Portal trying to catch rainbows with his son. And your peers in the area, in Palisade and in Grand Junction, you know, it seems like there's really, there's some progressive things happening.

1:05:29you're opening a new restaurant tiki bird as well we'll talk about that but talk about some of the other restaurants in the area yeah i mean it's it's it's kind of cool i mean you can our favorite places is moody's um just kind of a low-key delicious steak red wine i mean you won the keys to my heart um socal's doing some awesome cocktail there's quite a few places doing awesome cocktails um but then also i mean i'd say mesa wins i mean if we if you want to talk about a restaurant that uh for ashley and i was like okay this really caught us off guard super seasonal i think they're only open six or seven months of the year yeah uh it's out there towards paonia um about a 45 minute drive from here um you know you literally get out of your car and you're on a farm and you walk in and it's just kind of outdoor tables and chairs that you get at your local store and then all of a sudden you realize there's five or six people doing this and they're pulling everything off of their farm and it's like it's it's it's cool so you guys received a james beard nomination for outstanding hospitality um which you know really is such a high honor because it's it does take into account the cuisine but it's all about the service and about the way you you welcome guests in tell me about the way uh you you think about service and welcoming visitors to pesh the perfect example for us is when we first opened there was one night where i can remember there were two older guests an older gentleman who you could tell his wife had gotten dressed up for dinner he was in overalls with a plaid and he sat at that table in the back and when they left, obviously where we are in the kitchen, we can see.

1:07:18But when they walked past that tree, I saw that old man grab her by the hands. And it was like, we did our jobs. So tell me about Tiki Bird. It's opening very soon in Grand Junction. It's your second restaurant's an expansion of Pesh. Tell us a little bit about the menu. So the food is actually, so all those dishes, you know, cycling back to Pesh where people are like, when's the Thai fried chicken going to come back? When are you going to put on the chicken and grits? When are you going to, and it was like, I remember sitting with Josh Lambrano in the back. It wasn't last summer, it was the summer before.

1:07:52And I was like, we're coming out with all these dishes and people just keep asking for the chicken dishes to come back. Like, why are we the chicken restaurant? You know, was the initial like thought, you know, Alinea Tepeche. One of the things that was extremely important is obviously the push and drive for consistency. and see. So every recipe, whether it's on the kitchen side, the culinary side, or on the beverage side, everything is weighed out to the 10th of a gram. So we created a Google doc. So, you know, the Thai fried chicken, for example, when we came up with that dish four and a half years ago, the chicken batter, the brine, how we process the chicken, the non-prick pow, how we cook the rice, the green papaya salad, how much apple, how much peanut, how much everything is weighed out we provide that to our chefs not only for consistency but also as a studying guide but then when a dish comes off we just take that and we just kind of i have another doc where i just kind of cut and paste that too and it was like we got almost 2 000 lines of recipes and all this stuff and it's like we're never we we say we're never going to use them again and it's like you know ashley do we need to do something with this and it was like everybody keeps talking about these chicken dishes.

1:09:10So let's, let's, let's start to like dig into this and see if we can come up with something. Um, so yeah, we just started to explore and it was like, you know what? I think it could be really cool if we go and we open a restaurant that's chicken based. So yeah, so basically we had this repertoire or this cookbook of all these, uh, chicken dishes. And I mean, everything that we got chicken tikka we've got southern fried chicken the guy which is vietnamese and uh inspired the jamaican jerk chicken and it was like we have all these ashley let's let's create a space let's we're gonna open a chicken restaurant but instead of being you know the restaurant that opens an american style cuisine or a japanese style cuisine or an italian style cuisine let's open a chicken restaurant and let's take people globally that's so cool you can sit down to dinner tonight you're gonna have japanese and you're gonna have vietnamese and i'm gonna have jamaican and then we can come back tomorrow and you're gonna have the southern you're gonna have the stuff from tennessee and i'm gonna have the poulet and frites this is a high wire act to pull off all of these cuisines on one menu and i would you know on face value i would i would maybe be dismissive of of it as a concept but knowing you and what you've you've already bench tested these at pesh there's no doubt that these dishes hit and like i'm i'm really excited because this idea is fresh to have chicken play out in all these cultures on this menu it's it's really smart so that's the food side of it and then the tiki side of it which is it's inviting yeah the cool thing is i think a lot of people think we're gonna open a teakie bar yeah um and it's just it's it's rum inspired teakie drinks you know so matt give me a sense of the produce of this valley what what let's go down the list of what you're growing here if i could call you up at the in the beginning of june um i think it'd be pretty cool we're gonna stop at blaine's farm stand right down the road and we're each gonna grab a bag of cherries like this is legitimately a routine of mine do a bottle of water, bag of cherries, and then I typically will have a, you know, a cup in my truck.

1:11:27And I just rinse the cherries out right on the side of my truck. And they literally go in the dash. And it's like, okay, I've got five more minutes until I get the patch. I mean, I'll just pop cherries and I have a spit cup for the pits. And they're here for three weeks. And it's just like you gorge on cherries and you gorge in the peaches um like i said those clings which are going to come you know middle of june it's not until we get those free stones late july august if if you're trying to stay clean in sight it's not going to work because you're going to bite into a peach and it's it's going to run down both sides i mean these palisade peaches are legendary uh in in yes sir and and i truly believe i mean they are delicious the root of it is they're delicious um the aloitha sweet corn is is awesome maybe within a softball throw of of pesh we have uh ross and jess diner who grows cherry tomatoes in the in the summer so it's i can call ross up and you know a half an hour before service and it's like ross many cherries man he's like all right they just come down the city market bag and these farm stands in palisade just incredible it's amazing they do a great job matt this has been such a great conversation thank Thank you so much for joining This Is Taste.

1:12:42Thank you.

1:12:48This Is Taste is hosted and produced by Eliza Abarbanal and me, Matt Rodbar. The show is edited by lead producer Clayton Gumbert and supervised by Pat Stango, director of media production and development at Penguin Random House. Thanks to Shalia Harris and the production team at Penguin Random House. Theme music by Steve Rydell. Episode portraits by Louise Zergon Pomeroy. Logo design by Ellie Skirzat and Ian Dingham. Visit Taste Online at tastecooking.com and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to keep updated on all cool things in the world of taste.