Central Bistro Bar
Many, many cool things about Central Bistro Bar, or maybe I should say HOT things about this restaurant {check the sign, it’s been in the family for ages}. Walk in, and as a lover of all things interiors (especially eclectic interiors). I could sit and stare at this modern, shabby, rustic mish-mash decor all day long finding new things to look at. Crazy thing is – it all works together really well. Looking outside, the view of the city is spectacular. Sit in the lounge or on the patio on a nice day, and just city-gaze all day long while sipping and soaking up some Vitamin D. What a location!
I was enamored with all desserts coming from the collaboration of Pastry Chef Rachel, Executive Chef Gerard Strong, and Sous Chef Jason Clark, each being a unique take on something familiar. Sweet Potato Cheesecake borderline savory side-dish because it’s not overly sweet, but quite flavorful. Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee with orange marmalade and shortbread cookies – a thick sugary brulee’d crust over the top of their creamy vanilla custard. Apple Crumble with lemon buttermilk ice cream – fond memories of that lemon buttermilk ice cream and how each and every bite tasted a little bit different – the first being tart, the last finishing buttermilk smooth. The Mud Pie – their insanely rich layered cinnamon meringue, chocolate pudding, espresso brownie, and oreo crust – when you eat it you actually taste the flavors in that order.
But the dessert that had it’s plate licked clean was the Nutella Waffle. Chef Jason’s creation, a doughy Belgian waffle stuffed with a little Nutella and sugar (for that extra crunch), sitting on top of a lovely dose of more Nutella. He could have stopped there, but he didn’t. Banana butterscotch, rum soaked bananas (bananas foster-sized), and topped with pretzel ice cream and candied pretzels. What an amazing combination of sweet, salty, crunchy, chewy, and smooth.
Hot Chef, real, real HOT.
Click for articlePreview: Lunch Launched at Central Bistro & Bar
Last I gave Central Bistro & Bar some love, Lance Barto was heading up the kitchen; now Gerard Strong’s at the helm, & the CIA-trained Hudson Valley native is looking every bit as sharp as his predecessor. I had ample opportunity to arrive at that conclusion: the media preview of the lunch menu, which is now being served Wed.-Fri., included a sample of every. single. dish thereon (with the exception of the ice-cream sampler). Two days hence, I think I’m about halfway done digesting the 16-course meal.
Among them, there were only a couple items I could’ve taken or left—most made my eyes shiny & wide. Here’s a look-see, with my very very favorites in bold:
Dungeness crab salad with pomelo, avocado & housemade herbed yogurt
Caesar salad with a sprinkling of prosciutto bits; save some croutons for dipping into
the preserved tomato soup, the depth of whose concentration goes way beyond the bottom of the bowl
Beautifully nuanced cream of asparagus soup with green garlic & chives
Duck-fat chicken-salad sandwich on sourdough with a touch of apple & petal-delicate seasoned potato chips (they’re cut on the meat slicer)
More of those incredible chips alongside the roasted pork sandwich with charred onion, pickled red jalapeños & garlic aioli—the shaved meat is so impressively tender & gently seasoned—& the boxcar burger, easily as good as any of its kind (paired with fries, aioli & ketchup)
Central tartine with mushroom ragu, white cheddar, sunnyside egg—a beauty, eh?
The ubiquitous chicken & waffle with sausage gravy
Crab mac & cheese, unusually sprightly with mascarpone & pepper relish
Steak frites: grilled bavette steak marinated in soy, sherry vinegar & green garlic, topped with oyster mushrooms & accompanied by fries daubed with blue cheese
Seasonal vegetarian selection, currently hand-cut pappardelle with maitake mushrooms, asparagus, kale, green garlic & parsley in a white wine-butter sauce
The signature Nutella waffle with banana butterscotch & pretzel ice cream
And the surprisingly light & springy sweet-potato cheesecake with spiced-crumb topping, pecans & whipped cream.
The bar’s doing some nifty things too, offering half-pours of all wines by the glass & lower-alcohol cocktails so you can keep your wits about you midday—including the gin-based, agave-sweetened Blueberry Lemon Light:
Central Bistro and Bar
My first two experiences with Central Bistro, located halfway between I-25 and 15 th street on Central, were very good. I live in the neighborhood and often dine at the many establishments located within walking distance of my girlfriend and my apartment on 15th Street. My first experience with Central Bistro was in the late summer of 2012. My girlfriend and I were caught in a sudden rainstorm, looking for a place to get a drink and a snack. We ran into Central Bistro, which had just opened, and found a covered patio table. We sat and watched a rare Denver downpour while snacking on salumi plates and sipping cocktails. Our service was prompt and helpful—our overall experience very pleasant. I liked the place and looked forward to coming back.
The second time I ate at Central Bistro was under different circumstances. My girlfriend and I were looking for a place to eat after being told there was a 45 minute wait at Amado’s. We were really just looking for a quick bite—work had gone late for both of us and we were too exhausted to cook, so we tried Central Bistro again. We had a seat at the bar, ordered a bottle of wine from Mark, the very helpful bartender, and settled in for some small plates. Had I known the food was this good, I would have ordered far more than just an appetizer my first time in.
I ordered a chicken confit soup and a fried chicken small plate. I had the soup first: a delectable, slow cooked confit drenched in a meticulously reduced vegetable broth. I had tasted broth reductions of this caliber at places like Mizuna in Denver and Frasca in Boulder, but those aren’t places I go to often. I was blown away by the levels of complexity and flavor in the soup—particularly given the forgiving price tag of about 8 bucks. My girlfriend had a baby green salad with arugula, sunflower seeds, tomatoes and goat cheese. We followed this with an amazing fried chicken, served on top a Johnny cake with a heavy gravy. The portions were perfect—we both felt content after our plates. We high-fived at the bar, very thankful that we had decided to go to Central Bistro instead of waiting it out at Amado’s. We had a great conversation with Mark as we listened to Gorillaz and Portishead and finished our wine.
Needless to say we were impressed. We resolved to ask Clayton, that oracle of indie restaurants in Denver, permission to write up Central Bistro and share it’s loveliness with our fair city. He agreed!
Our third visit was a proper one. It’s amazing how much of a restaurant you will miss if you just duck in, as I had the last two times I was there. This time I noticed some of the intricate touches the restaurant designers had put into place. No detail was spared. The dining room is cast in the shadow of the neon “HOT” sign over the expo line, the white leather chairs standing in contrast to the bright red sign burning out into the street. The metal work is all adorned with the Central Bistro symbol: a fork and knife crossed with a wine bottle. The bar is more subdued; oak barrels sit on the west side of the bar next to chest high bar tables surrounded by distressed wood and metal. The tops of the room are surrounded by high end whiskey bottles and fruit preserves, reminding me a little of my college apartment—a high end version of it, that is. The bar is situated on the far Eastern extreme, stocked with high end brown liquors and a few notable light ones. The music, so necessary to the vibe of an urban (or any) restaurant, was blue grass. I recognized Led Zepplin’s Bronyur Stomp played by a bluegrass band which seemed fitting for the whiskey heavy environment I was in.
My girlfriend and I were greeted with prompt cocktails that I shared on Instagram: an Old Fashioned for me and a “Star Power” (vodka, pineapple and sage) for my lady. We were treated to a special plate: shaved salmon and caviar all on fried potato cake with dill and crème fraiche to top it. We savaged the dish, enjoying the salty, starchy blend. Our next dish was a house charcuterie: duck prosciutto, copa, mortadello and a few other shaved meats with olives and house made lavosh, crunchy and briny to the finish.
As we awaited the next experience, we asked a few questions about the place. We discovered that the intricate bar woodwork was made from antique boxcar flooring. We learned of the over 70 different types of whiskey were available (Seth, the GM and Mark, the lead bartender, are both enthusiasts) as well as the extensive, almost solely American wine list of the restaurant. The goal for Central Bistro is to be a “Denver restaurant first, and an American restaurant second,” we learned, and that the vast majority of the ingredients were found locally. And being that the restaurant is first and foremost a Denver establishment, the overall goal was to match the flexibility of its Denverite diners with quality and affordable items: if you wanted develed eggs, cheese curds and a stout beer, Central Bistro could accommodate you. If you wanted a delicate seafood dish, artistically garnished with a high end bottle of wine from the good old US of A, well, you could get that too. And we did.
The second plate was a lovely seared scallop, crunchy on the outside and creamy soft on the inside, drenched in sautéed cauliflower, roasted almonds, hamhock shavings and celery root. The seafood fan in me rejoiced! Over the speakers more bluegrass played. I smiled as I recognized the theme from O Brother Where Art Thou, camouflaged among lesser known bluegrass tunes.
Finally came the main course: a flank steak cooked to a perfect almost medium rare with potatoes duchesse and creamed spinach that was just heavenly. At this point, I had to know who the head chef was. I was informed only that his name was Gerrard formerly from “Z Cuisine,” another local favorite of mine, and that the su-chef hailed from Strings, another Denver heavy hitter. My girlfriend and I agreed that the pedigree of the back of the house explained a lot as we scraped the last bit of potato and creamed spinach off the plate.
I’m not a huge dessert fan, but we definitely indulged that night. We ordered the sweet potato cheesecake. I’m going to tell you this: I don’t like desserts, but I totally bogarted this one. The experience was spiritual—in a gluttonous way. It was the most fantastic bit of sweet I had ever experienced (keep in mind that my gf is an avid baker). It was the perfect balance of sweet and salty, mellow and creamy, rich and light. “Fabulous” falls short. Order this. Period. I enjoyed this dessert as a bluegrass rendition of Cold Play’s Yellow came over the speakers. I’m not a Cold Play fan, but the song sounded great on a full belly and with a banjo. I contemplated heaven.
I left feeling really good about the place. It’s a real treat to have such a versatile restaurant just a stone’s throw away from where I live. I could see going down there for a bite during the week or planning my next special event there and in both cases, come away feeling content.
Stop in for your own experience. I’m confident you’ll enjoy it!
Ciao
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Denver’s ten best new restaurants of 2012
This past summer, Isiah Salazar opened his place on the edge of LoHi — with a great view of the city — as a neighborhood restaurant. But Central Bar & Bistro is redefining what a neighborhood restaurant can be, serving creative cuisine and cocktails that draw diners from all over the city.
Description
Central Bistro & Bar, which opened in July 2012 in LoHi, was conceived as a “gathering place” rather than a destination restaurant, but since this is one of the town’s hottest restaurant neighborhoods, the kitchen can get away with serving white-tablecloth-worthy fare in such a casual way that you don’t hesitate to order it while sipping a cocktail and dishing about the day. The menu is deceptively simple; descriptions include a string of simple ingredients that don’t begin to hint at the time or technique involved in preparing each dish – or how delightful those dishes can be. Comfort food doesn’t have to be simple (like macaroni and cheese or pizza) to make us feel good, this menu seems to be saying; it just has to taste good. Now if owner Isiah Salazar could just turn down the “hot” sign over the bar, a reminder of the days when his family owned the nearby (and now defunct) Regency Hotel.
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Restaurant review: Central Bistro & Bar in Denver living up to its HOT buzz
Central Bistro & Bar opened last summer amid the sort of buzz typically associated with honeybees eyeing an approaching bruin. It was to be a hip carnivore’s palace on the north side of the South Platte, perched on a rise on Central Street that offered lovely views of the twinkling lights of downtown Denver.
The restaurant has largely fulfilled that mission. The crowd skews young, and is drawn by top-shelf cocktails and sturdy, creative fare such as pork belly with Brussels sprouts hash and roasted duck breast with winter squash.
Lance Barto, yet another Denver chef who once worked under the late Noel Cunningham at Strings, designed the menu. Barto left Central last week, his departure fueled by a mix of personal and professional reasons, but his stamp remains.
Gerard Strong and Jason Clark are still on the stoves. That’s good news.
Recent visits revealed a contemporary room with some vintage touches, including a big red neon sign over the cooks’ line that spelled out HOT. The back story on it is a bit of a grin: Owner Isiah Salazar’s family once owned the Regency Inn Hotel in Denver, and when it was sold to create student apartments for the Auraria Campus, the letters from that sign stayed with the Salazars.
Brick walls and a cement floor finish the expansive dining area, and a bank of windows look out onto Central Street and on into Denver. There’s also a long bar. The banquettes at the back of the room are done in a mid-’50s turquoise-and-white scheme that would make Howard Johnson proud. The ceiling is vintage-look pressed tin — but it’s new.
But the music that’s piped in is straight from the 1970s. On one evening we listened to an extended funk workout, the guitarist working his wah-wah pedal so hard his right calf must have been the size of Von Miller’s thigh.
Waiters are cheery, quick with good-natured banter for guests and fellow staffers alike. It makes for a warm feeling on a cold winter night, and that carries over into the current menu.
We started with mac-and-cheese studded with Dungeness crab and topped with bread crumbs ($14). It was comfort food for grown-ups, perhaps a bit heavy on the salt, and came with a side
salad of arugula tossed in a vinaigrette with slices of pickled shallots. The peppery greens were a leavening foil to the creaminess of the mac-and-cheese.
Another winner was the braised pork belly with Brussels sprouts hash ($12), with walnuts and apple butter. It hit all the tastebud notes, from sweet to umami and everything in between.
Less successful by a long shot was the delicata squash and bacon risotto ($11). It read like a dream on the menu. Unfortunately, the rice was cooked down into a porridge, and not a single grain was recognizable. It was a gooey, glutinous mess, and oversalted to boot.
A duck-breast entree ($23) redeemed things. Cooked to a lovely medium rare, it came with a hash of turnips, carrots and some additional shredded duck meat.
The flatiron steak ($24) was another winner. This lean and flavorful cut had a proper sear, and came with a potato-leek puree, onion rings and unctuous marrow — all plated with a veal jus.
Sea scallops ($13), an appetizer ordered as an entree, also pleased. The fat, sweet scallops were paired somewhat incongruously with cauliflower, but the dish absolutely worked, thanks in part to the additional flavor of ham hock bits, almonds and celery root.
Desserts aren’t afterthoughts. We particularly enjoyed a waffle with chocolate sauce that demanded two forks.
About the beverage menu. The cocktail selection leans toward the classics — mint juleps and the jack rose (applejack, lemon juice and grenadine) are featured. There are also original house concoctions. You might try the Star Power, a mix of Silver Tree vodka, sage and pineapple.
There’s a short list of microbrews, and a tight wine list that offers good value, especially during the Wednesday-Friday happy hour running from 4:30 p.m.-6 p.m., when all wine bottles are 40 percent off and you can order $5 wines by the glass and $3 drafts beers.
Central is a worthy addition to the Denver restaurant scene. Let’s hope they can make the transition in the wake of Barto’s exit.
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