Halloween Anniversary Dinner at Flagstaff House

The spousal unit and I went out to the Flagstaff House restaurant overlooking Boulder on Halloween. The occasion was our anniversary. We had looked at the menu online prior to making reservations. we saw that there were really no good vegan options. So, as we made the reservation, we let the kitchen know that it would be a meat eater and a veggie fanatic. We arrived slightly early, let the valet park my vehicle and entered the lovely restaurant. The restaurant has an unusual 1970's vibe, but is still very nice. The decor reminded me of a sedate fern bar. We were seated at a great table with a fantastic view of Boulder (definitely bonus points for the restaurant.) We were greeted with great service. I was in a beer mood so I opted for Cut Throat Ale and we ordered. Dinner started with complimentary appetizers (vegan of course) and bread from a local Boulder bakery. The first course for me was Ahi tartar prepared table side while my wife had a matsutake mushrooms and gnocchi plate. Next up, after a complimentary palate cleanser of strawberry balsamic sorbet, was the main course. My wife had a nice plate full of different veggies and I opted for the New York Strip and Guinness braised short ribs. Both were excellent, the ribs were a little too full of fat, but still tasty. The port reduction for the strip steak was a nice touch. We finished the meal with dessert, the vegan ordering the sorbets (with the pear sorbet being fantastic!) and I ordered the freshly spun ice cream plate. The best was the salted caramel ice cream which I will now get cravings for!! The service was excellent with every question answered quickly and requests taken care of quickly. This is one spot I recommend for special dinners.

PJ's Bistro at Manitou Springs, Colorado

The vegan and I were in Manitou Springs to watch the Emma Crawford Coffin races. We were both hungry (one of us was even more hungry!) so we found a small cafe called PJ's Bistro. The Bistro is a Hungarian restaurant serving Perogi and Potato Pancakes amongst other offerings. I am always looking for great Potato Pancakes, so I ordered them with sour cream and applesauce. The pancakes are some of the best I have had in a great while. The pancakes were well formed, tasty with a nice spicy touch. My wife decided to have a grilled vegetable sandwich, without onions. She also asked for pickles. Her sandwich was very good, filled with lots of veggies (mushrooms, red peppers, and more.) The side of fries were also tasty, although they did not taste of being fresh cut. The service was very attentive even though there was quite a crowd of people in the area. If you are in Manitou Springs (where the motto is keep Manitou weird), stop in to PJ's Bistro for some nice food and Hungarian specialties. I think the next time I am there, I will try the Perogis. PJ's is right on Manitou Ave near the downtown part of Manitou. The restaurant overlooks the staging area for the coffin races.

Dinner at Root Down

Last night the wife and I went with friends to the fairly new and very popular restaurant Root Down located in the Highlands area of Denver. Since there were four of us, we decided to do small plates and share. We picked several dishes that could be made Vegan so the wife could eat them with us. The service was outstanding and very knowledgeable. The food was excellent with standouts being the risotto done vegan (no cheese), the veggie burger sliders (I recommend the mustard), and the Buffalo burger sliders with a nice taste of smoke. The only disappointment was the bruschetta. It was supposed to have grilled peaches, but there was not much peach flavor. As a straight bruschetta it was very good, but I was expecting more of a peach taste. The only Vegan dessert was a banana sorbet that I did not try but received rave reviews from my wife and our friends. The drinks were well made and had some unusual ingredients that actually worked together. I recommend Root Down, although feel that the first meal I had at Beatrice and Woodsley was slightly better.

Tofurky for Thanksgiving

This year, the same as last year, the spousal unit and I shared a Tofurky dinner for Thanksgiving. Tofurky is a modern miracle of vegan food, texturized vegetable protein with faux stuffing inside. However unlike many other meatless meat dishes, the tofurky is not shaped to look like a turkey, but rather is round and looks more like a ham loaf. The taste is good, taking on the flavor of what ever spices and oils are used for cooking. In this case it was some olive oil, spice mix and soy sauce. The dinner also included some vegan potato dumpling pot sticker things, peas, brussel sprouts (which I did not have), gravy, mashed potatoes and candied yams. The only non vegan part of the meal for me was the candied yams as I cannot imagine not eating them without the slightly burnt and yummy crust of marshmallows.

Casa Bonita- Heck For a Vegan

Today we went to visit one of Denver's greatest kitsch restaurant, Casa Bonita located on Colfax Avenue. The restaurant is an over the top Mexican Village with a 30 foot waterfall, entertainment including Mariachis, Gorilla, Gunfights and Divers. One of the best fun items is a dark cave with limited effects and motion effects. For Halloween the restaurant has a larger Haunted House with more effects, lots of spider webs and more. Now for the food which is not the best. I had the fajitas which is a safe bet. The beef was a little dry but acceptable. The vegan spousal unit decided to try to special order a bean burritto with no cheese, sour cream, etc. What she ended up with was a bean burrito covered in a red meat sauce and a beef taco. She decided it was not worth asking the waitress to correct the order and ate the beans and guacomole. Also finished off with the Sopapillas without honey. Based that the kitchen is a large kitchen which does lots of orders, it is difficult to special order. So for a vegan- the restaurant is not good receiving a non recommendation for food, but a high recommendation for atmosphere and ambience. Go for the fun and Black Bart's Cave and be entertained as it is an awesome experience.

Casa Bonita
6715 West Colfax Ave
Lakewood, CO
303-232-5115

A Different Kind of Blog

Welcome to this new blog. My wife and I have been thinking about writing this blog for a while. You see, I am an omnivore eating meat, vegetables, dairy and everything else...and my spousal unit is a 100% vegan, meaning she eats no animal products at all. No meat, cheese, butter, milk, ice cream, whey, egg whites, honey, and more. She also does not wear animal products such as leather, wool, or silk. Oh and let me add one more thing, my wife loves to eat out at restaurants and not just vegeterian or vegan restaurants, but all restaurants. As you can probably guess, this leads to some interesting situations.

Just last night we had dinner at John Holly's Asian Bistro. There was a decent selection of tofu and vegeterian entrees for the vegan spousal unit. She decided on the country tofu and then the questions began- what was with the tofu? Just fried tofu with vegetables answered the waiter. What is the sauce? A white sauce. What is in the white sauce, any chicken stock, oyster sauce, etc? This stumped the waiter. I then spoke up and stated she does not eat any animal products. He dutifully wrote down the order with the note of no animal products. The dish that did come out was fried tofu in a brown soy sauce. And it actually was quite delicious.

For those who enjoy all foods, I had the John Holly Chicken which was also very good as well as the miso soup. The sushi was a little bland as the rice did not have a strong flavor and was a little dry. The service was good although they did give us one wrong sushi roll.

Therefore this restaurant receives a very good approval rating from the Dining With the Vegan blog.

John Holly Asian Bistro
9232 Park Meadows Dr.
Lone Tree, CO 80124
(303)768-9088