One of the great pleasures of eating is trying new things. Learning about unusual flavors, uncovering unexpected combinations.
But in American Restaurant Culture, circa 2010, things are getting off track. As Sam Sifton recently wrote in The New York Times of a restaurant he had conflicted feelings for, “the menu prolongs the maddening trend of shareable plates that crowd the table with disparate flavors while simultaneously enlarging the check and rendering the meal confusing.”
Amen. I am weary of the paroxysmal procession of “shared” plates overloaded with conflicting ingredients and textures and ideas. Too many restaurants are using wacky flavors as smokescreens to disguise a lack of creativity.
Does that miso-glazed black cod really benefet from its raspberry-saffron coulis? Does that crab cake really need a yuzu-kiwi foam and shards of brittle made from chile powder sticking out the top? It looks like Lady Gaga.
Food should not look like Lady Gaga.
Encore Restaurant on East Colfax does not serve food that looks like Lady Gaga. And for that, I admire and endorse it.
It’s taken a few years, a few starts and stops, a few tweaks and trims in the room and on the staff (up front and in the kitchen) for this restaurant adjacent to the Tattered Cover to find its legs. Persistence has paid off. Finally, Encore has ensconced itself into its neighborhood as a reliable purveyor of fairly priced lunches and suppers.
It has done so by serving, in recent months at least, good, clearly conceived food in a pleasantly lively room by a pleasantly humane (imperfect, but humane) wait staff.
Take the roasted half-chicken, with arugula, onions and currants. Rather than amping up the flavor of the dish with jazzy sauces and squirt-bottle drizzles, the kitchen focuses on carefully tending to the chicken. The result: chicken that tastes like chicken, not pomegranate-seaweed glaze.
Take the mussels, classically presented in a wine-and-fennel broth. They taste like mussels, unlike at many restaurants where the broth upstages the bivalves. (The attendant frites will come drowned in mustard sauce if you don’t request otherwise — ask for it on the side.)
Take the unchallenging but richly flavored lamb meatloaf with white beans and chard. Or the elegantly simple shaved asparagus salad with parmesan cheese. Or the “fig and pig” flatbread pizza with, as advertised, figs and prosciutto. Each is lucidly-conceived and satisfying.
The menu does take some unnecessary detours: “Gumbo cakes” of crab, crawfish and sausage, made me wish for a bowl of gumbo. Lettuce wraps were awkward and unattractive and dull. The rare dish that actually needed more pizzazz was the beef tenderloin salad, too skimpy by a measure. Likewise the uninspired “breakfast” pizza, a flatbread with scrambled egg and bacon on top. Snore.
The very best thing that Encore serves is an easy neighborliness, a vibe that attracts regular customers again and again. I’m not sure this was the conceit the restaurant started out with, but happily, it’s what’s occurred.
Families with kids will be happy with Encore for two reasons: There is enough room for them to spread out a bit (the booths are spacious enough for six people, or four who need space), and there’s plenty on the menu to keep kids happy. (If your brood is on the big side, there is a private room for you to take over.)
Grown-ups who just want a cocktail and a nibble will be happy at Encore too: The bar is big and comfortable, the bartenders attentive. And while I do miss the idea of the piano that used to occupy space just off the bar, I don’t miss the thing itself: It took up too much room and made too much noise. (Aside: Denver needs more neighborhood piano bars. People like them.)
By keeping things clear and consistent, Encore has cultivated what other, flashier restaurants covet: a large (and growing) following of devoted regulars. It is exactly the right restaurant for its neighborhood.
ENCORE.
Contemporary. 2550 E. Colfax Ave., Denver, 303-355-1112, encoreoncolfax .com
** 1/2 (Very Good/Great)
Atmosphere: Easy, spacious, and now that they have carpeting, relatively quiet room
Service: Lively and friendly, if sometimes distracted
Wine: Small, serviceable list. Good cocktails
Plates: Appetizers, $6-$11 Entrees $9-$21
Hours: Monday-Saturday, lunch and dinner from 11:30 a.m. Sunday brunch 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Details: Reservations suggested but not usually needed. Use the Tattered Cover parking lot. Wheelchair accessible. Lively and roomy bar area.
Five visits
Our star system: ****: Exceptional ***: Great **: Very Good *: Good
