Interstate Kitchen & Bar serves up a two-fer vibe: A heaping helping of roadhouse diner with a dash of ’60s supper club, the sort of place where you can imagine a burly trucker chatting up an ingenue in a little black dress.
As the restaurant’s name suggests, this happy bit of shoulder rubbing comes courtesy of the kitchen and the bar. Each plays a crucial part.
The kitchen delivers the roadhouse feel, thanks to comfort food that includes fresh twists on staples such as meatloaf, pork chops, fried chicken, sloppy joes and — brace yourself — chop suey.
The bar supplies the period cachet of the supper club, establishments that offered food and, most important, libations and socializing, to midcentury, small-town America. The Interstate is a champion of the craft cocktail movement, pouring house specials such as a zippy Pink Gin Fizz, Sazeracs and the Rest Stop Sour, its take on the whiskey sour.
Serving as backbone to these retro refreshments is a deep list of American spirits with an emphasis on products of small-batch distilleries — 24 bourbons and nine ryes among them.
Sitting on the northwest corner of West 10th Avenue and Santa Fe Drive, the Interstate is a sleek space with a friendly, food-savvy staff.
It is bright with chrome and sports hipster touches such as a mock chandelier of industrial light fixtures. An island of ivory banquettes anchors the main room. In a departure from the knotty-pine decor of many old-school supper clubs, the color scheme is white and turquoise, recalling a late-’50s Ford T-bird.
The kitchen rides the comfort- food revival that began cresting a few years ago.
While the lunch and dinner menus’ core items are recognizable to anyone, the kitchen’s sharp-eyed presentations and innovative takes, such as spiking the Waldorf salad’s apples-and-walnuts mix with smoked trout, announce some ambition.
The result is a mixed bag, with some dishes more successful than others.
The buffalo meatloaf is a winner. The bison is coarse-ground, then wrapped with bacon to impart some moisture to the ultra-lean meat. The dish comes with a side of cheese grits; spuds purists might ask to substitute the blue-cheese potato salad that accompanies the rib-eye.
Atlantic cod is roasted to a translucent white that could delight any New Englander. It is paired with sweet-pea johnnycakes and a lemony hollandaise that is properly thin and not gloppy.
The side of mustardy deviled eggs would be a hit at any church potluck.
Less successful are the fried chicken livers, which come invitingly wrapped in a paper cone with a side of hot sauce and sweet-and-sour cucumber slivers. But the livers are dredged in flour and overcooked. The dish could be fried anything: Not a hint of the liver’s delicacy gets delivered to the taste buds. One wishes the dish were simply dusted in cornmeal and taken on a quick trip to a hot pan.
Spoonbread, a rural side dish that should have the consistency of dense, ultra-moist cornbread, is too custardy and lacked corn-driven flavor.
One dish that works, yet remains a bit of an oddity is billed as beef- cheek American chop suey.
Yes, you get water chestnuts in the Interstate’s version of chop suey, that most American of Chinese dishes. And the beef cheeks are an inspired choice for the meat, delivering deep, dark flavors. But the wide, pappardelle noodles are straight out of northern Italy.
Other worthy stops on the menu are a colorful watermelon and pistachio salad with cheese curds and pickled onions. A cobb salad with hot bacon dressing features roasted chicken thighs, a cut of meat not seen on nearly enough menus. The Monte Cristo sandwich, piled with ham and cheese, is gilded with an egg batter and griddled to a golden brown.
Patrons of a certain age might smile at the irony of the Interstate’s name, for it celebrates the very kind of mom-and-pop places that the federal highway system bypassed decades ago. Still, this restaurant-bar could be a welcome stop for the weary driver — or weekday wage earner.
William Porter: 303-954-1877 or wporter@denverpost.com
Interstate Kitchen & Bar
Hip comfort food. 901 W. 10th Ave., 720-479-8829, interstaterestaurant.com
* 1/2 stars out of four
Atmosphere: A mix of roadhouse diner and supper club, with a touch of Route 66-style rockabilly. Smart cocktails and a deep list of American spirits in the Santa Fe Arts District.
Service: Friendly, knowledgeable.
Prices: Moderate. Entrees $11-$16; sandwiches-salads $6-$9, snacks $4-$5.
Hours: Lunch Monday-Friday 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m.; dinner daily 5 p.m.-midnight; snacks daily 4-6 p.m./midnight-1:30 a.m.; happy hour daily 4-6 p.m./midnight- 1:30 a.m.
Details: A walk-in place, but they take reservations.
Two visits
Our star system:
****: Exceptional
***: Great
**: Very Good
*: Good
