use real butter

Edit: I’m sad to report The Pinyon has now closed, but hopefully Chef Theo will have new endeavors to follow in Denver. Stay tuned, locals.

Restaurants come and restaurants go. It’s a high turnover kind of industry and Boulder is no exception. When a place isn’t so good, you can wait a year and the space will likely free up. Folks in Boulder know what they like. I can’t even keep track of all the newish places opening up around town – and there are a lot because I get plenty of invitations to grand openings, special blogger dinners, media functions, etc. I guess there is some sort of directory for Boulder/Denver food bloggers. I don’t usually have the time in my schedule to attend. And really, I prefer to visit on my own dime, as a normal patron… with a camera.

from pearl street

So The Pinyon opened up last year. I caught it in my peripheral vision as I frequented favorites on East Pearl Street like Frasca, Pizzeria Locale, Atlas Purveyors, and L’Atelier. Another restaurant… I gave it some time and began to hear happy murmurs about the joint. Summer was so insane that we never had a chance to go. Then friends of mine started tweeting me: “@userealbutter have you been to @thepinyon?” It merely increased the urgency to pop by for a meal.

roomy interior

view toward the bar

These days if I like a restaurant, then I’ll visit more than once. I think that’s important to get a proper and honest assessment of a place. So even though the first time I dined at The Pinyon was in September and it was terrific, I made a point of returning a couple more times. Also? It’s an excuse to sample more of the menu, in the name of research. Ahem.

The Pinyon doesn’t offer an enormous selection, but it does offer a nice variety. This is American cuisine. They source locally as much as possible and serve seasonal fare. The food is bright, fresh, and perfectly seasoned – nothing overdone, but certainly done well. Ingredients are allowed to shine on their own for their quality. Tender mixed greens, sweet heirloom tomatoes lightly dressed, or a smooth and sweet golden beet soup with a touch of acid for added zest.

mixed lettuce with herb vinaigrette

heirloom tomato salad

golden beet soup

I dined here three times in as many weeks. After the first visit, I couldn’t wait to go back. There’s a reason for all of the hype among my Boulder twitterati – the food is terrific. In addition to the salads and daily soup pictured above, they offer small plates of house farmer cheese, country ham, pnynwings (a sriracha take on buffalo wings), and a selection of charcuterie and friends. Some side dishes include: pickled watermelon rind, duck fat french fries (how could you not?), English muffin with house made butter and jam, sweet corn and fennel, and cheddar grits.

the four-freaking-fabulous-hour meatball and spaghetti

shrimp and grits with a fried egg on top

fried chicken with scallion pancake

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Raffle winners: Thank you to everyone who donated to A Fund for Jennie and a special thanks to Maggy, Erika, and Aimée of Bloggers Without Borders for coordinating the raffle and donations on such a huge scale across the food blogosphere. We had 41 legitimate entries and Kaweah chose the numbers (or rather, ate the corresponding dog biscuits for): 48 and 66. Mod 41, that gives us #7 (Jenn) and #25 (Kaela). Congratulations to our winners! I’ll contact you shortly to arrange for your choice of photo!

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I keep a long list of things to do. It’s not the normal list of errands, house maintenance, work, etc. It’s a special list for things that I will eventually get around to in either a few weeks or a few years – but I’m gonna do them. Things like the dozen or so baby quilts for which I have already collected the fabric, a care package to send around the globe, cookies to give to people who least expect them, or dinner with friends at another friend’s restaurant. Coordinating among multiple busy schedules means we have been attempting to get together for months, but we finally made it earlier this week. It was the first of many foreseeable dinners with this fine crew: Ellen, Manisha, and Kathya. We went around on email to figure out where to meet for dinner. There are so many choices, but I had been promising to visit my friend (and chef) Chris at his new restaurant since before it opened in Westminster, Colorado nearly six months ago. We’re all friends on Twitter and everyone agreed that Hideaway Steakhouse was the top of our list.

our own private dining room

I met Chris at my Food and Light workshop in Boulder in 2010 – one of our best students, a true sweetheart of a guy, and an incredibly talented chef and photographer. He told us Monday nights are generally quiet so he reserved the backroom just for us so we could dine, gab, and shoot photos to our hearts’ content. Such a great fella. The owners and manager came by to say hi and introduce themselves too. Hideaway Steakhouse is located in a predominantly residential area that is a bit of a food culture wasteland. The menu at Hideaway has the traditional steaks that you’d find at a steakhouse on one half, but the other half is where Chris gets to play and show off his culinary mastery.

chris offers so much more than just a steakhouse menu

manisha starts with a mojito

ellen soon learns that she’s fallen in with a camera-toting crowd

What I love about having dinner with my foodistas is that “they get it”. We all order something different so we can get a good sampling of the dishes. We share everything. No one dives into the food as soon as it arrives because we’re all getting our cameras ready (except for Ellen, who kept repeating “That’s a damn big camera!”). Oh, and they are absolutely hilarious, wonderful, amazing women. We had so much to tell one another that it took an hour before we finally figured out our order. But Chris took great care of us – he spoiled the hell out of us! We started with plates of his “lamb three ways” dish: braised lamb shank and goat cheese ravioli, lamb bacon (he cured it himself) sweet potato hash, and lamb tenderloin. Then we shared a couple of appetizers off the menu because everything was just too tempting to not sample a few.

lamb three ways: heavenly!

click click click

heirloom tomato carpaccio

ellen tries an escargot

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If you know me even a little bit, you know that I love sushi. Going to college in southern California sealed my fate in so many ways including sushi and Jeremy. My litmus test for my first dinner date with Jeremy was at a popular sushi bar in Pasadena. If he couldn’t handle the fish – out the airlock! But he loved it. Good thing too! When we first moved to Colorado, we were stunned at the number of sushi restaurants in Boulder. There are several – at least ten off the top of my head. But not all sushi restaurants in Boulder, Colorado are created equal. It didn’t take long before I zeroed in on my favorite.

sushi tora in spring

Sushi in Boulder is not inexpensive if your reference point is a major city on a coast. Once you get over the initial sticker shock, you come to learn that there is bad expensive sushi and good expensive sushi. Sushi Tora obviously boasts the Good Sushi. I’m no expert. I just know what I like. Their fish is consistently the freshest, best-prepared, and highest quality. I should note that I’m more of a sashimi and maki girl than a nigiri girl. It’s where I take out-of-town guests who have a hankering for sushi. It’s where I take my parents. They LOVED Tora and my folks are the first to wrinkle their noses and point out when a restaurant doesn’t serve satisfactory food (that’s where I get it from). I had to forgo sushi during my chemotherapy in 2008. Can you guess the first place we went for dinner when I got the all-clear from my oncologist? Tora, of course!

kampachi (amber jack) crudo with tobiko, orange oil, garlic, pepper

There have been some changes since I started going to Sushi Tora in 2006. Change in ownership for one. Change in head sushi chef too. For the past few years, my dining schedule has been pretty busy with so many places to choose from. I try to keep the variety alive and well. I’d go to sushi for more lunch meetings than anything else and that was always easier at the tables than at the bar. Sitting at the bar is the finger on the pulse of a sushi joint – sitting at a table is neither here nor there, but my white friends tend to prefer it. I saw the changes, but they didn’t register in my head until I was invited to come in and meet the new chefs last December. I’m slow on the uptake, okay.

beef short rib and cabbage fried wontons with sweet soy sauce and spicy mustard

pork and ginger gyoza with ponzu

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