Review: Two great meals in Denver (plus, Shake Shack)

I made a quick jaunt to Denver two weeks ago — mostly for a Kacey Musgraves show with a friend — but you know I managed to squeeze in a bit of dining worth adding to the blog.

I haven’t spent all that much time in Denver; in fact this was only my third time there. Though I don’t know it well, I like it quite a bit.

Before the concert, we checked out Corinne, which though inside the hotel where we were staying, had a super solid list of shared plates; sadly for us all, I only managed to get photos of the first three we tried. (What can I say? I was having too good of a time.)

I am a fan of Buffalo cauliflower, generally speaking (Nite Owl is my favorite in Omaha, though Modern Love serves a great version, too.) But these small, super crisp, plenty spicy bites impressed both me and my friend. She’s a pescatarian, so has lots of experience here, and we both could have eaten a second order of this dish in particular.

I also really liked the crab croquettes, filled with mostly crab instead of mostly breadcrumbs, like crab cakes almost always are, and served with a bright citrus aioli.

Weirdly, the burrata was the dish we liked least (and we heartily agreed that it’s usually the one we like the most.) I think the real problem here was the toast, which, in spite of its blackened exterior, arrived room temp at best. We ordered a second round of bread, thinking it might be warmer, but it wasn’t. I’d skip this one in favor of the french fries (hot and crispy) or the Caesar salad, topped with plenty of homemade brioche croutons.

After my friend headed back to Omaha early the next morning, I took the light rail over to RiNo to, among other things, hit up Big Sky Supply, one of the best outposts for vintage Levi’s I’ve discovered in years. After that? You guessed it: a burger at Shake Shack. I can never resist.

I’d eyeballed one of the restaurants I visited weeks in advance, and another friend who I spent the evening with was glad to be my dining partner.

The Greenwich is inspired by New York (hence the thin crust New York-style pizza) but adopts the neighborhood’s culinary scene more broadly than that, with a version of Peking duck, a delicious hamachi crudo and a drink menu that includes well-executed, New York-inspired originals.

We both really liked the hamachi crudo, served with a fruity mango sauce and light-as-air rice crackers. The house country bread is nothing to sneeze at; a side of herbaceous compound butter makes me think this 1980s classic is ready for a reboot.

I’m rather burnt out on Brussels sprouts, but this salad gave them a new twist: shaved razor thin, then tossed over a spread of rich, smoked creamy labneh — sort of like a thicker Greek yogurt — and topped with black sesame, lentils and sauteed sultanas, among other things. It had intriguing texture (creamy, crispy) and was part warm, part cold, one of my recent favorite features in any dish.

I liked the pizza at The Greenwich (It’s no Rubirosa, but nothing is.) Pickled mushrooms alongside roasted mushrooms kept this one interesting. And the duck dish might be the star of the show: Super tender instead of greasy, with a crisp skin and unusual crumble topping made of toasted rye and oats.