The Hornet is a bar/restaurant in the South Broadway area of Denver, which I’ve heard is undergoing a revitalization and is becoming a trendy area. The Hornet has been around for a while now, but it was packed on a Thursday night and looked worth a try. The restaurant has a New American-type menu, with lots of burgers, sandwiches and salads, with dishes like pork tamales, pupusas, steak and fried chicken thrown in. It’s not a huge menu, but when you read it you’ll find it hard to choose something because almost everything sounds great.
I passed on drinks, but based my dinner choice on the fact that I heard that they serve excellent sweet potato fries and chose a Buffalo Burger with Fried Onion Strings and Avocado. The fries were excellent, and the burger was not bad, either. The buffalo had a good flavor and the fried onions were a great contrast with the red onions and avocado already on the burger (mine was a bit overdone, but I’m not going to hold that against it).
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There is no shortage of breakfast restaurants in Denver, so I was surprised when more than one person steered me towards Snooze as I planned my recent trip to the mile high city. Snooze is a funky little breakfast place that sprang up in 2007 in downtown Denver and proved to be so popular that they expanded to three locations in the past couple of years. I couldn’t turn down all those recommendations – even though I was warned that there might be a long wait – and got up early to head to the nearest Snooze.
I arrived at about 8am and there were quite a few people waiting outside already. I would estimate that my friends and I waited about 40 minutes for a table, but since the restaurant serves free coffee to everyone while they wait, the time until we were seated just flew by. The menu is cute and features lots of delicious sounding options, many with seasonal twists. Everything sounds good, but they’re best know for their pancakes and their Benny (variations on eggs benedict). Luckily for me, I was with several equally curious diners and we got a little of everything.
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Another great breakfast near the South shore on Kauai is the Kalaheo Cafe and Coffee Co. I liked it so much, that I actually ate there twice on my visit (and it was a quick trip out there!). The place is just a few miles from Poipu and is right off the main highway, so it’s easy to find. It can get pretty busy in the morning with both locals and tourists, but there is a large parking lot and the service is quick.
Going inside, the restaurant is very cute with a great Hawaiian, coffee shop feel to it. Peruse the menu, order at the counter and take a seat so servers can bring your order out to you. There is also a take out counter for bakery and coffee items. The menu features lots of egg dishes, omelettes, pancakes and french toast. If you want something a little lighter, there are also egg breakfast sandwiches available, like the Longboard, which was like a BLT with egg and provolone cheese added to it.
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Pink’s Hot Dogs is a Los Angeles institution. It has been here in the City of Angeles for more than 70 years – and in the exact same location all that time. It started out as a simple hot dog cart and gradually built up into its current counter-service design. The place is open late and it is almost always packed, with a line running down the sidewalk of hungry fans looking for a hot dog fix. They have all kinds of toppings for their hot dogs, from simple chili dogs to double dogs (two in a bun) piled with a ridiculous amount of toppings and named after celebrities who are loyal fans. The thing that makes their hot dogs special is not the long line or the toppings, but the dogs themselves. They are custom made for Pink’s, so you won’t find them anywhere else, and are exceptionally tasty as-is.
I stopped in the other night when the line was not too long for a hot dog fix and snapped a few shots of the delicious dogs I tried. There are a couple of sizes of dogs available at Pink’s, but all are pretty large. These four hot dogs filled up an entire standard lunch tray!
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I rarely mention restaurants – unless I’m dining out of the country – but this week I had a lunch that was so foodie-oriented, I can’t resist writing about it. It was a coffee-pairing lunch hosted by Starbucks at Lucques, a restaurant in Los Angeles. The lunch was held at the end of Coffee College, a day long seminar that Starbucks hosted (and was generous enough to invite me to) that discussed everything from how coffee is grown and harvested, to how the beans are roasted and cupped (tasted, essentially) to try bring out their fullest flavor. Lunch was dedicated to seeing how different flavors in food brought out, or paired with, different flavors of coffee from different regions of the world.
The first course was a yellow tomato soup with pesto, parmesan and opal basil. The coffee pairing was with Kenya and Costa Rica La Candela coffees. The Kenya was known to have citrus notes, but turned out to be overpowered by the coffee. The Costa Rica, on the other hand, had a very bright flavor that was similar to the acidity of the tomatoes and turned out to complement the soup, drawing out peppery notes and just making it taste more flavorful. You wouldn’t necessarily expect a cup of coffee to have such an impact on a dish – especially a soup – so it was surprising, in addition to being tasty.
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