Potager
Rustic Hearth Bread and Butter
Twice Baked Gruyere Cheese Souffle – Caramelized Onion, Rich Beef Broth
Thin Crust Pizza – Fennel Sausage, Whipped Cream, Mozzarella, Fennel Powder
Potato Gnocchi – Caramelized Mushrooms, Fresh Herbs, Truffle, Pecorino, Pickled Shallots
Housemade Saffron Pasta – Crispy Triple M Bar Lamb Shoulder, Dried Tomatoes, Cured Olives, Spice Butter
Warm Apple Crisp – Almond Streusel, Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Warm Date Cake – Homemade Ginger Ice Cream
A staple of Denver’s dining scene for nearly twenty years, featuring “farm to table” cuisine before the concept was a ‘trend,’ walk-in only Potager was targeted for dinner during day one in Denver, a 5:30pm arrival scoring my choice of tables while those arriving after seven o’clock were assured a thirty minute wait, or longer.
Owned by Teri Rippeto and her father, the current culinary direction described as a collaboration between herslf, Chefs Chris Bell and Luke Hendricks plus sommelier Natalie Guinovart – who also doubles as a server – Potager occupies a shabby-chic corner lot and with the L-shaped dining room and lounge wrapping around the open kitchen and bar those lucky enough to score a seat are are treated to a continually updated menu while additional daily specials are featured on a chalk-board hung above the pass.
Opting for a table in the lounge, a comfy chair and lamp lighting favored over wood and linen in the proper dining room, it was not long before Ms. Guinovart greeted me and offering the menu without describing specials a four course dinner was decided upon, a demi-portion of gnocchi added gratis when I noted the chalkboard en route to the restroom and informed her that I’d have ordered it in place of the pizza had I been previously informed.
Opting against wine, though suggested pairings were certainly not the typical white-with-fish and red-with-meat sort, it was with a few bites of crusty housemade bread and benign butter that the meal began, and after a short delay thanks to the rapidly filling restaurant the first course was presented in the form of an inverted cheese “souffle” reminiscing the flavors of French Onion Soup, the ever-evolving signature as light as a cloud but rife with flavor sitting in a broth for which the bread seems made to sop.
Having heard good things of the wood-fired pizzas, the sharable appetizer’s seasonal interpretation today topped in housemade sausage plus whipped local cream, mozzarella and a bit of fennel pollen, suffice it to say that although thin, crisp and pleasantly smoky the dish is far too rich for one and opting to take more than half back home it was not long before the aforementioned potato dumplings were presented, each hand-rolled noodle a melt-in-your-mouth experience with earthy musrooms and saline cheese finding a perfect foil in pickled shallots.
Not specifically an Italian restaurant, though my order may seem as such, the final savory arrived just minutes past 6:45 and as much as I loved the presentation of the gnocchi it would be hard to say the Housemade Saffron Noodles were any less exemplary, a confit of Lamb Shoulder joining sundried tomatoes, black olives and an aromatic butter sauce with each bite offering a different melange of flavors that never grew dull.
Impressed enough by savories to assume desserts would offer more of the same, suspicions were confirmed by a menu from which a “one of each” order would have been perfectly justified had the pizza not been so filling, and therefor limiting myself to just two options the theme of balance was once again noteworthy, neither the crisp nor the cake overly sweet despite the combination of fresh fruits and ice cream, the former particularly memorable for the toasty almond topping while the cake was the definition of moist, chock-a-block full of fibrous shredded fruit.
http://www.potagerrestaurant.com/
