Etudes in Food

Hush Denver – Premiere of Row 14 Bistro & Wine Bar

January 23, 2011 at 3:56 pm 2 comments

Hush Concepts Dinner January 22nd….

~For months I’d been receiving e-mails about events happening mostly in Denver, every so often, in different venues, with different chefs, etc.  I’ve wanted to go but have been busy for one reason or another.  (Click on Hush Denver for more info.)

~In Dec I received an e-mail about a preview of a new restaurant in Denver.  This sounded like a lot of fun and January was so far away that I couldn’t imagine being busy on that date.

~After a very hectic 3 weeks of the new year, we were ready for a night out.  The event was at the Spire building which is right across the street from the arts complex and convention center (where the big blue bear is looking in).  There’s still a lot of construction and the restaurant isn’t technically done.

~We checked in and headed to the 9^th floor lounge.  Spire is like many of the new city buildings: mixed use with retail on the bottom and living on the upper levels.  This is very high end.  There’s a general lounge on the 9^th floor with a staircase to a lounge on the next floor up.  (The upper floor had seating areas, a movie room with popcorn machine, a long table that could be used for meetings or catered events, and 2 Macs.  The 9^th floor was a huge lounge with a balcony that had a long swimming pool, hot tub, and several couched areas.  There’s a great view of the convention center.)

View onto balcony from 9th floor lounge

View of convention center from 9th floor lounge

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~Initially, they served a welcome cocktail and passed hors d’oeuvres (walnut/parsnip soup in small sipping glasses, pulled pork on crostini, parmesan crisps with goat cheese).  There was enough time to explore, sit in a retro 70s red rounded chair, talk to the concierge, and look at the view before dinner.  The long tables were reminiscent of a wedding or a very large farm-to-table dinner.

View of other side of room, near set-up/temp prep space

~The seat next to P was empty, as was the seat across.  The 3 couples next to us happened to be in the other part of the room when we squished ourselves into the red chair.  They were thrilled to recognize us (“you’re the red chair folks”).  I enjoyed chatting with the different folks, sharing pics of our kids, and talking about outrageous things.  (ex/The woman next to me has their house rented in Oregon while they’re here on business for a few years.  On New Years their tenants got drunk and shot guns from the balcony.)  The woman across from me is a chef who works at a Catholic convent now (did her time in restaurants etc already).  The third woman does international level accounting for a Denver company (flies all over, etc).

View of where we sat from the stairs leading to the upstairs lounge

~P started talking to one of the wine distributors sitting across from him.  They were from Grand Vin in Littleton.  The distributor accessed P as someone who loves wine and could carry on and interesting conversation… So, he started to pour some of the ones he had on the side.  These were fantastic pours and we’ll likely try to find them.  He suggested that if we wanted to find them or any other that we’d had at a restaurant, we could go to our local wine store and ask that the acquire it from Grand Vin.  (Great advice.  I’m currently searching for a wonderful Riesling that I had at Benu.)  We are definitely going to try this with some of these wines.

~Also, the owner, David Schneider, took the seat next to P and talked about how he came to Denver after owning 4 restaurants in Chicago, how he met the chef, how the design/re-design of the restaurant went and what the current progress is.  He’s anticipating opening in the next 6 weeks….We’re looking forward to seeing the actual space and trying the food again.

~Here are pictures of the dishes.

The food was good (except for the tuna which was definitely overcooked).  To the chef’s credit, he came out and apologized – however, he didn’t need to do so, we all understand how difficult service for 75+ is (especially when you’re not in your own kitchen and in some sort of odd, put together space in the back of a large L shaped room).

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~After dinner we went upstairs to the 42^nd floor (top of the building).  There’s another lounge that is reserved for guests who stay in floors 25+.  The round table was full when we got there and by the time I took the picture many plates had disappeared. 

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On the long table, one of the sous chefs was putting out hot chocolates to go along with dessert.  That was actually the best part of the dessert.  The wine distributor came by and offered P & I a great Madeira.  The woman across from me wanted some and took up my white wine glass.  I told her not to do that and the distributor agreed that it wasn’t a good idea to ruin my white wine.  I offered the woman my glass of Madeira, finished my white, and asked him to pour the Madeira into the empty glass.  It was delicious but I do like caramel flavors.  P noted that what he liked about the wines brought by this distributer (not necessarily the ones as listed on the menu) was that they had a balance – not too sweet. 

~Another couple from our side came by and started talking to the couple across from me and that freed P & I to go off and explore the model rooms they had to show.  Amazing views and even more amazing prices…  (The kicker is actually that their HOA fees are really high and parking costs as much as a nice car – over 35K.)

Phil Armstrong (Hush), Chef Arik Markus, owner David Schneider

~We chatted with the wine distributor out on the deck a bit more – about beer, where he lives relative to Spire, and how glamorous or unglamorous his job is.  He was a really nice guy with a great deal of wine knowledge.  It was an honor that he shared his knowledge with us.  We also had a chance to meet Chef Markus and thank him for doing this event.

~Here is a picture of the view from one portion of the balcony.  One can definitely see how you could live downtown if you could have this kind of view.  All in all, the experience was fantastic – good food, great wine, & nice people:  I’d definitely go out for one of these unusual events again.

Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: Denver restaurant, Dining Out, Food, Hush Denver, Row 14 Bistro & Wine Bar, Spire, supper club.