frasca

[mongo_jones]

fooded, who are you? someone at the post?

[g.johnson]

Would you trust an Italian restaurant where the chef is called Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson?

[tanabutler]

Would you trust an Italian restaurant where the chef is called Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson?

I'd trust an Italian restaurant (Caffe Angeli) in Los Angeles where the chef is a woman named Evan Kleiman.

[mongo_jones]

we have returned from frasca. details tomorrow, but for now let me say that we have decided to eat there once a month.

[mongo_jones]

okay, here's the report.

 

general ambience etc.

 

we got there at 8.25 for a 8.30 table. the place was JAMMED. i hadn't realized it was this cramped in there. probably more of an issue in the winter--since nobody wants to wait outside--but the entry area near the bar was a total zoo. add to that the fact that they have the coat closets right behind there and it isn't the best introduction to boulder's best restaurant. however, we got our table at 8.31 so it wasn't a big deal. the main seating area itself is pretty crammed too--if you have larger people at the tables next to you you get pretty close-up encounters with their asses when they squeeze by to get in or out. but maybe it is only on weekends that they're this busy and on other nights you don't get the "night at the opera" stateroom scene experience.

 

wine and food

 

appetizers

 

we didn't get the sommelier but our waitress (very nice, not overly friendly, inconspicuously on top of things) was a fine pinch-hitter. i explained that we were not big wine drinkers and would probably go for the half-pours. since we were getting the salumi platter to start she recommended half-pours of the tokai (i appreciated that she picked the cheapest one on the list). given the rush she asked if we would be fine ordering that to begin with and then ordering the rest of our meal and we had no objections. when the wine arrived she began to pour me what seemed like the most generous half-pour on the planet before realizing her mistake. so i ended up with a full glass of the tokai and mrs. jones a half-pour--lucky me. we both liked the tokai. and it did go quite well with the excellent salumi--i liked the san danielle prosciutto the best, mrs. jones liked their house cured thingy; we both loved the horseradish sauce that came with. one hiccup in the early stages: before the salumi, it took a long while for our bread to arrive, and when it did the butter was as hard as a rock (once it softened, however, it was very tasty). the fancy-schmancy salt on the table seemed a little unnecessary.

 

mains

 

next up we decided to split the gnocchi as a first course and then split the roast saddle of lamb as our entree. she recommended the sauvignon blanc with the gnocchi (mrs. jones was still working on her tokai so i got just the one half-pour). with the lamb she recommended the cabernet and we got two half-pours of that (exact identities of wines can be established on the "by the glass" section here.) the gnocchi were very good but not world-changing. i told mrs. jones that my mother would be very unimpressed with them since they weren't very different taste and texture-wise from good alu-tikkis at delhi's chaat stands; the sauce was excellent. next time we will try the agnolotti. the lamb was exquisite. perfectly cooked to pinkish goodness, nice lamby flavor and very good accompanying veg. the cab went very well with the lamb.

 

dessert:

 

this is where things went wrong. mrs. jones got the peanut butter cup--she thought it was okay. i got a scoop of the dark chocolate sorbet and a scoop of the cherry (this at our waitress' recommendation--they didn't have my first choice of raspberry). the chocolate was fine, but the cherry was simply vile. it was like they mixed bad ketchup with tamarind and put it in an icecream maker. a horrible note on which to end an otherwise excellent meal.

 

service

 

as i noted, there were some bread related issues. our waitress, on the whole, was very good--she did, however, present us a check for one set of full glasses of wine rather than the half-pours (but this was very quickly corrected). one of the people refilling water at our table (and those near us) was a bit of a slosher. but these quibbles aside this was the best service i have yet seen in colorado. sommelier bobby did show up at the end and he seemed like a very nice guy. since he ended up getting my jacket for me i couldn't solve the mystery of whether one tips at the point of coat-retrieval in frasca (we'd observed only one person doing it while we were waiting)--it seemed inappropriate to tip bobby.

 

overall

 

we would go back in a heartbeat, and if we could swing it we could see eating there every week as well. the half-pours work really well for us (especially with mrs. jones' low capacity). we ended up getting 5 half-pours--cheaper than the cheapest full bottle. of course, less wine than in a full bottle, but also not more than we needed. plus i got to drink 3 different well matched wines with my meal--and given general portion size when you split the mains a half-pour seems like the perfect amount. the food is excellent. next time, however, we might skip dessert and just get a second round of apps instead. we've decided to be a little less frugal and go once a month. but we'll either go on a weeknight or at about 9 pm. we were part of the last rush--things calmed down considerably at about 9.

 

(the feb menu is only somewhat different from the jan menu on their site--the major differences are in the entrees, with the saddle of lamb replacing the preserved leg of lamb, and beef shortribs replacing the ribeye; there was also a veal dish for two.)

[bolderite]

I don't know if everyone on this board realizes what high praise Mongo's final comment ("we have decided to go there once a month") actually indicates! I could go back through his many, many posts but I don't ever recall Mongo indicating that he would go back to any other Denver/Boulder based restaurant with any sort of regularity or enthusiasm. Please feel free to totally correct me.

We dined at the bar on Thursday and had the veal chop for two . .it is simply to die for and it is not always on the menu. If you see it, snag it, but it is HUGE. I would suggest only one app if one is going the veal chop and lentils (mmm, lentils) route.

 

I agree with Mongo that the consistent weakeness is in the dessrts. Either over-gooey or flat (the pastries are particulary troubling . . bad crusts for tarts and pies), although we have had better luck with the gelatos and sobets. We usually wind up drinking our dessert in the form of a digestif or espresso martini.

[rlm]

Good to have a recommendation on the veal chop for two, Amy. We thought about ordering that last time but hesitated.

 

I must say that I LOVED the Peanut Butter Cup dessert (I've had that twice), but I am a sucker for peanut butter pie, peanut butter cookies, etc. My mom makes great desserts with peanut butter so I think I have a strong mental connection with it. Mr. rlm had dark chocolate and white chocolate gelato on one trip and they were The Yum, and a banana split-type dessert that I didn't care for but he liked.

 

And yes, Mongo, it is less crazy during the week as opposed to the weekend. We actually prefer dining out during the week at all of the places we frequent since it seems like we receive better service. We tip for coat retrieval.

[mongo_jones]

We tip for coat retrieval.

would you tip bobby or the flash woman behind the bar if they got your coats? tipping the somewhat obsequious gent who took our coats would not have been an issue but we were thrown by the participation of executive staff in this process--then again the woman may just have been behaving like she owned the place.

[omnivorette]

Owners don't get tipped.

[mongo_jones]

I don't know if everyone on this board realizes what high praise Mongo's final comment ("we have decided to go there once a month") actually indicates! I could go back through his many, many posts but I don't ever recall Mongo indicating that he would go back to any other Denver/Boulder based restaurant with any sort of regularity or enthusiasm. Please feel free to totally correct me.

yes, this is clearly the best restaurant we've eaten at in colorado. the food at luca was also very good but less adventurous--and there were other issues too (as noted in my review here earlier). we would go back to luca but after doing the rounds of other restaurants--frasca we would go back to before getting to mirepoix etc.

 

in terms of going back the two places that consistently get repeat business from us are china gourmet (for take-out) and full moon grill for consistently good food at a lower price/experience point than frasca. that is to say, my rigorous quality-control standards aren't aimed only at the very top-end.

 

across the street from frasca is l'atelier--why does it say "the artistry of radek cerny" below the name on the outside? this militates against the possibility of my spending special occasion dollars there.

 

wednesday will see us at adega for restaurant week.

[TheMatt]

across the street from frasca is l'atelier--why does it say "the artistry of radek cerny" below the name on the outside? this militates against the possibility of my spending special occasion dollars there.

Well it's the "artistry" because it is the l'atelier (art workshop?) of Radek. And believe me, Radek is more artist than many chefs. No one does wacky plates with sauce decoration like him in Denver any more. If you want to try out L'Atelier, I'd say go at lunch. You'll get a feel for what it's like, and that might prompt you to go for dinner. I don't think you get the full wacky Radek at lunch, but it'll fill up your big plate quota for a while.

 

I've been there a couple times for a celebratory dinner, and I like it. Sure the plates are huge, but Radek can make some great sauces. And with French food, the sauce is often everything.

[bolderite]

If the "flash" woman behind the bar that Mongo is refering to had long black hair and looked slightly like Liv Tyler, that would be Bobby's wife Danatte, so probably awkward to tip her as well

[rlm]

We tip for coat retrieval.

would you tip bobby or the flash woman behind the bar if they got your coats?

Bobby's never retrieved our coats. I didn't know his wife worked there. From Amy's description, looks like we've probably tipped her before if she's the one that's occasionally at the hostess stand. DOH! We didn't know.

 

Speaking of L'Atelier...You do get plenty of "Wacky Radek" at lunch. Large platters that are very artistically arranged. Tasty food too, although some of the dishes I've ordered have been similar in flavor and presentation even though they had different names on the menu at different times. Don't order the flaming pear dessert (ugh).

[fooded]

fooded, who are you? someone at the post?

Why yes, I'm the editor of the Post food section. You can call me Kris.

[mongo_jones]

across the street from frasca is l'atelier--why does it say "the artistry of radek cerny" below the name on the outside? this militates against the possibility of my spending special occasion dollars there.

Well it's the "artistry" because it is the l'atelier (art workshop?) of Radek.

so at the french laundry does it say "the laundering genius of thomas keller" below the sign? but i seem to remember conversation at one of the egullet dinners last year to the effect that cerny is full of himself. but perhaps there should be a separate l'atelier thread.

 

i think our next frasca visit is going to be the monday night prix fixe on the monday of spring break week--since we both teach t-th this semester regular mondays are out till may. can anyone confirm whether the portion sizes at the monday night dinners are the same as on other nights? if they're smaller they probably won't work for greedy guts like the two of us--the regular entrees do seem to be on the small'ish side.