Chad L.
Yelp
Last week, over 4 days and nights, I ate my way across the city of Denver. I'd never been there before, but let me tell you: French 75 was the highlight of my trip!
My wife and I went in on Thursday, March 24th, for my birthday dinner. We were seated by the General Manager, Abby H., and proceeded to get into about a 15 minute conversation with her, where we discussed food and travel. She was delightful and I think we could have conversed all night. I hope we didn't keep her away from too many other responsibilities!
Jason was our main server and he did an excellent job with the pacing of our meal, suggestions, and service. He was expertly assisted by a young lady who's name I cannot recall (so sorry!), but she has fantastic purple and blue hair, and a Mr. Meeseeks tattoo on her right arm. She was very impressed we knew who he was. "CAN DO!" From a service standpoint, French 75 is in great hands.
On to the food and drink:
We began with cocktails. My wife had the Lillet Pad, substituting gin for vodka, and I went with the Traditionel French 75. Both were refreshing and tasty.
For apps, we selected the Pork Dumplings and the Wagyu beef tartare, before Jason pointed out that the Lobster with house-made Ricotta was a wiser choice than the tartare. We ended up having all three, and I would rank them as a close tie between the Dumplings and Lobster, with maybe the Lobster eke-ing out a win, and the tartare (sadly) a distant third. The components of the tartare were quite good, but assembled together, it just wasn't what I was hoping it would be. Delicious, but it paled compared to the Dumpling and Lobster dishes. Don't miss them.
For the salad, we shared the greens with berries and more of that lovely Ricotta with a poppyseed dressing. If you DO want to go light and miss the Lobster app, (maybe you're aiming at the Lobster Ramen as your main entree), then this salad will be a nice choice instead. Since I loved the Ricotta and the fresh berry mix, plus that dressing, my only regret is that we didn't get 2 of these salads. So refreshing before our entrees!
And for entrees: my wife selected the Fresh Gnochetti with foraged mushrooms and truffle cream. She was in heaven.
For myself, I looked quite hard at the Canard Confit (duck... it's just so hard to find great duck!), but ended up following Jason's suggestion (again!) of the Frankie's Tagliatelle. I was not disappointed. It isn't a complex dish- medium-wide noodles, Bechamel cream sauce, and basically small bits of chipped, smoked country ham, but oh yeah, it was comfort food at it's finest and I ate every bite. I paired it up with the crisp, dry French white wine by the glass (can't remember if it was a Sancerre or a Chenin Blanc or something else- definitely wasn't a Chard or a Sauv Blanc). It was a great wine to cut through the cream sauce: high acid, but low aftertaste. A cleansed palate with every sip.
We skipped desert in favor of going to another restaurant, but I'm sure that French 75 would have delivered there, too. Next time, we'll buck convention and lead with dessert. Sound okay, Abby and Jason?
Thanks so much to the chefs, waitstaff, support staff and most of all, Abby, who set the tone for the entire night.
It's absolutely criminal that French 75 wasn't busier on Thursday night, but when restaurants are slow, great restaurateurs rise to the occasion and make the night that much more splendid for the guests who choose to dine. This is certainly true of Abby and her staff.
Denver: get off your butts and fill this restaurant. It's worth it! I promise.
(side note: we also ate at their sister restaurant, Osteria Marco, on the 22nd of March, which was quite good, but doesn't shine nearly as brightly as French 75!)