This week’s topics include Super Bowl food WF style, I’m not paying for something I can cook better, the best whiskey on the planet, please remove the candles and potpourri from the men’s room, and a review of Russell’s Smokehouse in downtown Denver.
Super Bowl Weekend- WF Style. Every year my college and high school buddies come to my house for Super Bowl weekend. It’s 3 or 4 days of good, healthy, and wholesome living.
We used to go out to a fancy restaurant on Saturday night and spend a lot of money on a good meal and wine. A few years ago, we had an epiphany. The WF can cook, as can P and D. So, why are we paying someone else to make a meal which we could make every bit as good, if not better, and for a lot less money?!
And now we cook our own ridiculous meal on Saturday night.
This year’s ‘menu’...... We started with about 4 pounds of black mussels cooked French style. Garlic, shallots, butter, a little olive oil, and some white wine. Steam them until they open up and set aside lightly covered. Reduce the sauce a few minutes, and pour over the mussels. Enjoy like a bunch of scavengers.
The main meal: (a) Thick ribeyes grilled to medium rare over hardwood charcoal; (b) a homemade steak spread of raw garlic, sun dried tomatoes, olive oil, and blue cheese; (c) mushroom risotto; (d) large scallops seared on a Himalayan salt block on a nice asparagus puree and topped with asparagus tops; (e) homemade bread; (f) grilled baby bell peppers; and (g) a salad with bell peppers, balsamic vinaigrette, and blue cheese crumbles.
Some of the wines we drank included a 1998 Stags Leap Merlot, a 2008 Stags Leap Cabernet, a 2006 Caymus Cabernet; a 2002 cabernet-like wine from one of my favorite little Calistoga wineries, and some others that are lost in the fog of red wine.
We also had Sam Adams Winter Lager on tap, 18 year Glenlivet, and 20 year Pappy Van Winkle’s bourbon.
That, my friends, is an epic meal with some epic booze!
The 2006 Caymus was huge and fantastic. Great steak wine. The 1998 merlot was a complex and wonderful way to start the evening. All of the rest of the wines were good.
By the way, the 20 year Pappy Van Winkle is the best whiskey I have ever had. Period. There. I said it. Now if only I could find more to buy………
Restaurant Review – Russell’s Smokehouse, Denver, Colorado. Russell’s is located in Larimer Square in Downtown Denver and it’s not easy to find. Yes, there’s a big sign on Larimer with the restaurant name on it. When you walk into the ‘alley’ where the restaurant is supposed to be, there’s a sign for the restaurant, which seems to suggest that you go down the stairs to get there.
You go down the stairs and the only door has the name of a pie shop on it. Huh? So we (my friend J and I) walk in and ask where the restaurant is. “Oh. This is it. The pie shop is next door and the ‘Speak Easy’ is right down the hall.”
My first thought is that it takes a lot of balls to make your restaurant hard to find. Most restaurants want you to find them. Not so much with Russell’s. I’m thinking that the food better be out of the world if you’re so pretentious as to make your restaurant difficult to find!
We’re waiting for J’s wife and son, so we decide to order some appetizers. One that catches my eye is the Confit Chicken Wings in a bourbon bbq sauce. For the record, “confit” does not mean cooked in duck fat. It means cooked in its own fat. For example, duck confit is cooked in duck fat. Chicken wing confit should be cooked in chicken fat.
These were cooked in duck fat. Whatever. Foodie semantics.
They tasted good, but were literally fall off the bone tender. Too tender for what is really bar food. You had to eat these with your fork. J and I both agreed they would be better if they had more texture and held together more. Personally, I thought they would be great if they were pan fried or deep fried so that you got some crispiness.
In a word, this dish, like the rest of the appetizers, was just too cute. Tried to be something it wasn’t. This is, after all, a bbq place, right?!
At this point, there’s something about the décor which isn’t settling well with me. This space is apparently a former ‘Speak Easy’ and it’s a really cool space. However, like their appetizers, the décor is simply too cute for its own good. A former speak easy should just reek of coolness without having to beat me over the head with it. Just let it be what it is. A minimalist approach
Not so much with Russell’s. Here’s the best example I can give. In the men’s room, there is a standing lamp with a candle and a table next to the urinal. And there were books and flyers on the table. WTF? In a men’s room?! Trust me when I say that this is out of place, RIGHT NEXT TO A FRICKIN’ URINAL. I’m here to pee. I don’t need candles, potpourri, or anything similar.
Like I said – way too cute.
At this point, I’m thinking the bbq will be horrible. If the rest of the place is this pretentious, there’s no way they’re making righteous bbq.
So I ask the server what his favorite item is on the menu. “Brisket.” I’m thinking “really?!” Any fool can make decent ribs and pulled pork, but good brisket is what separates the men from the boys, in my ever so humble opinion.
I order the combo plate, along with a combo rib plate. We all decide that we’re eating family style, so bring it on!
The verdict? …..
This is some righteous bbq! The brisket was borderline perfect. Clearly injected and/or mopped with a beef stock mixture, and not fall apart tender. Perfect brisket should hold its form when sliced. Tender, but not falling apart. This was truly great brisket.
And that, my friends is not something I say lightly. I rarely give anyone praise for their brisket.
The spare ribs, baby backs, and beef ribs were also great. Good bark. Nice smokiness. Pulled pork and chicken were also good and juicy. Not dried out. Just bbq done right.
The only downside to the bbq experience? I thought some of the sauces were just ok. The vinegar sauce was similar to mustard, as opposed to your normal vinegar sauce. The sweet sauce was nice and complex. The spicy sauce was just their sweet sauce with some capsaicin poured in. There are some wonderful chile flavors you could have added, but you chose to go with pure hot rather than another flavor layer? Not impressive.Of all of the restaurants I review, I am hardest on bbq joints. If you’re going to serve me bbq, I expect it to be at least as good as mine and hopefully better. As I’ve mentioned in prior blogs, when I go to a bbq joint I often feel like the Red must have felt when she married me. I’m hoping for spectacular and expecting mediocrity, which is what I often get.
This, my friends, is damn fine bbq. Go try Russell’s. Methinks you will enjoy.
Happy cooking.
WF
