Capital Grille

I've now resolved to get back on the blogging tip. I was at a meeting the other day and there was this chick who writes children's books and she was talking about the writing process and her rituals, etc., and I was thinking "I like to write! I want rituals!" Then, of course, I thought of this blog, which is the closest thing to writing that I do, and the self-loathing began.

But I'm not one to dwell! So I've created a ritual for myself to encourage consistency in the frequency of my postings. (I'm shooting for a minimum of once a week.) Now that my hubby, M has entered a Suduko moment -- tryin' to keep the gray matter well-lubricated -- I thought the weekend mornings when he's Suduko-ing would be perfect. And so here I am.

Now on to more important things -- dining! Last night we went to the Capital Grille on Larimer for dinner before the symphony (AWESOME show, by the way!) We had never been there before because it always seemed that when the honeymoon buzz was lingering at Capital Grille, we could never get a reservation when we wanted one. The other thing is that we're not really big steak-restaurant people. M and I both are of the opnion that when you dine out and throw down the cash, one of the essential things you're paying for is the talent and innovation of the chef.

In Denver, the layperson has access to exceptional-quality meat. We'll get a couple of filets from Whole Foods (for a price, mind you) and because of the quality of the meat, all it needs is a little salt and pepper before (or sometimes after) you slap it on the grill. Steak that good and that simply prepared doesn't need the blue cheese and the rubs and all the other stuff. So, for that reason, we rarely patronize places like Morton's, Sullivan's, etc.

But this time we did, and it was good. The crab and lobster cake was okay. The lobster meat was the stand out, but the quality of the crab wasn't lumpy enough for me. The actual steaks, themselves, were quite good. M had the Kona (decaf!) coffee rub on a medium rare aged sirloin. It came with shallots and some butter-cream sauce that he scraped off. When I first tasted it, I liked it more than my dish. Very flavorful and, obviously, good quality meat. I ordered the sliced filet (medium rare) that comes with cippolini onions and mushrooms. At first I wasn't loving it because my previously described prejudices about a simply-prepared filet were clouding my judgement, but eventually it grew on me. It was perfectly cooked, and as I went on to enjoy it with the classic creamed spinach we ordered as a side, I realized that I had been won over.

Don't get me wrong, though, I'm not planning to convert to steak house dining. I'm just saying that if I were to go to a steak place, this experience helps me to decide which one to attend and to have the knowledge that it can be quite good.

Oh, by the way, the bottle we ordered was perfect. It was a 2000 Bordeaux that was pretty reasonably priced $70-80 and, after decanting, opened up really nicely.

E. O. D. Bathroom Rating: I didn't use the facilities at Captial Grille. I ended up using the ladies' at the Samba Room (you may want to turn down your volume before clicking this link) because M wanted to squeeze in a quick post-steak, pre-symphony cigar. Nice bathroom. I kind of enjoy the runway effect of the corridor to the bathrooms, too. 4 out of 5 flushes for the Samba Room bathroom.