Eating in Denver: D Bar

D Bar has been a favorite spot for me my husband and our kids for years, though typically the kids only get to join us on special occasions (birthdays). Some of the reasons I love it: 1) Nothing on the menu is very expensive, even though it is all very carefully prepared and consistently delicious. You can go for date night (or lunch, or after work meetup) and feel like you’ve really had a treat without feeling like you’ve paid extra for the privilege of dining downtown. 2) The entire regular menu (i.e. non-dessert foods) is delicious — Kobe sliders, Crue fries (with cheese and bacon), crispy brussel sprouts, bacon mac-and-cheese — so good. The southern fried Belgian sandwich (fried chicken on cornbread waffles) is tasty and substantial enough to share. Oh, and the pizza salad sandwich is both satisfying, light and fresh.

Then… there are the desserts. Regular menu items that we never tire of are the cake & shake (best chocolate cake ever) and ch-ch-ch-churros. I’d like to pause here to explain that these churros are the ultimate expression of fried dough married to cinnamon sugar, plus a warm chocolate dipping sauce.

Chef/owners Lisa Bailey and Keegan Gerhard always have seasonal desserts in rotation as well, like this one from July with lemon thyme shortbread, cherry coulis, vanilla ice cream, 3 cherry compote, amaretto chantilly and candied almonds. Decadent!

When we stopped in for my birthday, we had the funfetti cake with a buttercream egg beater on the side. This place just gets me.

I recommend nabbing a seat at the pastry bar if you can. I love watching the pastry chefs working their magic, piping churro batter right into the fryer, simmering up fruits, plating everything to perfection. The aromas are heavenly.

D Bar has a happy hour every day with even better prices on some of their standards like the sliders, the D Bar burger and mini churros, and they plan special menus for New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day that book up quickly. As I write this, I realize I have never been there for brunch. I must rectify this omission at once!

I also wrote about a French macaron class at D Bar in this post.

What I’m reading: Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life

What my 8-year old and I are reading aloud at bedtime: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle