NIBBLES
BITE BACK Find fresh flavors and new eateries during Boulder’s trademark celebration of local food BY JOHN LEHNDORFF
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pumpkin panna cotta for $85, while our friends and family have Postino WineCafe offers small plates noticed that you only eat out at and a bottle of wine to share for $25. six or seven restaurants. Dishes on these menus run the gasHonestly, three of those are pizzerias. tronomic gamut, from The Boulder What happened to that adventurous Cork’s famous sake salmon, to short rib diner who lived to sample new tastes in ravioli at Sforno Trattoria Romana, to new eateries? You may need a dining River and Woods’ tableside s’mores. intervention. Each food stall at Boulder’s Rosetta The 18th Annual First Bite is back Hall will offer a dish using fresh apples, Oct. 20-29 to rescue your taste buds such as Korean-style apple bulgogi ribs from the doldrums and give you an at Shangai Moon, to Petite Fleur bakexcuse to try new places. ery’s autumn bake sale showcasing a Don’t feel bad if your dining life has full counter of apple-centered desserts. gotten boring. Even the producer of First Bite finds that her own Boulderbased family gets stuck on a narrow group of restaurants. “I’m excited to go out and try the new places, and familiar restaurants that are serving something new,” says Jessica Benjamin, owner of Savor Productions, the food-focused organization that presents First Bite and its sister event, First Sip. This year’s First Bite restaurants range from the Michelin-honored Basta to the uber-casual Hungry Toad. There are places like the Greenbriar Inn, which has participated for 18 years, and recently opened eateries such as Masas Boulder and Pasta Press. This annual celebration of Boulder’s dining scene features 10 days of special meals and culinary events for every hungry mood. “Some nights, you are a fine diner, maybe it’s a birthday or an anniversary,” Benjamin says. “Tuesday night, you just need to go pick up dinner for the kids.” Bohemian Biergarten. Photo by Colleen O’Toole. First Bite has evolved to include brunch and a wider range of restaurants from the original one-price-fits-all, LAGER BEER AND A WURST multi-course dinner model. The CASE SCENARIO Greenbriar Inn’s five-course menu “We’ve always encouraged the restauincludes smoked duck roulade, seared rants to lean into whatever they do Skuna Bay salmon, and chai and best,” Benjamin says. “A good example BOULDER WEEKLY
Ahi tuna at Swaylo’s. Photo by Colleen O’Toole.
is the Bohemian Biergarten. Its First Bite offer is quintessentially the way we dine there, sharing food and beer.” The Bohemian Biergarten’s Oktoberfest platter brings together the eatery’s best-loved dishes. “It includes our scratch-made spaetzle noodles, red cabbage and our sauerkraut with bratwurst and other sausages made for us locally,” says Angelie Timm, coowner of the Bohemian Biergarten. The sharing platter also includes house-made mustards and a big soft pretzel with beer cheese, all made to pair with tall German lagers. “First Bite brings people into the restaurant for the first time who would never have tried our food otherwise,” Timm says.
LONGMONT: LOCO MOCO AND GRILLED ARTICHOKES
This year’s First Bite also expands into Longmont with a four-course dinner offering at Sugarbeet. The threecourse menu at Swaylo’s Tiki includes Hawaiian dishes like ahi poke wontons, a plate of loco moco (white rice topped with a hamburger, a fried egg and brown gravy) and a slice of haupia pie (rich chocolate and coconut milk) with cocktail pairings available. Other Boulder County participants
Smokin’ Dave’s. Photo by Colleen O’Toole.
include Smokin’ Dave’s BBQ in Lyons and Cimmini’s in Niwot. Grilled artichokes, shrimp and scallops, and cherry pie, are on the bill of fare at Louisville’s 740 Front.
FROM COOKING DEMOS TO A DOCUMENTARY FILM
First Bite is also launching a handful of one-off culinary experiences. “We have some new special events this year like Saturday’s Farmers Market behind-thescenes tour, and a cooking lesson with chef Daniel Asher,” Benjamin says. The Sink’s 100th anniversary celebration continues with an Oct. 23 bigscreen showing of the eatery’s documentary film at the Dairy Arts Center. The gathering includes a nostalgic talkback session afterwards with tastes of some Sink menu classics. Lamb fans will flock to Gemini on the Pearl Street Mall for an Oct. 25 dinner with the Colorado-based American Lamb Board. Other participating eateries include Dagabi, Organic Sandwich Company, Roadhouse Boulder Depot, Sforno Trattoria, Jill’s Restaurant and Japango. Complete list of First Bite restaurants and events at: firstbiteboulder.com. There is a specific Boulder reason why this dining extravaganza is happening right now. “It’s the Coach Prime effect,” Benjamin says. “These are the only 10 [consecutive] days in this entire fall where there was no CU football.” OCTOBER 19, 2023
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