Fareways

Surf, Turf and Links

Serious Southern BBQ and fresh seafood are a winning twosome at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club’s new signature eatery.

By John Lehndorff

You know change is in the air at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club even before stepping into the clubhouse. It’s a captivating aroma that’s part smoke, part spice and part seacoast.

“When you pull into the parking lot to play golf, you immediately smell that barbecue,” says Kevin Laura, president of Green Valley Ranch Golf Club and CEO of this month’s Inspirato Colorado Open. “It turns heads. It makes you hungry.”

The new Green Valley Smokehouse and Oyster Bar is rapidly becoming the rarest of attractions: a golf course restaurant that’s a dining destination for golfers and locals alike.

Located in a standalone building separate from the golf clubhouse and instruction academy, the innovative eatery resulted unexpectedly from a long friendship—cultivated at numerous golf courses and lots of post-round dinners—between Pat Hamill, the owner of Green Valley Golf Club, and Joe Adeeb, the legendary Florida restaurateur.

Last summer, when Hamill was looking for a great new concept to replace the facility’s Ebert’s Terrace restaurant, he turned to Adeeb.

“Pat and I have similar handicaps so we’ve played a lot together,” Adeeb says. “I told Pat: The last thing I need at 69 years old is another restaurant.”

PHOTO BY LISA “MOOSE” KRAL/DANCING IN MY HEAD PHOTOGRAPHY

Adeeb’s Home Team Restaurant Group operates 37 restaurants in five states (including Bono’s Bar-B-Q in Centennial), as well as several seafood-oriented establishments. Although Adeeb is single-digit handicap, none of those eateries has ever been located at a golf course, and for good reason.

“I’ve eaten at plenty of good restaurants at golf clubs and I’ve eaten at some bad ones,” Adeeb says. “A lot of golf course restaurants are just glorified snack bars.”

However, the prospect of opening one of the “good” ones at Green Valley intrigued him. “I told Pat: ‘I’m here to help you. Let me think of a unique concept that would be right for this community,’” Adeeb says.

The restaurateur cut his teeth in the industry working at his family’s Jacksonville seafood restaurants. In 1980, he and his wife Brenda bought the Bono’s Bar-B-Q where the couple had their first date in 1968. However, the seafood and the barbecue offerings have largely starred on separate menus.

“This is a first for us,” Adeeb says in a Florida accent as thick and smooth as hollandaise. “There are barbecue places that serve a few seafood dishes and seafood places that serve baby back ribs, but there really aren’t places that have merged the two things like we have here.”

What he came up with for Green Valley is

FRIED & ’CUE:

Opposite page, clockwise from top: smoked sausage and pulled pork sandwich; meat combo platter with collards and Brunswick stew; grilled salmon; the popular fried catfish with hush puppies. This page: the brisket sandwich and whole fried snapper both pair with sweet potato fries, grits and other downhome sides.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF HOME TEAM RESTAURANT GROUP

a family-style, sit-down restaurant set in a bright dining room plus an expansive bar area and a patio that looks out on the 18th hole.

“We got a lot of feedback from the nearby community that they thought Green Valley was a private club, and that the restaurant wasn’t open to the public. We’re trying to change that. Everyone is welcome, whether they play golf or not,” Adeeb explains, pointing out that more than 40,000 people live within a few miles of the course.

Green Valley Smokehouse and Oyster Bar has a split culinary personality that makes deciding what to order a pleasant challenge. One side of the menu features pulled pork, beef brisket, St. Louis-style slabs, sausage and turkey that spend up to 14 hours in the on-premises smoker. The meats are available on platters, in sandwiches and by the pound.

The establishment’s showstopper is clearly the chicken wings. Instead of being fried, Green Valley’s big wings are rubbed with spices and slow-smoked, giving them a melt-in-the-mouth craveability enhanced with mild, spicy or sweet barbecue sauces.

“In the South, it’s all about pulled pork. Here brisket and ribs are a lot more popular so far,” Adeeb explains.

The seafood half of the menu starts at the oyster bar where dozens of freshly shucked bivalves from various coasts are available on the half shell along with hot or

EXTERIOR PHOTO BY JON RIZZI; ALL OTHERS CIOURTESY OF HOME TEAM RESTAURANT GROUP

GREEN VALLEY SMOKEHOUSE & OYSTER BAR

greenvalleysmokehouse.com; 303-375-7880

cold peel-and-eat shrimp. Starters include calamari and the memorable New Orleans charbroiled oysters crowned with butter, Parmesan, parsley and garlic.

Fried shrimp and Mississippi catfish along with beer-battered fish and chips naturally lead the list of seafood entrées, plus Charleston-style shrimp and creamy grits and Low Country Boil that combines shrimp, sausage, corn and new potatoes and a bottle of hot sauce.

Serious Southern seafood devotees will want to put in a special order for whole fried red snapper or the fresh fish of the day special served fried, broiled or blackened.

“We’ve been really surprised but seafood is outselling barbecue and fried catfish is more popular than salmon,” Adeeb says. He proudly notes that his Papa’s Joe’s combo of fried catfish and shrimp with hush puppies is the top order.

To give diners more bang for the buck, pricier items like snow crab, lobster, scallops and giant steaks don’t appear on the menu. Nor do the usual golf food suspects: club sandwiches and Cobb salads. Adeeb’s relatively short bill of fare does squeeze in grilled ribeye steaks, cheeseburgers topped with pulled pork and salads crowned with grilled salmon and house-made barbecue ranch dressing.

Some diners at the Smokehouse are skipping the proteins to focus on the delectable downhome side dishes ranging from cornbread, fries and rings to coleslaw, baked beans, sweet potatoes and silky collard greens. The don’t-miss comfort sidekicks are the rich creamed corn and baked macn-cheese.

Sweet finales at the restaurant range from banana pudding and a brownie sundae to peach cobbler. However, the eatery’s Florida origins makes ordering classic Key lime pie the perfect finale.

While the restaurant and the menu have been totally revamped, one beloved Green Valley tradition—the Three Hole Challenge—will continue. If you make par or better on the last three holes of the course, you get a free beverage at the bar … plus all the bragging rights.

As Green Valley prepares to host this month’s Inspirato Colorado Open, Joe Adeeb is wondering whether Green Valley Smokehouse and Oyster Bar is an idea that just may plot a new course for golf cuisine.

“I’ve got to tell you that we may really have something here,” Adeeb says. “We’ve already heard about a few golf clubs that might be interested in this concept. I’m excited to see where we can take this.”

Colorado AvidGolfer Food Editor John Lehndorff is the former Dining Critic of the Rocky Mountain News.

FISH STORY:

Clockwise from top left: the aromatic exterior; fish and chips; oysters chill with the catch of the day; the best-selling New Orleans Charbroiled Oysters.

The Evening at a Glance

AvidLifestyle and Colorado AvidGolfer magazines come together for an unforgettable evening benefiting Bags of Fun.

Vehicle Vault, one of the most distinctive event venues in Colorado, will welcome guests to explore and enjoy a highly curated private collection of vintage and exotic automobiles, while experiencing exquisitely decorated lounges from top interior designers.

Toast the night with bespoke cocktails and culinary creations from Uncorked Kitchen, Blue Island Oyster Bar and Seafood and Mountain High Appliance. Enjoy an unplugged, intimate performance by Sean Kelly of The Samples, presented by Carla’s A Classic Design, as well as artist presentations, aerial performers, an interactive golf experience and much more!

An Evening to Help

Our goal is to raise awareness and money to benefit Bags of Fun. For more than 18 years, this local charity has brought joy, laughter and relief to children in the fight of their lives. Their mission is to deliver a Bag of Fun to every sick child whose health and happiness is both compromised and threatened. bagsoffun.org

PRESENTING SPONSORS