Denver Digs and Dining-Innovation, Luxury and Kitsch
Four Seasons Hotel Denver
by Arie Boris, CruiseGourmet.com
I had not been to the Mile High City in more than ten years. Imagine my surprise at the stunning transformation from cow town to sophisticated business center with restaurants and hotels to crow about!.
Ultra luxury and sleek modern design is what the brand new Four Seasons Hotel Denver is about. Located just across from the Denver Performing Arts Center and two blocks from the 16th Street Mall where free shuttle buses cruise the mile-long pedestrian way seven days a week (a bit overrun with filthy vagrants for my taste Mr Mayor…and I come from Manhattan which usually gets the bad rap for quality of life issues!)
The property is stunning and staff are “Rocky Mountain” fresh with big wide grin smiles and blond hair…I am sure they all know where the best skiing and snow boarding slopes are anywhere in the area. Rooms are spacious with picture windows, gorgeous sand stone brick work and expansive bathrooms…with basins that illuminate! Ok, who went to bed and left the sink on?!?
The jewel in the crown is the hotels premier restaurant, Edge. Described as a “progressive American steakhouse,” this place is worth shooting the lock of for! Again, sleek modern sets the tone for this edgy eatery. The menu is innovative with appealing variations on typical steakhouse fare.
The restaurant’s chef, Simon Purvis’ career has taken him all over the globe, from Berlin to Singapore. In each city, he immersed himself in the local cuisine and developed his menus around tastes that were already familiar there. So it is in Denver where Chef Purvis has become the executive chef of Four Seasons Hotel Denver and its EDGE steakhouse. The beef is from a Colorado ranch, the lamb from the Rocky Mountains, the striped bass from Alamosa, and much of the fruit is from Colorado’s Rocky Ford Valley. And, of course, there is plenty of game. ‘Our menus offer a reason for our local clientele to come back often, and a way for our guests from afar to taste things that they can’t get back home,” says Purvis. His home, by the way, is Portsmouth, England, and he honors it with a mashed potato side dish that is a thoroughly updated take on bubble and squeak. Given Purvis’ current location, it’s not surprising that his menus are heavy on beef. But the carpaccio is Kobe and the beef tartare is from grass-fed steer. Those steer also make EDGE the only restaurant in Denver serving a dry-aged Kansas City strip. One other thing you won’t find outside EDGE: a wood-burning grill, which is used to cook all its steaks.
The Edge Wedge was a perfect take on the classic steakhouse salad with creamy blue and bacon. The onion rings were hands down the best I have ever tasted! Great steaks, but the seafood was just as impressive. The crab cake appetizer was filled with luscious crab meat and the simple steamed lobster was beautifully presented and tasted even better! Topped off with the most outrageous Chocolate Lollipop for dessert! For a photo gallery of more of what makes Edge special, click here: http://www.edgerestaurantdenver.com/gallery/
Well worth a stay and more than just one meal, the new Four Seasons Denver is pricey, but after all it is another fabulous Four Seasons! For more information visit: http://www.fourseasons.com/denver/
