Time to Make Reservations For Denver Restaurant Week

Have you always wanted to dine at one of Denver’s best restaurants but just couldn’t fit it into your budget?  Well, once again this year, now is your chance.

Denver restaurant week is back.  This is an opportunity to purchase pre selected meals at some of Denver’s finest and most delicious restaurants.  I have done this for the past several years and my wife and I have never been disappointed!  It makes for a wonderful date night. The selections are scrumptious and the chance to dine at some of these great restaurants is worth the price and them some. It’s a bargain at many restaurants for 2 meals for $52.80! You will get to taste why these restaurants are considered the best. Plus, I have found the selections offered for restaurant week won’t disappoint in either quality or quantity.  It really is a deal.  And once again, it is not just one week but 2. Dining dates begin February 25th and run through March 5th, 2012.

Menus will be out January 17th exclusively on the Visit Denver Facebook page and then on the Denver Restaurant week site after January 22nd.  So if you have always had the idea of a very special dinner then make sure to sign up and be ready, some of the restaurants will get completely booked up rather quickly.  And if you are just relocating to the Denver area, this is a fabulous way to get acquainted with some of Colorado’s best restaurants. Take advantage and bon appetit!

New Highlands Ranch Business Opens This Week

As a Highlands Ranch Chamber of Commerce member, I try to get to as many business events in Highlands Ranch as I can.  Yesterday was the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for BTO Frozen Yogurt.

Owner, Jack Doyle was a terrific host for the grand opening event. Due to his generosity, part of the proceeds on March 16th will be donated to the Chelsea Hutchison Foundation. This foundation is designed to assist people living with epilepsy live more independent lives by providing seizure-response dogs and epilepsy monitors to those in need, along with providing education and support to the community. Chelsea Hutchison was a Highlands Ranch teenager, who died unexpectedly after having a seizure.

BTO Yogurt is located in the Eastridge shopping area, just east of the King Soopers. If you haven’t been to a frozen yogurt place yet, you really should try it.  There are many flavors of very delicious yogurt to choose from and tons of tasty toppings to make it a special treat.  I noticed they even have Nutella flavor yogurt. I didn’t try it, but my son LOVES Nutella and now he can’t wait to get to BTO to try some!

St Patrick’s Day Activities in Denver And The Burbs

St Patrick’s Day again, I feel like it was just yesterday that we were drinking green beer and cooking up some corn beef and cabbage!

But St Patty’s Day is big in Denver, did you know that the Denver St Patrick’s Day Parade is the largest west of the Mississippi River? Is true!  So head to lower downtown (LoDo)  Denver Saturday morning 3/12 as the parade begins at 10 am at 27th and Blake and continues down Blake to 17th.  You can also follow along on Facebook, the organizers of the Parade have been posting updates & contests.

Sunday 3/13 is another fun event in LoDo – the Annual Running of the Green.  While its a 5K, there is green beer at the end – what is not to love about that!

Highlands Ranch has its own 5k – The St Patrick’s Day 5K on Saturday 3/12 at 9am at Town Center & festivities lasting until about 12:30 also at Town Center.

There are numerous Irish Pubs around the Denver area, I tend to enjoy the one near my home in Highlands Ranch, Lansdowne Arms.

What are you doing to celebrate St Patrick’s Day all week long?

Highlands Ranch Town Center is a Hub bub of activity when it is warm, but it is also great fun during the colder times as well.

Here are just a few things I like during the winter at Highlands Ranch Town Center.

Potato Leek Soup at Lansdowne Arms. Would you believe I am able to get my kids to eat leeks?  I certainly am.  In fact they beg for it and my family has suggested that they put this fabulous soup on the kid’s menu as well, although it hasn’t happened yet.  It will warm you up on the coldest of days and you’ll want more.

Tattered Cover – Steaming latte at the coffee bar along with the new best seller I have been waiting to get my hands on.  My whole family can kill a few hours in Tattered Cover – such a great local bookstore.

Peachwave - At Town Center North, Peachwave is one of the latest additions.  Think its too cold for frozen yogurt?  Douse it with hot fudge.

Happy Hour specials at Old Blinking Light – also known as OBL. Sure its fun to sit outside here, and you can around the fireplace if its not too cold.  But the cold weather doesn’t stop Highlands Ranch folks from enjoying the great Happy Hour specials inside as well.  Great margs made with real fruit juice & chicken queso nachos are among the best happy hour deals here.

Home Depot - Home Depot you ask?  Absolutely.  I’ve spent many an hour here when my kids were younger at the kids workshops and now I can run in and out for a new shovel, bag of salt or can of paint.  We have spent many a winters hours freshening painting in our home, especially the baseboards.

Fujiyama – Spend a wintery Friday night with your family or friends huddled around the grill while a hibachi chef entertains you as he makes your meal.  And if you have a large group, make a reservation for one of the private rooms – very fun!  Look for great coupons in the mail as well, you can then splurge and order dessert too.

So many other great places to discover in Highlands Ranch Town Center, but if you have recently relocated to Highlands Ranch, this will get you started.

This morning my family took my wife to breakfast and she choose Snooze.  While the kids & I had never been, she had once.

Snooze is one of the latest restaurants at The Street of Southglenn – but you would never know it as the crowds are fierce.  We arrived at 8 am and waited about 40 minutes for a table.  I can’t say I have ever waited that long for breakfast before but it was certainly worth it.

The menu had all sort of clever names and descriptions.  Apparently the pancakes are the specialty – you can get a flight (a flight of pancakes?) or a solo kind, and they have all sorts.

Between the four of us we ordered a Snooze Breakfast Burrito, Sticky Bun French Toast, 3 Egg Scramble with hash browns and my son opted for the plainer Chocolate Chip Pancakes.

And if that was not enough – we ordered 1 Graceland Pancake to the table to share.  That thing came first and it was more like a dessert then breakfast – but quite tasty.  It was buttermilk pancakes with bananas in them, and then topped a creamy peanut butter and carmel sauce with bacon.  My wife insisted we try this and it was really good.

There is also a full bar at Snooze but we skipped the mimosas today – perhaps next time we will head for lunch and try them then.

There are several Snooze locations, we ate today in the south Denver suburbs at The Streets of Southglenn – in Centennial but a hop skip & jump from Greenwood Village, Littleton, Englewood, Highlands Ranch Cherry Hills Village, and Lone Tree.