Best Restaurants 2018: Annette

Caroline Glover opened her lovely, intimate restaurant, Annette, inside Stanley Marketplace just a year and a half ago, but she’s already racking up national attention and accolades, including a 2018 semifinalist nod from the James Beard Foundation for America’s best new restaurant. If that isn’t enough to inspire you to make the trip to Aurora, then Annette’s genial service, charming dining room, and perfect shared-plate menu should. The food offerings are varied enough for both traditional diners (pillowy gnocchi; juicy wood-fire-grilled chicken; yeasted waffles at brunch) and those with more experimental palates (chicken liver pâté with plum mostarda; roasted whole fish with salsa verde; beef tongue and bone marrow toast). Glover’s fierce commitment to cooking with farm-fresh ingredients, including those she has grown on a borrowed plot at Aurora’s nonprofit Delaney Community Farm, means each dish is actually worth all the buzz. $$$, Stanley Marketplace, 2501 Dallas St., Aurora, 720-710-9975