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Night Out: Take Flight at the Inverness
If you’re like us and are always up for a little wine, cheese, and chocolate, check out the Inverness Hotel‘s tempting—and reasonable—flight menus. Executive chef Anthony Sinese has crafted four cheese flights, many of which feature Colorado cheeses (such as Haystack Mountain‘s Peak and Snowdrop and MouCo‘s ColoRouge and Camembert), nine wine flights, and two chocolate flights to tempt diners. Tip: Taste your way through the goodies and make notes on the take-home tasting sheets. Available in the hotel’s Fireside Lounge, 200 Inverness Drive West, Englewood, 303-799-5800, www.invernesshotel.com
New: Shangri-La Coffee
Sandwiched between Vita and Lola, in the space that used to be the vegan-friendly Karma, sits the brand-new Shangri-La Coffee. The Highland cafe has gotten a face-lift and the paint job and shiny new tables and chairs render the space brighter, cleaner, and larger than before. Open only since Friday, the spot is already doing brisk business serving up foamy lattes (made from Colorado-based Novo Coffee), spicy chais, cookies, pastries, and bread. All the baked goods come from the Denver Daily Bread Baking Company (formerly the Il Fornaio bakery), and the tasty offerings are baked daily. There’s promise of salads and sandwiches, but we haven’t see any signs of those yet. Either way, it feels good having this space open again. 1575 Boulder St., 720-855-7585
Recipe: Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
In need of a quick but memorable dinner, we headed to Uptown’s Marczyk Fine Foods for Niman Ranch pork tenderloin and fire-roasted tomatoes from the deli case. At home, we butterflied the loin and stuffed it with sun-dried tomatoes, the fire-roasted tomatoes, feta, black pepper, and a light sprinkling of Volterra fennel salt (found at Specialty Foods of Aspen or www.volterrarestaurant.com). After grilling the pork on high heat, we rounded out the dish with couscous and a tossed green salad. Easy, yes, and our guest was duly impressed. Marczyk Fine Foods: 770 E. 17th Ave., 303-894-9499, www.marczykfinefoods.com; Specialty Foods of Aspen: 601 E. Hopkins Ave., Aspen, 970-544-6656
—Amanda M. Faison
