Saturday Night in Boulder

The 90 yo Matriarch spent the day at our house and then we decided to head to downtown Boulder for an early dinner. First stop was Jill's in the St. Julien for a drink. We all had a round of Hendricks martinis which is an excellent way to start things off. Note, Hendricks was not stocked in the bar at Jill's but the barkeep headed over to the lobby bar to get the juice. A bit strange. But, he fabricated excellent martinis with just the right drop of vermouth. We noticed an interesting shaped bottle of tequila which he said was Don Julio 1942 and he told us it was his favorite. $21/shot but he offered up a complimentary taste which was appreciated by all. Excellent stuff!

Since it was only 6:30 I thought we had a shot at a table at the Med. Wrong! 45 minute wait. Across the street at Brasserie 1010 it was 45 minutes to an hour. So, heading east on Walnut we stopped at the Walnut Brewery and got right in. It's been several years since we've been there so the time was right to check it out again. I ordered a seasonal Pilsner which, for me, was absolutely undrinkable! Bore no relation to what I prefer as a real pilsner. The server took it back without a pause and I settled into an Old Elk which has been an old favorite. That was better.

We started with their massive pretzel appetizer served with a spicy spinach cheese dip and two bottle of mustard. "Almost" as good as Bavarian Bratzen, well not quite. But still the pretzels were fresh, with a nice hard crust and soft interior. They were also huge so we took one home.

I had a grilled salmon sandwich with bacon - beautifully done, served with fries and slaw. The cole slaw was average to mediocre. The fries were oversalted. But my salmon sandwich was perfect. Also huge - took half home. My wife had a vegie burger that was also dynamite. Same fries situation and also came with some stringy onion rings mixed in. Mom had a bacon burger of which she stripped off the bacon and bread and then ate half the patty. Typical. Took the other half home.

The Rockies were on TV which was nice and all in all, a very pleasant dinner. I would have preferred the Med but this worked just fine.