Grand Lux at Park Meadows
Sometime during our adventure on Saturday night Alastair and I decided that we wanted to go to a mall the next day. The logic of this decision now escapes me; maybe something to do with holiday shopping? And for some reason we decided to go to the Park Meadows Mall, which we had never visited before. That’s right, readers, we were off to the suburbs!
After a late start yesterday – too many cocktails the night before – we set out around noon down I-25 and upon our arrival in Lone Tree decided to have lunch immediately. We walked through the food court – known as the dining hall at Park Meadows – but it was all the usual suspects, and it was also crowded with lots of screaming children. Consulting a mall map we discovered that a restaurant called the Grand Lux Café was located nearby – though you had to exit the mall to get to it; presumably this is a way of attracting non-mall-goers to dine – and we headed outside to check out the menu. As we perused it a couple emerged from within; “It’s really good,” said a man wearing a truly unfortunate pair of knock-off True Religion jeans. That should have been our first hint, but we went in anyway.
The Ceiling at the GLC
The first thing that must be said about the Grand Lux Café is that it is indeed grand and lux. It’s as if the developers told the designer: “I don’t care what you do as long as it looks expensive!” And the designer thought, “I know just the thing: gold! Lots of gold. And purple, too. Like royalty!” The space itself is enormous and covered in gold and purple and bangles and lamps and shiny gilt and faux finishing and any number of other big, fancy, shiny details designed to make one feel that one is dining in sumptuous luxury. The menu is equally large and just as capacious. There is no culinary theme to the Grand Lux menu; whatever your little heart might desire can be yours. Indeed they boast that they have “something for everyone.” Our waitress, whom I’ll call Lauren, asked us if we’d been to Grand Lux before (why is it that every server now asks this question? The subject of another post), and when we admitted that we were GLC virgins, warned us that portions were huge (her word). From beginning to end, Lauren was the best thing about the GLC: attentive and friendly without being overly so.
Alastair's Soggy Salad
And she was right about the portions, which were indeed sizable. The food was ho-hum, but no great surprise there. I had a chicken salad sandwich with fries. The sandwich was on the runny side but still reasonably tasty. Alastair had an overly dressed salad and a lunch portion (still enormous) of spaghetti carbonara. The carbonara was more “Alfredo with bacon and peas” than a proper carbonara; no clinging egg and cheese here, just sauce. But really, who cares about the food, which we expected to be pretty standard anyway?
Let’s talk about the people, and here, dear reader, be forewarned: I am about to reveal myself for the snob that you’d probably already suspected me to be. While most people there, like us, seemed to have been shopping, there were clearly also groups who had come to the Park Meadows Mall just to go to the GLC for lunch. Big groups of people who ordered lots of appetizers and cocktails and glasses of wine and talked about their planned trips to Cedar Point this summer. I guess this is something that happens in the suburbs. It was new to us. Directly across from me (I faced the aisle; better people-watching) were three tables. Table one: two gays, one of them wearing what Historiann has told me is an Ed Hardy T-shirt (lots of unnecessary graffiti-like designs). I couldn’t tell if they were on a date or this was a “morning after” sort of scenario (they ordered breakfast for lunch), but both seemed equally disturbing, given our mall-restaurant location. Table two: two very pretty bottle-blondes in designer duds who must have taken about a minute and a half to say a complicated grace before diving into their meals. Now if grace is really that important, aren’t there other places to be at midday on the Sabbath? And finally, a table of four suburban women who were clearly enjoying a “girls day out” shopping. That is, of course, what I had expected of the GLC; the gays and the designer Christians surprised me somewhat more. Once again, however, and as in my trip to White Fence Farm, I am reminded that traveling just a few short miles outside of “the city” (yes, in quotation marks) can make me like Denver that much more. Add to that our discovery that the men’s selection at the Park Meadows Nordstrom has nothing on Cherry Creek – itself pretty limited – and we returned to Denver with a renewed sense of appreciation.
It makes me happy when you find at least a modicum of appreciation for our little town. I do have days where the ‘white bread-ness’ of Colorado makes me yawn a bit since I too am from the land of big cities dear Blake. But over the years I’ve found Denver to be quite enjoyable. I can live in a house “in the city” and still have a yard. I can be out of the city and in our lovely mountains in less than 30. I also feel pretty darn safe even in Denver’s baddest of “bad neighborhoods”. I mean, seriously, you want to see some bad neighborhoods, let’s take a stroll through Philadelphia. ICK! Went back there recently and I was shocked and appalled.
I dunno… it’s not so bad methinks. Then again, I drink a lot…
Oh – and I avoid Park Meadows at all costs. Kind of reminds me of one of those scary Colorado Springs Super Churches. HENCE the praying.
Fear not, Mama, I know it’s not all bad. There are distinct advantages to living in Denver, which I remember again every time a friend comes to visit from East or West and ooohs and ahhhhs over my apartment, and then shoots me daggers when they find out how little I pay.
I have to say, however, that I do like a neighborhood that’s at least slightly “down and out,” so long as it’s not terribly scary as well.
I also have to say that I’m thinking that now that the DO and DOD have discovered our mutual love for The Thin Man, it’s time to plan a bar night!
I’m not very smart, but I feel like maybe White Fence Farm was just listed as a reason to appreciate not living near White Fence Farm. This baffles me. Do you REMEMBER the corn fritters?!
Yes, Gentleman Friend, that is correct, though it was not the distance from White Fence Farm itself that I was celebrating, but the distance from the town in which it makes its home and all that being in that town (aside from WFF, of course) entails. So yes, in other words, I remember the fritters.
A point of clarification: Cedar Point rocks! Sandusky, Ohio!!
Blake–Alastair is right. Have you *been* to Cedar Point? It’s a great amusement park. I grew up about 90 minutes away, and a trip there was always the highlight of our summers. (That said–it’s a little weird to plan a cross-country trip there.)
I eagerly await your treatise on the modern restaurant experience. Along with a discussion of why servers always ask if we’ve been to a restaurant before (because each restaurant thinks it’s somehow super-special and sooooo different that we must be educated how to be a customer there? I always feel like saying: “Let me guess: I order something from the menu, and you bring it to me? Do I look like a shut-in or a visitor from another planet? No?”), I’d like your view on the question we get now all of the time, “how’s everything TASTING?” Does anyone else find that weird, and a little vulgar? I mean, servers can help with a lot of dining issues (drafty seat, need more wine, need more more wine, etc.) but not with the actual FLAVOR of the food, right?
That is EXACTLY what I hate about the first question, and shall be the subject of an extended commentary at some point. As for the second question, it doesn’t really bother me so much. I feel like there are a few things that the server could do: bring me the salt that’s not on the table because they think they season things perfectly; take it back to the kitchen because it’s under or overdone. It might be a weird way of formulating what we all know is just the standard “return visit after food has arrived” inquiry, but it doesn’t bother me that much.
And yes, I have indeed visited America’s Roller Coast. I loathe amusement parks.
I am so down (and out) for a Thin Man DO/DAOID meet up/drink up… woo hoo!
Mama, I know you have a birthday to celebrate in the near future and may be busy but the DOD boys are available this Friday night. After that things get dicey as trips out of town are planned for the holidays. You can always reach us off-blog at downandoutindenver at gmail dot com
Wish I could do this Friday but I can not. Not only is it my 29th birthday (ahem) — but I have out of town friends that I have to entertain… Let’s plan for when you boys are back in DTown after xmas?
Mama: 29 so soon! You’re a mere babe. Yes, DOD and the DO will reconvene post-Christmas. Happy Birthday!
I wish I was 29… thx xoxoxoxoxoxo
Well, phew! You were making me feel old and decrepit.
[...] gone from Barolo Grill to Grand Lux Café and everything in between. Looking back, there have been some clear trends. We apparently love red [...]