Down and Out in Denver

Readers of DOD may remember my post of a number of weeks ago in which I lamented my inability to find good pizza here in the Mile High City.  Some of you wrote in with suggestions.  I am happy to report that in the last weekend I enjoyed not one, but two good pizzas.  The first was at Osteria Marco (which Alastair wrote about yesterday here).  The second was to be found at Proto’s Pizza on Platte at 15th in LoDo.

Delicious! More, please!

After a later night on Friday Alastair and I decided to take it easy on Saturday and so we headed to Proto’s for a pizza.  Though it was crowded we were seated immediately.  We each opted for a beer and then set about deciding what to order.  We ended up splitting a large caesar salad to begin.  The dressing was tasty, tart, and salty.  The extra-large croutons (almost like wedges of a pita with herbs and seasonings) were quite nice.  The promised anchovies, however, amounted to only two.  I recognize that some people may not like anchovies all that much but those people can request to have them left off their caesar salad.  For some of us, the anchovies are at least half the draw in the first place.  More, please!

Alastair, who had visited Proto’s before, assured me that a small pizza would be plenty for one person, so we ordered one each.  I went for the Proto: tomato sauce and mozzarella, basil and sausage. Alastair was in the mood for a white pizza and got for the Pontiff: olive oil, garlic, fresh spinach, mozzarella and feta cheeses.  Normally it would also have sundried tomatoes but Alastair substituted roasted red peppers, despite the fact that the menu explicitly discourages substitutions. He’s cheeky that way sometimes.  The pizzas were great: thin-crusted, well sauced, and with plenty of cheese.  They were not, alas, large enough.  I’ve got a big appetite and I could easily have consumed two smalls, meaning that I would advise a medium for one person.  If you’ve got leftovers, you can always take them home.  But they’re so tasty, this seems unlikely!

Because we were both still a little hungry we said “yes” to dessert, which is not our customary answer to that query.  I had the New York cheesecake with a raspberry coulis and Alastair sampled the affogato: ice cream (he chose vanilla) in a shot of espresso.  I am very picky about my cheesecake so this was a bit of a risk.  To my mind cheesecake should be seriously dense, have a great graham cracker crust, and should always be served quite cold.  I’m also a purist; while I recognize that there are many fun flavor combinations to be had, I much prefer the traditional version.  If done right, it’s got enough flavor without messing with things.  And I’m happy to report that Proto’s did not disappoint.  It fulfilled all my requirements and thus I cleaned my plate within about 2 and a half minutes.  Delicious!

After dinner we had a quick drink at the nearby My Brother’s Bar (which is currently stocked to the rafters with Girl Scout cookies; they have a large sign advertising themselves as an “official” sales site) and then headed off to the Tivoli to see a showing of “An Education,” the British film about a 1960s schoolgirl named Jenny (played by Carey Mulligan) who is seduced by a dashing older man (played by Peter Sarsgaard) and risks her chances of an Oxford education as a result.  It’s pretty fantastic.  Mulligan is excellent, as are Rosamund Pike as the Sarsgaard’s friend; Emma Thompson as a stern headmistress; Alfred Molina as Jenny’s oafish father; Cara Seymour as her mother; and Olivia Williams as Jenny’s idealistic teacher who says, in one particularly poignant line, that it would simply break her heart if Jenny doesn’t go to Oxford.  I will leave that question unanswered but suffice it to say that the movie is well worth seeing and that I am now excited to have seen at least one movie that has been nominated for an Oscar.  And to have sampled some excellent Denver pizza.  Now if only these places would deliver!