Down and Out in Denver

Last night Blake and I joined a few of our best gal pals to try out Deluxe Burger, the newly opened joint venture between chef Dylan Moore (of the restaurant Deluxe and neighboring bar Delite) and mid-century furniture outlet Mod Livin’ on East Colfax Avenue. The place was jumping!

With their use of bold color, large-scale George Nelson bubble lamps, and customized furniture they’ve transformed a dreary former liquor store into a gourmet, chef-driven burger joint were everything on the menu is made in-house, including the ketchup, mustard, pickles, and fries.

In addition to standard burgers, made with Angus beef, ground free-range chicken, and ground ahi tuna, the concise menu offers up a number of “signature burgers” without being over-whelming. These include a BBQ Burger, the Spicy Tuna Burger, and a Truffle Burger. Nothing knocked the seven of us off of our chairs (well, perhaps the Diet Coke that Blake ordered in a bottle he had never seen before…. and Blake’s had a lot of Diet Coke), but we were all very pleased with our choices… enough so that most of us will return to try out more of the menu.

The Denver Burger

I had the Denver Burger, which came with sautéed Anaheim chilies, onions, pico, cheddar cheese, and smoked jalapeno aioli. It was a great tasting burger. I personally wanted to experience a little more spice or smoke considering all the ingredients the burger was topped with. Blake enjoyed his Basil BLT Chicken Burger, and the Truffle Burger with shiitake mushrooms and truffled swiss cheese was a hit.

One thing that we all generally agreed upon was that the fries could use some fine-tuning. Now, you’re not going to be able to please everyone.  For instance, Blake likes his fries thinner (shocking!) and crispy. In fact, I think he was so upset that he ate most if not all of the accompanying ketchup… and Blake don’t eat ketchup!  Is it ketchup if it doesn’t come out of a bottle?  That’s another discussion… I like the crispy thin fries, but I also really enjoy a thicker cut steak fry like my mother made in the Fry Daddy. Let’s face it… I love my potatoes. It’s the Irish blood in me body.

Deluxe Tuna Burger and Truffle & Parm Fries

Deluxe offers “Fat Fries” (do fries make you fat?) that fall closer to my personal preference. We all felt that the hand cut fries with fresh thyme and garlic could have been crispier… it wasn’t that they were underdone, but maybe they needed another toss in the oil. Oddly enough the truffle and parm fries had more of the crisp everyone was after. Perhaps it was the addition of the parmesan?

One member of our team had the homemade tomato soup topped with fresh basil…. I think he enjoyed it! Another had the Orangecicle Shake which I now wish I had ordered.

Home Made Tomato Soup w/ Fresh Basil

When ordering I asked the cashier whether the Denver Burger was messy, she told me that “all of our burgers are messy” and when it came to eating them, it was recommended that we leave the burger inside the half-wrapper that they serve it in. This did make it easier to eat, but some of those juices still escaped from our clutches. That said, we were all very impressed by how well the Kaiser buns held up and tasted!

All I know is that my meal got me through the rest of the evening which involved some heavy drinking… I woke up this morning feeling great and looking fabulous. Thanks Deluxe Burger!

Burger Juice!

Next on our list of burger joints, H-Burger in the Sugar Cube building on the 16th Street Mall. Stay tuned.