The Bindery — Restaurant in Denver

The atmosphere is really cool, with it being an open kitchen and bar and table area and some mirrors overhead. We had Sunday brunch here. Lauren was fantastic behind the bar. I had the Uova Alla Flamenca, and it was spectacular. My new thing is red sauce with eggs, and this one had that along with grits. Very flavorful. They also were carrying the Lunch IPA, which I had never had. I will be coming back soon to get the Polish omelette dish. Great experience, and would urge you to make the trip.

RECENT VISIT: I keep getting impressed by this place in various ways. First of all, let me start you out with this. Before you experience the rest of this place, you should try the I'm Going Polish, Uova Alla Flamenca, It's Always Sunny, and the soft scramble with pastrami. Stop reading this review and start reading after you have tried all of those magical things. Back? Cool. The new dish Jersey Girl Porchetta sounds delightful but didn't have it. I sucked into the brunch burger. Was it good? Yes. Does it hold the 4 star review? Yes. Is it as good as the soft scramble? No. Not much is. The soft scramble is five stars on its own, Jared's flawless service is five stars on its own, the smoked paprika aioli is five stars on its own, BUT, I can't give the place five stars overall. It is pricey, folks. Expect to, with one drink and an entree each, to spend a bill. I am not saying people need to seek out bottomless, but a $38 bottomless and a $14 mimosa is a little out of whack for the competition. Love the bar area, spacious place, and only gets four stars because of pricing and the clientele being a little...uppity. No tv's for you sports folks. So, basically what I am saying is that the soft scramble might be the best brunch dish in all of Denver, and Jared is the bomb, but everything after that is paying for the place and environment. The pastry area on the way out can sell you alone, folks. I definitely recommend, and I will see you there when we feel fancy or I am jonesing for that soft scramble.

ANOTHER 10 VISITS: Bumping this to a five. This place has grown on me, and I am about to explain the trump card they just pulled. Their happy hour is a hidden treasure. I am a sports guy, and so is my wife, but we have some "white tablecloth" places over the years that we love and realize are the best HH in town. This is the new one. A) Service is always my #1. Hector is the best at this place, and he not only seated us, but bartended for us for a bit. He is everywhere. B) Why didn't we know about the HH? Because my wife works until 515. But, we had some time on a day off for her. C) Oysters WITH Cava at 3 for $9 for her. Killer price and taste. D) I got two sliders AND fries for $11 (add the aioli for $1 to dip them in). Killer. E) Craft beers at 2 for 1 at $6. Awesome. F) My wife had 2 for 1 martini's at $12. Incredible. Figure out a non-sports time, fellow sports fans. No TV's. Or, just let it go for an hour or two. I do. The food is amazing, Hector is awesome, open kitchen, open air environment with all of the large windows, and we love this place. We initially got hooked on it for brunch, but that hook has now expanded. Definitely recommend, and...

We had an amazing Valentine's double date with our friends Bear and Troy at The Bindery in the Highlands.

The atmosphere was swanky, romantic, and modern yet cozy at the same time. While there are many hard surfaces and high ceilings, it was still easy enough to hear each other's conversations. The installed acoustic tiles on the ceiling work well.

On this Valentine's Day, a prix fixe offering was the only option. We started with cocktails. Bear had a bourbon sour with egg whites. Troy had a two-toned purple cocktail with vodka, creme de violette, and macerated edible flowers adorned with gold leaf. Bob and I had dirty martinis. We started with a complimentary amuse-bouche of raw oysters with a beet mignonette. They were tasty, elegant and dressed for the occasion from in red.

For our appetizer course, we had a choice between steak tartare or kampachi crudo. Both were excellent! The fish offering was very generous and was prepared with leek ash, vodka, black radishes and caviar. We noticed that people that were sat about an hour later did not receive quite as much fish. The steak tartare was some of the best I have had in Denver. It contained wood sorrel, horseradish, and rye seeds. The fresh horseradish and rye seeds gave it nice additional textures.

For our second course, we had the choice between a radicchio salad or squid ink tagliolini pasta. The freshly made pasta was a generous serving! Although a little stingy with the clams, the rapini and calabrian chili made it a great dish! Bob enjoy the salad option called Radicchio Trevisiano. It came with a sweet potato gastrique, blue cheese and walnuts.

For the entree, we had a choice among quail, sole, or a ribeye. We tried the latter two. Bear and Troy loved the delicate fresh sole with Israeli couscous, Cara Cara and blood orange, and a nasturtium. Bob and I devoured the very large ribeye steaks with blackberries, black peppercorn confit atop a bed of cauliflower gratin. We tried the recommended pairing cabernet, Sean Minor, a wine we will be having again!

For our dessert course, we had the choice between a dark chocolate cherry mousse or a passion fruit gelato. The cherry mousse was frozen. We suspected that they might not have taken the dessert out of the freezer as early as they would have liked. For one reason it took an extremely long time to get our desserts, and the other was it was difficult to cut through with a spoon. The taste was amazing, and with chocolate nibs and gold leaf it was extremely fancy! Bear enjoyed his gelato which contained ruby red grapefruit panna cotta and coconut espuma. A complimentary sampling of Turkish Delights followed dessert.

We arrived at 7pm for our reservation and one could definitely witness an evolution of clientele, music and vibe from 7pm to 9pm. Anita Baker was our soothing prelude, and "bump and grind" was our postlude.

The hostesses were handing out long stem roses to most of the females throughout the evening. Our waitress brought us two for our table of four gay guys. 😉

This was definitely more of a $$$$ night; however, normally there is a full menu with a variety of price options making this more of a $$$ restaurant. I am very excited to return to try some of their...

Mother's Day Breakfast gone terribly wrong! My son made a reservation for 9am for a party of 4 for breakfast on Mother's Day. We arrived at 8:15 am, excited and hoping to get a table early when we were told they didn't open until 9 am (even though the website said 8 am). We were a little confused because both doors to the restaurant were open. We left to have a coffee at a local food hall while we waited for our reservation at 9am. We went back to the restaurant at 8:50 when we noticed that people were sitting inside already. We were a little taken back because the hostess had previously told us that they didn't even open until 9am. Nevertheless, we waited in line to give our name to the hostess to be seated. The hostess was very short with us and aggressively asked if we had a reservation, we replied yes. The hostess took us to our table at about 8:55 am. Once we sat down, a lady, with the same attitude as the hostess, arrived to the table to fill our water glasses. A few minutes later the waitress came to our table to take our drink order. Our waitress arrived with a smile and bubbly personality. She explained that the mothers received a complimentary cocktail as a gift because it was Mother's Day. My daughter and I ordered a cocktail and mocktail and my son and son in law ordered a coffee and a cocktail as well. We ordered our food at about 9:05. At 10:00 am, we had NOT RECEIVED any of our food! We ordered chilaquilles, Ruben, beet smoked salmon, another breakfast sandwich and burrata w/berries. After 30 min. of being seated, I stopped the waitress to remind her that we still had not received our food and my daughter, who is pregnant, was hungry. I told her to just bring the food out as it was prepared and they didn't need to wait for everyone's food to be done at the same time to bring it out. She explained that Mother's Day was the busiest day of the year that is why the kitchen was backed up but she assured us that she put the burrata in as the first thing to be delivered. Another 20 min. passed by with no word or update from our waitress regarding our food. We started to notice that EVERY table around us, that was sat after us, and had the same waitress had received their food, to include 2 tables that ordered the Dutch Baby pancake that takes 45 min. to prepare! My children and I decided that we had enough! My daughter chased after the waitress to cancel our food order. Miraculously, our burrata arrived to the table at that time...go figure! Despite the manager, Marco, trying to rectify the situation we were so disappointed we did not want to eat ANYTHING. I NEVER use the race card but clearly @The Bindery, people of color are treated less than those that are not! Your signage posted outside the restaurant is clearly only directed to people of a certain race. I was born in Las Vegas where I currently reside and have NEVER experienced such disrespect as my family and I did on Mother's Day at the Bindery! Your, hostess, bus girl, waitress and management should be...