A little over 12 months ago Adega was the hottest restaurant in Denver and chef Bryan Moscatello was the city's culinary star. Troy Guard was earning praise for his Asian-Latino fusion fare at Zengo and Ian Kleinman was working magic at Indigo.

Just 52 weeks later, Adega is closed and Moscatello has moved on to New York. Chef Guard is freshly successful at Nine75 and looking to open two more upscale comfort

fare emporia. He has been joined by Kleinman after Indigo and its successor, Go Fish Grille, failed to catch on.

     Welcome to the mercurial world of Denver dining, which we chronicle today in our first State of the Plate, an annual look back and ahead at dining out.

     As 2005 turns into 2006, Rioja is the restaurant celebrating a banner year, with sheaves of national press attention for Jennifer Jasinski's super-flavorful fare

and a pack of hot new restaurants capturing foodies' attention.

    From all appearances, dining out in Denver has never been better. The numbers bear out a cautiously optimistic impression, said Pete Meersman, president of the Colorado Restaurant Association.

    "Colorado restaurants are just getting back to pre-recession and pre-9/11 levels.

Flip to PlATE on 7D

We've seen a lot of growth since the beginning of summer and it's definitely better than it was a year ago," he said.

Meersman also said the caliber of eateries in the state has undergone a major upgrade in recent years.

"The restaurants are on par now with anywhere in the country, but we don't get the press like New York does. I won't tell you that Colorado dining always deserved that praise, but it does now. People are bringing in chefs from around the country to cook here," he said, pointing to Lachlan McKinnon-Patterson at Boulder's Frasca and Rolland Wesen at the Broadmoor's eagerly anticipated Summit.

The best new chef-driven eateries, including Rioja and Duo Restaurant (where chef John Broening plies his trade now), and last year's stars, such as Elway's, Table 6, Café Star and The Kitchen in Boulder, have raised the local bar of excellence.

One sign of a rebounding dining economy is the sight of formerly gun-shy restaurateurs investing, borrowing and boldly expanding their empires.

• Frank Bonnano of Mizuna and Luca d'Italia fame, opened Milagro Taco Bar and, shortly thereafter, Harry's Chop House.

• Kevin Taylor replaced his Jou Jou at the Hotel Teatro with Prima, and then launched Kevin Taylor at the Opera House in the sparkling new Ellie Caulkins facility.

• Other locals opening new outlets ranged from Lucile's Creole Café and Bara Sushi and Grill, to such Denver-based quick casual chains as Brothers BBQ and the Spicy Pickle.

     The growth in Denver's dining scene has not been limited to LoDo and Cherry Creek North. The Lower Highlands area, on the West side of I-25 across from LoDo, has seen the

opening of Duo and the Gallop Café. In the new year, LoLa, Dave Query's busy coastal Mexican eatery, will move from the South Pearl Street district to a location near Duo. (Black Pearl recently took up residence on South Pearl Street.)

Just a few blocks from the Lower Highlands, the Upper 15th Street area is moving upscale with the highly touted Sushi Sasa, plus the relatively new Mona's, Jay's Patio Cafe, Forest Room 5 and Proto's Pizzeria.

In Lakewood, the acclaimed Belmar development has evolved from a ghost town to a bustling retail and dining mecca, boasting Mark Tarbell's The Oven, chef Sean Yontz' Chama, and Emogene Cafe (from Jim Sullivan, owner of Mao and Nine75). Aurora continues to be a strip-mall incubator for ethnic cuisines and subcuisines such as Southern Indian vegetarian and Ethiopian.

One sure sign that the industry is robust, said Denver restaurant consultant John Imbergamo, is that closed restaurant spaces are almost immediately filled by new eateries. Brasserie Rouge turned into Via, Josephina's became Corridor 44 and the Tom Tom Club evolved into Bara Sushi and Grill.

The owners of Venice Restaurant and Chianti in south Denver grabbed the vacant Adega space to open a second Venice. Charlie Master and his partners were so successful with their Cherry Creek anti-bistro Brix, that they expanded into the Nectar space downstairs from Brix and will be opening a second outlet soon in LoDo. The proprietors of the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse launched Aji, a large Latin-American eatery, just east of the Downtown Mall.

"The national perception of Denver restaurants has been

enhanced in the past year," Imbergamo said, pointing to repeated mentions of Denver area restaurants and chefs in national publications.

"The Denver scene is only a couple of years away from being a major dining city. The amount of

growth in restaurants has been amazing," said Guard.

           February's inaugural Denver Dining Week - a multicourse meal for $52.80 per couple at 83 participating restaurants - achieved a different but equally important goal, Imbergamo said.

"It helped to convince Denverites that the caliber of dining in the city is at a very high level and that there are great chef-driven restaurants here."

One such local diner is Kim Long, who predicts business trends through his Denver-based American Forecaster.

"I've seen great improvement in the quality of dining here. It's much less cow town and more chow town. It's true in the bistros as well as the regular restaurants," he said.

For Denver restaurateurs, the newly raised bar and the accompanying higher expectations are a huge challenge in the coming year.

"When Adega closed I talked to my staff at our pre-dinner meeting," said Nine75's Guard.

"I said: 'Look! Even the best restaurants in town can close. We have to work hard every day and stick to what we're good at.' "

Rocky Mountain News

State of the Plate

John Lehndorff

December 2005