Review: The Corner Office

Both of my readers have commented about my lack of new posts, so I have been sufficiently inspired to write again. And I even have something to report:

Last weekend I had the pleasure of meeting friends! downtown! for drinks AND dinner! Friends from college made a surprise last-minute trip from Dallas and I was able to secure a babysitter and it was awesome. The gin was flowing, the conversation was grand. And the locale for our happy reunion? Not bad at all. I wanted to take them someplace hip and urban. Hip, like our friends, and urban because we wanted it to be close to their hotel, the Grand Hyatt. I chose The Corner Office, the martini bar at the Curtis Hotel in Denver's Theater District. My husband had been there twice and thought highly of it.

The decor was awesome; definitely my favorite part of the restaurant. As you can see from the pic, it is very cool and contemporary. The food was pretty good, too. To be honest, I wasn't totally hungry from that order of BK onion rings I had while the girls ate their chicken nugget fast-food dinners before we left. But everything we had was great. To start we ordered hummus and pita bread; both were exceptional. The bread especially, which was piping hot and buttery. My Tanquerey and tonic was perfectly made. My sup was the highly recommended lobster mac n' cheese, which delivered on all its promises. It was creamy, cheesy and chock-full o' tasty lobster--just what I wanted. My husband enjoyed the grilled cheese sandwich/tomato soup entree. Sure, we eat mac n' cheese and grilled cheese at least once a week with the kids at home, so I can't really explain why we would both choose something so ordinary on a rare evening out together. But somehow they took these American standards and turned them into something spectacular.

I do have a criticism, however. It may not seem like much, but since we were entertaining out-of-state guests I was offended more than I would normally be. The hostesses and wait staff were shabbily dressed. By this I mean it looked like they came to work wearing the same clothes they cleaned the bathroom and/or garage in earlier that day. I know it sounds petty, but I like to present Denver in the most positive light whenever I can. To be greeted by a couple of girls wearing such faded, worn-out jeans was embarrassing. I was going for hip and urban and what I got was scrappy and lazy. So...yeah, it's not really that big of deal, but there it is anyways.