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reviewed on: October 2, 2009
Head out for Chinese food tonight, and you pretty much know what’s in store for you. The same with German, Mexican, Indian, and most other ethnic foods. But opt for Italian and, depending on where you end up, you could be dining on straightforward pasta with tomato sauce, or highly creative dishes of veal or seafood. This week, at Il Posto on East 17th Avenue, we discovered that, even if you know where you’re going, and have a good idea of what lies ahead, you can still end up surprised by where the evening takes you.
Il Posto is a simple restaurant that might have been lifted right off the streets of Rome and transported to Denver. There are no checkered tablecloths, no candles in wine bottles. In fact, but for the name, you might not even guess that it’s Italian. Most of the front of the restaurant rolls up on warm nights, allowing the restaurant to spill over onto the sidewalk patio outside. It’s small with a fair chunk of the floor space consumed by an open kitchen, and it’s here that Chef Andrea Frizzi performs his magic.
And magic is the only word to describe what goes on at Il Posto where ingredients rarely seen at other restaurants are artfully combined to come up with some of the most incredible Italian food imaginable. This is a menu that continually morphs depending on what’s available that day, and when the supply runs out, another dish is created to take its place. All of which makes Il Posto an ever-changing canvas for some truly wonderful food.
It also makes it very difficult to select what to eat, because there’s no coming back tomorrow to try what you didn’t get to today. We started things off with an appetizer of sautéed razor clams, one of those items I don’t think I’ve ever seen on a menu in Denver. The somewhat chewy, sweet clams were prepared with a charred tomato sauce and served with frisee. Good as they were, they were eclipsed by the burrata, another item never seen in Denver, and rarely seen elsewhere. In fact, I’m not even sure it’s produced in this country. Burrata is a ball of mozzarella filled with cream, and it has the consistency of pudding with a slight sweetness. At Il Posto it was served simply with sliced ripe tomatoes, and was pure ecstasy.
Tempted though we were, we passed on the pasta dishes and the risotto, and moved on to the entrees, priced across the low twenties. Though there were only six choices, settling on one was still not easy. The basic ingredients were simple—scallops, fluke, tuna, buffalo, chicken and pork—but then the Il Posto magic took over. So, the seared scallops were served with strawberries infused with cucumber water and rosewater. The grilled buffalo flank steak was served with a caramel jus, spinach, and shaved fontina cheese. The chicken was stuffed with the same burrata we’d enjoyed as an appetizer, and roasted with oyster mushrooms and house-cured pancetta. And the pork loin, which was done to a perfect medium, came with a tomato-fennel relish and sunflower sprouts.
If you’re not into decision making, Il Posto also offers a three-course tasting menu with or without accompanying wines. Parking is on the surrounding streets, and is usually plentiful if you arrive early.
Il Posto
2011 E. 17th Ave. (E. 17th at Race)
303-394-0100
http://www.ilpostodenver.com
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