This is the high-end Italian steak house in the new Halcyon Hotel in North Cherry Creek. The décor is eclectic and a little hard to describe, mostly browns with gold touches and a mix of quirky contemporary design elements (framed pictures, except the backs of the canvases are shown) with some Victorian-like touches. There is a large bar area with a beautiful display of bottles lit from below. The typical garage doors facing the street can be opened on nice days.
Service was very odd. We attended the second day of lunch service, but the restaurant has been open for dinner for a month, so the staff should have settled in by now. Perhaps the lunch group was new. We were the first table to be seated. I had made a reservation, but the hostess didn't ask about it or give me a chance to mention it, so we had an awkward interaction at the table until I was able to clarify that my guest had apparently already given her my name.
We were greeted promptly by Tiffany, our server, who was very friendly and helpful, but we soon ran into a problem with bread service. The server has to specifically order bread for each table which is then brought out by a runner. We were starving, but no bread arrived. Meanwhile four other tables had been seated and received their bread promptly (our loaf had been brought to the wrong table). The runners were oblivious to this problem and, also, entirely oblivious to our presence. My friend and I repeatedly tried to attract their attention, but they were so focused on bringing out their items that they paid no attention to us whatsoever.
The bread finally appeared after Tiffany's second try. The bread service consists of a small, round crock with a mini round loaf divided into four rolls and a serving spoon. The loaf was very hot. Trying to use the spoon to cut out a fourth of the loaf and serve it was very difficult with the hot bread. The runner put out a single, tiny dish for the table into which he poured olive oil. This was totally inadequate. I asked that he leave the olive oil bottle, but was refused. He did bring a second dish, but after I went through that, no one offered to provide more oil. A restaurant trying to do this kind of fussy service needs to be far more efficient at it. The little rolls and olive oil were very good, though.
I have to emphasize again the bizarre nature of the service here. A number of runners buzzed in and out of the kitchen and around the dining room, but it was absolutely impossible to attract their attention. I started to feel like we were in a science fiction novel and being served by robots. Robots would probably have been more attentive. We simply could not attract the attention of any of the runners, including several who came up to our table and did not respond when we spoke to them. I've never had an experience like this.
I had the paccheri amatriciana. Paccheri is a hollow pasta like rigatoni except much broader and flatter. The Amatriciana sauce was delicious and made from scratch with authentic ingredients (cured pork jowl). The portion was generous and I was very pleased with the dish. There is an elaborate salad program which offers a choice of four different selections of greens and accompaniments. You can get a basic salad or select one of several proteins to be added. My friend chose the Tuscan salad with the pepper-seared filet. The steak was perfectly medium-rare as ordered and was very tender and delicious. It was not mixed with the salad, but served sliced, in a separate dish. This was a nice touch. Unfortunately between the marinated artichokes and the vinaigrette, he found the salad much too vinegary for his taste.
A runner finally interacted with us when it came time to clear the plates and my friend mentioned his problem with the salad. The runner was very nice about it and soon both the manager and the server paid us visits to see if they could do something. My friend did not want another salad at this point, but the waitress suggested a complimentary dessert and he agreed. I thought this was very responsive to the complaint. The lemon tart with mango sorbet and ricotta cream was beautiful and pretty tasty, except for an overcooked crust.
However, in the midst of this we experienced more service problems. I'm a slow eater and was experiencing allergy issues, so I was eating very slowly. My friend finished way before I did. One of the runners quickly cleared his plate which was totally inappropriate. Tiffany then came by and cleared the bread service even though I was still in the middle of my lunch. Fortunately I was able to stop her. This kind of thing is really awkward and uncomfortable and totally wrong with fancy service like this. Nothing should be cleared until everyone at the table has finished their course. I do want to try this for dinner. Hopefully the service will be more polished. read more