Z Cuisine: Amour at first and last bite

John Lehndorff, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 27, 2006 at midnight

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Here are the ingredients a restaurant must possess to earn the rare "A" rating from your faithful critic.

First, the food must make me sigh. That's not just one dish, but every starter through dessert for two meals. The cooking must ooze integrity and the ingredients down to the garnishes must be thoughtfully sourced with no corners cut. I can't have any doubt that the owners love feeding people.

Second, the service has to be genuinely good provided by people who like people. They make no unforgivable miscues, know the menu because they've tasted everything, are available when needed and don't upsell. They also don't rush you out the door even when people are waiting to fill your table.

Thirdly, I must be thoroughly charmed. The overall experience, including the physical environment and the beverages, must be so lovely that whatever a meal costs I think it's a bargain. I have to feel lucky to eat there.

That's why I fell for Z Cuisine, recently opened on a side street in the East Highlands neighborhood. I'm not alone. This tiny eatery is already profoundly busy, a condition this review will only worsen. C'est la vie; it's my job.

French-born chef Patrick DuPays owns Z with his wife, Lynnde, and they have created a whimsical space crowded with a handful of antique, authentically distressed wooden tables. A bar near the elevated kitchen offers single diners a cozy nook.

I first visited Z when it was also dishing breakfast and lunch, but those meals were put aside by the demand for dinner. Each day's menu fits on a green board written in English and French. As items run out, they are chalked out, drawing gasps from those waiting who had been licking their chops over grilled wild shrimp ($17.50) on rosemary skewers.

I'm willing to name Z's assiette campagnarde ($16) as appetizer of this young year. A horizontal platter hosts an array of exquisite charcuterie components that change with the day. During our two visits, it included housemade duck pâté and duck rillettes cooked in its own fabulous, bud-coating fat. You find slices of a fine, chewy salami-like sausage and at least three different creamy Colorado and French cheeses.

The supporting cast can encompass caramelized shallots, pomegranate seeds, piñon nuts, poached fig, roasted grapes and itty-bitty olives slicked with vinaigrette.

Add paper-bagged sliced baguette, some good company and a glass or two of fairly priced French red wine from Z's bright list and it could be a meal. However, stunning starters are always beckoning.

DuPays is a soup savant. We were stirred by his leek and carrot soup ($3.50 cup; $6 bowl), a smooth puree with a white pepper edge that balanced carrot sweet with onion-y savor. It's a dish that reveals itself in stages as it cools. We were impressed by just how much complexity can be engineered into a soup.

Equally pleasing was a salade de chèvre chaud ($12.50), which presented warm goat cheese melted over tall, toasted baguette slices with greens and pale frisee painted with a coarse-grain mustard vinaigrette.

The entrees include nothing remotely trendy, just a revolving roster of seasonal favorites that can all be labeled "traditional." One evening we were impressed by a Long's Farm-raised pork loin chop ($18.50) edged with piny fresh rosemary. It got juicier as I ate toward the bone. Crème fraîche and pesto mingled with pan juices to form a light sauce.

DuPay's cassoulet maison ($17) is the epitome of winter comfort. A bubbling hot casserole of herbed, white bean ragout laced with bacon cubes nestled a mild bratwurst. Rising from it, as a monument to French culinary craft, was a roasted duck leg confit wrapped in buttery skin. The artist's details included a contrasting spoonful of soft greens and a smattering of pomegranate seeds with field greens on the side. It is as good a cassoulet as I've tasted.

The same skillful layering of flavors imbued the pasta with mushroom ragout ($14.50), a tangle of wide, house-made ribbons blessed with a melange of three or four meaty fungi varieties. Each mushroom lent its texture, aroma and taste to the whole project. On another night it was the halibut papillote ($17.50), a pristine filet laid over sauteed carrots and leeks that steamed the fish inside a paper shell.

Z also bills itself as a creperie. The savory side was represented by such simple pleasures as the Normande galette ($12.50), a buckwheat wrap around crème fraîche with soft peppery veal sausage, creamy boiled potatoes and roasted apples.

For those seeking a light meal-ender, the sweet crepes ($7) are layered with almond butter and chocolate, or dark chocolate and caramelized bananas or the simplest revelation: au citron, or honey and lemon juice.

Z's handful of textbook desserts include a truly stellar crème brûlée ($6) and petite tartin ($7) crowned with a caramelized apple half that rang my apple pie chimes.

Then there was a perfectly poached pear ($7.50) that sliced like butter, set in a shallow bowl. It was splashed with good rosé wine and dripped with deep, dark chocolate sauce with chocolate ice cream to one side. We enjoyed the French-press coffee ($5) and wished we had time to sniff a Cognac.

For me, Z's a déjà vu experience, a charming facsimile of the Paris bistros I visited, minus smoke and dogs. This eatery won't appeal to diners who are claustrophobic, who can't stand vibrant dining chatter, who need guaranteed menu items and reservations.

To chef DuPays I say "Bravo!" Don't change a thing, but you might want to add another table or two and serve an extra day. You'll be busy.

Z Cuisine

• Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday- Saturday

• How much: $6 to $16 starters; $12.50 to $18.50 entrees; $6 desserts

• How loud: Moderate to loud

• Reservations: For five or more only

• Information: 303-477-1111; www.zcuisineonline.com

John Lehndorff is the dining critic; lehndorffj@RockyMountainNews.com.

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