All's in good taste - except French food
By Lori Midson, Special to the Rocky
Published November 30, 2007 at 12:05 a.m.
Open just three months, Cherry Creek's French 250 shows signs of early success: a sexy bar with moneyed sophisticates swirling $16 glasses of pinot noir and a dazzling dining room embellished with butter-hued walls, regal chairs and noir leather booths and banquettes adorned with dainty fresh flowers.
Crystal chandeliers shimmer from the ornate tinned ceilings, casting a soothing glow on the social stage that resides below. This is where you can swagger in an Armani suit and flash your multicarat diamond ring. It's a restaurant that radiates confidence and status, a fancy French- food temple with fairy-tale flair that should be on everyone's list of romantic places. The moodily lighted bar even has stooled love seats.
The restaurant's complimentary limousine, a slate-gray antiquated Cadillac, will pick you up at your home and deliver you at the doorstep - or at least close to it, since the space is below street level. You can imbibe from among the extensive wines and bubblies and not worry about driving home, because the chauffeur will kindly drop you there after dinner.
On looks and luxurious touches, French 250 is the height of good taste, the apex of extravagant validation.
The chef, Jeremy Thomas, has cooked in kitchens throughout Colorado, including the Tivoli Deer, Vail Cascade & Resort and most recently the Ship Tavern, in the Brown Palace. His laborious menu, printed in wispy cursive on expensive paper, reads like delicious excess.
And yet, nearly every meal I've had here leaves me wanting more of the ooh-la-la factor. The food should be as sure-footed as the space, but instead, it's woefully unpolished. It's possible to happen across a triumphant dish, but it's rare that Thomas' food rises above pleasant, and far too often, it flat out fails.
The fruits de mer ($19), for example, is a carelessly assembled colony of rubbery shrimp and lobster, shriveled mussels and halved scallops that taste as if they've been sitting out far longer than they should. The oysters are slightly less offending, but they, too, are a disappointment.
A goat cheese souffle ($14) is gorgeous to look at, and watching your server dramatically encircle the puffed cloud with a sauce of goat cheese and milk builds excitement. But then you taste it and wonder, why all the fuss? The French onion soup ($9) begs for salt, but there's none on the table, and where, may I ask, are the onions?
But the frogs' legs ($12), meaty and plump and accompanied by a buttery beurre blanc, red pepper coulis and parsley verde, are very good, and the foie gras ($21), pan-seared, mounted on butter- soaked brioche and glistened with a syrup of apples and sweet onions, does a waltz in the mouth. The rabbit consomme ($9) would have been perfect had the single floating ravioli not been marred by freezer- burned edges.
Main courses sound sublime, and the grilled beef tenderloin ($26, 6 ounces; $38, 9 ounces), with its charred crust and velvet interior, is exemplary, but the au poivre sauce that accompanies it is sadistically salty.
The roasted quail ($16 for two, $31 for four) are anemic birds inexplicably devoid of their inherent gaminess, and the bouillabaisse ($33), a kitchen sink of seafood, goes way overboard with the Pernod. The lamb shank ($29) required far more than a flick of the fork to remove the meat, and the bison tournedos ($18 for two, $34 for four), while exposing rosy red flesh, don't pair well with the mushroom bordelaise, which is watery and insipid.
In keeping with its grandiose ambitions, French 250 offers a smashing selection of world-spanning cheeses ($4 per ounce), simply displayed on a white plate. You couldn't ask for a better roster.
You could, however, demand better service. Seamless and smooth on some occasions, mostly thanks to a brilliant, young sommelier who wears many hats, it was clueless and absent-minded on others. We had to line our empty champagne flutes along the table's edge before they were finally removed, and half-eaten plates languished on the tabl e. The cheeses were cut with a fork because our server never brought knives.
French 250 has all the allure of Paris. I can't think of a lovelier dining room to gaze at, or a better date destination in which to spend an evening. Fine-tune the food and the wait staff, and Francophiles would have a magnificent coup.
French 250
* Grade: B-
* Address: 250 Steele St.
* Hours: lunch 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday; dinner 4:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, 4:30 to 8 p.m. Sunday; Sunday brunch 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
* Food: French
* How much: $12-$21 starters, $8-$11 soups and salads, $21-$35 entrees, $14-$38 sauce-pairing menu, $5-$7 sides, $4-an-ounce cheeses
* Reservations: highly recommended
* Noise: a symphony of music and vocal buzz from patrons
* Information: french250.com
* Parking: complimentary valet and lot parking behind restaurant
French benefits
The French 250 crew isn't content simply to serve dinner six nights a week. Lunch is also served Tuesday through Friday, and Sunday brunch (try the excellent croque-madame, but skip the French dip, unless you like your beef seriously well done) stretches well into the afternoon with bottomless mimosas.
If you take advantage of the bubbly-and-orange- juice special, do as the French do and slumber for a few hours before gearing up for the Sunday-night family-style dinners, a weekly changing prix fixe menu trumpeting three or four courses, including both a fish and a meat dish.
Prices range from $25 to $35 per person, with the option of wine pairings for an extra charge. The restaurant also features wine tastings from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and occasional cheese-tasting seminars and winemaker dinners.
While you're partaking of all the gluttony, you can also pamper your pooch - as common as humans in Cherry Creek. French 250 offers dog-walking services courtesy of Poocharella, and the fees are fairly reasonable: $25 for the first hour and $5 for each additional 15 minutes. Treats du jour are included. Call the restaurant for reservations.
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November 30, 2007
5:43 p.m.
Suggest removal
dano writes:
The kitchen is too small to do what they want to do! 6 entrees only! Cut back the crap! Fruits der Mer is not allowed to be served in Denver! You won't get this, this bad, anywhere. They need to do a few more things right and then stop. Look in the kitchen, it's smaller than most of your home's.
December 1, 2007
2:28 p.m.
Suggest removal
pfdenver writes:
I love French 250 and the frequently full dining room seems to confirm my opinion. I have tried many items on the menu and while I wouldn't order some of them again (they just didn't meet my personal preferences) overall the restaurant and personnel are terrific, my absolute favorite neighborhood spot.
December 2, 2007
1:40 p.m.
Suggest removal
somhowell writes:
Thank you for your comments regarding the restaurant. As a matter of fact, we are currently taking measures to revamp our kitchen in order to better handle the size of the menu and the volume of business. We have purchased an additional 4 burners to bring the total to 10, and we have purchased an additional oven to bring the total to 3. As far as the size of the actual kitchen goes, unfortunately most space in a restaurant is given to the dining room for guests. That's just the way it goes. What should be important is the ability of the staff in the kitchen, not the size of their work space.