Now, visiting my local butcher (Wally’s Quality Meats on Sheridan near 112th) is part of my routine, if not weekly, at least monthly.

It’s a nice metaphor for my evolution as a foodie, but more than that, it says something about the current food movement in general that I have a local butcher to visit in this suburban jungle—not to mention Herb’s Meats in Broomfield or the aptly named Your Butcher Frank in Longmont. That shops like this can not only exist, but thrive, speaks to the desire consumers have to get back to their culinary roots.

And it isn’t just butchers making a comeback. Specialty shops are popping up here and there, filling the little niches and needs we didn’t know we were lacking. Cured in Boulder is a little foodie paradise with a case full of cheeses and cured meats and a well-curated wine room in the back. Or, you can visit Cheese Importers in Longmont and tour its incredible, warehouse-sized walk-in refrigerator case for a crash course in cheese appreciation.

I recently had the pleasure of touring Ritual Chocolate, a startup chocolate maker based in Denver. They do one thing: very dark, very beautiful chocolate. And they do it extraordinarily well. They fly to Costa Rica to buy their own beans, grind them in an antique mill that once belonged to Scharffenberger, then mix, temper and mold their chocolate all by hand. They have no interest in introducing other flavors, in truffles, in additional products. They are happy to stay focused on producing the most superb product possible.

Conscious Coffee, another local company, was recently named coffee roaster of the year for its exquisite beans. Visit The Cup on Pearl Street at 9 am on the last Saturday of the month (beginning again in January when their roaster returns from Australia), and the owners, who are about as passionate about good coffee as it is possible to be, will give you a free lesson in tasting, in origin and farming techniques, in grinding and temperature.

These companies harken back to a different era, a Continental aesthetic, in which artisans spent their lives perfecting a single trade, be it slicing the perfect steak, baking the perfect baguette or brewing the perfect cup of coffee. But they aren’t just for the elite. On a tight budget this month? Your local butcher can help with that, suggesting economical cuts. Your cheesemonger can sell you just the amount you need. That way, you’re supporting the most local economy of all: yours.

In fact, specialty shops are a rallying cry against big box homogenization and corporate hegemony, and they are a stepping stone to local foodsheds, stronger community and, frankly, better food.

1. Wally’s Quality Meats: 1187 Sheridan Blvd., Unit 8, Westminster, 303.439.8024

2. Cured: 1825 Pearl St., Boulder, 720.389.8096

3. Cheese Importers: 33 S. Pratt Pkwy., #3, Longmont, 303.774.7626

4. Kim & Jake’s Cakes: 641 S. Broadway, Boulder, 303.499.9126

5. Robin Chocolates (see above): 602 S. Airport Rd., Longmont, 720.204.8003

Eager to dig in, we started with the chicken satay and the honey roast pear. The satay appeared with two skewers of chicken served over a bed of chilled soba noodles in a peanut sauce with a cucumber and mint relish. While the menu describes the peanut sauce as spicy, we didn’t discern much heat; but the cucumbers added a lovely hit of freshness. The honey roast pear was my favorite dish of the evening, served with a bed of spinach, crumbled chevre and artful folds of prosciutto, all dressed in a cider reduction. It was an excellent interpretation of a more common spinach and pear salad and I gobbled it down with enthusiasm.

For seconds, my husband ordered the mussel “chowder” (quotes theirs), consisting of steamed mussels, potatoes and leeks in a thyme-scented cream broth. To me, it felt strangely deconstructed. The chowder and the mussels seemed almost like two separate entities, merely plated together. But maybe I was missing the point? My husband said he enjoyed it thoroughly. My crab and piquillo chile fritters, served with saffron aioli and burnt lemon, were a pleasant twist on standard crab cakes: crispy, light and flavorful, though I wished there were more chile flavor.

The short rib ravioli was the other standout of the evening—less for any revelations in the pasta itself but for the brilliant pairing of them with the seared organic greens. The greens provided a sharp, tangy contrast to the heavier meat and pasta and made for a unique and delightfully unexpected dish. The salty, fatty duck confit, served with chunks of roasted sweet potatoes and apples, a bit euphemistically described as hash, played nicely off the good maple syrup with which they were plated.

Finally, we shared the carrot cake and frozen Noosa yogurt with honey for dessert. I appreciated that the cake was a bit closer to a quick bread than a heavy cake, and that the yogurt, in place of a more traditional cream cheese frosting, was not overly sweet. After an indulgent meal of many samplings, it was an excellent way to end on a sweet note without being too heavy, complicated or overpowering.

The service was attentive and thoughtful, and the overall experience at Riffs was genuinely likeable. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that the kitchen is being perhaps too cautious. The menu reads like a thrilling culinary adventure, yet the execution is much safer, much tamer than expected. And while I enjoyed the meal and would recommend it, I do harbor a wistful notion that these good things might have been great.

While Challenging Elements is usually all about food, we opted for a cocktail challenge in celebration of the fast-impending New Year and its bubbles and brouhaha. Offering Champagne to any bartender or mixologist would be like giving salt to a chef. So, we went for the next best thing: grapes.

Christian Renault, “The Frenchman,” grew up working the bar in his family’s French restaurant back east, leaving at 16 to tour with the Grateful Dead. These days he tends bar in Arugula and Amaro. I ask him if he prefers the term “mixologist.”

“Well, let’s just say I don’t subscribe to titles,” he says.

Which, at first, made me a little nervous. If one thing can be said for the recent artisan cocktail movement it’s that drinkers benefit from the re-popularization of carefully crafted concoctions. Amaro’s specialty drink list includes Negroni, Amaretto sour, lots of local brands, house-made sour and the Tipsy Garden, including sauvignon blanc, Belvedere pink grapefruit vodka, fresh muddled arugula, lemon and soda. All of which are positive indications of Amaro’s aptitude.

Then Renault brought out what he calls The Grape Escape, a name I instantly loved due to its puniness. Renault muddles Leopold’s gin (a local) and shavings of ginger with white grape juice and a handful of white grapes and ice. He shakes and pours, making the martini glass glow with a light, opaque green. The Grape Escape is a lovely little drink: crisp and cool and not at all a drink you’d associate with the holidays. But it does remind me of winter and it goes down smooth, so I don’t mind. There is balance and depth. While gin is not my booze of choice, Renault ensures the sweetness of the grapes and spice of the ginger mellow out the juniper in the gin.

“The grape has pretty easy, simple flavors. Vodka would have been too plain, and you probably wouldn’t even be able to taste it. The gin brings something to it,” he said. “It’s very easy to drink, and it appeals to both men and women.”

It all makes me begin to think, who needs bubbles?

You can try out The Grape Escape at Amaro Drinkery Italia through January. Amaro is located at the northwest corner of 28th and Iris at 2785 Iris Ave. in Boulder. Find details at arugularistorante.com/amaro

I’d been waiting for that very moment since before she was born. It’s something of an occupational hazard that I spend more than my fair share of time thinking about food. When I was pregnant and trying to eat healthfully despite intense, continuous cravings for nachos piled high with guacamole, I habitually asked myself, “Would I feed this to my child?” because I was—at least by proxy. (Apparently, I was willing to feed my child nachos a lot more frequently than I would have expected.)

I spent the first summer of her life chopping, steaming and pureeing, even though she was months away from her first taste of solid foods. We subscribed to a CSA this summer and when I was having trouble keeping up with the bushels of produce coming through my kitchen every week, I started tossing it into the food processor and then into ice cube trays, churning out gem-toned building blocks of nutrition in every color of the rainbow: red and golden beets, pale creamy turnips, bright green zucchini and yellow summer squash, orange and purple carrots and deep scarlet plums. And it turns out, having a baby in the spring is perfect when it comes to introducing solid foods; apples, pears, sweet potatoes, carrots and squash are all perfect for a tiny baby’s developing tummy and palate.

Of course, her very first food was (organic, non-GMO) rice cereal. From the store. But since then she’s embraced homemade apple and pear sauce, mashed avocados and creamy baked sweet potatoes. Each time I offer the very first spoonful of a new food, I get a little thrill. My tiny little foodie is getting to experience the very best I can offer her. A new friend, who met me right after my daughter was born this spring, assumed my column and blog name—Formation of a Foodie—were in reference to my little girl, that I was writing about turning her into a foodie.

The column came long before the baby did, but my own focus as a foodie has definitely widened to include this tiny person I’m suddenly responsible for raising. My opinions about the state of our food system, my predilection for local and organic foods, my conviction to vote with my dollars and my fork have all bled into the way I’m feeding my child.

But let’s be honest. We both know the most ridiculous thing a parent can do is set hopes too high her child will be one thing or another. My goal is not to clone myself, nor to raise a toddler who will only eat truffles and caviar. All I want is what every parent wants: to give my little bundle of hopes and dreams the very best start I possibly can.

Right now, I’m savoring the fact that, at the moment at least, giving her a good start on a healthy life is as easy as the next spoonful of local, organic pureed carrots.

Tips from WholesomeBabyFood.com

1. Always consult your pediatrician prior to beginning any new food for your infant.

2. Consult a solid food chart for information regarding what foods to introduce to baby and when.

3. Follow the four-day wait rule when introducing a new food to baby—offer your baby the same new food for four days to test for allergies to that food. Introduce only one food at a time to watch for reactions and determine if baby likes it.

4. Use very clean hands, clean cooking utensils, preparation surfaces, pots/pans etc. when making and preparing homemade baby food.

5. Keep trying! All babies have different taste and texture preferences. If your baby doesn’t like a food, try again in a few weeks with a different preparation of that food.

Happy closed its doors and reopened as simply The Bitter Bar. According to a release, the bar will serve the same cocktails by the same mixologists, with the addition of “delicious, straight forward, American bar food and decadent, intelligent, well-made desserts.” /Azitra, an Indian restaurant, opened at FlatIron Crossing in Broomfield. /Your Place or Vine, a wine bar offering wines by the glass, craft beers and Mediterranean-inspired small plates opened in Prospect, Longmont. /Another small plates restaurant, Riffs Urban Fare, opened in Boulder in the former Book End Café space on the Pearl Street Mall. /Minglewood opened in east Boulder. The owners describe it as high-end deli during the day and a bar at night.

News

Colorado brewers made a great showing at the Great American Beer Festival, including a win for Upslope Pumpkin Ale, by Upslope Brewing of Boulder. /Café Aion was included in Esquire’s “Where to Eat in Colorado Right Now,” list. /Owners of The Kitchen were lauded by Entrepreneur magazine for their leadership in the farm-to-table movement. /Visit Denver announced that Denver Restaurant Week will remain two weeks long, with the 2012 dates of Feb. 25–March 9.

Best of the Month

Not so much eats as drinks—the Fire in the Sky and Seedy Southpaw cocktails at Amaro in Boulder impressed. Order alongside an excellent cheese or salumi platter, or order up some braised Long Farm pork shoulder with polenta. /Killer crispy tacos at Agave in Boulder. Really, anything with their tortillas is good. /Mouthwatering lamb sag and vegetable biryani at Flavor of India in Longmont. Super-juicy turkey burger at Larkburger in Arvada. /Caramel custard frozen yogurt with a fresh grind of sea salt at Smart Cow in Arvada. /And choco-bliss with a cup of drinking chocolate at Piece, Love and Chocolate in Boulder.

Events

Restaurants are accepting reservations for First Bite Boulder, Nov. 11–19. /Café Aion is offering two more Sunday night wine dinners Nov. 13 and Dec. 18 featuring five courses of tapas paired with wines from Spain, Morocco and the Mediterranean. /Zoe Ma Ma in Boulder will offer the Lucky 8 Dinner, a special eight-course meal limited to eight guests on a monthly basis. The next dinner is November 12.

Have food news? Have a dish pick? Email editorial@yellowscene.com.

This is what one of Mile High Swappers (milehighswappers.com ) food swap events looks like. Anyone can sign up for a spot at the event (limited, for now, to about 30 swappers per event) and bring food products that they’ve made or grown to swap with others. No money allowed.

Eve Orenstein, the founder and organizer of the swaps, got the idea when she saw a news piece about similar events taking place in big cities such as New York and San Francisco. But when she went looking for swaps in our area, she found out there weren’t any. Luckily, Orenstein is a foodie by hobby, but an event planner by trade, and she had the skills and the chutzpah to put together the kind of event she wanted to attend.

Word started to spread, and the swaps have multiplied. From the original event, a Northern Colorado branch (encompassing Fort Collins) and a Denver branch have been spawned.

I’ve participated in several swaps now and discovered that the thrill is in the chase. Bartering is a lost art, I feel, one our grandparents and great-grandparents would probably have been as intimately acquainted with as they were canning and preserving. And much the way those older culinary arts have found a renaissance, so too is the art of swapping and sharing with a food community coming back in vogue. It’s a fascinating exercise, asking yourself whether your homemade jam is worth a dozen fresh eggs, or a tomato still warm from the sun, or a pint of limoncello. Luckily, nearly everyone who arrives at these events is in the mood to share, willing to trade and eager to taste what you have to offer.

Maybe the best part of the bargain, however, is the bargaining. Unlike walking into your local Whole Foods to buy a jar of artisan jam, with bartering you are required to talk—more than just, “Did you find everything OK?” Chit chat is part of the process, during which you learn this jam was made from a grandmother’s recipe, those plums were foraged in someone’s local park, or the hens that laid your eggs are a feisty bunch of ladies. The transaction is even more intimate than chatting up your farmer at the Saturday market because you must ask and answer over and over again, do you want what I have to offer? May I have some of what you’ve brought? Will you trade with me? It’s humbling and empowering at the same time.

5 Tips for Successful Swapping

From Founder Eve Orenstein

1. Don’t go to extremes—items that are too weird or too normal tend to be less swappable.

2. Bring an appetite and a good attitude—people are generous with samples and we like to make new friends.

3. Be ready to part with your swap items. It’s OK to say no if you don’t want to trade something, but don’t expect trades to count equally in any real financial sense—love counts as an ingredient!

4. It’s totally cool to experiment on swappers. We’re adventurous and will try whatever you cook up.

5. Feel free to geek out in your explanations. Swappers are OK with discussing the finer points of shrub fermentation. We are foodies after all—you are among friends.

Georgia Boys’ BBQ is about as real as it gets. Located in a “shack” (really a small house converted into a kitchen) in the industrial area off 2nd Avenue and Collyer, you belly up to the counter to order your meal, and then carry out or sit out front at a picnic table or in a rocking chair on the porch. (Plans are in the works for a small indoor seating area by winter).

The menu changes daily based on what they’ve got: Standards include pulled pork, pulled chicken, and sliced and chopped brisket as well as whatever specials they might be cooking up, which have included St. Louis-style ribs, Brunswick stew, stuffed peppers, jumbalaya, smoked half-chickens, po’ boys and even cheese steaks. One caveat: When it’s gone, it’s gone, and they’ve been known to run out of things by lunchtime if it gets busy. Check the Georgia Boys’ Facebook page, which they update regularly, so you won’t be disappointed if your favorite isn’t available.

In two visits, we tried the pork, the brisket and the chicken as well as a bevy of sides. My friend with barbecue sauce in her blood was impressed with the brisket—“The only meat that counts,” she said—which was tender, smoky and moist. The pork was also tasty, but I really enjoyed the juicy and flavorful pulled chicken, especially served up as a sandwich on a buttery, crusty roll. High marks for all of the meats we tried. We loved the variety of sauces; especially the medium with its blend of sweet and spice and the mustard-based sauces.

But, to my mind, the real winners here were the sides. The green bean casserole was by far my favorite—with big chunks of mushrooms in the creamy sauce and homemade fried onions, topped with melted cheese; no condensed soup or canned crispies here. The barbecue beans were a surprising hit as well with three kinds of beans cooked in a slightly sweet sauce with bacon and peppers, making a sweet and savory combo that was hard to resist. The sweet potato casserole with its gooey, decadent praline topping was clearly a house favorite, but I would have made it a dessert. The tater salad was fine and fresh, but not particularly mind-blowing, and the mac and cheese, while tasty, was a little grainy.

If they add fried okra to the menu, we’ll be patrons for life.

Another nice point is that this shack is attempting to be zero-waste. Although everything is served in disposable cartons with plastic cutlery, it’s all compostable or recyclable. As we sat outside, practically licking our plates and enjoying the cool afternoon. A man pulled up in a slick, black Bentley and placed an order, proof positive the Georgia Boys may serve food from a shack, but the quality is fit for kings.

Pearl Street Steak Room opened early this month in a small space behind Tahona Tequila Bar. /Bombay Bistro owners opened a second restaurant in Vancouver, BC, and plan to rebrand Bombay Bistro to match the new restaurant’s lounge vibe. /The latest in the self-serve yogurt trend, Boom Yoghurt Bar opened at 3303 30th St. in Boulder, offering fresh and frozen yogurt as well as cottage cheese and many toppings. /The Butterball plant in Longmont will close by the end of the year. /Snooze opened its fifth Colorado restaurant on Pearl St. in late September.

News

Google acquired Zagat, causing some foodies to worry that the venerable restaurant ratings service will begin to look more like Yelp than Michelin. /Mike O’Shay’s Restaurant and Ale House in Longmont marks its 30th anniversary this month. /Culinary Connectors began offering walking dining tours of downtown Boulder. /Foodie Registry (foodieregistry.com), a wedding registry for restaurant gift certificates, launched in Denver. Boulder-based Conscious Coffee took the national Roaster of the Year award. /The Kitchen launched The Kitchen Community this month; each Monday, proceeds from kids meals sold at The Kitchen [Next Door] will be donated to school garden projects in the BVSD. /Bryan Dayton, owner of Oak at Fourteenth, took first place in the national GQ Bombay Sapphire cocktail competition and will be featured on the cover of GQ. /Denver ranked No. 13 on Travel + Leisure’s America’s Best Cities for Foodies list. /And The Sink was featured on the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” Colunching, a Paris-based startup, launched its food-based networking program in Boulder this month: colunching.com.

Best of the Month

Buffalo dumplings and a Kona coffee cocktail at Tastes on the Terrace at the Flagstaff House. /A fabulous duck taco with goat cheese and apple butter at Tahona in Boulder. /The raw wrap with rainbow chard and cashew ricotta at Leaf in Boulder.

Events

Flagstaff House Restaurant officially celebrates its 40th year with an Anniversary Gala Oct. 16, with a menu by many of the area’s favorite chefs. Reservations required. Proceeds will benefit the Davis Phinney Foundation. flagstaffhouse.com. /Amaro will host its inaugural wine dinner Oct. 25 with wines from Alpha Zeta winery. /Oct. 28 and 29, HUSH Concepts will host Top Chef Hosea Rosenberg and mixologist James Lee for a two-night-only “pop-up” restaurant. Reservations at hushdenver.com. Rumor has it, the two are working on a permanent restaurant concept together. /First Bite Boulder set this year’s dates for Nov. 11-19. /Café Aion will host three Sunday night dinners this fall; with only 15 seats by reservation only, the evenings will be an opportunity to chat and engage with wine director Kenny Rowe and chef Dakota Soifer.

That is a challenge,” he’d told me the day before when I gave him pumpkin seeds and a day to make me a dish with them. Sure. He also refuses to call himself a chef. Great non-chef, terrible liar.

So while his spiced jicama with lemon and an earthy ground pumpkin seed topping alternately surprised, burned and snuck a little sweetness over the tongue, he whipped up a pan-seared halibut and a mellow pumpkin seed spin off of a traditionally almond-based romesco that soothed the burning beast his appetizer created. “I didn’t want to make anything too generic,” he said.

His menu isn’t Salvadoran, but it hides none of its love for the country’s cuisine, nor did his dishes—the jicama dish is pretty traditional Salvadoran. However, where papusas, cassava and the like might be processed, souped, fried or pickled, Salguero’s intimate relationship with international cuisine shone through in the consistencies of each element: from the crisp jicama to pan-searing on the halibut to the white fish’s bed of thinly sliced fingerling potatoes, little chunks of earthy, never gelatinous, beets and pliant spinach.

His platings are simple, never presumptuous or scanty, and his time spent serving in the restaurant industry showed especially in his love of describing each bite as it came off of the plate. His cooking lessons started during childhood with his family, he said, but 12 years serving polished his palate…and his plans for 503.

“We’re trying to bring a higher level of food (to Lafayette) without having to break the bank,” he said. “With the pumpkin seeds, there were a lot of generic things I could have done and we opted to do something much more catching to the eye, much more pleasant to the palate.”

Salguero’s sprinkle of crispy breaded onions were just the right amount of crunch coupled with felicitous flavor.

“We’re trying to change the culture of Lafayette’s dining experience,” he said.

He divulged a few plans for international favorites that’ll grace the menu in coming months, traditional dishes hailing from Spain to Japan. Frankly, we can’t wait.

503 International Cafe is located at 103 N. Public Rd. in downtown Lafayette.

Creepy Cupcakes

Also needed:
1/4 cup of chocolate, melted and put into a small zip-lock bag with the very tip of a corner cut off (a white chocolate bag is optional)
Black jellybeans
Chocolate sprinkles
Mini chocolate chips
Large marshmallows

For spider web cupcake:
Frost the cupcake with white frosting, making the surface fairly smooth. With melted chocolate, make a spiral design starting in the center of the cupcake and circling outward. Immediately draw a toothpick through the pattern, moving from the center to the outer edge. You can make a spider by using a black jellybean (or coffee bean). We covered ours in chocolate and rolled it in sprinkles (to make him hairy!). If you want, make eyes on the spider by using melted white chocolate and legs using dark chocolate.

For ghost cupcake:
Frost the cupcake with either chocolate or white frosting. Place a large marshmallow just behind the center of the cupcake. Roll fondant on a clean, smooth surface (use a bit of vegetable shortening to keep the fondant from sticking). Cut into 4-inch circles. Carefully place one over the marshmallow and sculpt it to create the head and flying body. Add eyes by quickly melting the bottom of a mini chocolate chip and placing it on the ghost’s face, or putting melted chocolate on the bottom of chip to use as glue.

Pulled Candy

by Robin Autorino

Robin Chocolates

237 Collyer St., Longmont, 720.204.8003

Ingredients: (makes about 2 pounds)

2 cups sugar

2 cups corn syrup (honey can be substituted for a very tasty option)

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. extract (your choice; lemon, peppermint, raspberry, almond, anise, etc.)

3 drops food color (totally not needed if you don’t want colors)

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, corn syrup and salt. Stir until sugar is dissolved. With a damp pastry brush, wipe down the sides of the pan.

2. Stop stirring, raise heat to high and cook until the temperature reaches 290 F.

3. Pour syrup onto a marble slab or heatproof, non-stick surface, sprayed with nonstick spray. Using a bench scraper, fold the edges of sugar mass in toward the center.

4. While the candy is hot, add extract and color. Don’t worry if the color is not even, when you start to pull, it will smooth out.

5. When the candy is cool enough to handle, wearing latex gloves—sprayed with nonstick spray—pick up enough candy that you can pull but not so much that it’s hard to handle, start pulling the candy into a rope. Once the rope is formed, fold in half and pull again. Continue this for approximately 10 to 15 minutes or until the candy is opaque and very difficult to pull.

6. Pull into a long rope and cut (spray the scissors) into half-inch pieces.

7. Wrap each piece in wax paper. The candy will keep for 2-3 weeks in a tightly covered container. Do not refrigerate.