The Scoop on Ryan Leinonen's Trillium

Trillium, chef Ryan Leinonen's new American/Scandinavian restaurant in Denver's thriving Ballpark neighborhood, is officially three weeks into service. With the busy Christmas weekend now under the belt and New Year's Eve on the horizon, Eater checked out how all the social media folks have reacted to the place. With an absence of the notorious Yelp criticism, here's the pleasant early word on Trillium.

The OK News: A Yelper: For a restaurant that just opened we didn't notice a single kink during our visit, my only suggestion was it was dang cold outside and inside... I know you are Scandinavians there at Trillium but a little warmth to the ambiance and temperature will be great for next time!

The Good News: An Open Table diner: The waiter and chef even did a great job accommodating me the sole vegetarian in the group. We tried everything from the small plates to bottles of wine.

More Good News: Culinary Colorado's observations: Other than the IKEA’s food service, Trillium is — to my knowledge — the only Scandinavian restaurant in the greater metro area... Everything was lovely to look at and delightful to taste.

The Friendly News: A Foursquare user: Lots of people and food from Michigan here. Great place for a plate of smelt or Great Lakes whitefish.

The Great News: Another Yelper: Forget what you've heard about lutefisk in rural Minnesota senior centers and holiday smorgasbords with all varieties of cured fish and dill and mayo. Trillium takes America's Upper Midwest version of Scandinavian cuisine into the 21st century

Mostly Great News: Blogger Ruth Tobias: Ryan Lienonen’s new homage to the cookery of Scandinavia and its immigrant American offshoot is a thrilla, right here in Five Points instead of the Philippines. Lienonen’s repertoire is intelligent, inspired & just plain fun to explore. Though the space isn’t to my taste—a little bare & glaring—the staff is lovely (that Linda’s a fittingly-named charmer) &, most important, Lienonen’s food is so winning—& so unlike anything else in town—that I see many visits in my future.

The Awesome News: A Yelper thinks the cocktails at Trillium are some of the best in the city: The small plates are excellent... we tried the foie gras and the bread pudding after sampling the cheese plate and portobello fries. Everything was fantastic--but the highlights of the evening were the invented-on-the-spot cocktails. We're talking bucket-list-quality stuff here.

The Totally Bogus Bathroom News: A semi-critical Yelper: Our only negative are the hand dryers in the bathrooms. Wish we had paper towels and they were very loud. But they did dry quickly! A little lotion maybe?