D Bar Cures a Sweet Tooth; Sarto's Could Spruce Up

D Bar's new location at 19th and Pennsylvania serves up sweet and savory. The raspberry milkshake, crème brûlée, and cake-and-shake won over Denver Post food critic William Porter. Don't skip over D Bar's lunch and dinner options just because the restaurant is known for its decadent desserts, Porter added. He took note of the roasted duck nachos:

"Moist, shredded duck melded with tart goat cheese and black beans, and was laced with red chile for one of the best nacho plates I've had in ages."

Jefferson Park welcomed Sarto's in October of 2014, bringing Italian cuisine to the casual neighborhood. After many year of Brian Laird refraining from putting spaghetti and meatballs on the menu in some of his sophisticated Italian kitchens, patrons can find the dish on Sarto's menu. Laird wants the restaurant and the menu to be more approachable than the fine dining he's been serving for years.

Did Laird make the right choice putting spaghetti back in the game? Westword food critic Gretchen Kurtz didn't think so:

Night after night I twirled in vain, as if my fork were a magic mirror and the act of wrapping the noodles around it would turn it into something lovelier.

She noted the noodles as average, nothing more than something she could have cooked in her own kitchen. The sauce was thin, sometimes watery and the meatballs were free of breadcrumbs, already prepared gluten-free without the preference of the diner. The good thing...Sarto's has much more to offer. The duck breast in a veal stock sauce impressed, with the pizzette (flatbread) being equally delicious. The polenta paired with curried mashed potatoes keeps Laird on the Italian cuisine map, nodding "to the way chefs are cooking in Italy today", Kurtz added.