The Insatiable Monkey

Greetings,

Guess who has two thumbs and is finally blogging about the same area in which she currently resides?

(Okay, I realize you can’t see me but I’m pointing at myself right now)

My parents came with me to Denver to help me move into my new apartment. So naturally I did what any college student would do afterwards.

I made them take me out to dinner.

We decided not to wander to far and check out Pearl Street near the Wash Park Area.

We were hoping to go to the Black Pearl. Apparently we weren’t the only ones with that idea on a Wednesday night.

The wait was for another two hours so we had a drink and chatted before dinner.

Lesson learned: Make reservation no matter what day of the week it is.

The menu was rather small but totally my style. I was having a hard time deciding so we all shared a few dishes.

mushroom gnocchi : hazel dell mushrooms, yams, porcini jus, piavé

Dee-vine.roasted vegetable napoleon quinoa, ricotta cheese, tomato fennel sauceThe red quinoa added the perfect texture to the dish.We drank Infinite Monkey Theorem Chardonnay with our meal. It’s produced by an Urban Winery in Denver.

There’s a funny story behind this wine.
In early June of 2010, my parents took me out to one of my favorite organic restaurants, Root Down, to celebrate the finish of exams.

It was during this point I was in the midst of creating my blog and could not think of a blog name that I loved inside and out.

Our waiter kept talking up this wine called the Infinite Monkey, which is pretty outlandish for a wine. We aimed to try it, but they had sold the last bottle…

My Mom kept calling the wine the Insatiable Monkey, to which my Dad insisted I call my blog the Insatiable Monkey.

I thought that was ridiculous, I am not a monkey nor does my blog revolve around monkeys.

“But everyone loves monkeys” – common spoken words of every male in existence.

Somehow we got around to Insatiably Healthy and thus, the blog exists!

I was hoping that after all that I owe to this oddball local wine it was going to be worth it.

Oh Em Gee. I do not usually like Chardonnay’s but this was, well…Insatiable.

We weren’t the only ones raving about it, a few tables got into a conversation about the winery when they saw me snappin’ photos.

Not wanting to end a good thing, we continued breakfast on Pearl Street the next morning.

It really is a cute area in Denver that’s seemingly always packed.

I was missing Melbourne coffee and Gaia Bistro was the first place to finally quench my coffee-sickness.

I started with a double espresso macchiato (unpictured) and shared the french press coffee with my parents.

It was too strong for them but I was happy to finish off the rest!

mmmm…FoamYet another menu that was right up my alley!

I didn’t have as hard a time deciding for this one:

Roasted Poblano stuffed with scrambled eggs , brie, tomatoes and mushrooms

I love a little spice with my eggs, so this was perfecto.

On the way out we noticed a bookstore “Murdered By Books”

The entryway was priceless…

Being the completely normal person I am, I couldn’t resist the photo opportunity.

A victim of literature.

Ta!

Casey

Tags: brie, fennel, french press, Gaia Bistro, gnocchi, Infinite Monkey Theorem, mushrooms, poblano, Quinoa, ricotta cheese, scambled eggs, The Black Pearl, yams