wordplay by Ben Simkins

Finding a good place to eat in Denver isn’t as hard as it may seem. It’s all about knowing where to look. Downtown has a flurry of restaurants with enough reputation to easily dazzle the passing patron. But what makes good food a good night out?

For me, food should be an experience, a journey of sorts. There should be a personal connection, vaguely linear or heart warmingly familiar, the connection should be there. It’s what makes Christmas dinner so darn important. The food may not be five-star (or it may be), but it’s the connection that brings it home, snuggled close to all your memories. It’s the lack of connection that makes fast food even more impersonal than the food itself. Of course a restaurant isn’t the home where your family memories are housed… Unless of course it is, but that is not the point I’m going for here. It also shouldn’t be the latter, serving up uninspired, mass produced plates served within four walls of sterile white tile uniformity. We choose our dining experience based on personality and character. Sometimes we match it to our own tastes, sometimes we are adventurous and bold in our choices, but it is the character that draws us in and holds ‘til our servers offer up dessert. It is this very character that invited me as I walked in from the brisk cold of pre-Christmas downtown Denver into Jax.

Jax has had ten years to hone its character within the four walls of its Denver location (there’s a Jax in Boulder) and its exposed brick walls and aged, wooden beams are a testament to this journey. There is nigh a space left anywhere in the restaurant that is unadorned with the etchings of its clientele’s names in chalk and crayon, displayed as a proud, badge of honor of sorts. Covering portions of these names hangs artwork by local artist Quinn Sabatini, depicting jazz musicians and dancers in motion. Contemporary sculptures of exotic and monstrous metal fish adorn other spaces. All in all, Jax manages to pull in a feeling of urban architecture with contemporary art and metal working, mixing clean lines with intentional rough edges to give the space a character that the food can play off of freely without interruption, and, after all, isn’t food the ultimate criteria for our definition of character in a restaurant?

Jax of Denver and its manager Ben ‘Benny’ Hatfield have had plenty of time to build a character and reputation around its long-standing executive chef, Sheila Lucero, as she has been with the restaurant for almost all of its complete ten-year history.  Plenty of time to perfect and solidify a menu, wouldn’t you think? Oh no, that’s not a character trait Sheila and Jax have lent themselves to, and with good reason. Our server, Jimmy Zanon, assures us that every two to three months Jax revises its menu to reflect the season, keeping it fresh and inventive all year round. Of course, using the chill outside as a reminder, we delved into the beginning of our early winter-inspired menu. This consisted of a Winter Squash and Lobster Bisque that warmed the cockles (an English thing, and fish-orientated to boot) almost as much as it did the heart, unfolding further flavor palates as you neared the white of the bottom of the bowl. And an organic Bibb lettuce salad that weaved a distinct pattern of texture and taste through sun-dried Cranberry vinaigrette, pistachios, pomegranate and an extremely well-balanced and creamy haystack mountain goat cheese. An array of fresh, raw oysters led us into the stand out dish of the evening, a peanut oil-seared Hamachi served with jalapeno rice wine mignonette, white truffle oil, soy sauce and cucumbers to garnish. The ‘early winter specialties’ we sampled were as far ranging as the seas they must have come from. A fennel, pollen honey glazed Mahi Mahi served on an inspired bed of goat cheese, whipped celery root potato mash and surrounded by house-cured pork belly, roasted fennel and red bell peppers flooded you with thoughts of rustic Tuscany. The Togarashi seared, rare Ahi tuna took on a new taste and texture when paired with the thin strips of crisp, tart Granny Smith apples, creamy potato cake and Calvados rice-wine emulsion. For some if not most people, the heart lies fondest with the sweet embrace of dessert and, although for me dessert consists of coffee and a cigarette (outside of course), Jax had me at the proverbial hello… well goodbye’s probably more appropriate, when it came to their dessert menu (also seasonal). Accompanying my French-pressed, one of a kind, antioxidant-infused (I’m insured by server Jimmy) coffee, was a surprisingly well-balanced, warm chocolate cake with star anise spiced, sweetened condensed milk, a pumpkin cheesecake with hazelnut graham cracker crust and my personal favorite, a Baileys mint chocolate crème brulee. Not to be left out, Jax offers a seriously expansive wine list that is not only characterized by type but also pairing suggestions such as ‘big fish… big whites’. But character is the choice word when it comes to Jax’s specialty drinks. One of these specials, for example, is the antioxidant that consists of charbay pomegranate vodka, green tea and honey… Yum!

1539 17th Street

(303) 292.5767

JaxFishHouseDenver.com