Burgers and Salt? yes please

I constantly read about the amazing restaurants in boulder so i was super excited to dine at Salt this weekend.  Voted as one of the top 10 best new restaurants in 2009 by 5280, i had high expectations for this place.  Located on the popular Pearl st mall, it does not take reservations so we decided to go at 6 to avoid a wait.  Too bad, the place was packed already and the projected wait time was quoted as 30-45 minutes.  Instead of one of those buzzers that constrained you to a 200 foot radius of the restaurant, they took down my number and would call us when our table was ready.  We decided to walk down the mall, but to our surprise 15 minutes in, we got the call!  We hurried back and were seated right by the bar where they dropped up water and a dish of pink himalyan sea salt and cypress sea salt which apparently forms as pyramid shapes.  There were at least 3 different menus placed our table including a make your own drink chart.  This sounds like a disaster because you pick the alcohol, the mixers and garnishes....isn't that the bartender's job?

We decided to share the roasted beet carpacio salad, housemade gnocchi and the late summer vegetable tasting.  The strawberry vinaigrette dressing on the salad really gave it an extra kick, cold and refreshing over the thin circles of roasted beets, local greens, walnuts and haystack goat cheese and was a nice complement to the gnocchi with roasted mushrooms, local corn and tomatos, cream and truffle oil.  The gnocchi was slightly larger than most that I've seen but soft with notes of sweet onion and garlic.  It was the star of the mealdelicious!  The vegetable tasting came with 6 things:  ratatouille, curry pinto bean cake, sweet corn cake, crisy wild rice risotto cake, green been salad and panfried eggplant rollatini with housemade mozzarella.  The ratatouille was classic and the corn cake was the best, resembling in flavor to the gnocchi we had a few minutes ago.  The green bean salad was refreshing, a nice complement in texture and temperature to the other warm items but the creme fraiche tasted like creme fraiche, could have used some spices or herbs.  The curry pinto bean cake was a little dry like it really needed some type of sauce.  The wild rice risotto cake was texturely pleasing but boring in flavor.  Nevertheless we still ate everything on the place.

For dessert, we quickly honed in on the ice cream sandwich (something i've craved since missing our opportunity from Ian Kleinman during the food truck event last week).  Whiskey butterscotch ice cream was sandwiched between 2 thin bittersweet oatmeal chocolate cookies, drizzled with creme anglaise and fresh berries to garnish.  WOW.

Plate score: 8
Pros: excellent appetizers (though prices for apps $9-15) and dessert even though we never tried the different salts.
Cons: Does not take reservations

This summer, Atzec sol on 32nd right by North High school in the highlands shut down and converted was converted into Highland Tap and Burger.  It opened last month and is definitely a sports bar with at least a dozen 40 inch HD TVs mounted to the sparse walls playing college football and post season baseball.  Highland tap carries many local beers but the burgers are also damn good.  There are salads, sandwiches, make your own burgers (choice of meat and bread with at least a dozen topping options) and 6 designer burgers.  For $9 i ordered the "chimi" burger which was cooked a perfect medium with white cheddar, shredded lettuce and a chimichurri sauce on a soft roll that soaked up all the meaty juices (reminds me of a brioche).  Burgers are with served pickled cucumbers and skin on fries that tasted fresh out of the fryer.  I inhaled the entire thing and i'm not ashamed.....

Plate score: 9
Pros:  delicious burgers and at least 25-30 beers most of them local, outdoor patio with a fire pit for the cooler nights
Cons:  Our waitress initially forgot my order and they don't have happy hour specials for those of you who like $1 PBRs.  The mac cheese that my friend had was sub par, too watery and needed salt.