STRINGS
Noel Cunningham creates good food and
good works in this upscale setting
Written by COLLEEN SMITH
Photography by KIMBERLY DAWN
When the holiday season leaves you all
strung out, treat yourself to lunch or dinner at Strings,
where last year’s feng shui facelift left the upscale
uptown restaurant as calming as its macaroni gratin.
This is not, of course, your mother’s potluck casserole,
but instead penne and Gruyère, prosciutto and heavenly
white truffle oil — a microcosm of Strings’ ability
to embolden standard fare with inventive twists grounded
in tradition.
When Noel Cunningham was considering names for his first
Denver restaurant, plenty of people provided suggestions. “They
were all ‘Bistro This’ and ‘Café That,’” says
Cunningham. “We
went with ‘Strings’ because
it sounded cute and didn’t mean anything.”
In other words, the noncommittal moniker granted the thenfledgling
restaurant culinary freedom — no strings, as it were,
attached to one particular cuisine or another. That said,
Strings does not tend to get tangled in trends. Nor does
it cross too far over culinary lines in the sand. The restaurant’s
reputation relies on predictably good food, service and
ambiance.
A long-standing fixture at the corner of 17th Avenue and
Humboldt, Strings opened in 1986: “July 22 at 5 p.m.,” Cunningham
says, “but who’s counting?” Twenty-one
years later, Strings remains on the short list of Denver’s
finest eateries. The secret to Strings’ sustained
success? Cunningham says, “I’d like to think
it’s because we don’t lose sight of the fact
that it’s not
about us. It’s about the customer.”
Cunningham, born and bred in Dublin, Ireland, escaped the
plight of stereotypically less-than-inspired Irish food.
There’s
an old joke, in fact, claiming that a seven-course Irish
meal consists of a six-pack of beer and a potato.
But Cunningham’s father worked as a chef at a Dublin
hotel on par with Denver’s Brown Palace. Cunningham’s
uncle was in charge of a catering company. “The whole
family was in the business,” he says.
If
you’re celebrating a special occasion, let Strings
know. After you’re seated, the hostess will sprinkle
sparkly confetti on your table to mark the festivity. And
at the end of your meal, you’ll enjoy a complimentary
dessert — in our case a moan-inducing Belgian chocolate
mousse cake served with fresh berries and raspberry coulis.
The
dessert, like all items on Strings’ menu — including
the soft dinner rolls and the crispy bread sticks — are
made in-house.
At Strings, where the fare can be as formidable as braised
veal cheeks with harissa aioli and tangerine gremolata
or golden beet borscht with creme fraiche and caviar, the
servers could stoop to snobbery. But the Strings wait staff
manages to be elegant and attentive without hovering, and
your server probably will not look down his or her nose
at you if you’re clueless about confit.
For the record, confit — say kohn-FEE — is
a specialty of Gascony, France, and an ancient method of
preserving meat — normally pork, goose or duck. The
duck leg, in this case, is salted and cooked slowly in
its own fat. The cooked meat then gets packed into a crock
and covered with the cooking fat, which seals and thereby
preserves the meat. The result is ultra savory confit de
canard. Delectable! Strings serves the confit leg and grilled
duck breast with currant reduction and a buckwheat waffle
with maple butter.
The seasonal menu compiled by executive chef Ed Kent and
sous chef Laura Solomon includes equally interesting options
such as a delicious blackened swordfish dish robustly seasoned,
yet not overpowered with spice. The fish is well mated
with andouille rice and a shrimp fricassee with wilted
greens. And speaking of greens, don’t miss the frisée
salad with bacon and tossed with sherry vinaigrette and
topped with a poached egg. A French standard, this salad
excites the bitter and salty taste buds; and there’s
plenty, so you might talk your dining partner into forking
over one of his crab cakes in exchange for sharing some
of this sophisticated salad.
The diners at the adjacent table tucked into mussels steamed
in nut brown ale, bacon and maple syrup — the aroma
an autumnal olfactory benediction.
Cunningham
claims that one of the staff’s favorite
menu items is Penne Bagutta. This dish mingles chicken,
mushrooms, broccoli and spicy tomato cream sauce. “It’s
comfort food, and as far as the staff is concerned, when
they come back from college, it’s the first thing
they want. It’s something we invented in L.A.,” says
Cunningham with a nod to his past incarnation as a chef
at exclusive Los Angeles clubs.
He even was in on hosting the party after the taping of
We Are the World, the early-‘80s song recorded to
raise funds for famine relief. Maybe Cunningham harbors
an ancestral memory of Ireland’s potato famine. Strings
is not the stingy sort of restaurant that presents precious
morsels at meal prices. It serves steering-wheel-sized
plates with plentiful portions tootasty to leave behind.
Perhaps that’s why we were
not the only ones carrying out doggie bags. And Strings
serves not only food, but also food for thought. Cunningham — owing
to his kindly mother and his Irish Catholic sense of social
justice — cares for others. He and
his wife, Tammy, spearhead the philanthropic Cunningham
Foundation.
If you’re an astute observer, upon entering Strings,
you might spot a small round table with the word “HOPE” spelled
out in glass beads on the white tablecloth. Sale of the
heart-shaped beads helps bring hope to Ethiopians in dire
need. (For more information, visit cunninghamfoundation.org).
The handmade heart beads are one of several Cunningham
Foundation efforts.
“I have an incredible sense of gratitude that I have
a successful restaurant, so why wouldn’t I try to
help others? Once you visit a place like Ethiopia, how
can you not help?” asks Cunningham.
He will even open Strings’ party rooms to help you
raise funds for your cause through the Guest Host program.
Other enticing offers include the Women in Business networking
luncheon and also the four-course meals for $52.80 per
couple on Sunday nights.
Serving lunch and dinner weekdays, dinner on Saturdays
and Sundays, Strings is located at 1700 Humboldt Street
in Denver and offers complimentary valet parking.
STRINGS
1700 Humbolt Street, Denver 80218
www.stringsrestaurant.com
(303) 831-7310
