Category: Uncategorized

Written by Grey Zander  

Illustration by Madison Otten

A specialty restaurant is going to be better than your uncle Joey buying a slab of ground beef and throwing it on the grill, right? Well, not always. It is hard to run a restaurant. However, when some restaurants do it right, you’re in for some of the best food you’ll ever taste. The restaurant I’ll be evaluating is called Acreage, owned by Stem Ciders. It was founded in 2013 by Eric Foster and Phil Kao. I chose this place because it’s near my home. The criteria I’ll be comparing  it to are these: atmosphere, service, food quality, and beverages.

We went in at 3 p.m on Friday, and even though it just opened, customers were already there. When you walk into this restaurant, it has a warm, rustic feel, with wooden tables and the smell of wood-burning ovens and meat on the grill that hits you when you walk in. There’s indoor and outdoor seating, each of them great. You’re greeted with the sounds of families playing lawn games. The outdoor area has picnic tables, fireplaces for colder days and bean bag toss, if the weather is fitting. The Acreage has the overall feel of friends and small-town community, an important draw for customers to consider when deciding on a restaurant.

The two complaints I have were the music and the bathrooms. While the bathrooms were nice for the most part, the sinks were scratched but still high quality, and the floor was clean, the complaint I have was about the urinals: there weren’t any. When I walked into the men’s room, I thought, “Am I in the right restroom?” and then realized I was. 

However, the biggest complaint I have about this restaurant is the music. It wasn’t the worst I’ve ever heard, but it sounded like some weird mix of country and folk music. The best way I can describe it is this: imagine a failing farm trying to get back into business and their one idea to save it is to make an inspirational video about how they can give you some fresh beets. This would have been the music used in that video. It was unappealing and a distraction from the friendly atmosphere in the restaurant.

The service, overall, was good. Getting a table was very fast and easy, and it didn’t take long to get our first drinks. We had a friendly waitress, but we had to ask for refills. The nicest thing about the service was the wait time. Within seven minutes of ordering our appetizers and 15 minutes of ordering our entrees, they arrived. The speed of preparing the dishes did not affect their taste at all.

Besides a few small complaints, the taste and the quality of the food was great. We started with the Acreage fries and the Basque fries. The Acreage fries were more traditional style fries; they were crispy, but not dry. They tasted fresh and came with a side of a sweet tangy dip. The Basque fries were not my favorite. The flavor they were tossed in had a bit too much lemon, with parmesan cheese on top. Another appetizer we got was the Salami Platter. The seasoning was good and spicy, but there was almost too much of it. The bread had a sweet flavor to it, as did the pickled vegetables.

The entrees we ordered were the pork chops, bratwurst, and burger. The pork chops by themselves were plain and needed seasoning but came with a sweet and spicy dip. The bratwurst was well flavored, marinated in cider and had a very particular taste. The burger was good, had high quality flavor and was very juicy. The only complaint I had about the burger was that it was messy; the bread was just a tiny bit soggy from all that juice. 

The dessert we had afterward were doughnuts, with a nice consistency and had a funnel cake personality.

One thing the Acreage is very proud of and even sells at a small store next to the kitchen is their beverages, and, more specifically, their hard cider. Before I go into that, let’s talk about nonalcoholic options. There is soda, but it’s not the chain soda like Coca-Cola; it has a higher quality taste than normal. The kombucha I ordered was nice and had a peach-like flavor. Although it had a small bite to it, it wasn’t nearly as much as I’d usually like in that kind of drink.

The cider is held as their signature drink. Half of the restaurant, is in fact, a cidery. And even though I can’t drink, (since I’m underage), I brought two people with me who could try it. One of their favorite ciders is the Chilean Guava, and according to them, it “has a nice balance between dry and sweet, has just a touch of spice.” Another cider is the Jalapeno, which has “a subtle pear taste, but packs a little more heat than the Chilean Guava.”

Overall, my evaluation of the place is good, besides a few complaints. It’s a great place for a big family to go out and have a good time, especially if they are coming in from out of town and want to see the mountains. Keep in mind the in-house music could use some work, and that the bathrooms need some getting used to, but besides that, a great place for a night out.

INFOBOX

The Acreage

  Rating: 7.5/10

 Address: 1380 Horizon Ave, Lafayette, CO 80026

 Hours: 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday,  noon to 9 p.m. Sunday

 Food: Comfort Food, Small Plates

 How much: $4-$14 appetizers; $7-$17 entrees; $8 desserts

  How loud: moderate

 Reservations: parties of 10 or more

 Information: (303) 227-3243

 Written by Griffin Seeley 

Illustration by Madison Otten

Sugarfire Smokehouse, originated in St. Louis, Mo., has multiple locations in the Midwest, including one Colorado location in Westminster. I ended up choosing this restaurant to review because of its close proximity and how well it seemed to be recommended on Google, Yelp, and by friends. I went into this restaurant with four criteria in mind: the customer service, atmosphere/cleanliness, entree, and dessert. 

The atmosphere and cleanliness were the first things I noticed in the restaurant. The dining room seemed to be pretty clean, with BBQ sauce bottles on all of the tables, and a neat bar set up on the other side of the room. Reviews adorned the walls, and a big blue cow sat on top of the bar with a sign accompanying it that read, “C-Brisket,” which I took to be the cow’s name. A red sanitizer bucket sat on one of the tables, presumably forgotten. Two garage doors sat behind the bar, leading out to the patio, closed for the season. Nobody seemed to be in the restaurant, given that it was 4 p.m. on a Monday. 

When I went into the restroom, there were shreds of paper towel on the floor, and the sink had weird specks of something in it. The combined washer/dryer in the faucet was very interesting though. The lack of attention both inside the bathrooms and in the restaurant was clearly felt.  

While we were studying the menu, I looked at the line where we would be getting served, but nobody was behind the counter waiting for us. I assumed they would show up while we were deciding, but that wasn’t the case, and when we decided what we wanted to order nobody was behind the line still.

We looked down the line to the bar at the end, and wouldn’t you know it, a couple of men wearing Sugarfire shirts were sitting at the bar, just chatting. One of the more assertive people I came with walked over there and talked to them. With poorly hidden disgruntled looks, they entered the line and put on black rubber gloves.

One of the men had an angry vibe about him, and he instantly made me feel uncomfortable. He brusquely said, “What would you like?” The friend who confronted them put in his order. While the two men were making the order, I kept a wary eye on the scary man and what he was doing with that foot-long knife. Luckily, all he did was slice portions of brisket and ribs. 

The other two friends were able to leave the line with their orders. I was not. Since mine had fried food in it, they needed more time to prepare it. The cashier, who had appeared out of nowhere, helped us out with a big smile on her face, before promptly disappearing into the back of the restaurant again. We went and sat down at a table without a sanitizer bucket. Soon after, the scary man brought my order out, plopped it down, and left without a word. He had me wondering if death by brisket nuggets was slow.

Now for the food itself. I had ordered the brisket nuggets, which was the special. Like the name sounds, it was breaded brisket, deep fried, and served with drizzled BBQ sauce.

While they looked dark, the nuggets were nice and tender, and when consumed, they melted in my mouth with bursts of brisket, plus fried, flavor. The special came with one side, and I chose the mac and cheese. While tasty, it definitely needed salt. Consistency or the texture was also missing.

My friends got the ribs/brisket combo plate and the brisket cheesesteak sandwich, respectively. They reported that the ribs were dry, tough, and lacked flavor, but the cheesesteak was nicely done. After looking at our check, the friend who got the cheesesteak determined that it was overpriced for what it was.

We decided to get dessert. Since they had shakes, cookies, and pies, we decided to get one of each. A chocolate shake and a smoked chocolate-chip cookie were decided right away, but we couldn’t decide what kind of pie we should try. The woman very adamantly suggested their signature Sugarfire pie, saying it was very popular, and telling us what it was, which seemed to be molasses and brown sugar with a wafer crust. We ended up choosing that pie to try.

We brought the pie and the cookie back to the table, with the woman saying she would bring out the shake shortly. The pie was actually very good, and as was the soft, salted cookie. When our shake came, there were chunks of vanilla ice cream still unmixed, but the flavor was nice.

Overall, this restaurant gets a B-, grade-wise. While the customer service was lacking with the people actually making our meals, the cashier did provide good service. The food was between good and bad as well, but more on the positive side. I may return, but if I do, I’m going to come back on a day when that scary man is not there.

Infobox

Sugarfire Smokehouse

Grade: B-

Address: 14375 Orchard Pkwy Suite 100, Westminster, CO 80023

Hours: 11 a.m to 10 p.m/Sold Out

Food: BBQ

How Much: Pricey

How Loud: Moderate

Reservations: No

Take-Out/Delivery: Yes

Information: (720) 639-4903