Hopped to go on a last minute trip to Denver, CO.  It was snowing when the plane landed, wet, slushy sleet.  And 2 days later, it still is snowing.  Most of it melted but it is enough to make things wet and cold.  All this traveling is really cutting into the time I need to devote to getting the new house fixed up properly and move in.

Can’t really say I’ve seen much of Denver, cooped up in the hotel room and it’s miserable outside.

Dinner at Panzano was decent – it is the restaurant inside the Hotel Monaco.  I had the duck leg main course – served over polenta.  Not sure if that was the best choice.  Would have preferred risotto instead.  Forgot how fatty duck was, especially those legs but the meat was delicious, if a little salty.  Dessert was capped off with the tiramisu, excellent stuff, almost as good as the homemade original tiramisu I had a while back in Bulgaria.

Rioja – nicely located in what looks like the most happening parts of downtown Denver.  Classified as mediterranean cuisine, it stands out as a organic, fresh, green, eco-friendly joint.  Not that it matters to me, I just want good food.  And good it was.  The calamari appetizer has a nice lime flavor.  The flatbread with carmelized onions and other stuff (it had me at the onions) is extremely tasty.  I stuck with another serving of duck (the breast) and it turned out to be significantly better than what I had at Panzano.  Dessert was topped off with a hazelnut something something, looked fantastic, tasted great but I was too stuffed from prior plates.  My short term memory isn’t what it used to be.  Great presentation on all the food.  Pretty busy place for a Thursday night.  Reservations are made online.

Got to hate convention food – overpriced, tasteless crap and you really have no choice.  What’s worse is the lack of cleanliness.  Saw the cook and attendant at one Mexican food corner touch the food without gloves and without cleaning their hands after moving about.  Sigh.

Another project brought me here.  My hotel reward points are now slowing spreading out evenly between both Radisson and Marriott chains… bleh.

Winter is always an interesting time to travel, never know what to expect.

Riga is one of the better eastern european cities I’ve been to.  Ate mostly in the hotel simply because it was too cold to walk out in the evenings.

However, I did manage to make it to restaurant in the Berg hotel.  Simply amazing, great food.

Didn’t have time to take a tour of the city, maybe next time.