Spring Time --- Maybe the very best time in any given year. Everything gets green. The sky turns really blue. The birds go crazy every morning at sunrise. And the hope and promise of all the things that Summer holds are right around the corner. This is the first ever, inaugural  - now every two months - Big Red F Newsletter and we are so happy to have it in front of your eyeballs.

The restaurants are all geared up for what promises to be a really exciting Summer 2012. And our kitchens are now filled with all the great ingredients that are only available to us at this time of the year. Spring-run Salmon from Alaska and we are now in the full throws of a great Halibut season. Fiddlehead ferns and early greens, artichokes, fava beans, spring peas and their greens and a great season this year of soft shell crabs. Just waiting on the first pit fruits to

Pickled Wild Ramps

come around, cause there is NOTHING better than fresh apricots and cherries over just-spun ice cream.  

I pickled a bunch of ramps last week while up in Northern Michigan, stumbled over morels as big as my fist, and ran naked, like a wood-nymph, through endless patches of wild asparagus... which should be on the top of everyone's list of Springtime activities!

Springtime. Is amazing. Hope y'all are enjoying every bit of it and we look forward to seeing you in the restaurants soon.  

-Dave Q.  

Sixteen years ago I sat in a dusty room that had very recently belonged to a flop house, listening to a man named Dave Query speak about the restaurant we were readying for opening night. On that day I heard words that would forever transform my thoughts on cooking and food; service and hospitality. Somewhere between the lengthy descriptions of the menu items and the run down of wines and spirits, this guy named Q had completely blown my mind. Read More... 

The reason we're able to throw a world-class party at our "house" every night is our people. Front and back of the house, our restaurants are staffed with a mélange of interesting, intelligent and highly skilled human beings. While we prize their culinary talents and hospitality skills, what sets them apart are their rich and full lives, outside of our four walls.

Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar Denver's Sous Chef, Jesse Yoh, is an uncommon man. Aside from a deep pedigree, spanning some of the finest kitchens in Boulder, Jesse has a passion for exploration and discovery. A native son of Nederland, CO, Jesse cut his teeth at the now shuttered Pink Flamingo Café. There, he moved from scrubbing pots and pans to running humongous backstage catering operations at some of Denver's finest venues, in a very short time. Read More...