Last weekend, my mom came to Denver, and it could not have been more perfect timing. A weekend full of retail therapy, restaurant therapy, and happy hour therapy was just what I needed after a chaotic week at work. Having not seen since her since early July, I knew that we were in for a fun-filled ladies’ weekend together. The week prior to her arrival, my mom had told me over the phone to find some fun places for us to wine and dine, and of course, I failed to decide on a single thing to do until she got here. I had planned a midnight charcuterie for us to munch on when she got here late on Friday night, but we decided to save our appetites for the next morning, when we were faced with the decision of where to brunch.
I’ve probably said it before, but brunch is my all time favorite meal in the entire world. For brunch, you can have a savory egg dish or meat-and-cheese filled breakfast burrito if that tickles your fancy at the moment. Or, you can choose a meal with more chocolate than any other ingredient, and no one looks at you funny. Ahhhhh….brunch. One day I hope to find a daily routine where I can brunch at my leisure. Overnight oats in my classroom as I scramble to pretend I have lessons planned each morning just doesn’t quite cut it for me.
I had been hearing about Snooze, an A.M. Eatery even before I got to Denver, but I hadn’t actually been there yet. In a city with thousands of restaurants, leave it to me to take my mom to a place she’s already brunched at. However, she didn’t complain as we walked up Snooze and saw people drinking spicy bloody Mary’s and fizzy mimosas outside on the patio on our gorgeous end-of-summer Saturday morning.
The pancake special listed on the display sign outside of Snooze immediately caught my eye. My mind was subconsciously made up before we even sat down. Black & White Tuxedo Pancakes, filled with dark chocolate chips and white chocolate chips, topped with a chocolate drizzle and creamy mascarpone may literally be the stuff my pancake dreams are made of. (Yes, I sometimes have pancake dreams.) The three massive pancakes sat in a pool of melted white chocolate that I scooped up with every bite. I don’t even think I used syrup on these babies. No side of bacon necessary.
My mom enjoyed her egg-hollandaise-avocado-arugula sandwich as well, but she couldn’t help herself in assisting me to finish off the plate of pancakes sitting in front of me. Snooze, I will be back for more.
The rest of the weekend was just as fun as our Saturday brunch. We shopped, we laughed, we relaxed, we happy houred and more. On Sunday, we even made it to the Highland’s Square Farmers Market, where the dog had lots of fun sniffing the butts of the locals, and we had fun deciding what to purchase. I ended up buying an interesting iced coffee drink made with black tea chai concentrate and we both bought pastries made by Izzio’s Bakery. She chose blueberry, and I chose chocolate chip (*shocker*), and they were both delicious. I was pretty sad when I realized that the Farmer’s Market will only be setting up shop up the road from me a couple more weekends until the Spring, but I probably don’t really need delicious chocolate chip scones to be available for me to purchase all that often anyway.
On my mom’s last evening in Denver, with my fiancé back in town, we happened upon an adorable Italian restaurant called the Odyssey. And when I say that we “happened upon” it, I really mean that we spent 45 minutes on Yelp and Eater and every other Denver restaurant review site until we found one that was highly rated, well-reviewed, and had extensive pasta menu. I definitely didn’t realize I that take Italian food so seriously. We knew we made the right choice when we walked into a beautiful old brick building, with dimmed, soothing lighting and roses overflowing from glass vases throughout the restaurant. The servers were excellent, the food was even better, and at that point we had drunk enough Chianti that it didn’t even matter. My mom’s last evening in town was a blast, and we’ve been enjoying bites of leftovers from that meal all week.
My weekend with my mother was a weekend filled with so much love and lots of deliciousness, and that’s just the way I like it.