Seat 6D

Had dinner last night with a good friend of mine, MF at Rioja in Denver. The restaurant is in the Lodo district on Larimer, and the chef/owner is Jennifer Jasinski. I’ve posted a few pictures up here of the food, and suffice it to say that it’s a must visit if you are in Denver. We had the Rioja Picnic, the Artichoke Ravioli and the Big Eye Tuna with Halibut Ceviche. The flavors were deep and delicious. We chose to eat at the bar which was comfortable and welcoming. The staff there knows the menu extremely well, and did not disappoint. When you are in Denver, make sure and stop by.

I had lunch today in downtown Kansas City at Pizza Bella. I had been hoping to eat at 1924 Main, but it turns out they are only open for lunch on Fridays. One of the staff their pointed us to Pizza Bella just a few blocks away, and it was outstanding. 

Pizza Bella is a small restaurant specializing in artesian pizza with a wood fired oven. On nice days (like today) the entire front of the restaurant is open giving you a nice outdoors feel while still being somewhat set back from the sounds of the street.

I started with Crispy Brussels Sprouts which were served with pancetta, almonds, cranberries, romano cheese and a nice vinaigrette. For my pizza, I ordered their leek pizza. This is a tomatoless pizza that is served with leeks, pancetta, roasted onions and goat cheese. The crust comes through as thin but with a nice chewey texture. We walked in right at 11am, and the place was almost empty. By 11:30, it was packed, with what appeared to be mostly regulars.

In short, if you are in KC, and want a break from BBQ, give this great little pizzeria a try.

I’m sitting in concourse C at Denver International Airport after 20 minutes of trying to connect to their alleged “free” wifi. I absolutly could not get a connection working off of Internet Explorer from the perspective of getting the redirect to allow me to agree to behave. I fired up Firefox, and finally got that redirect so I could agree to the appropriate Terms & Conditions (legalese for fine, whatever, just let me in). It turns out that you are given free wifi following a 30 second advertisement. That’s cool, I can deal with that. The problem is that once you are in, they hijack your browser to use adjuggler to place a 1/5 frame across the top of the page to constantly show ads during your session. I’m noticing now that I’m in Tumblr, that everytime the add changes, it causes problems and delays on the text I’m typing in the tumblr frame. I don’t mind the up front ad, but the continual ones are more annoying than not having any wifi. More and more, I’m considering a wireless card for my laptop.

Denver International also has the Clear line at the TSA. I wrote earlier about my experiences with Registered Traveler programs, but I did end up renewing this year (as a convenience they renewed me before I got around to canceling). For those of you that don’t travel through DEN, there are two main security checkpoints for all gates; North and South. I went to the North checkpoint where I learned that that Clear checkpoint is only open Sun-Tues from 5am to 7pm. Since this is Wednesday I was redirected to the other end of the airport to the South checkpoint. First class checkin was wide open, so I could have taken that, but I wanted to see how Denver handled Clear. I walked to the other end of the airport, found the Clear line, and presented my ID, Clear Card, and Boarding Pass. I was then able to put my ID away, but kept the other items out. I walked down to a concierge, and presented my card. They put it into the machine, and I was then able to put that away. Following that, she gave me the bins, I uppacked my laptop, put that in a bin with my jacket and shoes and walked over to the security line where we cut in front of everyone to go through the actual checkpoint.

Overall, I saved no time over using the First Class line, at least at the time I was there. I’m sure at busy times, that changes. I still have to remove my shoes, and while the concierge carried the bins, I still took my own suitcase.  I find it very hard to justify this at $124 per year, but if it was available in Minneapolis where First Class lines are still 20-30 minutes, I might think differently.

Yesterday, I was in downtown Denver, and had lunch at the Rialto Cafe. I had a variation of a BLT with Mozzerella Cheese, and it was quite good. For dinner I decided to go to the Rockies game. Coors Field is just a fun ball park, and it is located in the heart of LoDo, meaning that there are plenty of places to stop in for a beer following the game. If you have a chance, I recommend Coors Field for a game.