Le Central

Oui Love This Place!

Getting There

As with any destination in downtown Denver, it is always best to bring some change and some good walking shoes.  Le Central is located at the busy downtown intersection of Lincoln and 8th Avenue.  We circled a couple times before noticing the parking lot behind the building, and there is metered parking on the street.  However, Le Central's popularity keeps those spots occupied most of the time.

The Atmosphere

When people hear the term, "French Restaurant", they often think of pretentious people, high prices, and high end décor.  Le Central has all the elements of these types of places; however, they are reasonable, friendly, and they have a country type décor that is both welcoming and homey.  Cute framed pictures and mismatched furniture add to it's quaintness. 

The Eats

Once again, we had a third person join us to help expand our menu choices. We chose to visit Le Central on a weekend afternoon to check out their Brunch menu; however, the restaurant does serve lunch and dinner as well.

In place of the traditional bread basket, we were each given our own individual french baguettes with butter.

It was a chilly and snowy morning so we also sampled the hot chocolate.  This was a beautiful presentation and very rich. It was made with pure melted chocolate and milk and as we have said in the past, chocolate can save the world.

We felt it was fitting to begin our experience with cheese.  Selecting the Assiette de Fromage (aka. cheese plate) we were presented with an array of cheese, walnuts, cranberries, and melon. The cheese (Camembert, Montrachet Chevre, Port Salut, and Bleu Cheese) was served at room temperature which allowed us to taste the subtle nuances of each type offered.  The Camembert and Blue Cheese seemed to be the table favorites and all blended nicely with one or all of the accompaniments.

The brunch menu had options that where clearly labeled as breakfast and clearly labeled as lunch so we picked a few from each area to get a good sampling of the menu.

Our first choice was the Pain Perdu Farci.  For those of you unfamiliar with Pain Perdu, it is basically french toast.  Le Central's version was definitely a step up from your typical Saturday morning, egg soaked bread.  Their version is a cinnamon brioche stuffed with chocolate chips, pecans and cream cheese.  It is topped with Chantilly cream and served with pure maple syrup.  Talk about a sweet and rich treat!  The cinnamon and the chocolate chips created an amazing flavor combination.  The addition of the Chantilly only created a trifecta of deliciousness.

The Monte Cristo was our "lunch" pick for the day.  It consisted of brioche layered with ham and Swiss cheese.  Le Central takes the lighter road on Monte Cristo preparation by grilling their sandwich rather than deep frying as we've seen in other preparations.  The grilling brings out the flavors in the sandwich without the thick, greasy breading that a Monte Cristo typically has.  The sandwich is then dressed with a dusting of powdered sugar and served with a very smooth raspberry coulis, and pommes frites (yep, you guessed it... french fries).

We were at a French restaurant so we just HAD to order some kind of crepe.  We took a leap and chose the Crepe aux Lardons.  That's a pancake with bacon, people!  How could we go wrong.  I mean, come on!  The Crepe aux Lardons is made with grilled marinated steak, mushrooms, and smoked bacon with a fire roasted chipotle mustard cream sauce.  It is then gratineed with Swiss cheese.  This dish was the complete opposite of the Pain Perdu and the Monte Cristo.  It was savory, smoky and just a tiny bit spicy.  The crepe was perfectly cooked - soft with a slight crispy edge.  The fire roasted chipotle and mustard cream sauce paired wonderfully and gave the dish a good, spicy kick.

Our final pick was the Omelette de Denver Le Central Style.  This was a unique presentation for a typical three egg omelette.  It still contained bacon, ham, cheddar cheese, and herb spiked roasted peppers and onions, but instead of mixing the eggs with the rest of the ingredients, Le Central "pocketed" the ingredients in the middle of the omelette.  They cooked the eggs, placed the remaining ingredients in the middle and simply folded the egg around them.  It was an interesting and creative take on another typical breakfast dish.

As a side note, the potatoes (both fries and breakfast potatoes) were AMAZING!  We found them to be perfectly cooked - tender, and well seasoned. Be sure to try these tasty spuds.

If you have read our previous posts, you know that no meal is complete without dessert.  We ordered three:  Îles Flottantes, Crème Brûlée, and Le Central (their signature dessert).

The Îles Flottantes (floating islands) is an homage to the egg foam desserts of the 1890's, but updated for the 21st Century.  Delicate, airy meringue floats atop a pool of crème anglaise and is drizzled with caramel sauce and sprinkled with almonds. Excellent dessert!

Crème Brûlée.  We have had this dessert served a million times in a million different ways.  That being said, Le Central's version will not disappoint you.  A Crème Brûlée doesn't have to be fancy or dressed up in any way.  Just crack, scoop... devour.  Boom.  Perfection.

Our final dessert was the Le Central - the restaurant's signature dessert.  Julia Child is famous for coining the phrase, "Is there anything better than butter?"  Our response is, "Yes.  Yes, there is.  And that thing would in fact, be chocolate!"  Deal with it J. Child.

The Le Central is a soft almond and pistachio biscuit, although it is more like a cake than a cookie or biscuit.  It is topped with two kinds of mousse, dark chocolate ganache, and served with caramel sauce.  This is a very sweet, very rich dessert and is absolutely divine.

The People 

Our waitress, Lydia was friendly and not snooty like some servers at other French restaurants (they shall remain nameless, of course).  She didn't laugh at us or seem upset that we didn't know how to pronounce some of the words on the menu.  According to Lydia, the fact that Le Central is easy going and non pretentious is one of her favorite things about working there.  She even asked if we wanted to speak to the manager.  We love when restaurants do that.  Billy, the manager came over to speak to us, answer questions, and give us information about events and classes taught at the restaurant.  By the way, there are cooking classes at Le Central each month so be sure to check their web site for details.

Summing Up

Le Central is a great place for families, birthdays, and reunions.  They have been open for 34 years, and their prices are incredibly reasonable.  We ordered a lot of food for under $100.  That is an amazing deal!  Friday through Sunday they offer a happy hour from 2:30pm to 5:30pm, they offer a new daily menu, and every Thursday is Souffle night.

Because of their wonderful food and excellent atmosphere, we give Le Central a Fork.

We would like to thank Lydia, Billy, and the staff of Le Central for a wonderful Brunch!  We will definitely be back.

February's Lunch Pick:  The Giggling Grizzly

The Officially Unofficial Voting Legend
Take it with a grain of salt, we're not professionals.
	Awesome place, we’ll shovel more food in our face!
	It was okay. Not our favorite, but we’ll take another stab at it.
	Didn’t make the cut.