After my lovely experience at Nomelie Cupcakes, I began a culinary conversation with Nomelie’s owner through Twitter. She is as sweet as her cupcakes and gave me more than a few fantastic recommendations on the best eats in Denver. Per her advice, R and I headed to D Bar in the Uptown area of Denver where we were joined by our friend Neil.
D Bar is a restaurant devoted to desserts. Upon arrival it was very clear that D Bar was the place to be on a Saturday night. Every Saturday night chef and owner Keegan Gerhard can be found behind the bar preparing his sweet masterpieces right before your eyes. Inside D Bar the lighting is dim, the room is packed, and the energy is electric. After a long wait in the cramped heated doorway of the restaurant we were finally seated. The prime seating is along the L shaped bar - this is where all of the action can be experienced first-hand. We sat along the counter facing the window, which turned out to be a comfortable spot with the windows serving as mirrors to the bar behind us.
D Bar offers a well-stocked wine and beer list. We started our meal with my favorite wine: Layer Cake Primitivo. Layer Cake is a well-balanced and jammy wine that lends itself well to both sweet and savory dishes. It was the perfect accompaniment to our food.
We ordered four desserts to try to get the full spectrum of D Bar’s offerings. The desserts $8-$10 each. The Palmond is an almond cake with a caramelized pears and almond ice milk. The cake was dry and crumbly with a crisp almost pasty almond layer on the top. The pears were soft with a deep rich flavor. The almond ice milk was a light and cool compliment to the caramel tones of the pear. While this was a pear dish I would eat again, I did not enjoy the mild and dry flavors of the cake.
I have a special place in my heart for donuts. When donuts are on the dessert menu at a restaurant it is often hard for me to pass them up, so I was sure to order D Bar’s Brioche Cinnamon Sugar Donuts. The order comes with three fluffy, sweet brioche donuts dusted in cinnamon sugar and served with vanilla dipping sauce with a chocolate swirl. When the donuts were dipped in the subtle combination of vanilla and chocolate, it added a sweet gossamer casing that enhanced an otherwise average donut.
After watching waffle after delicious waffle pass by, we had to order the Warm! Mit Waffles. This is an ice cream sandwich unlike any other. Let go of your preconceived notions of ice cream sandwiches because this dessert is nothing like its predecessors. Vanilla bean ice cream is packaged between two warm rock sugar waffles that are adorned with a three-cherry compote and amaretto cream. The waffles were ideal: a gentle, firm exterior that gives way to a warm, doughy bite. The cherry compote added a pleasant tartness that paired harmoniously with the other sugary flavors.
Our final dessert was not on the menu, it was the night’s special: Baked Alaska. I’ve often heard of this fabled dish, but I’ve never seen it on a menu. This was my favorite dish of the evening. This Baked Alaska consisted of a tart shell filled with coconut ice cream covered by a baked meringue. All of this was lying atop slices of pineapple, which were brushed with a vanilla bean caramel sauce. Each dense mouthful was permeated with vanilla bean. The pineapple was sweet with no hint of tartness. The meringue top was baked to perfection with toasted edges and a gooey, spongy bite.
D Bar
1475 E. 17th Ave.
Denver, Co 80218
(303) 861 - 4710
