Four by Brother Luck

Recognize the name? It's a new restaurant in downtown Colorado Springs, just opened in May. You may recognize Brother Luck as the name of one of the contestants on Top Chef Colorado. The TV at the bar was playing excerpts from the show. And we met him, talked a bit with him! Better yet, we got to enjoy his food at the restaurant tonight. OMG! We finally found a truly "foodie" experience nearby in CO. The menu is uniquely simple. Each of the four quadrants ("Four by") is essentially a Pris Fixe 4-course meal. There are choices within each quadrant, but you can also mix and match across the menu if you want. But each quadrant is designed to go together. I went with quadrant II, Lynn did III. See the dinner menu. All the photos are here. Do not miss a chance to enjoy a great food experience here. And at $65/person including wine paired with each course, it's a bargain.

Bacon-Chipotle Popcorn and the "Four by" menu.

SERRANO JAMON TOAST: 

Goat Cheese, Everything Spice, Capers

ASPEN RIDGE FILET MIGNON: 

Persimmon, Chimchurri, Parsnips, Peppercorn

Electric Safari

Apparently for the last 27 years the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has decked its halls for Christmas. It was a little chilly, but the lights and animals were distracting enough. In fact, once again, the giraffes stole the show, to the point where the kids barely noticed that Santa was there. All the photos are here.

Touring the Broadmoor

Nana and Papa stepped out a bit tonight and joined the Wandering Monkeys (a free guided tour club) for a tour of the Broadmoor, one of the best hotel and conference centers in the U.S. (maybe the world). It's about 30 minutes from our house, very close to Cheyenne Mountain, Pikes Peak, etc. Actually, Jamie was here before back in space authority days. The Space Foundation holds a major conference, the Space Symposium, here every Spring, and the organization he was with attended a couple times. Tonight's tour was as much about Spencer Penrose, the unlikely rough-around-the-edges guy who built the place in the early 1900s, and his wife Julia, as it was about the place itself. We've got to come back for the free art tour offered by the Broadmoor itself. Oh, and dinner at Ristorante del Lago (in the Broadmoor), wonderful food and wine overlooking the small lake that sits between the two main buildings. Great evening. (Sorry for the cell phone pics; I'll take the real camera next time.)

And, we caught a pretty good-size Geminid meteor go by from our table.

Santa at the Club

Santa stopped by the Club today! So we did, too. And he brought some animals with him, including a camel. It was a kick. And look at the great Christmas photo we got thanks to Edward Martens of Visual Masterworks. Jamie took a few pics that day, too; they're here. Matt was in California visiting Sam.