First Bite Boulder returns

If it's mid-November in Boulder, it's time for a good deal at local restaurants.

Now in its sixth year, First Bite Boulder, Boulder County's restaurant week, will begin Friday and last through Nov. 19. The event offers a $26 fixed price meal of three courses at some of Boulder's best-known restaurants and a few in East County and Longmont. The event, which was designed to bring in customers at a time of year when restaurant business is historically slow has proved a success, says Kate Lacroix of Dishwire, who along with Josh Dinar of Dining Out Magazine, created the event. New participants this year include The Mediterranean and Pizzeria Locale.

"This is a great value to the community," Lacroix says. "We still have over 40 participants. In years past we've seen restaurants get very competitive with creative menus. Now, they're finding a way to extend or enhance the life of First Bite."

One such extension is a decision last week by Mateo Restaurant Provencal and Radda Trattoria to offer the $26 pricing on a lunch for two. At Radda, that will mean the lunch is the same as the $26 dinner, albeit with smaller portions of the three-course menu: a pasta course with a choice of ravioli with butternut squash, brown butter and sage or pappardelle with Colorado lamb ragu and fresh mint; a second course with a choice of shaved Colorado pork, fennel and black olives; grilled Colorado beef ribeye, fingerling potatoes and greens or crispy polenta with tomato, capers, olives and grana padano. The third course is crostata with Munson Farms apples and vanilla gelato.

Justin Anthony, general manager and beverage director for Radda, says the restaurant created dishes especially for First Bite rather than simply using on-menu items.

"We have fun with the week," he says. "There's a lot of interest (in the community.) We get to introduce ourselves to a lot of people who don't go out to eat that much."

That introduction can lead to return customers.

"(First Bite) definitely helped bring some business right away," says Jason Hein, the acting general manager of Café Aion, which had been open about six months when it participated in First Bite last year.

Choosing a menu is a challenge, Hein says, since the restaurant seeks to encapsulate what it's all about with a few select dishes for those who haven't dined there before. Seasonality and local sourcing is a big driver at Café Aion, as it is at many local restaurants, as well as representing the restaurant's specialties.

For example, Café Aion's first course is a choice of Isabelle Farm pumpkin fritters with walnut aillade; house-cured salami with Cure Farm dilly beans or Isabelle Farm winter squash soup with wild rice, almonds and parmesan. In the second course, diners choose form Frank Silva's braised oxtail with figs, cinnamon, chickpeas and couscous or delicata squash tagine with apricots, saffron and pistachios. Dessert is a choice of a chocolate torte with Noosa Honey yogurt or a Colorado apple crostata with whipped cream.