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Good Things Come in 3s

By RALPH MILLIS THE GAZETTE

One of the greatest accolades I, or any reviewer, can award a restaurant is to cheerily broadcast that it serves serious food.

Serious, as in New Orleans.

Serious, as in San Francisco.

Serious, as in almost anywhere in France.

Serious food means that the people involved in its preparation and consumption truly care about it: the chef who has spent years learning how to lovingly prepare it; the waiter who embraces serving it as a profession on a par with medicine and the law; and you and I who appreciate it and partake of it together, a sacrament on many levels.

Let me speak clearly here, so there is no misunderstanding: We need more restaurants like 3 Doors Down if Colorado Springs is to become a community committed to a vision of good food, and good dining, as vital components of
a civilized life.

Owners Joel and Meg Wittenmyer are the whole show at 3 Doors Down. They do everything themselves: prepping and cooking, serving, cleaning up, fighting the accounts.

Joel is the chef. He came a long way from his part-time fast-food job in high school to his own place on Kiowa Street, with a stop at The Hotel Intercontinental in Houston and a Chef de Cuisine certification by the American
Culinary Federation along the way.

Meg does the rest. To see her sailing between table and kitchen on a busy Friday dinner hour is, well, let's just say her competence, energy and unfailing good cheer will shame you out of your end-of-the-week lethargy and
grumpiness.

When you visit them, enter their place as you would a small café in a small French village that suddenly appeared when you were lost. You can't help but like this place. A lot.

The small yet carefully crafted menu at 3 Doors Down changes daily, posted on chalkboards arrayed around the compact, intimate dining room and its 11 tables.

But don't be taken in by the quaint "Garden Club" decor. The continental-inspired food here is generously served, and is not for the faint of heart or delicate of taste.

The focus here is on grilled red meats, assertive quiches, hearty bread-based dishes and substantial salads, all of which are at the lower end of the "fine dining" price spectrum.

Each creation is imaginatively prepared and . . . elemental somehow.

To grasp what I mean here, try the Shepherd's Salad ($12), a large mélange of fresh greens tossed with warm lean and fat lamb "bacon" and topped with a poached egg you will swirl into a dressing.

You probably have seldom tasted "naked" lamb, lamb with sharp edges, like this: demanding, unmistakable, unforgettable. This is perhaps the only salad I have ever eaten that demands a big, knock-your-socks-off burgundy to stand up to it.

The Foccacia Taleggia ($10 as an appetizer) is another choice that defines the muscular attraction of the menu and typifies the demands, and subsequent rewards, made on the diner.

Topped with prosciutto, goat cheese and white truffle oil, the foccacia explodes in your mouth, bite after bite. A friend once said that white truffle oil tastes like a man's entire life. I think I know now what he meant. It is not for the timid.

A number of dishes appear both as main courses on the lunch board and as appetizers on the dinner counterpart. A hint: At lunch, you can order from both the lunch and dinner menus. The crab-artichoke bake ($8 as an
appetizer), thick, cheese-laden and buttery with nuggets of stone crab meat, is so rich that a diner who doesn't share is at risk of topping out before the main course arrives.

Spread it on bread rounds and contemplate how good life is. The seafood mousse ($9 as an appetizer) is very different from the other offerings, a change of pace, if you will: Light and delicate as sea foam, it is still quite distinctive. I actually prefer the accompanying assertive roasted red pepper coulis to be enjoyed separately — perhaps spread on bread rounds also — so that the taste of both mousse and preserved pepper can be individually savored.

When was the last time you really looked forward to truly experiencing the food at lunch and not just grinding down your usual burger as though you were a Strasbourg goose?

Try something like the Thai chicken salad ($12) instead. It's not a Thai — hot red curry — experience at all, but instead a beckoning mound of fresh salad greens, shredded daikon, squares of brie and generous chunks of
glazed, sweet-spicy chicken breast.

Just as appealing is the chicken vol-au-vent ($15 at lunch), great whacks and slices of hand-carved chicken breast and mushrooms in a darkened mushroom cream sauce served over the flakiest lattice of puff-pasty.

A generous dish with the usual 3 Doors Down character, it is not a pot pie.

The heart of the menu here, though, is the red meat. More than half the dinner menu's main entries are beef or lamb or a combination: steaks, chops, beef Wellington, mixed grills. On my last visit I noted with anticipation,
and disappointed frustration, a chalked message on the dinner menu: "wild game mixed grill tomorrow." Sadly, that night we had to "settle" for the Trois Filet ($29) and the beef and lamb mixed grill ($29).

The former is three chunks of prime beef tenderloin, a good nine or 10 ounces total, each topped with a different, terrific sauce: a bearnaise, a smooth green peppercorn sauce and an herb butter.

Ordered absolutely rare, two of the filets were stunningly perfect, whereas one was overcooked at medium-rare and merely semi-perfect.

The mixed grill was textbook, different meats, different cuts, different tastes. The absolutely lean and fork-tender rare beef filet and rare, fat-laced rib lamb chops held their pink juices perfectly.

Both these main selections were graced with small carved potato balls and heads of the freshest green fennel, lightly braised and redolent of anise, memory-stickers all.

Even the "house" soups and salads that come with some main courses show the same degree of skill and care. If the fresh spinach soup, earthy and tasting faintly like fresh hay smells, is one of the choices, order it. If you opt for a fresh salad garnished with a crunchy, fresh beet slice, try the homemade garlic bleu cheese dressing.

Finally, you must try a dessert. Or two. They are unbelievably good and reasonably priced. The peach torte with vanilla bean ice cream ($5) is both homey and elegant, if that is possible.

Order the crème brulee ($5) and, if you are sitting so that you can see behind the screen skirting the serving preparation room, you can watch Meg wield her blowtorch like a shipyard welder as she melts the sugar on top of
the lovely custard.

3 Doors Down is not a great food place — yet. Some of its dishes are great, though, and would be proud additions to even the most serious restaurant scene.

A final note: As I was leaving, the aromas, the tastes, even the sounds of the crockery clinking behind the screen, had sort of massaged me into my best mood of the day — make that the week.

I couldn't help but think walking to my car: Grace doesn't always come at the beginning of a meal.

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Ralph's rating: The hearty, continental food with a modern American riff is a little more pricey than your typical cookie cutter "nice dinner out." But it's still a great bargain that tastes home cooked, if you happen to live
with James Beard or Julia Child. No kidding.

September 26, 2003