The List: The best new restaurants of 2008

The tofu pot pie is a little too sweet. However, the sliders are good. As was the beet...tart, or whatever it was. That was creatively good.

THANK YOU Mr. Sheehan. The hype machine for Root Down was making me crazy. Every time I bring up a dinner spot to a friend, neighbor, the fucking garbage man... "ooohhh have you tried Root Down? You would love it." I didn't.

I too am so tired of hearing all the buzz about
Root Down! I was not impressed at all. Thank you Mr Sheehan for telling it like it really is!!

Sheehan is irrelevent. Root Down, on the other hand, is not. Hence the ego that oozes out of this review. Someone is in dire need of attention here (hint: its not the newest restaurant to hit the Denver dining scene!).

Didn't this guy just write last week that this restaurant was #2 on the list of "crazy concepts...but they work." ???

Root Down is a fabricated phenomenon. Westword has a following and as I may not always agree with Mr Sheehan.. this review was spot on!! Has illy eaten at Root Down? Or is he/she someone who works there. FINALLY someone has the balls to say it like it is!!

BRAVO Sheehan!!! you can't see me, but I'm giving you a standing O!

what happened to the rest of the list and the comments? i loved the one about the after dinner mint at this place is better than any entree at root down.

Yeah, I saw another list too: Table 6, Twelve, where'd it go???

I don't always agree with Jason (Indulge) and his ego is sometimes a little hard to swallow but I find that I agree with him (Root Down) more often than not and I appreciate the fact that he actually fully samples a restaurant's fare before praising or taking it to task. I spent the winter in Mexico and the first place my friend wanted to take me upon my return to Denver was Root Down. As my dad from Texas used to say, "the place is all hat and no cattle". Yes, great pedigree, star chef, cool atmoshpere, yummy cocktails - perfect for the hipper than thou crowd. But, the proof is in the food which is pretty average. We liberally sampled the menu and the only dish I can remember that we really enjoyed was the mussels. Desserts were particulary lame and the wine list impenetrable (not one wine anyone had ever heard of and they were out of the one the server recommended). Not in any hurry to return.

Illy, if Sheehan is irrelevant why do you read his stuff? Because he's right!

Can't wait to read all about it tomorrow

At least Marcos pizza in the ballpark neighborhood wasnt on this list.. And Sheehan is prob the most irrelevant person in denver. Hes in dire need of self gratification obviously; not going there again my friend.. At least with the tabacco tax going way up, maybe we dont have to read about him smoking a carton and then trying to have the tastebuds to sample a meal.

I read the original last night and I'm glad to see that it's been edited. Obviously someone inside didn't appreciate the tone. It sounded more like a personal attack than a legitimate article about a restaurant that really isn't THAT bad! I can think of a LOT more places in Denver that have far worse food than this one and they've been around much longer so they've had their chance to step it up. I don't think any place should be "reviewed" within the first year of opening.

Yes, I edited Sheehan's blog last night when I discovered that it had been accidentally posted unedited, and early (it was supposed to be the Tuesday night tease for the review that hit the streets today). As you can see from his review and Bite Me column in this week's paper (which I also edited -- although before publication), we did not tone down his opinions of Root Down.

For the record, Westword waits at least two months, and usually three, before we review a restaurant. That's why only restaurants that opened in 2008 were eligible for our Best New Restaurant award in the Best of Denver.

I really like Root Down--and I love the brunch. A food critic is supposed to offer his opinion--why the personal attacks when a reader doesn't agree?
Disagreeing with Jason Sheehan won't stop me from reading his work; his review won't keep me from Sundays at Root Down.

There's the phenomenon about which, on some level, we all know. When anything is getting way more credit than it deserves, we tend to overshoot our criticisms in an attempt to shake reality into the purveyors of said undue credit (and their blind followers). This review is clearly a case of that. We all know that Root Down isn't a BAD restaurant. If it wasn't so annoyingly successful (to the point of, often, being an unpleasant place to find oneself), I imagine that Mr. Sheehan would not have written this review. While Root Down certainly isn't vomit-worthy (as this review might have you think), there are, indeed many restaurants in Denver that are better than Root Down but that have not been the fortunate recipients of this all-out hoopla. That said, you will, someday, find me again at Root Down. But I'd rather sip a Pimms Cup at Beatrice and Woodsley any day of the week.

My above comment was more applicable on Monday, when the unedited version of Sheehan's post was still up.