Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/04/30/dilly-dallying-in-denver-day-4-the-final-day/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60447

It is the last day of April and I am finally posting the final part of my time in Denver, which was literally almost two months ago now, but that’s neither here nor there. On the fourth day, one of Alex’s other friends from college flew in for their birthday as well, and got there very early in the morning. So all three of us got into shenanigans today!

You always have to start out the day with going to a cute coffee shop, so we went to Savageau Coffee & Ice Cream.

This little coffee shop had a really cool layout, with a whole wall of different, framed mirrors. I ended up getting a white chocolate and pistachio flavored iced matcha:

With coffees in hand, we headed over to the Denver Botanic Gardens. I was extremely excited to visit the botanical gardens, as I love flowers. Things were just barely starting to bloom in the still chilly spring air. Heck, it had snowed two nights before, so I was partially expecting everything to be dead. And while a lot of plants were still dormant, there was plenty to see.

Alex had actually just been gifted a membership to the gardens, so they used two of their guest passes on us, which was really nice. I believe it’s about twenty dollars for standard adult admission, otherwise.

I took a lot of flower photos, and it was difficult to decide which ones to show y’all. I ended up picking out ones that are purple and pink, because those are my two favorite colors. So enjoy these handful of shots from our time walking around at the gardens:

The Denver Botanic Gardens had so many beautiful orchids, most of which were in glass cases or on huge display carts. They were absolutely stunning and they had a wide array of colors. Orchids are one of my favorite flowers, so these were very cool to see.

The gardens were such a nice experience. I just love walking through trails with different plant life all along the sides and learning about new flowers. The gift shop was really cool, too! There was a huge variety of items, but I only ended up getting a couple pins. All in all a successful outing.

We left just in time to head to our early dinner reservations at Ash’Kara. This was another restaurant where we wanted to partake in their Restaurant Week offerings, but we actually showed up at 4pm, and the dinner service (including the Restaurant Week stuff) didn’t start until 5. So we actually ended up sitting and enjoying Ash’Kara’s happy hour for a little bit before we got to have our actual meals. Thankfully, they weren’t busy at all and let us hang out whilst we waited for 5pm to roll around.

I really loved the interior of Ash’Kara. It’s very colorful and eclectic, has cool light fixtures, and has a lovely bar.

Here’s their happy hour menu:

And the beverages:

While these drinks definitely sounded good, I ended up ordering a mocktail. This was their cucumber spritz, which is just cucumber syrup, lemon, and soda water:

And Alex got another one of their mocktails, the passion-hibiscus spritz, with passion tea syrup, hibiscus, lemon, and soda water:

I loved these glasses, they remind me a lot of Jupiter glass but with a more ornate design. Both of these drinks were super light and refreshing without being too sweet, as mocktails sometimes can be. I actually ended up getting Alex’s drink for my second one because I liked it so much, but both were great choices.

We wanted to get a couple happy hour food items, but didn’t want to fill up too much before we ate our actual dinner. We ended up ordering the Castelvetrano olives:

Castelvetrano olives just so happens to be my favorite type, so these olives with orange zest and Calabrian chili were absolutely delish. They were bright, briny, and really packed a punch. They were easily shareable and a great start to the rest of our meal.

We also got their pickled veggie platter:

If you like briny, pucker-worthy pickles, this is the appetizer for you. Crunchy, fresh veggies with a ton of pickle-y bite to them. I liked the pickles the best, just because the carrots were hard for me to bite through (I have sensitive teeth).

And for our final shareable, we got the fried halloumi and panisse:

Oh my goodness, look at that golden brown color. That is picture perfect right there. While I absolutely love fried halloumi, I wasn’t sure what panisse was. You can really tell a difference between the cubes of panisse and the halloumi, too. My friends didn’t know either, so we looked it up and they are essentially chickpea fritters, like polenta but made with chickpea flour and then fried.

The fried halloumi was the best I’d ever had. It was hot and crispy, and the cheese squeaked like a Wisconsin cheese curd. The panisse was soft and pillowy on the inside, and I was happy to try something I had never heard of before. This was an absolutely bomb starter and we all really enjoyed it.

Finally, it was time to view the Restaurant Week menu. Set at $45 a person, here’s what we were looking at:

This one turned out a little blurry, so let me walk you through the different options and tell you what everyone got.

For the first course, you basically pick between four dip options. There’s hummus, htipiti, labneh, and babaganoush. You can also add on pita, pickles, fries, and olives, but whatever dip you chose did come with your own naan as a vehicle for your dip.

I got the labneh, Alex got the hummus, and Alex’s friend got the babaganoush:

My labneh came with roasted grapes, sumac honey, sesame seeds, and chives. The hummus had a sprinkle of paprika and chopped parsley on top. The babaganoush had a paprika oil on top with crispy shallots and some microgreens.

All three of the dips were so divine. My labneh was so creamy, and the texture worked really well with the soft grapes and tiny crunch from the sesame seeds. The hummus was excellent, and had plenty of garlicy flavor without being overpowering. The babaganoush might’ve been the star of the show, with the savory, roasty flavor of the eggplant and perfectly crunchy shallots. The naan our dips were served with was warm and soft. All three of us were eating each other’s dips because they were all so good. The labneh and babganoush are a must-try.

We also added on an order of Za’atar fries:

I love za’atar and think it is an underutilized spice in many people’s cooking, so it was awesome to see za’atar fries. These were hot, fresh, crispy fries with just the right amount of herbaceous and saltiness from the za’atar.

For course two, you could choose between salad and falafel. Alex and their friend got the falafel:

I got the Fattoush salad:

This salad had chicory, pickled red cabbage, pomegranate arils, fried sage, roasted delicata squash, and naan breadcrumbs with a shrub vinaigrette. Oh my gosh, this salad was bomb. So many different textures and flavors happening here, yet nothing contrasting in a negative way. Crunchy pickled cabbage, soft roasted squash, fresh greens, and tart pomegranate, it was a beautiful dish. I really loved this salad.

For our final course, we could choose between braised lamb shoulder, lemon pepper salmon, or a roasted cabbage dish. While Alex and I got the lamb, their friend got the roasted cabbage:

I almost got this, and when I saw it I knew I wouldn’t have regretted my choice if I had. With tons of caramelization on the roasted cabbage and plenty of caramelized onions, it looked so flavorful atop that soft basmati rice.

Here was our lamb shoulder:

There were a lot of words that accompanied the lamb shoulder description that I didn’t recognize, and I had to ask the waiter about several of them. The lamb is served with a sweet potato tershi. While I love sweet potatoes, I didn’t know what a tershi was. Turns out, it’s like a dip or a spread that is typically made from pumpkin or squash, and is usually spicy or at least warmly spiced. Thankfully, this version wasn’t very spicy, just nicely spiced. It also had zhug, which is sort of like pesto, but with cilantro and parsley instead of basil, and different spices like cumin. There was also hawaji in the dish, which is a Yemeni spice blend I’ve never heard of it. Now, I did know already what kataifi is, and it’s the crispy shredded phyllo you see on top.

Now that we know what everything is, this dish was incredibly delicious. Super tender lamb and soft sweet potatoes contrasting the crunchy kataifi. The bright, fresh, herbaceous zhug lightened up the rich, warm flavors of the lamb. This dish was so unique and unlike any lamb I’d had before. I highly recommend this dish if you like lamb, or if you’ve never had lamb and are curious to try it. This dish would be the perfect introduction to it.

Ash’Kara was a really awesome culinary experience. There’s pretty much no Mediterranean restaurants around where I live, so experiencing this amazing cuisine was such a treat. I absolutely loved all the different flavors and unique dishes I got to try. I would a hundred percent revisit Ash’Kara if I go back to Denver.

So, that’s pretty much everything I did for my few days in Denver! Tons of amazing food, great drinks, cool museums, awesome flowers, and of course, friends.

For the rest of my time in Colorado (which was about another three days), we went out to Palmer Lake and stayed in an AirBnb with more of Alex’s friends. It was a lovely mountain lodge and we had a lot of fun, and I made this charcuterie board:

This board had dill Havarti, a red wax Gouda, double creme brie, drunken goat, and whipped hot honey goat cheese. Plus prosciutto and salami, smoked salmon, jalapeno and garlic stuffed olives, pickles, cheddar crisps, and candied pecans. Aside from the dijon mustard, Alex’s mom makes jams and spreads, so we used her cherry berry, apricot mango, and blackberry spreads. I also threw together a sweet treat board:

Alex requested two things: blackberries and strawberries. Trader Joe’s (where we got literally all of this from) had these special white strawberries called pineberries that were supposedly really good, so we gave them a shot. There’s also mini peanut butter cups, milk chocolate covered pretzels, and then these super yummy little mousse cakes. There’s the raspberry mousse ones with vanilla cake, and the chocolate ones. They were ridiculously good.

Anyways, aside from enjoying our time in the cabin playing games and whatnot, we also saw the Red Rocks Amphitheater (not attending a concert, just saw it regularly), and the Garden of the Gods. The Garden of the Gods was honestly such an amazing experience; the beauty of it all brought a tear to my eye. I highly recommend checking it out. Who knew rocks could be so awe-inspiring.

The last thing I have to post about is the Denver airport, and it might be for different reasons than you’d expect! So stay tuned for the actual final post about Denver.

Have you visited the botanical gardens before? Was it when everything was more.. alive? What would you have ordered from Ash’Kara? Do you like lamb? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/04/30/dilly-dallying-in-denver-day-4-the-final-day/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60447