DINING REVIEW: Patty Jewett Bar & Grill

Clubhouse serves simple, good food at fair prices

May 27, 2010 12:15 PM

NATHANIEL GLEN 

THE GAZETTE

 

Walk into the clubhouse of Patty Jewett Golf Course, grab a seat at the gorgeous patio bar and youll quickly notice something: Most of the diners in this stately old clubhouse are not just finishing up a game. Nor are they about to start a game. They have come simply to enjoy this little oasis of good, simple food, fair prices and a lovely patio with a view of snowy Pikes Peak rising over the links. To be sure, there are men in Titleist visors adjusting their scores over pitchers of light beer, but this charming little grill also draws heavily from those of impeccable taste in the Old North End.The bar and grill-style menu offers an array of burgers, sandwiches, salads and a few slightly more involved, but not fussy, entrees, such as a tuna salad-stuffed tomato or Baja-style fish tacos. The Broadmoor, it is not, but neither is it merely a snack bar, and the enticing setting should put it on the list for anyone who cares to lunch al fresco. Patty Jewett got its start in 1898 as the Town and Gown Golf Club. It was later bought by William Jewett, who named the course after his wife and donated it to the city. It is one of the oldest and best public golf courses west of the Mississippi.

 

Most of the seating in the restaurant, and all of the best seating, is outdoors, and the place does not really flourish until summer. But on sunny days it is packed, and servers run around juggling big platters of lunch trays. The burgers let you know what kind of place it is right away. They are hand-formed and juicy on a quality bun. Go for the Tico Burger ($7) and your patty comes draped in crisp lettuce, with a decent tomato, cucumber slices and a tangy secret sauce, which apparently has the same ketchup and mayo in it as any other secret sauce. There is nothing fabulous about Pattys patties, but a good burger at a good price in a good setting goes a long way.The same is true for the Philly cheese-steak ($6.75). Its a little on the small side but otherwise, everything is right. The shaved beef is nicely crisped on the grill with caramelized onions and thin slivers of green and red pepper in a clingy, gooey cheese.Lighter dishes also hit their marks. A club sandwich ($7) comes on nicely toasted bread with fresh, crisp lettuce and a construction that, unlike many clubs these days, is not too big to take a bite of.For sides there are choices including fries, cottage cheese and salad. Some are better than others. The side salad ($1 extra) had a nice mix of spring greens, carrots, diced tomato and cucumber.

 

The coleslaw, however, is a bit odd. It is billed as a vinegar-style slaw but, when we tried it, was so oily that it seemed like it was doused in sweet Italian dressing.Other forays from the mainstream are more successful. The open-face steak sandwich ($13) the golf clubs only nod to snootiness boasts a thin but juicy New York strip, perfectly seasoned and cooked to order and easily tender enough to work as a sandwich.The corn tortillas in the fish tacos ($8) come filled with crisp, battered white fish slaked in a tangy lemon mayo and nestled in an avocado and tomato salsa. I could have used more heat in the salsa and a dusting of cilantro, but the avocado was deliciously ripe. Overall, the dish eclipses all expectations for public golf course fish tacos.But that is the thing about Patty Jewett, the thing the Old North Enders already know: It is a restaurant surrounded by a public golf course, but it is not necessarily a public golf course restaurant. Ive never swung a driver once in my life, and after a few lunches here I felt like part of the club.

 

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