Whether it’s a power lunch (or dinner), date night, a meal with the girls or guys, or a happy hour worth dressing up for, steakhouses are having a moment in Colorado. Okay, more than a moment – Ruth’s Chris, Elways, STK and, heck, even Texas Roadhouse, are steakhouse staples. One of the new entries to the carnivore-lover’s collection is Broadway 10 Bar & Chophouse, which opened in Cherry Creek North in early November. We got a preview of the place before the opening and found mostly hits with just a few misses.
First a little background about Broadway 10 Bar & Chophouse, aka B I 10. The restaurant has a well-established following in Oklahoma City going back to 2014. The new Denver location is its first foray outside of Oklahoma. Located at 3rd and University, B I 10 occupies 9,600-square-feet with a contemporary design that can seat 250 people inside including six private and semi-private dining areas and 40 seats between the two patios.
The bar area is horseshoe-shaped and huge. The curated art on walls is bold and works perfectly with the steamlined but comfortable seating. There’s a glass-enclosed wine room that’s a focal point between the two main dining areas, a bold chandelier and mosaic tile flooring that’s a salute to the 100-year-old building in which the original restaurant is housed. There’s plenty of natural light and an open kitchen where guests can see steaks being seared, chefs rolling sushi and seafood being prepared. A Chef’s Table is at one end of the kitchen, accommodating up to eight guests, putting them in the middle of the action. On to the food.
Broadway 10 Bar & Chophouse Denver’s Hits & Misses
The menu is divided into Starters, Sushi, Salads, Soups, Cold Bar, Chophouse Cuts, Shells & Fins, Sandwiches, Specialties and Vegan. That’s separate of the beer/wine/cocktail or dessert lists so, clearly, there is a lot to choose from at B I 10. We started with Jumbo Crab Cakes ($36) made with Maryland Crab. This is a dish restaurants can do really well (with big chunks of crab) or badly (minced beyond recognition). B I 10 does theirs well, holding together but flaking apart easily to reveal the tender, white crab. Good enough on their own, a little dab of the tartar sauce on the plate further enhances them. Other options for starters include the showy Flaming Scallops, Calamari and “Bacon, Elevated” (strips of different seasoning individually pinned to a rack with scissors for portioning). Our crab cakes were a hit.
From the Sushi side, although the many choices all sounded good, we went for the Surf & Turf ($25) because it sounded like it would, indeed, give us the best of both worlds, offering a combo not often provided in sushi. The ingredients were piquillo peppers, goat cheese, and butter-poached lobster on the inside with seared beef tenderloin, crispy fried shallots and leeks with garlic aioli and sriracha on the outside. The poached lobster pieces, although plentiful, were chewy and the overall flavor of the roll just didn’t match what the listing of ingredients could have been. It’s a miss.
Under Salads, there was an impressive number of options, many of which could be entrees unto themselves. But, as part of our multi-course meal, we shared the Wedge ($17) with the creamiest peppered bleu cheese and pieces of thick-cut bacon (we were having FOMO from seeing the “Bacon, Elevated” starter at other tables). The Wedge was plentiful, cool and crisp, as it should be. And the bleu cheese was an accent versus taking over as it often can. It’s a hit.
The Lobster Bisque ($17) was the highlight of the night. The creamy soup itself had layers of well-developed and delicious flavor. There were big chunks of lobster, legitimizing it as Lobster Bisque, and the addition of a toasted cognac marshmallow. A marshmallow in soup?! I ordered it just to find out what that marshmallow deal was going to be about. Slightly melting into the bisque, it was easy to drag a little bit into spoonfuls of soup. The mix of sweet and savory with lobster flavor totally worked and was a wonderful discovery. It’s a BIG hit.
We didn’t order anything off the Cold Bar menu but the three options are a Seafood Tower, Fresh Oysters (both Market Priced) and Shrimp Cocktail ($26). Instead, we went straight to the meats!
There’s a note below the Chophouse Cuts explaining that their cuts are U.S.D.A. Certified, seasoned with kosher salt & black pepper, finished with drawn butter and Maldon salt. Further, it says “A majority of our listed steaks are wet-aged. We also feature a various selection of in-house dry-aged cuts.” We asked our server what “wet-aged” meant, not familiar with that term. She checked and returned, explaining that it basically means that it’s like a normal steak you would buy that isn’t dry-aged. So, not a particular process – just not the dry-aged process. Good to know. We had also been told, as soon as we sat down, that steaks either came simply seared on a very hot grill, or smoked over wood, which adds another element of flavor.
My husband ordered the Colorado Rack of Lamb (16 oz for $69), cooked over wood. I ordered the T-Bone (25oz) for $85 seared on the grill because, with a great cut of steak, I want to be sure to taste it and nothing else – same reason I don’t do any of the sauces offered (and they have quite the selection of them). A note about my big ‘ol steak – under the “Classic Cuts” side of the menu, the Filet, N.Y. Strip and Ribeye came in 7oz, 14oz and 16oz respectively. So, when we saw 25oz for about the same price as those other cuts, we assumed the bulk of the weight was due to the bone being in and not the amount of meat itself.
The T-Bone WAS huge (and made for great leftovers for two days after!). So just know, the massiveness is NOT just due to the bone. I ordered it medium-rare and it was perfectly-done. My husband’s rack of lamb had four, large ribs which he also ordered medium rare but felt it leaned more toward the rare side. Both were a hit.
Sides are served family-style in the cutest little silver, handled pans. Options include Carrots & Potatoes ($15), 1lb Salt Baked Potato ($15), Asparagus Hollandaise ($17), Bacon Mac & Cheese ($15) and others. We chose Brussels with maple, bacon and pomegranate ($15) and Smoked Gouda Mash ($16). The Brussels were great, beautifully roasted and the sweet/savory/salt from the remaining ingredients could make a Brussels Sprouts fan out of the most reluctant. The Smoked Gouda Mash was too cheesy and too creamy. Yes, I said it. As though either of those things could be a problem, they were. It tasted, and had the mouthfeel of, starchy cheese. Here, we had a hit and a miss.
Items from the Shells & Fins menu include Rock Lobster, Petite Lobster, Chilean Seabass and Atlantic Salmon ($53-Market price). Sandwiches, all served with house salt & vinegar chips offered up Bob’s Steak Sandwich, OKC Hot Chicken Sandwich (I saw it going past and it’s huge) and a Butcher Burger for $24-$37. Specialties include Chicken Diablo, Lobster Rolls and Chophouse Vodka Pasta ($35-$54) and Vegan offerings include a Red Pepper Timbale and Portobello Steak, $24-$25.
B I 10 has an impressive cocktail, beer and wine menu. There are 250 bottles on the wine list which emphasizes boutique producers. Bottles range from $44-$1,000+. Broadway 10’s Coravin wine preservation mechanism enables guests to have glasses of wine usually only available by the bottle. From the cocktail list, I ordered the Midnight in Manhattan ($18) with Herradura Reposado, Amara Averna and Orange Bitters. It was excellent. My husband ordered the Jalapeno Haze ($17) with Titos, jalapeno, lemon and basil. He described it as being similar to a margarita minus the sickly-sweetness that often accompanies a marg. A hit.
The After Dinner menu has Sweets and Cocktails. The latter includes a Bananas Foster Martini, Grasshopper and the like. The dessert includes a Stocky Toffee Pudding ($16) our server said is her favorite, Key Lime Pie ($15), Lemon Tart ($15), New York Cheesecake ($14), Chocolate Bavarian Layer Cake ($19) and a Chocolate Ganache Globe ($16) which is an award-winner. They weren’t offering the Globe the preview night we were there but it’s Chocolate Molten Cake and Coffee Ice Cream, topped with a dark chocolate ganache globe that’s then smothered, table-side in bourbon caramel that melts the globe to reveal the inside. We’ll have to return for that one!
We shared the Chocolate Bavarian Layer Cake ($19), impressive enough to be for a wedding, with moist chocolate cake, Bavarian cream, chocolate Swiss meringue butter cream, chocolate chips and chocolate ganache. In other words, CHOCOLATE every which way. The slice was big enough to share with several people and, indeed, moist, although the flavor wasn’t anything particularly sophisticated, despite all of the elements. Still, if you like chocolate, you’ll like this cake. Our son certainly appreciated the leftover when we got home. We declare it a hit.
Like all steakhouses, expect your bill to be high. Like, in the hundreds-of-dollars high. They are an experience, providing very high-quality ingredients and an upscale environment. It’s the kind of place you go because it’s on the company expense account, something you’ve saved up for, or, when dropping a few hundred bucks is your usual dining out budget. B I 10 is a welcome addition to the Colorado steak- and seafood-house scene and will, I predict, do very well. With our opinions on hits and misses combined, it certainly averages out to a dining experience worth having.
Broadway 10 Bar & Chophouse is located at 2345 E. 3rd Ave. in Denver. Visit their website for more information and to make reservations.
-Story and photos by Courtney Drake-McDonough, Publisher & Managing Editor, In Good Taste Denver
Please note, as is common practice in our industry, we were hosted for this dining experience to help facilitate this article. However, as is always our policy, our opinions are our own and are for the purpose of informing our readers.
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