Westword.com Happy Hour Hunt: Z Cuisine À Côté By Kate Kennedy January 13, 2010 "The downfall of Á Côté's happy hour is that, unless you have extreme discipline, your bank account won't be thrilled once you get the tab. However, the experience is so enthralling that it's entirely worth the extra pennies -- and I wouldn't hesitate for a second to return. The love that goes into preparing the food at Á Côté is so evident that it's literally palatable, and you'll soon realize that, for an event that's traditionally centered around a cheap buzz, the five dollar glass of wine you're chugging for happy hour has become little more than a second thought. The happy hour plate is a lovely charcuterie dish brimming with artisan cheeses, housemade confitures and country paté. The combination, which changes frequently, is accompanied by an utterly sinful chocolate pot de crème lightly sprinkled with cayenne powder. The tartine a la Parisienne -- a flawlessly fried egg topping an open-faced sandwich on grilled batard, whose rich béchamel is hard to distinguish from the Emmanthaler that melts perfectly onto the Colorado farm-raised ham -- was most appropriately described by another diner as an "Egg McMuffin on crack." Enough said. The staff possesses the same passion that's evoked in the food, which is apparent not only in their knowledge of the menu, but in their vast repertoire of wine and their ability to excite even the weariest of customers." Overall Grade: A

Westword Best of Denver 2009 Best Wine List — Price - Z Cuisine À Côté We love a place informal enough to list its bottles on a chalkboard — even if we're cowed by the fact that we can't correctly pronounce most of them. But at Z Cuisine and its sibling wine bar, À Côté, we have no doubt that anything we drink will be delicious. Z Cuisine has stayed true to its concept as a neighborhood bistro by offering some fantastic (primarily French) wines at reasonable prices. By the glass, they generally run between five and ten bucks, with a couple (like the new, Denver-born Infinite Monkey Theorem sauvignon) cracking twelve. And the bottles usually stay in the thirty-dollar range. A Domaine la Garrigue 2006 Côtes du Rhône for $33? That's not a bad deal on any list, and at Z Cuisine, it's just the start. Westword Best of Denver 2009 Best French Menu - Z Cuisine It begins with the assiette de charcuterie maison — the house meat plate, a delirious mix of pâté and rillette and cheeses and sausage and cornichons and chutney and more. From there — from that best of all possible beginnings — Z Cuisine's menu blooms outward into a board that might include foie gras marinated in sauternes, pork belly brined in white wine and served with caramelized skin, oxtail crepes, cassoulet and lamb Niçoise. Chef Patrick Dupays sources as close to home as he can, scouring farmers' markets for the best product he can lay his hands on. Every one of his plates is a benchmark preparation. And amazingly, when the menu changes — as it does weekly, sometimes daily, sometimes even in the middle of service — every one of the new plates will be just as good.

Rocky Mountain News Dining briefs: Chef's choice - John Broening By Lori Midson, Special to the Rocky February 5, 2009 Best French restaurant: "There's nobody in Denver like Patrick Dupays at Z Cuisine (2239 W. 30th Ave.) and Z Cuisine A Cote. Rather than some focus-group-tested idea of what a Denver restaurant should be, his restaurants and menus reflect his unique vision, his generosity and hospitality. A quintessentially French dish - and my favorite dish in Denver - is his salade gourmande with gizzards, prosciutto, blood sausage and veal tongue with sauteed apples served over super fresh greens with a vibrant mustard dressing. It's heaven, especially with a big, acidic red wine."

Westword From A to Z - Z Cuisine À Côté spells success August 21, 2008 "And they will do so gladly, happily — with the kind of ardor and lust that makes friends of strangers and one small, cramped, busy and overflowing room into one of the most welcoming houses in town."

Westword Best of Denver 2008 Best Wine Bar - Z Cuisine À Côté "Patrick Dupays already operated one of the city's best French restaurants, Z Cuisine, so when he announced that he'd picked up a second spot just two doors down from his original restaurant and was planning on turning it into a wine bar, Denver's francophiles were (literally) beside themselves with joy. And with good reason, too, because Z Cuisine À Côté stands as its own destination — a warm, beautiful tribute to the Parisian wine-bar culture of the 1900s, offering plenty of wines by the glass, cheeses, charcuterie and a selection of small plates (like frisée aux lardons, petit chèvre and asparagus quiche, and onion soup gratinée) made to the same high standards of rustic Frenchiness exemplified by Dupays's original restaurant. From A to Z, this is one class act."

Westword Best of Denver 2007 Best French Restaurant "One of the best, most recognizable dishes in the epic French canon is cassoulet. And at Z Cuisine, one of the best, most recognizable dishes on chef/owner Patrick DuPays's chalkboard menu is a cassoulet maison that does proud every French cook ever tasked with carrying on the cassoulet tradition. One taste of DuPays's version -- which combines a leg of duck confit on the bone, local sausage, stiff white beans, bitter greens and whole cippolini onions gone soft as roasted garlic cloves, all in a tomato broth muscled up with stock and deeply, richly flavored with the mingled essences of each individual ingredient -- will remind even the most recalcitrant epicure why the French deserve their position of honor as the undisputed masters of cuisine both haute and basse, because there's nothing more comforting, nothing more charming, than a real cassoulet expertly done. Bracket it with a brilliant assiette de campagnard and maybe a bowl of the celery soup with cr?me fraîche (when available), and you'll know that Z Cuisine represents the best of France that Denver has to offer." Best Wine List for Mortals "If you know almost nothing about wine, can't speak French and couldn't care less about growing region, age, legs, microclimatology or varietals but still don't want to make a fool out of yourself by accidentally ordering the French equivalent of a bottle of Mad Dog to go with your cassoulet, Z Cuisine has the solution. On the wall near the bar is a chalkboard that lists the wine of the day. It's never terribly expensive, usually interesting in some way you probably won't understand, and can be ordered simply by pointing -- which you should do with a certain attitude of world-weary élan. Z Cuisine's vin de la maison offers an easy, eminently drinkable choice that saves you from having to peruse the list and pretend you know what you're looking at."

Rocky Mountain News Dining Guide 2007 - Top 20 By John Lehndorff

Sunday New York Times Travel Going to Denver By Ted Loos August 20, 2006 "Although it has been open for only a year, Denver’s Francophiles have made themselves at home at Z Cuisine (2239 West 30th Avenue, 303-477-1111), an intimate, six-table restaurant named for how a native French speaker might pronounce “the cuisine.” The chef and co-owner, Patrick DuPays, however, doesn’t have any problems translating classic French dishes like cassoulet ($20) and quiche Dijonaise ($14.50)."

Denver Post Food & Dining Ooh la la! Tiny French bistro wins taste raves By Tucker Shaw April 26, 2006

Westword Best of Denver 2006 Best New Restaurant Best French Restaurant Best French Wine List Best Dinner Destination for Makin Babies

Rocky Mountain News Spotlight/Dining Z Cuisine: Amour at first and last bite By John Lehndorff January 27, 2006

Westword Cafe Five in 2005 - For restaurants, this was a very good year. By Jason Sheehan December 29, 2005

5280 - Denver's Mile-High Magazine Best New Restaurants Dec. 2005/Jan. 2006 issue

Westword Cafe Z Whiz - This bistro is a beauty By Jason Sheehan November 10, 2005