|
|
 |
|
||
| In
the midst of the city lies a three-acre oasis known as the Margarita
at PineCreek. Within its white stucco walls, fragrant white blossoms
from the peach and apple trees greet guests in late spring. A gentle
breeze carries the smell of thyme, basil, oregano, and chives from the
nearby garden across the patio. Just outside the walls, green grass,
trees, and wildlife flourish along the creek. Off in the distance, deer
graze, the occasional bear passes through, and owls and falcons find
their perch. Bunnies are abundant, waiting patiently for a bite of fresh
greens. Bunnies aren’t the only ones that recognize good food when they smell it. Pati Burleson founded her restaurant on the philosophy that fresh ingredients make the best food. For more than three decades, she has been buying locally because fresh, unadulterated food is what she wants to eat. “It’s worth it to do what you can to get a fresh tomato. It’s so wonderful,” she says. This summer Chef Eric Viedt won’t have to look far for fresh produce since The Colorado Farm and Art Saturday Market has relocated outside the restaurant door. This award-winning chef can spend more time cooking and working on his visions for the future of the Margarita, of which he is now part-owner. Pati, laughing, says she is happy the dearly loved large sculpted carrots visible from the road now have a greater meaning and connection to the restaurant. Pati’s love of Mexican food, art, architecture, and the big carrots have certainly given the Margarita character. “But, we are not a Mexican restaurant,” says Eric. Describing their style of cooking is difficult for him and Pati. “We have a solid foot in French and Mexican cooking,” she explains. However, the fusion of other international flavors makes each dish its own entity. Eric picks up the menu and points out examples. The sake-poached red onion cherry marmalade gives his Garlic-Citrus-Hoisin Glazed Pork Tenderloin dish an Asian flavor. Coriander and sumac offer an eastern flavor to the lamb kabob. Fried green tomatoes are typically a southern dish, but topped with a fried quail egg and Tasso hollandaise sauce, the dish takes on Cajun and French flavors. “We make good food for the sake of making good food,” he shares. Pati agrees, and for now they settle on “comfortable contemporary” to describe their fine dining establishment. “We serve good, comfortable food in an interesting contemporary way,” adds Eric. Many of the patrons have been dining there for more than 30 years. Eric, who has been cooking at the Margarita for eight of those years, says he loves the atmosphere. “It feels like family, and people don’t want to leave.” There are even some 25-year veterans on staff. The atmosphere is the product of Pati’s passion for food, family, music, and art, which has made the Margarita unique in many ways. The history, flavor, and culture of the restaurant have all been created by Pati’s fun, endearing, and creative personality, he says. The beauty of the five-course dinners offered is that they make people sit down, enjoy dinner, and talk to each other. Good food, wine, and conversation bring people together. That’s why the restaurant feels like an extension of family, Pati shares. In many ways it is. The restaurant sits on land that has been in the Tudor family (Pati’s family) for more than a century, and here food and family have always been important. Pati recalls that this land is where Aunt Bessie’s irresistible gingerbread frequently disappeared while cooling on the windowsill. Pati’s father took the family for picnics on this land. Inadvertently, it was her grandma’s soup and bread recipes that sparked the idea of owning a restaurant. Originally, Pati and her late husband, Sculptor Ken Davidson, opened a Mexican import shop and gallery in her grandmother’s house on the east side of town. But the import shop was uninspiring to Pati, and soon she says the memories of her grandmother’s meals drew her to the kitchen where she started making soup and fresh bread. Customers bought more soup and bread than they did Mexican imports, so Pati and Ken expanded the menu and eventually built the restaurant that stands today at Pine Creek. From the beginning, Pati and Ken knew they were building much more than a restaurant. They built a round art studio for Ken and added on room for other shops. Together Pati, Ken, and architect friend, Al Feinstein, built the Margarita from scratch. Pati pats one of the many tables she constructed 35 years ago. “Everything, like the food, is homemade,” she says. Ken carved the beautifully ornate “Tree of Life” and “Looking Glass” doors for the plant and import shop that resided next to the restaurant for 15 years. The three cozy nooks with long narrow windows were fashioned after her grandmother’s cactus porch that Pati enjoyed as a child. The restaurant has been a gathering place for her large extended family of artists from the beginning. Aunt Ida, an accomplished musician, brought in her harpsichord and musician friends and thus began the tradition of Baroque music in the dining room on Saturday nights. The downstairs lounge has a stage built for Pati’s jazz musician brother, and now patrons enjoy live jazz on Thursday nights and folk music on Friday nights. Sculpture pieces on the grounds and paintings in the restaurant are all creations of artist friends and relatives. Classic movies and dinner on the patio have become popular with guests in the past four years. One of his ideas, Eric’s vision for the future includes bringing plays back to the amphitheater that lies beyond the patio. Many things have remained constant over the years, such as soup every day and Pati’s famous salad dressing, but change is inevitable. Though Pati says the Margarita offers the most reasonable fine dining experience in town, she knows in these tough economic times that people are cutting back on their spending. So the restaurant now offers more choices, including a two-course meal for those dining upstairs, a lounge menu downstairs, and a bar menu on the patio. Rest assured that Pati’s philosophy that the freshest ingredients make the best food will never be compromised, however. “It’s really all about good taste in food,” says Eric, summing it up. The Margarita is located at 7350 Pine Creek Road just north of Woodmen Road on the west side of Interstate 25. For more information, call 719-598-8667 or visit www.margaritaatpinecreek.com. |
The Margarita |
||
|
