Condé Nast Traveler
Fruition | Review
Smart, serious contemporary American cuisine with personable, professional service.
BY RUTH TOBIAS | AUGUST 3, 2023
Originally featured on condenasttraveler.com.
What were your first impressions when you arrived?
Because Fruition’s reputation as a capital-D destination has long preceded it, you may be surprised to set foot in a dining room that’s as unassuming as it is snug. Bare wooden tables and floorboards glow in warm light; hues of cream and beige are subdued; artwork amounts to a few black-and-white illustrations depicting, for instance, cookware hanging in a kitchen—and all in all, it feels more homey than haute. Could this be the place that helped earn chef/owner Alex Seidel a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest in 2018? It could and it is. What it lacks in flash, it more than makes up for in substance, combining smart, serious contemporary American cuisine with personable, professional service.
What’s the crowd like?
Grown-ups dine here. They’re well-dressed, well-spoken, and well-mannered, ensuring that the mood is relatively serene even when the room is packed—and proving, with their phones down, that the art of conversation can still flourish in the right setting.
What should we be drinking?
If it’s a cocktail you want, a suitably sophisticated cocktail you shall have, be it a margarita prettified with orange flower or a strapping rye- and amaro-based concoction with spiced-cherry and black-walnut bitters; the same goes for craft beer and cider. But do take a gander at the wine list before you commit to anything, because the bottle of your dreams is surely on there somewhere, impeccably balanced as the selection is between Old World and New, big-ticket trophies and quirky finds like old-vine Palomino from California’s Cucamonga Valley and Osteiner from the Central Otago region of New Zealand. And do plan on a nightcap—a tidy array of dessert wines and brandies is the icing on the cake of a meal here.
Main event: the food. Give us the lowdown—especially what not to miss.
Just like Seidel before him, exec chef Jarred Russell is a talent to watch. Whether he’s spooning luscious lamb tartare onto crostini with horseradish and celery leaf, topping soft-scrambled eggs with snappy asparagus and crisped prosciutto, or draping fettuccine alla chitarra in a robust sauce of tomato-braised octopus and ’nduja, his style is clear and direct, not fussy or too clever by half; season in and season out, ingredients speak for themselves, from the creamed root vegetables, crispy sunchoke, and black truffle enriching wintertime ricotta gnudi to the Colorado-grown cantaloupe gracing midsummer yellow-tomato gazpacho with pistachios and mint. To hear everything they have to say, consider the five-course tasting menu (whose $90.90 price reflects the fact that 1 percent of every sale is donated to Zero Foodprint, a nonprofit that provides grants to farmers aiming to convert to regenerative farming practices. All the more reason to indulge.)
And how did the front-of-house folks treat you?
Like the space, the staff is warm. Like your fellow patrons, they’re calm. Like the food, they’re unfussy. You could say the service is a synthesis of all that’s good about Fruition—while adding their deep knowledge of the menu to the equation.
What’s the real-real on why we’re coming here?
Open since 2007, Fruition today stands a cornerstone of the Denver dining scene; accordingly, it has served as the backdrop for countless birthdays and anniversaries, not to mention the occasional engagement and business deal. Those are all good reasons to make a reservation here. But so is being hungry on a Tuesday night. In other words, while Fruition isn’t exactly casual, nor is it especially ceremonious—which means there’s no good reason not to treat yourself as you would an out-of-town guest now and then.