Linger for Awhile

Hey Everyone! Thank you for all of the birthday wishes, they really brought a smile to my face 🙂 <–see?

For my birthday dinner, ten friends and I went to check out linger. It’s spelled with a lowercase “L” because it resides in the building of the former Olinger Mortuary, so the “O” isn’t lit up at night.

Yeah, it’s a bit morbid to put a restaurant in a former house of dead people, but they play it up nicely, and it’s a lovely restaurant. It’s quite a hot spot because I made reservations a month in advance and it was almost booked that far ahead.

To keep with the theme of being in a former mortuary, they kept some small details. All of their water jugs are in what look like old formaldehyde bottles, the drink menu looks like a metal clipboard, and some of their separate menus have little taglines up top that say things like “attach to toe”.

They use all locally-sourced and organic ingredients except when it’s not possible. A lot of their foods come from local farms in the area, so it’s all very fresh.

Everything Almost everything is served as a small plate, so everyone ordered 2 or 3. It ended up being way too much food, but at least everyone was full.

Doner Cobb Salad- Warm Flatbread, Grilled Chicken, Greens, Roasted Vegetables, Bacon, Brussel Sprouts, Medjool Dates, HardBoiled Egg, Avocado, French Feta & Harissa-Yogurt Dressing

Maple Leaf Farms Duck Wings- Shaved Fennel, Blood Orange Hot Sauce & Celery Root Ranch

Korean BBQ Pork- Chinese Spring Onion Pancake, Poached Egg & Kimchi

Pad Thai- Fresh Rice Noodles, Farm Egg, Peanuts, Bean Curd, Pickled Vegetables, Garlic Chives & Cilantro

Strongbow Cider Mussels- Garlic, Thyme, Celery, Grain Mustard, Maple Drizzle & Grilled Spicy Cheddar Bread

St. Germain Cocktail- St. Germain, Cava & Soda w/a Lemon Twist

Overall, the food was just okay. A lot of it was so salty that we didn’t even finish half of the plate. The drinks, on the other hand, were FANTASTIC! They were probably the best drinks that I’ve been served in Denver, and the prices were reasonable. The above cocktail was $10, but they fill the large wine glass and give you the leftovers to refill with.

I ❤ food.

At the end of it all, I thought my stomach was going to explode. Then our server brought out a bread pudding cupcake with red bean & chocolate ice cream and a card signed by the restaurant staff. While everyone was having me take pictures with it, I accidentally blew it out while laughing…whoops.

I swear I have the greatest friends ever. For my birthday present, they all chipped in money for my Garmin fund! Actually, they fully supplied my Garmin fund, so it looks like I’ll have one this weekend! Thank you, friends!!! Special shout-out to Thao for organizing the rest of my awesome friends 🙂 You are freakin awesome, and I love you to death.

As a gag gift, my friend, Lily, gave me a tin of bacon-strip band-aids lol. It was fun to play with.

Hesitantly preparing to munch real bacon while holding up my band-aid bacon.

It was an awesome day spent with great people. My co-workers decorated my cube with streamers and balloons, and I had enough cookies to put me into a diabetic coma. On top of that, I also received my first tin of cookies from the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! I’m going to wait until I get all of mine and send mine before posting up pictures, but they were yummy and came in time for my birthday 🙂

While at the dentist’s office, I got a nice cleaning and had no cavities woohoo! I also got myself a snazzy Sonicare toothbrush. No exercise for today, but I think that’s alright. Have a good night!!!

Question of the Day: Are you participating in any cookie swaps?