Do at the Zoo 2009

As planned, we Did at the Zid … er, Done at the Zone … er, attended the Do at the Zoo at the Denver Zoo tonight, for the second year. Fifty of the spiffier restaurants from around Denver, plus catering staf from the zoo itself, were scattered around the facility, along with a couple of music stages on both ends.

Margie and I had a great time, like last time. In fact, a better time, because of these differences.

1. The booths for food and drink were much more spread out this year. Whereas last year they ranged from the train station to the arctic area, this year they ran all the way from the front around past the giraffes to the camels, and the other direction looping completely around the pachyderm area. You could also walk between the two ends (or take a pedi-cab).
2. More restaurants this year — 50-odd vs 40-odd.
3. Sponsoring organizations has their own pavillions, getting their folks out of traffic somewhat.
4. It’s hard to tell, based on the above, if there were fewer people this year (with the economy), or if the greater area and number of booths were the reason why the lines were much shorter (to the point were most places were more or less walk-ups).
5. No torrential downpower to wet down everything. A few drops a couple of times, but never had to crack out the umbrellas.
6. Broader variety of eateries, or what they were serving, and better mixed. So there was no single “theme” in foodstuffs (gosh, everyone’s serving X). A nice mix.
7. The areas chosen — and how they set up tables for folks to stop and eat at — avoided, for the most part, choke points for the foot traffic.
8. As noted last year, we started off going left from the front, which not only avoided the more crowded areas first, but also got us to (arguably) some of the better eateries present. Or maybe we just filled up by the time we were half-way around.
9. As noted last year, we cut down on how much we ate. Basically Margie and I went to booths, grabbed a single serving, then split it between us. That did let us get most of the way around before we were stuffed solid.

Some places with noteworthy food: Rio Grande Mexican (yummy shrimp; Sketch (great carpaccio); Happy Cakes (cupcakes!); Cafe Europa (tasty coffee and home-made cream cheese); Beautiful Sweets (tasty and lovely-decorated cookies); North; Gaetano’s (scrumtuous sausage and peppers); Brooks Steak House (steak! on a stick!); Mezcal (excellent mini-tacos).

And a host of others.

I don’t think, alas, that we won anything in the raffle, which included a trip to Napa to tour Silver Oak and Twomey; a dinner trip by company jet to Santa Fe for a 4-star dinner; a catered dinner at a huge pit where you can play with tractors and other construction equipment. Yeah, that last one had us jonesing, too.

Overall, a very fun evening, a great way to wrap up our Empty Nest fortnight, and a good cause.