DINING REVIEW: Phantom Canyon still serves success after 15 busy years

Phantom Canyon Brewing Co. is such a stalwart of the downtown dining and carousing scene that it is hard to imagine a time before it was here.

It's hard to imagine a time when its stately address, the Cheyenne Building, with its heavy oak doors, gorgeous local stone and high, tin ceilings, was slated for demolition in favor of a parking lot, until Phantom's owner, geeky Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who was then just a geeky Denver brewer, bought the decrepit building, fixed it up, and used it to introduce the city to the relatively new concept of a microbrew pub.

I was mulling all this over a frothy pint of Phantom's Anniversary Ale at the bar recently.

It was a weeknight and the place was packed with both after-work drinkers and folks sitting down to cloth-napkin dinners. Servers navigated the perilously boisterous bar, hoisting trays of hot food. The bartender pulled fresh pints from an old beer engine.

Upstairs, the clack of billiard balls mixed with the clink of glasses.

It's been just over 15 years since Phantom opened, and what I find hardest to imagine is how the place has managed to not be haunted by the complacency of its own success.

After so many years it could be just a phantom going through the motions. Instead, the place is always humming with energy and has kept its menu hip, relevant and, most importantly, delicious.

There is almost no occasion Phantom doesn't fit.

Want to grab beers after work? With two floors you can probably get a table, even in the most packed happy hour. And the bar appetizers are terrific.

Want to get real food fast for lunch, such as a generous fire-roasted chicken salad with house-made walnut balsamic ($9.75) or mesquite-smoked pork chops with bacon-cheddar mashed potatoes and fried rings of poblano pepper ($8)? No problem.

Want to drop some serious coin on a dinner of pepper-crusted strip steak with bleu cheese and bacon tortellini ($24) or rare lamb chops served over barley risotto ($26)? Phantom has a surprisingly upscale nighttime menu.

I get the feeling that the upper reaches of the dinner menu are kept alive mostly by business travelers on expense accounts, since most people stuck with paying their own bill probably stick to the burgers, sandwiches, fish and chips and fried chicken on the pub menu ($7.50-$13). But whether you're paying for it or not, the dinners are reliably tasty and upscale without being stuffy.

The delicious fettuccini and wild mushrooms in a ridiculously rich braised leek and mascarpone cream sauce ($13), proves that a dish can be both vegetarian and bad for you.

The lamb chops are just as good, and just as rich. Three butter-seared chops arrived perfectly medium rare under a tangled toupee of flash-fried green onion strips, on a bed of calorie-intense, gouda-infused barley.

The one let-down was a port wine syrup that was supposed to grace the plate. It had been replaced by a St. Patrick's Day green clarified butter that nudged an already lipid-heavy meal over the top. This is an exception to my Phantom experiences, where service was always good and food was well conceived and executed.

The fish and chips ($12.75) here are some of the best you'll find. Atlantic cod is jacketed in a light, crispy batter and served with a big slice of lemon and a very good, homemade tartar sauce flecked with sweet gherkins.

Buttermilk fried chicken, a huge chicken breast slaked in a lemon-Tabasco sauce, served with sharp gorgonzola and garlic mashed potatoes ($9.75) is delicious and a terrific deal.

Even the simple pub salad ($5) is lavished with extras like grated sharp cheddar, homemade pretzel croutons and very good dressings made right in the back.

Desserts are full of homemade touches. The apple turnover ($5) was a cut, personal pie of fresh, flaky crust enveloping tart, hand-sliced Granny Smith apples. The hot bread pudding ($4.25), which most restaurants have, comes with a glorious, traditional hard sauce, which most restaurants don't. And the sauce is so deliciously hard diners should get carded if they order it.

The beer? Well, it's not bad. I've argued with friends (usually over beers) about whether it can hold a mug to local brew stars like Bristol or Trinity. Either way, to have a cold, handmade beer in at a century-old bar in a century-old building, decorated with contemporary, local art, buzzing with people and bright with the smell of great food makes it taste that much better.

I raise my glass to 15 years. And here's to 15 more.

Phantom Canyon Brewing Co.

**** (The total package)
Address: 2 E. Pikes Peak Ave
Phone: 635-2800
Entrees: $7.25-$26
Hours: 11 a.m. to last call daily
Vegetarian: Several entrees and salads
Alcohol: Full bar
Credit cards: Yes