DINING REVIEW: Dutch Mill Tavern, a real bar that serves real food
In many ways, the Dutch Mill Tavern is exactly what you’d expect from a blue-collar bar. In other ways, it’s much more.
True, this bar, which has served the west side for over 60 years (its 1947 liquor license is second in the city only to Murphy’s Tavern on North Nevada Avenue), has the requisite plain wood tables cluttered under dim light, the well-worn Miller and Budweiser taps and a few regulars nursing beers well before happy hour, all punctuated by the occasional clack of a lazy pool game unfolding in the back.
But it also has homey nightly dinner specials like prime rib ($13) or spaghetti and meatballs ($6.50), real french fries, full breakfasts, tasty egg rolls made fresh by the owner and probably the only fried-smelt basket in Colorado.
The Mill originally opened a block east, under what is now Interstate 25. When the interstate came through in the 1950s, it moved to its current location, where black-and-white photos by the bar show that it served pizza and pints of Schlitz for 20 cents. True to its west-side roots, the Mill was a bar popular with union laborers. Stickers from local unions still dot the hood above the grill.
For 16 years, the Mill has been owned by a Korean woman named Mi Lee, whom everyone calls “Millie.” For much of her tenure, the Mill had a reputation as an inscrutable dive bar with mirrored windows to keep out sunlight and prying eyes. But late in 2009, the owner scraped the reflective film off the windows and hung up banners offering a full menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner dishes.
“We wanted to be more welcoming,” said Chuck Thomas, the owner’s boyfriend. “We have had so many people since then come in and say, ‘I drove past this place for years but never came in.’”
This is not to say that the renovations have turned the Dutch Mill into Disneyland. This place is still, first and foremost, a saloon. A sign by the bar says, “We will not serve anyone before 7:01 a.m.,” but if you order a beer and a shot with your eggs, no one is likely to look askance.
Still, for a bar it has many charms and better food than you can find at almost any comparable place (at Murphy’s, if you want a real meal, you have to bring sandwiches from Trivelli’s).
A good place to start is the green chili burger ($6), a premade patty on a bun, completely deluged with spicy green chili and shredded cheese. The burger is average, but the sauce — full of big green chilies and a generous amount of cumin that almost makes it taste like a Texas chili — is a notch up from most bar food.
So are the fries. They are hand cut in the back, and the man working the fryer knows what he is doing because they don’t fall into the limp, greasy trap that snares many of their ilk.The same good potatoes go into the hash browns on the breakfast plates; they sizzle until crispy and golden.
Bar snacks here are dependable, too. Mi Lee’s homemade egg rolls ($1.50) are a favorite of the regulars and feature what many surmise is a mixture of pork and beef (she won’t divulge the recipe). The Buffalo wings (six for $5.95) hit the table hot, dripping with a puckery sour and spicy, but not painfully incendiary, sauce. They are good. And messy.
And the service here is the type where the waitress tells you to eat the last carrot on the side before she takes away the plate.
Full entrees are more hit and miss. At a recent lunch, the meatloaf ($6.50) was tough and dense, and covered with a bland, brown gravy that tasted premade. A tamale breakfast had great hash browns and classic masa corn tamales stuffed with shredded pork and ground red chili, but the edges were tough and leathery, as if they had dried out in the reheating process.
Even so, a restaurant needs to be lauded for trying something different. Too often, with the dominance of one or two suppliers, restaurants’ menus look more and more the same. It’s rare to find something that stands out.
That is why I could not help but order the smelt. This Great Lakes-region favorite is a slender fish, about the size of a hot dog. When the smelt run in the spring, fishermen net them by the thousands. They are a classic bar food in Michigan but were unavailable here until Mi Lee’s boyfriend (a Midwesterner) put them on the menu. A basket of about six come beheaded and gutted, but otherwise fried skin, bones and all.
Never having eaten smelt (not a Midwesterner), I at first tried to pick out the tiny bones. Then I gave up and bit in whole, which I later found out is the right way. The fish is rich, slightly oily and sweet, not unlike a fresh sardine.
I’m not sure I would order it again — edible or not, I don’t like chomping spines — but I’m glad to see someone offer it for those with a hankering for smelt.
In the same way, I’m glad the Mill has expanded its menu. It’s a little unusual for real bars to serve real food, but maybe it shouldn’t be.
DUTCH MILL TAVERN3 STARS out of 5(New life for an old standby)Address: 503 W. Colorado Ave.Phone: 471-3370Hours: 7 a.m.-midnight Mondays through Saturdays, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. SundaysEntrees: $6-$16Vegetarian: Some sidesAlcohol: Full barCredit cards: Yes
Mi Lee has been the owner of Dutch Mill Tavern for 15 years. On Friday and Saturday nights, the special is a prime rib dinner for $12.99. Tuesday, February 15, 2011. (JERILEE BENNETT,THE GAZETTE)
503 W Open Kitchen and Craft Bar has replaced the Dutch Mill Tavern space at 503 W. Colorado Ave. Photo by Teresa J. Farney