Starting in my mother's sunny yellow kitchen where, as a child, I pored over cookbooks like they were comic books, making pull-apart coffee cake from a 1950s Betty Crocker cookbook for kids, involved pasta dishes, batches and batches of chocolate chip cookies. And other kitchens, too. My grandmother's kitchen in two-story house in Cleveland Heights; from its tiny recesses with high wooden countertops the best smells emanated. Under foot all the time when I was young, stirring or chopping something for every meal when I grew older. That's where I learned about hermits – chewy, gingery cookies; shrimp provencal – plump shrimp cooked with tomatoes and capers, served on rice.
Through college, there was always a kitchen, and it was always full of friends and food, laughter and memories. The tiny apartment kitchen I shared with my two best guy friends at college in Westchester County (It was very liberal place). And now the slightly larger apartment kitchen I share with my best friend (my husband) and our two cats. It seems that whenever we have people over, everyone ends up crammed into the kitchen. Maybe everyone understands and feels the magnetic power of the kitchen, the heart and soul of the home.
Co-founders of Boulder's Kitchen restaurants – Kimbal Musk, Hugo Matheson & Jen Lewin – definitely understand because they created not one, but three kitchens: The Kitchen, The Kitchen Next Door and The Kitchen Upstairs. With several locations in Colorado and one in Chicago, the Kitchen community is based on the belief that "gathering around the table and sharing good food and drinks is what connects us as a family, friends and a community."
This writer, for one, can confirm that The Kitchen has heartily succeeded in their mission statement. Especially at their causal pub concept The Kitchen Next Door, at 1035 Pearl Street in Boulder. Need proof? I present to you five indisputable arguments proving The Kitchen Next Door (and all kitchens everywhere) to be homey, delicious and irresistable.
Argument 1: fried Calimari
Argument 2: Kale Chips
Argument 3: Roasted veggie salad + salmon
Argument 4: Koberstein ranch dry-aged cheeseburger
It's a cheeseburger. With a fried egg on top. No menu would truly be complete without a juicy hamburger enhanced by runny yolk. Thus, The Kitchen Next Door's menu is complete.
Argument 5: Fish & Chips
Argument 6: Pork sandwich
xoxo
– Maggie