Venue Review: Ritz Grill

NOT RITZY ENOUGH

(no rating)

By NATHANIEL GLEN THE GAZETTE

The Ritz Grill has been many things in its 20 years on Tejon Street.

In the late 1980s, it was a sophisticated downtown pioneer, serving high-octane martinis and live music when the only other restaurant on the block was the candy aisle of the Walgreens across the street.

(Before that, in 1982, the space was a jewelry store that was the scene of one of Colorado Springs’ greatest heists. Thieves drilled through the green-tiled floor of a beauty shop on the second floor into the store’s vault and made off with $600,000 worth of loot.)

In the late 90s, it was a smoky hangout where graying boomers with streaks of anti-establishment angst idled Harleys, talked tech stocks, and reveled and commiserated in recent divorces.

In the past few years, though, the smoking ban cleared the air and the motorcycle guys moved down to Southside Johnny's. Now, the defining element of the Ritz is Jay Gust, a talented young chef who has won the local culinary challenge, the Champion de Cuisine, three years in a row, beating out cooks from the best restaurants in town with such delights as delicate lavender-crusted, crackerlike fried foie gras. His first-place ribbons hang above the Ritz’s stylish Art Deco booths.

With Gust at the helm, you'd expect the Ritz's latest incarnation to be a culinary gallery with daring ingredients, cutting-edge presentation and foodies crowding in to mull over lavender infusions and rare micro greens. You'd be a bit disappointed.

The Ritz's 20 years have shown that it's a great place. If you want a real dinner after 10 p.m., there's no better place in town. The servers are pros. The retro Deco atmosphere nice. But if chef Gust really is as gifted as ribbons and trophies suggest, Ritz doesn't let it show.

The menu is good. Not great.

Lunch is dependable, but hardly prize-worthy. Thoughtful surprises, such as the ahi appetizer ($8.50) with thin, pink shavings of raw bluefin tuna crusted in pastrami seasonings and served with a boutonniere of pickled ginger and a drizzle of bitter wasabi, show a mischievously inventive streak. But they are outnumbered by boilerplate chicken cheese steaks ($7.95), spicy chicken tenders ($8.95) and Chinese chicken salads ($8.95) that are tasty but feel like they could come from anywhere.

Dinner is the same.

The chicken saltimbocca is an adequate, but unadorned copy of the classic Mediterranean dish: a chicken breast layered with house-made mozzarella and prosciutto, with a side of ovenroasted tomato and spinach salad. It barely rises above the level of banquet fare, and, at $16, it's overpriced.

So is the flat-iron steak ($16). It's seared well and served under melting gorgonzola, but the cheese overwhelms.

Gust's knack for flavor does come through in some unexpected dishes. The side of mac and cheese is a masterpiece: a gooey home blend of cheeses and smoky green chiles. Order a bowl with a beer and house salad for a great light dinner.

I couldn't figure out, though, how a guy recently named Best Chef in The Gazette's Best of the Springs would settle for good bar food. So I called him.

Gust told me he saves the fancy prize-winning dishes mostly for classes and wine dinners.

"As far as the Ritz is concerned, it's more about making food that sells. We have a good menu; that's why it's been around for 20 years," he said.

He has set costs and confines he works in, he said. The creative outlet comes with the daily chef special. The other day, he cooked up curry-seared Peruvian scallops served on the half shell with a garam masala coconut foam.

Gust said the limits of the Ritz have taught him enough about managing numbers and people that he is looking to open his own fine dining address downtown, though he doesn't have firm plans yet.

In the meantime, the owners of the Ritz should let him do more. Otherwise, if I were them, I'd worry that someone will come in one night, drill through the ceiling, and steal their gem away.