Good Food in Windsor, CO

I have Windsor-specific food memories from growing up there: krautburgers (baked dough pockets filled with cabbage and ground beef) during the harvest festival parade, the sharp vinegar soaking into the mild, sweet white buns of the Italian subs we always got from the local pizza place, the green chile from The Border. But it was a tiny town; there wasn't anyplace to go in Windsor on date night. We'd go over to Fort Collins for that. But now Windsor has at least two places to go for a date meal.

One's a Hawaiian restaurant, if you can imagine: Okole Maluna Hawaiian Grill. When I heard that I imagined Spam and pineapple. But this was almost like a Japanese restaurant, with spare, elegant dishes. Todd started with the black bean soup, which was actually a broth-based soup with a couple of red beans and small disks of a Portugese sausage that gave the whole bowl with a sweet, meaty flavor. I had a soba salad with shredded romaine, and Todd went for the barbecued pork. Believe it or not, this was elegant, too. Two domes of sticky rice and a pile of smokey, shredded meat. He was disappointed because he was hoping for something from his childhood, a barbecued pork he got from a Hawaiian that came in chunks in a "dry-ish sauce" (I don't know). But he loved the soup and the Haupia, a coconut cream dessert that was like a flan or panna cotta with pulverized coconut.

At the other place, Chimney Park Bistro, they go so far to serve local, seasonal ingredients that they actually had a couple of Colorado wines on the menu. I tried a Reisling from the Delta area, and it was citrusy and sweet, good for one glass but maybe a bit too sweet for more. Local also meant smoked trout on a deconstructed Waldorf with endive and buffalo instead of beef in the hamburger. The other highlight was the trio of creme brulees. The flavors change every few days and if you can guess all three, the dessert's on them. We didn't even come close: the first one tasted like eggnog, so we guessed nutmeg (the server said it was cinnamon, but I still don't believe it); the second one was chai. The third one was ethereal and familiar, kind of tart but with these crazy nuances I couldn't pin down. Lots of people had been guessing lemon, which was Todd's guess, but it was pink peppercorn. Had I ever had pink peppercorn? It was so familiar.