Isle chef reworks menu with help from customers

By Penny Parker

Chef David Oliveri, pictured, of the Isle Casino Hotel in Black Hawk is taking Denver’s penchant for farm-to-table ingredients up to the hills.

Oliveri, the chef at Isle eatery Farraddays’, is ready for diners on a spring fling with as many local ingredients as he can get his hands on.

“For a lot of regulars, if they have the same fish over and over again, they get bored,” Oliveri said. “If they ask, ‘Can I get conch? I’ll say, ‘sure,’ and the next thing you know we’ll bring conch in. Spring and summer give me more to play with than the dead of winter.

“Customers have almost as much to say in what goes on the menu as I do. I’m much more concerned with feeding customers than feeding my own ego.”

Other Oliveri-made changes are entrees that include a vegetable and starch, rather than the pricier a la carte method.

“The composed plate is definitely more value oriented,” he said. “We cut the portions and brought them down to more appropriate sized steaks. We’re seeing a lot less people walking away with doggie bags.”

Oliveri has also left his signature on the Tradewinds Restaurant menu, a more casual setup than Farraddays’. “We’ve got the best hamburger on the hill,” the chef said. (Note to self: try out the Tradewinds burger on my next trip).

“We do our own grind in house from a special recipe,” he said. “We buy buns from Bread Works in Boulder that are homemade artisan buns. We did a lot of research on seasoning our burgers and fries. We’re selling more burgers than we ever have in our entire career here. We’ve been getting nothing but rave reviews. Hamburgers on the menu have a distinctly Colorado twist with green chiles, blackened with blue cheese and barbecue-style with applewood smoked bacon. “It’s a nice wholesome hamburger,” he said.

New gig. Joe Behm, the former general manager at Fortune Valley Hotel and Casino in Central City, is the new executive director for the Central City Business Improvement District.

Behm is in charge of special events and marketing for all the casinos and businesses in Central.

Next up is Central City’s “almost” Cinco de Mayo festival April 30-May 1 – two days of entertainment, food, cerveza and boat drinks in a street fair setting.

Gregory Street between Main and Spring will be the center of the fiesta, with live music on the main stage from 1 to 6 p.m. on April 30, and strolling Mariachis in the casinos from 6 to 8 p.m.

Sunday is La Familia day, where kids can bounce around the jumpy castle. A complete schedule is available at centralcityparkway.com.

Helping hands. Employees from Ameristar Casino Resort Spa Black Hawk helped patients at Craig Hospital earlier this month by volunteering during the hospital’s table tennis tournament, and serving lunch prepared by the casino’s food and beverage team to patients.

Through its Ameristar Cares program, employees are given the opportunity to support charitable organizations through financial and volunteer support.

- Penny Parker is a columnist for The Denver Post. She’s always on the prowl for tidbits and tips from Colorado’s gaming communities. Call her at 303-619-5209 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com.