While some people think of lunch as a simple refueling process, Fuel Cafe in Denver takes the midday meal seriously. The proof is in owner/cook Bob Blair’s hearty sandwiches and salads, each with a distinct and vivid flavor. Blair tells his cooks to go easy on the salt and pepper and to use vinegar, pickles, hot peppers, hummus, chile jam, aioli and mustard instead.

Calling itself a “culinary depot,” Fuel Cafe occupies the former Yellow Cab headquarters, an airy industrial space spruced up with a mirrored wall facing an underlit resin bar overhung with chalkboard menus. Aging Denver hipsters will experience déjà vu over some of the colorful artwork — it’s from Taxi developer Mickey Zeppelin’s old City Spirit Cafe in LoDo.

Blair has found success by listening to his clientele, mostly residents and workers in the urban-cool Taxi development in River North. It’s a different crowd from the ones you’ll see downtown or in the suburbs — hip but friendly-looking folks all intent on their food and interesting conversations.

After polling his neighbors about which night they wanted his place to serve dinner, Blair added Thursday-night suppers in June. His evening fare is like the lunch menu’s older cousin, all dressed up and ready to go out to dinner.

The menu varies with the weather — seriously. Blair checks the forecast to get a feel for what people will be in the mood for. Recently, he’s been roasting beets to serve with goat cheese or farro, filling ravioli with butternut and kabocha squash, chorizo and manchego, and simmering lamb in a ragu with black olive oil; chocolate pate and butterscotch pudding have replaced lunch’s coconut cupcakes and Whoopie Pies (both of which are worth saving room for, by the way).

Even if you never set foot in City Spirit back in the day, or don’t usually venture near LoDo or RiNo (River North), make a point to visit this cheerful spot where they dispatch carefully prepared food with a relaxed warmth, no matter how hip you look.

– FUEL CAFE —

Modern American. Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-3 p.m., Thursday 5-9 p.m. 3455 Ringsby Court (west of Brighton Boulevard and 31st Avenue), 303-296-4642

–Kristen Browning-Blas

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