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Dining that pulls at your heart Strings

Dining that pulls at your heart Strings

When the late Noel Cunningham opened the doors of Strings a quarter of a century ago, Denver didn’t know a scallop from a hockey puck. Slowly, however, he gave the city an honest taste of fine dining – framed by the virtues of local, fresh, and seasonal ingredients. He instilled the community with pride in the art of cooking, from which was born the young culinary mecca we know today.

These days, trending names and seductive concepts blanket Denver, but Strings hasn’t fallen by the wayside. Quite the opposite, in fact – it has, in tune with its ever-supportive neighborhood and the growth of the city as a whole, refashioned itself for a new era.

Enter the energetic and inspired Pippa Taylor – an unassuming figure with a smile as wide as her imagination. She began her culinary journey in the kitchens of Kevin Taylor’s Prima years ago, leaving behind a once-was career track in finance. Lusting after the creative energy of the culinary arts, she moved her way into the ranks of Cunningham’s Strings. It was there she started on the line, as most established chefs do, and worked her way up until she was crowned executive chef in January of this year.

And while the legacy of Noel Cunningham – inextricably tied to all things fresh and homemade – will forever continue at Strings, the restaurant has found a new and exciting personality.

If I were to be honest, I’d gush over Pippa’s pillowy gnocchi, laced with cream and bedded with a succulently rich duck confit; I’d rave about the frothy-foamy chilled pea soup, lingering with a vague smokiness and touched with the brightness of lime crème fraîche; and I probably would never shut up about the most ingeniously delicious scallop dish ever set before me, tender and buttery with an apt pair of popcorn purée and smoked pistachios.

And yes, memories of the old Strings might have you thinking you’re too casual for that kind of indulgence. But that’s the brilliance of the new Strings. Tammy Cunningham, who long invested in the restaurant’s character, has given it a new face. While Pippa and her husband, Ryan, oversee culinary creations, Tammy has re-visited the interior, stripping tables of their white tablecloth stuffiness and lining the walls with engaging local and frontier art. As Pippa told me between laughs about popcorn purée and the curiosities of molecular gastronomy, “We’re a neighborhood bistro – we want people to just stop by.”

And have fun. “I like making people excited about ingredients,” she says. “I want there to be a ‘hmm’ factor – to make people energized about things they have eaten before, prepared in a new way.”

Whence comes her pan-sautéed arugula gnocchi; the soy-lemon ahi tartare; and Pastry Chef Lisa Bailey’s homey panna cotta – a lusciously rich cream decked with homemade strawberry-rhubarb compote and almond crumble, all nestled inside a canning jar.

And if fun is part and parcel of the equation, then surely the cocktails are happy additions: the likes of a refreshing Gimlet shares space on a menu with inventive treats like the herbaceous Blooming Garden, laced with rosemary. I’d go so far as to say happy hour has never been quite so happy.

But all good things must come to an end. When the buzz of the dining room fades and the clang of dishes in the open kitchen softens, what’s left of this Denver staple? Just a neighborhood hangout, really – a bistro on the corner of 17th and Humboldt, a cozy spot with downtown on its left and City Park on its right. A place for lunch, for dinner, for drinks. For making memories.

Memories that will continue deep into the next quarter century – and beyond.

Strings is located at 1700 Humboldt. St. Online at stringsrestaurant.com.


Dining for Charity

One of Noel Cunningham’s passions during his tenure at Strings—and part of his enduring legacy—was reaching out to the community. That passion manifested decades ago in the form of The Cunningham Foundation—a charity organization engaged in ongoing projects designed to close the gap between the developed and developing worlds. Currently, four projects shape the mission of the Foundation: 4 Quarters for Kids, HOPE Bracelets, HOPE Heart Beads, and Ethiopia Libraries. All of these work to provide food, education, and opportunity to students and community in Ethiopia through donation of money, time, and talent. If you’re interested in learning more or getting involved, please visit their website: cunninghamfoundation.org. As their mission reveals: “So little effort can accomplish so much.”

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