I travel to Denver pretty frequently, and I almost always stay near Union Station. There’s a lot going on in the area, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of different dining options. You can check out my other Denver stops here. Today I had dinner at a restaurant called Tupelo Honey right by my hotel.

Tupelo Honey is actually a small chain restaurant (but getting bigger). Tupelo Honey is also a Van Morrison song. Tupelo Honey is also a premium honey that is sourced from Tupelo trees (primarily found in the American South). That’s all I know about Tupelo Honey. To the point of this blog post, the restaurant focuses on upscale southern food with a fancy bar. It’s a classy spot, and the menu looked great for a quick dinner with a coworker.

The Drinks

Tupelo Honey offers quite a few non-alcoholic beverage options. I didn’t spend enough time reviewing the menu to make a calculated choice, but once I saw that they make their own ginger beer, that’s what I ordered. I wish I could have tried a flight of the house-made sodas, and the turmeric ginger tonic also looks fantastic. The ginger beer alone was bold and spicy, and not too sweet. I’m surprised that it didn’t have honey in it, though…

Given how good the ginger beer was, I’m sure that the other drinks would be solid.

The Food

I ordered fries, obviously, and they were great. I measured them at about 3/8’s of an inch and assume that it’s a peeled Russet. They were fried perfectly to develop a pale micro-blistered crust, and served with ketchup. So, not an exciting basket of fries, but solid. I think they could serve these with a remoulade and keep the theme and it would be a little a more interesting. Even so, they were well seasoned, hot, and satisfying.

I also needed dinner, and without much hesitation I ordered what I believe was a special that night. Some sort of slow braised short rib over grits. It was savory, creamy, and delicious. The broccolini actually belongs to my coworker, but he doesn’t believe in vegetables so he passed it over to me.

Based on this experience I will definitely return. Their brunch menu looked especially compelling, including some variations on chicken and waffles.