The knock-out boxty at Katie Mullen’s
Corned beef and cabbage: This is what the world thinks of Irish cuisine. Every year about this time, the dish is heartily ordered by holiday partiers, never mind that corned beef is actually kind of gross. It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and if you’re not eating corned beef and cabbage, you might as well be Oliver Cromwell.
Irish food doesn’t have to be all boiled meats and soggy vegetables, though. Take boxty, the Irish potato pancake. Whether formed into a crispy, latke-like patty or a skillet-sized disc, boxty is beloved throughout the Auld Sod, though it’s mostly unknown in the States. (Okay, maybe not in Boston.) In Denver, Katie Mullen’s Irish Restaurant And Pub (1550 Court Place, 303-573-0336) serves boxty up every day, and in appearance, it’s nearly indistinguishable from an American breakfast pancake. It’s not sweet, however. Sizzled to a luscious golden brown, the boxty here is velvety, rich, and folded over savory fillings.
The boxty choices at Katie Mullen’s are admittedly a little slim: roasted vegetable or chicken and bacon. The price is steep at $11.95, but the meal is huge. Each boxty is about a foot long, and folded over in a heap like a Slumberjack sleeping bag. It comes with a side salad, too, for that little touch of roughage. The chicken and bacon boxty is perhaps the most authentic—the Irish love their bacon. It’s a monster of a lunch, so avoid ordering sides, even if the colcannon (mashed potatoes and cabbage) sounds tempting.
Katie Mullen’s does a pretty convincing job of recreating the Irish pub ambience. It’s dark, as any true pub should be. Diners seated away from the sparse windows can easily ignore cheerful, sunny Denver outside and imagine eating in drizzly Dublin. Of course, the walls are lined with approximately 100,000 Guinness signs, just to reassure us that this is not, say, a Somali pub. Eating boxty in such a place can make anyone feel Irish. No corned beef required.
