Aspen 2012: Takah Sushi, Casa Tua and Above the Salt.

Takah Sushi has for years been our reliable first meal stop in Aspen and the cross-country flight and it never disappoints; very fresh fish, nice wine choices, innovative alternatives, such as a Viet-Namese type lettuce wrap with not pork but minced shrimp and chicken with the usual cilantro and mint and nuts and hot sauces.

With a bottle of wine and no desserts our bill before tip was $91.56.

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Casa Tua is a place that opened last year in a cursed space that has to have seen a dozen businesses inhabit it since we've been coming to Aspen.  It's creative upscale Italian cooking which when chosen well, as I did with tagliatelle and Bolognese, is great, but when less successful, as was Colette's boring quinoa with edameme, raddishes,cilantro and a supposed lemon-cumin vingarettte which was unassertive, is off (next time she'll order the shrimp with faro).

With a bottle of great Sangiovese and no desserts or coffee our bill before tip was $89.38.

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A quick break from our sponsors - the construction site of the new Aspen Art Museum, with a blown up balloon looking like a floating boulder.

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Above the Salt (you'll remember the Days of the Kights when the noble folk ate above the big salt cellar and we underlings, peasants and serfs and neer to well relatives sat below).  In any case, it opened this March in the old barrel structure D19 inhabited and has genergally received nice notes but we cannot agree.  Colette's panzanella with lettuce, beet greens, red onions, baby tomatoes and parmesan was "so-what" in her words and my special pizza with sausage, black olives, wild mushrooms, kale and two cheeses on tomato paste was a confused mess that was typical of what I call Aspen-Los Vegas very, very busy food.

With a bottle of red Eyetalian, no bottled water, desserts or coffee, before the tip our bill was $77.40.