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A.V. Club Jelly's Molly Hot Brown By Kathleen St. John Jelly's Molly Hot Brown photographed by the Onion's A.V. Club for Strangelunch. Don’t be spooked by the Molly Hot Brown at Jelly (600 E. 13th Ave., 303-831-6301). The name is on the kooky side, sure, and it looks like a damn mess, but it’s the little tweaks that count with this one. The dish is a Denver-centric spin on the “hot brown,” a classic, old-timey sandwich: warm turkey on bread, open-faced, with bacon, tomato, and a ladle or two of Mornay sauce drizzled on top. No one would dare name a sandwich “hot brown” nowadays—too many snickers and crass sexual jokes. Some self-righteous busybody out there would probably take offense, too. Jelly skirts the juvenile snickering by plunking that “Molly” right in front, and in doing so gives a shout-out to one of Denver’s most famous historical residents. Her house is just a block away, after all, and she was a lady of adventure and true grit. Those qualities are essential for enjoying the Molly Hot Brown. An oblong plate lands at the table steaming, four thick slices of unsweetened French toast peeking out from under an avalanche of toppings. Like an ancient geological formation, the dish has distinct layers: roasted turkey, tomato, and bacon, each resting on top of the other. The whole plate is then drenched in a green chile-cheese sauce: nasty, titillating, and dangerously seductive. Despite the garbage-can nature of the dish—seriously, it’s as if someone scraped another table’s leftover scraps onto a clean plate—it’s good. The best way to experience a Molly Hot Brown would be as a wretched hangover victim, hungry and tormented. At that point, nobody cares what their food looks like, only that it will help cure their self-inflicted illness. A sloppy pile of grease and salt is the ticket back to semi-normal functioning, and the Molly Hot Brown is just that. Even without a hangover and just a hearty appetite, the MHB is a sinful treat. Really, no matter what you order, eating at Jelly is fun. The airy breakfast-and-lunch spot has great people-watching, and the walls are decorated with vintage cereal boxes—a box of Mr. T cereal shares space with the Mary Lou Retton Wheaties box (oh my God!) and packages of Quisp and Barbie cereal. There’s a fine sense of humor about the place, something that’s sorely needed on crappy mornings. That, and a goofy heap of grease for breakfast. View on avclub.com →

Denver Post Clubs: Sunday will be hoppin' with Easter brunches and daytime dancing By Kathleen St. John Once you outgrow Easter baskets, one of the holiday's highlights is a luxurious Easter brunch. It's just about an Easter basket's worth of grown-up fun: indulgent food, springtime sunshine and tasty breakfast booze. Here are a few ideas for places to celebrate this special Sunday. Jelly (600 E. 13th Ave.) is new on the brunch scene since last Easter. The super-hip breakfast-and-lunch joint attracts in-the-know eaters from all over Capitol Hill, lured by the cool color scheme and retro cereal-box decor. Naturally, there's hooch on the menu. Sip a mimosa with one of Jelly's special Benedicts or hashes, or snag a Bloody Mary and get an infusion of vitamins and vodka. There's beer available, too, for a sudsy good morning... View on Denverpost.com →

5280 Magazine Rise & Dine By Amanda M. Faison Set in the heart of Capitol Hill, the brand-new Jelly has already found a following. We love the house-made preserves, but it’s the breakfast sliders—mini frittatas set on toasted buns—that bring us back. Don’t miss the Savory: goat cheese frittata, bacon, and spinach-walnut pesto. View on 5280.com →

Denver Post Clubs: Sunday will be hoppin' with Easter brunches and daytime dancing By Kathleen St. John Once you outgrow Easter baskets, one of the holiday's highlights is a luxurious Easter brunch. It's just about an Easter basket's worth of grown-up fun: indulgent food, springtime sunshine and tasty breakfast booze. Here are a few ideas for places to celebrate this special Sunday. Jelly (600 E. 13th Ave.) is new on the brunch scene since last Easter. The super-hip breakfast-and-lunch joint attracts in-the-know eaters from all over Capitol Hill, lured by the cool color scheme and retro cereal-box decor. Naturally, there's hooch on the menu. Sip a mimosa with one of Jelly's special Benedicts or hashes, or snag a Bloody Mary and get an infusion of vitamins and vodka. There's beer available, too, for a sudsy good morning... View on Denverpost.com →

Denver Post Flapjacks fly at breakfast standout in Capitol Hill by William porter Katie Lewis brings breakfast out to the part at Jelly on East 13th Avenue in Capitol Hill. Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon. Jelly was a welcome addition to Capitol Hill when it opened in a former dry cleaners in early January, and judging from the lines out its door on any given weekend, it remains so. Offering contemporary twists on diner classics, Jelly is part of the rising tide of hip breakfast and lunch joints in Denver such as Snooze and Syrup. The restaurant by and large gets the food right, even if the service is sometimes laid back to the point of somnolence. Some of the staff appear to need a jolt of java as much as their customers do. The room, which sits at the corner of East 13th Avenue and Pearl Street, is bright and airy. There are large windows, a vaulted ceiling and a hardwood floor. Cereal-box displays line the walls — Kix, Cap'n Crunch, Sugar Crisp and the like. This makes for a fun visual stroll down memory lane, even if it's an American Dental Association nightmare. Jelly's clientele, like the neighborhood itself, skews young. Not for nothing is the bulletin board festooned with notices for roller-derby events, concerts and such hip-kid confabs as Llamapalooza, which I seriously doubt is sponsored by the local Peruvian consul. An encouraging sign: On a recent morning, ace restaurateur Mary Nguyen, the shining star of Parallel 17 and Street Kitchen Asian Bistro, was tucked into a booth on a recent morning, sipping coffee and chatting with a friend. That says good things about the place. Breakfast and lunch seem to enjoy equal popularity here, in large part because of the creativity behind the dishes. Hats off to the genius who thought to infuse crumbled bacon into the pancakes. The cornflake-battered French toast is a dandy idea, too, and a textural delight to boot. Everyone seems to be doing sliders these days, and Jelly is no exception. Four varieties are available: You can mix and match two for $7.25, plus a third for $1.50 more. The Savory slider delivers a small goat-cheese frittata with bacon and spinach-walnut pesto on a toasted bun. It's tasty, combining the depth of bacon with the tartness of the goat cheese. The Country slider features a bacon-and-onion frittata with aged cheddar. Vegetarians can be sated with the Garden slider: slivered zucchini, caramelized onion and roasted red pepper with whipped herb cream cheese. Folks with an extra notch on their belt might try the meatloaf hash — combined with roasted peppers, red potatoes and spinach — topped with two eggs. ($8.75) This is perfect fare before setting off for the mountains, though cubicle workers might find themselves in a 10 a.m. food coma. Sweet potato hash ($8.75) combines Mexican-style chorizo, onions and roasted poblanos. Rather unaccountably, the sweet potatoes are supplemented with red potatoes, which makes for a surfeit of starch. The red potatoes are an unneeded redundancy, and also detract from the dish's visual appeal. There are scrambles and Benedicts, including the worthy Haco, which is smothered in a stew of chorizo, poblanos, tomatoes and smoked paprika. Yours for $9.75, with poached eggs and hollandaise. Jellies and jams are made on the premises and vary weekly. They arrive unannounced with your breakfast — with luck you'll land the strawberry-rhubarb — and you'll want one of the house biscuits. Lunches are a mix of sandwiches, salads and burgers. One winner is the deviled egg salad sandwich ($7.49), spiked with Dijon mustard, smoked paprika and — just because they can — bacon. Anemic diners can get an iron boost with the beet salad ($9.49) a lovely melange of roasted beets, feta, tomato and pepperoncini served with a Parmesan vinaigrette. About the service. It can be spotty. Some staffers are crackerjack, others not so much. While anyone can have a bad day, a recent visit illustrated a general problem, with a disengaged server who couldn't be bothered to ask if a coffee refill was in order, despite a tattoo on her arm that featured a steaming cup of joe and the words "Morte Prima Decaffeinato." My Italian is limited to having watched Michael Corleone chat with Virgil Sollozzo in "The Godfather" about 150 times, but the ink seemed to translate thusly: Death Before Decaf. Clever. But cleverness doesn't trump listlessness. I didn't expect her to be spouting "Hon" and "Kiss my grits" — hey, it was 7 in the morning for her, too — but please, if you're serving up bacon and eggs, act like you've downed at least one cup of coffee. And who knows? Maybe those lines will move faster. View on denverpost.com →

Denver Daily News Jam over to Jelly By Kristie Hannon If you don’t like long lines, you’ve got two options, get to Jelly early or suck it up and wait. Jelly opened its doors in early January and Capitol Hill is buzzing. Owners Josh Epps and Christina Smith came from San Francisco where breakfast was pretty much a way of life, and they didn’t want to leave that behind. A little bit of everything they loved they’ve brought to Denver: California comfort food with a twist, featuring choices like Haco Benedict, Buckwheat pancakes, cornflake-battered French toast, scrambles, too many hashes to name and a house-made jelly of the day just for breakfast starters. Lunch offers just as many satisfying options like the pressed Cuban and meatloaf sandwiches. This is a new eatery you don’t want to miss and you’ll miss when you’re not there. It’s open daily from 7 a.m.-3p.m. Jelly is located at 600 E. 13th. For other San Francisco transplants, yes, the bloody mary does live up to Zeitgeist standards. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, you soon will. Get in there and show up hungry. View on denverdailynews.com →

Denver Post Clubs: Sunday will be hoppin' with Easter brunches and daytime dancing By Kathleen St. John Once you outgrow Easter baskets, one of the holiday's highlights is a luxurious Easter brunch . It's just about an Easter basket's worth of grown-up fun: indulgent food, springtime sunshine and tasty breakfast booze. Here are a few ideas for places to celebrate this special Sunday. Jelly (600 E. 13th Ave.) is new on the brunch scene since last Easter. The super-hip breakfast-and-lunch joint attracts in-the-know eaters from all over Capitol Hill, lured by the cool color scheme and retro cereal-box decor. Naturally, there's hooch on the menu. Sip a mimosa with one of Jelly's special Benedicts or hashes, or snag a Bloody Mary and get an infusion of vitamins and vodka. There's beer available, too, for a sudsy good morning... View on Denverpost.com →

The adventurous 500 - Jelly Wresting