THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Restaurant Mogador

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Restaurant Mogador Restaurant Review:

Rock walls, carpet-upholstered banquettes and thick candles in sconces imbue Mogador, a windowless, below-street-level restaurant named after a city on North Africa's Barbary Coast, with an ambience of mystery and romance. Owner-chef Barclay Dodge, a local boy, left Aspen to train in Spain at El Bulli, the legendary gastronomic temple of chef Ferran Adrià. Dodge returned, cooked with Charles Dale at Renaissance, then Aspen's premier fine-dining restaurant, and finally opened this modern Mediterranean blend of Moroccan, French and more than a little Spanish nueva cocina influences. Reflecting El Bulli's high-concept cooking, Mogador's menu offers no conventional appetizer, soup, salad or main course listings, but rather a procession of plates grouped into the categories of bounty (first courses), sea, land, composed cheeses (soft cheeses accompanied by crackers, preserves, fruits, etc.), cheese board (available with one, three or five cheeses) and olive oils (a selection of Mediterranean olive nectar). We marvel at such compositions as overlapping circles of paper-thin beet slices and round, flat ravioli filled with celery root purée punctuated with a line of aromatic truffle oil and a frill of cauliflower. You might also find cumin-scented lamb shank with spinach Catalan; suckling pork confit with quince aïoli; and seared diver scallops with jamón serrano, Parmesan and lemon. The only items we find to be conventionally sized are the desserts which might include a trio of cinnamon-spiced donuts accompanied by house-made black walnut ice cream and a slice of caramelized banana.