Sassafras serves up southern style comfort food with a heavy New Orleans focus. Bring your appetite, because you absolutely must start your meal with an order of delicious beignets dipped in jam, before moving on to a variety of fairly heavy main courses. While a standard order of these powdered sugar covered bites of happiness contains 3 beignets, you can add a 4th if needed for an extra $2.
The brunch menu is very large and contains both brunch and lunch items, see it here. When I dined here with friends recently, I was seriously tempted by the Pain Perdu (similar to french toast) but I figured I was already at my blood sugar limit from the beignet. I was also seriously temped by the Shrimp Po’boy as it has been a very long time since I’ve had a proper Po’boy.
In the end I took the waiter’s recommendation and tried the Cajun Benedict, made with gulf shrimp, lump crab cakes, tasso & crawfish hash, fried oysters, poached eggs and smoked cayenne hollandaise. It was quite good but in the end I was a little disappointed I hadn’t stuck with my original order of the Shrimp Po’Boy.
Sassafras has two locations in Denver, one in Highlands and one in Capital Hill. I prefer the Capital Hill location because it offers really excellent cocktails. Sassafras doesn’t take reservations, though it does have a convenient texting system that allows you to wander away from the restaurant, so having the option to wait out the often hour-long wait in the upstairs cocktail area makes the time less painful. They offer a variety of Bloody Marys and Mimosas. I recently tried the “Sassafras” Bloody Mary, with a custom spicy tomato infusion, pickled quail egg and bacon, and it was so excellent it was very hard to stop at one.
Correction – Sassafras does take reservations on weekdays, just not weekends
Sassafras – 2637 W 26th Ave (Highlands) or 320 E. Colfax (Capitol Hill)