Linni Eats Boulder: Centro

Awarding a restaurant the title of "best happy hour" is a little bit like awarding a serious film the title of "hottest cast" --sure, it can be an enjoyable side effect, but it is so not the point.

Any serious chef will tell you that working in a pub kitchen is not the most stimulating exercise of their culinary skills. It doesn't take much to deep-fry and it's pretty easy to please a cheap crowd getting increasingly lubricated by the drink. But in a town like Boulder, Colorado, where the 21+ crowd of college students, hippies and hipsters make it their mission to visit at least one happy hour per day, places pull out all the heavy kitchen artillery to keep a competitive edge.

This is where Centro's Latin American kitchen comes in. If any place relishes their status as one of the best happy hours west of the Atlantic Ocean, it's this fusion spot, formerly run by a Top Chef contestant and now boasting a Monday all-night happy hour, weekend brunch happy hour and a weekly slot that runs 4-5:30 Tuesday-Thursday and 3-5:30 Friday-Sunday. I haven't partaken in the brunch yet, but am certainly tempted by the sounds of the crispy hash browns with pork green chile and cotija; the flour tortilla breakfast taco crammed with scrambled eggs, tomatillo salsa, cotija , radish, and candied onions; and mimosas and bloody marys to wash it all down, each item only $2. If you're willing to spend a bit more, the regular breakfast menu has something called Latin Kitchen Hash that showcases sweet potato, fried banana, blackened shrimp and two eggs, or griddled plantain bread with house smoked salmon, poached eggs and more candied onion. With sweet offerings like almond crusted toast with cream cheese and cherries or dried fruit with cottage cheese, honey, and grilled bread to complement the savory, you would think Centro would settle, content to stop at the first and most important meal of the day.

But where's the fun in that? There's hardly any booze on that menu, and that's no way to serve a college town. Centro's afternoon and evening happy hours veer away from champagne and dip a trendy toe or two into the hard stuff. Gaggles of 20-somethings in their most impressively boho or neon attire order Centro's specialty $2 Cuba Libres by the trayful, while others can choose from $4 wines and margaritas or $2 Tecates.

Any time you're unloading drinks this close to free onto people, it's important to make sure they've got some heft in their bellies. This is where your average happy hour tosses out a basket of onion rings or maybe a tray of sliders if they're feeling adventurous. This is also where Centro wins the bulk of it's customers over. Sure, $2 doesn't seem like a good discount price on your average taco. But does your average taco come stuffed with habanero roasted pork with tomatillo salsa? Belizean BBQ duck carnitas? Griddled shrimp with garlic chipotle mayo? Didn't think so.

You'd also probably be hard-pressed to find gourmet offerings like seared greens or chips with apricot habanero carrot raisin salsa, also for $2. If you're willing to shell out four bucks, they'll also bring out manchego chimichurri fries, yam chorizo hash or even grilled chicken enchiladas with roasted red pepper goat cheese cream.

I must add a tiny caveat here, though--while the menu descriptions may have me salivating while writing this, execution of the happy hour items is sketchy. The famous duck carnitas have an oddly bitter taste, not particularly spicy, ducky or barbecuey, while the habanero pork is almost too spicy to have any memorable redeeming qualities. This leaves the shrimp, with the least exciting description but most successful delivery. While the yams in the hash are perfect, the grey tasteless chunks trying to pass for chorizo were doing a very poor, nearly insulting job.

If, however, you're willing to splurge for the real menu, the road gets a little less bumpy. The green plantain ginger fritters with chipotle remoulade are reminiscent of tempura, and their sauce pairs great with chips or fries. I'm counting the weeks til my next visit, when I can sample the white seabass ceviche verde with olive and avocado, or the quesadilla with shrimp, crab, chorizo and avocado.

That doesn't even begin to exhaust the dessert and drink menu items I've yet to sample. While the grapefruit margarita was a little disappointing in it's lack of grapefruit flavor, I doubt I'd be disappointed by the Kentucky Wildflower, a mix of Maker's Mark, vanilla cognac, lavender agave nectar and lemon, or the Hot Rosser, which blends tequila with lemon and OJ, strawberry puree and fresno chiles.

But if you're too liquored up by meal's end to get your sweets in liquid form, order the baked-to-order pineapple upside down cake. I don't even like pineapple upside down cake, but this comes pizookie-style in its own frying pan, a plating that could win me over to even the blandest dessert. Luckily for Centro, though, this cake and most other items on offer are anything but bland.