Colorado Chef, Restaurant Make Finals For James Beard Awards

AP

Alex Seidel, chef of the Denver restaurant Fruition, has been named a finalist in the Best Chef Southwest category. He's up against chefs from Austin, San Antonio and Houston.

Fruition opened in 2007. A 2012 review from Westword said the restaurant "set the course" for dining in the city.

By the time we were digging into dessert — a light, tart lemon meringue in a graham-cracker pie crust sided by sweet blueberry compote — three hours had passed. I'd consumed a delicious meal as well as lots of advice, and we were all sighing contentedly.

Boulder mainstay Frasca Food & Wine is up for Outstanding Restaurant, a nationwide category that includes entries from New York, Chicago and Birmingham, Alabama. The restaurant opened to wide acclaim a decade ago, and won a James Beard award in 2013 for Outstanding Wine Program. Its chef, Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson won a Beard award in 2008.