1959 when he bought the stunning property that now holds The Fort, Informer advertising executive Sam Arnold was just looking for a place to build a house for his family. Then his eye was caught by a photograph of the fabled Bent's Fort, one of the original trading posts in Colorado. His family home became an adobe-brick replica of Bent's Fort, which then became The Fort, an extraordinary restaurant whose fame has spread far beyond the wide borders of the West even as the city of Denver has expanded toward Arnold's once-rural locale.
The Fort Cookbook: New Foods of the Old West from the Famous Denver Restaurant chronicles the life of this singular eatery by presenting recipes from its earliest days and throughout its near-forty-year history. There are the unforgettable favorites that helped make The Fort beloved, such as White Cheese Shrimp Enchiladas and Rocky Mountain Oysters, as well as new spins on Old West classics, such as Gonzales Steak stuffed with green chiles and Buffalo Burgers, not to mention enough fabulous steak recipes to make a beef lover swoon. Arnold's inventive cuisine ranges from unfamiliar recipes for increasingly available ostrich and elk to such southwestern comfort food as Blue Corn Blueberry Muffins, Lakota Indian Fry Bread, and Chocolate Chile Cake.
Peppered with Arnold's exuberant notes on the history of the Old West and wisdom about food and ingredients, The Fort Cookbook is the result of Arnold's genuine curiosity and hands-on experience. Like the colorful Western characters that people his pages, Sam Arnold-author, raconteur, historian, and keeper of The Fort-is a larger-than-life figure with a generous, twofisted approach to hospitality. For armchair travelers recipe lovers, diners, and cooks, there could be no better scout.
