Ernie's Bar & Pizza

New to the Highland's area is Ernie's Bar & Pizza located just off Federal on 44th Avenue. You may remember the place as Three Sons italian restaurant a while back. If you have a great memory and have been around for longer than a while, you may remember it as the same name Ernies, which was originally established in 1943. The new Ernie's Bar & Pizza has no relation to the old owners from the 40's but they have brought a new style and food selection to the area and brought back just a bit of history.

Ernie's Bar & Pizza has changed the interior quite a bit from Three Sons decor and thankfully the food has changed dramatically as well. If you ever ate at Three Sons I have sympathy for you because it was one of the worse experiences in Denver I have ever had. Ernie's has changed that experience with a new modern look and a dark wood bar atmosphere that is filled with lots of high top seating and a little bit of standard table seating as well. The new bar fits well in to the neighborhood and has a gaming area with a pool table and even a pair of skee ball lanes. I know it seems like I'm playing this up as a bar, which it really is, but the food takes it to another level and I would put its pizza against other restaurants in Denver.

The menu is fairly small but filled with enough options and combination choices that you should be able to try different tastes for at least few visits. To start off with, the Antipasto selection has 38 items to choose from to create your own plate of cheeses, meats and giardiniera. You could try a few combos for an appetizer before a pizza and with so many to choose from you can't go wrong pleasing people. A menu like this is great for trying some exotic sounding items too like the Balsamic Cipollini Onions, which tasted great or the Taleggio cheese which was also fantastic.

The appetizer menu is filled with a lot of the standard Italian items you might be accustomed to seeing in an Italian restaurant. I tried the Calamari as I do in most Italian restaurants and wasn't too thrilled with it. It was a bit doughy and slightly undercooked but not a disaster. It comes served with a spicy tomato sauce and a garlic mayo. Both sauces tasted good and work well with calamari.

The pizza is the real gem here and come in two sizes, a 10" and 20". What's nice about the pizza is the thin crust that is cooked correctly and not soggy or chewy. A lot of places in town try to do the thin crust pizza but don't pull it off. The pizza has a crispy crust and you can top it with some of the 31 toppings available. I tried one of the pre-configured pizzas of prosciutto, oven roasted tomatoes and arugula. This was a fantastic combination and all the ingredients tasted great. The arugula did not look like it sat in a refrigerator for the last few days and the prosciutto crisped up nicely on the pizza.

I would go back again to try some different variations and with as many as there are to choose from I may be going back for a while. Be sure to read about the building's history on the wall by the bathroom. This is the kind of place that makes Denver the real deal.