Where to Eat Wild Game in Colorado: Boar, Elk, and the Real Story

Wild game on a Colorado menu is no longer a novelty. Boar tamales, elk tartare, bison ribeye: these dishes show up on enough menus across the Front Range that diners assume they're standard. They aren't. The trick is sourcing wild game honestly, and most of the work happens months before the dish lands on a plate.

At Four by Brother Luck, every wild-game course on the tasting menu starts with a phone call to a producer we know by name. We work with Colorado outfits that ranch boar, with elk and bison ranchers in the high country, and with hunters who supply legally and seasonally. We don't sell what we can't trace.

Here's why that matters. Mishandled game tastes like the cliché: livery, gamey, a chore to chew. Properly sourced game, butchered young and aged correctly, tastes like deeper, cleaner versions of the meats you already love. Boar drinks marinade like pork's older cousin. Elk takes a sear and a sauce as gracefully as any prime cut. Bison eats like beef plus a memory.

The most-requested dish on our seasonal menu is consistently a wild-game course. Past favorites: a Wild Boar Tamale built around heirloom corn from the San Luis Valley, an elk dish plated with foraged piñon. Both built around the four-providers framework, both sauced from scratch the same morning.

If you've never tried wild game in Colorado fine dining, the four-course tasting is the lowest-risk way to start. The portion is honest, the sourcing is named, and if anything reads as too much, the next course is already on the way.

Reserve a tasting and tell us in the OpenTable notes if you'd like the wild course featured. The kitchen plans around you.