Most modern cuisine is a continuation of classic dishes, just as a computer is a slightly modified typewriter and a washing machine is a river in a box. Revel in palatable progress with today's Groupon: for $20, you get $40 worth of upscale dining and drinks at Briarhurst Manor Estate in Manitou Springs.

Voted one of the top 50 most romantic restaurants in the US by OpenTable, Briarhurst Manor Estate offers patrons a menu of elegantly plated four-course dinners filled with French-influenced dishes. Four course dinners include the following:

• A selection of breads
• One Cara's Salad Maison
• An intermezzo
• One entrée
• One handcrafted dessert
  
  

Each meal opens with a selection of breads and progresses to Cara's Salad Maison, a banquet of field greens, english cucumber, tomato, and endive with a choice of house dressings. The entree list ($29–$52; price includes all four courses) is populated by such high rollers as the Financier de Colette, a puff pastry filled with mushroom, peppers, and smoked gouda, which trundles to tables garbed in a cloak of white-truffle pistachio cream ($29). The roast chicken provencal disguises its humble origins and encyclopedic knowledge of corn husking with a crown of cipollini onions and an entourage of green beans ($32). An intermezzo accompanies each culinary quartet, and sweet servings of crème brûlée or carrot cake scheme against their savory counterparts in the final dessert course.

As guests enter a streamside setting at the base of Pikes Peak, Briarhurst's Victorian manor house, built in 1876 out of finely grained pink sandstone, offers an impressive greeting. Once inside, diners imbibe fine wines and sample savory bites within the confines of stately wooden walls and long windows, which stand sentry around many of the nine intimate dining rooms as fresh flowers eavesdrop on conversations. Free parking is available for all Briarhurst guests.