A few months ago, the mere thought of another Southwestern restaurant had me howling like a rabid coyote. But that was before I visited the Zolo Grill, now the clear ruler of this peculiar patch of the culinary world. Southwestern food covers a lot of territory–its evolution includes contributions from…
Growing pains: After over two decades as a mainstay of Denver’s dining scene, Little Shanghai, at 460 South Broadway, recently revamped its menu to match its expanded, updated interior. “We hired new cooks and wanted to make the menu more healthy,” says Ching Lei, the co-owner with her husband, Kim…
Long the food of choice for those who want to avoid the eggs-and-bacon routine at brunch, dim sum is catching on as a great way to eat a little bit of a lot of different Chinese foods at any time of the day. For the uninitiated, the term “dim sum”…
Deadbeat diners: The term “no-shows” is sure to strike fear into the heart of any restaurateur. You know, customers who make reservations and then don’t show up, without even the courtesy of a cancellation phone call. Look at it this way: You’re having a party for fifty friends. Everyone says…
Since delicatessens have been around a bit longer than New York has–the first tangible documentation was in a publication printed around 1183 that refers to a burglary of cooked meats from a shop along the Thames–you have to wonder what people said when the first deli opened in the Big…
Life’s a bowl of cherries: A couple of things occurred to me while I was judging food at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival over the Fourth of July weekend: The event is as professionally run and well organized as any I’ve experienced, and there’s a lot of overpriced crap out…
The temperature had topped a hundred, with no relief in sight. Clearly, it was time to fight fire with fire–so we headed to the nearest Mexican restaurant. Tafolino’s, which sits almost on the Lakewood-Golden border, took over a plaza space formerly occupied by an Italian eatery. “When I bought the…
The BOD squad: Giving birth–which I am supposed to do in about a month–can’t be more strenous than trying to choose between the thousands of food and drink possibilities for Westword’s annual Best of Denver issue, which hit the streets last week. At the very least, it can’t involve as…
The questions started coming up as soon as we sat down in Transalpin. First, there were the peculiar classifications on the menu–items were labeled both by style, such as “classics,” and by geography. And then there were the incredibly low prices listed beside those items. When a restaurant has really…
Pasta point of no return: The readers’ choice of the Olive Garden as “best Italian restaurant” in the Rocky Mountain News last week left me concerned for the state of this city’s palate. C’mon, people, the Olive Garden? I helped to open one in Florida several years ago (it was…
This is a fish tale with a happy ending–for Denver, if not for the fish. It begins in the cool Pacific waters off the northwest coast, where Mr. Swordfish finds himself the victim of a nasty sting operation–he’s wanted in fifty states for possession of cholesterol-lowering omega-3 fatty acids, and…
Make a pig of yourself: The invitation was to come eat some sowbelly and meet a few miners. How could I pass that up? Not surprisingly, the miners wound up being the better part of the deal at the June 4 Sowbelly Dinner in Idaho Springs. Held at the Idaho…
Judging from the way his hamburgers always look, Jughead’s criteria for the ultimate burger is a half-moon top bun, a meat pattie as thick as both bun halves put together and exactly the same width, two layers of frilly lettuce, a square of cheese hanging over the sides like a…
Get ’em while they’re hot: Brunch at Hot Cakes, a breakfast/lunch cafe at 1400 East 18th Avenue, is sure to get you going–especially if you ask for wiseass waitperson Tracy Porter. Noticing that I am rather pregnant, Porter proceeded to turn my husband’s face twenty shades of red by asking…
The party of eight at the next table barely noticed their food. “If we close”…”net profits”…”by next Tuesday”…”budget crunch”…The phrases floated over us like corporate Muzak. I watched as plate after plate was set down before the three women (all of whom were wearing red) and five men (all of…
Graze anatomy: I stopped by Cliff Young’s on a recent Monday to sample its popular, free happy-hour fare only to find that the restaurant has eliminated any late-afternoon grazing offerings until the end of the summer. “It’s just not cost-effective,” says bar manager Shelley Sale. “With so many places that…
Italian restaurants are popping up like wild oregano, making them a serious contender in the oversaturation competition now led by Mexican and Chinese. Most of these are red-sauce joints doing the old spaghetti/Chianti routine; few feature the kind of cooking that makes Italy a true gastronomic destination. Or, as Joe…
French toast: What a difference a week (and a change of scenery) makes. Brunch at Le Central, 112 East Eighth Avenue, was a world away from the previous Sunday’s meal at Firefly Cafe. I ordered the same dish–eggs Benedict–and paid 45 cents less ($4.95) than at Firefly, but this time…
In Wall Street, the characters played by Charlie Sheen and Darryl Hannah spend at least four minutes of screen time making an elaborate meal of sushi and pasta and a bunch of other things requiring expensive kitchen appliances that I’m sure they didn’t have to clean. (In real time, the…
Fly trap: Sunday brunch at the Firefly Cafe, 5410 East Colfax, left me baffled as to why the place always looks so jammed–as indeed it was during our Mother’s Day visit. I expect crowds on that day, but a place that’s been in business for over a decade should be…
When a man sets off to build an empire, he usually travels through uncharted territory, conquering exotic foreign lands. But Johnny Hsu stuck with the tried and true, never straying from familiar fare when he opened a mammoth near-copy of his Imperial restaurant ten miles to the southeast. “I wanted…
It won’t fly: While waiting for a noteworthy chicken-fried steak at the Cherokee Bar and Grill last week, I had the good fortune to eavesdrop on some particularly interesting conversations. On one side of the room sat a large group from the Denver Aviation Commission discussing, among millions of other…
