In the sea of California and New York cafes vying for the coveted American Institute of Architecture design award, there lurks a lone Colorado joint that wants to prove to the rest of the country — namely New Yorkers and Californians — that it’s savvy design scheme can out-architect its…

For anyone who was born and raised in Denver, especially all you westsiders, the above snap should be instantly recognizable. It’s been at least twenty years since I stepped foot inside this Mexican compound that still commands thirty-minute waits on a Saturday night and still squiggles its frozen margaritas with…

Wild Ginger, the excellent Thai restaurant at 399 West Littleton Boulevard in Littleton, is on hiatus until August 28, an extended holiday of sorts, while owner Somsak Damrongsang hangs out in his native Thailand and the kitchen gets a makeover. “We remodeled the dining room four years ago, but we…

Our favorite table scraps of the week from the Cafe Society blog: 1. The fact that Coors Field made PETA”s list of the country’s most vegetarian-friendly ballparks, coming in at number five on its annual list, made the rest of us darksiders swear to eat steaks, cheeseburgers, bratwursts and as…

In case you missed it, Esquire magazine just released its globe-groping list of the “15 Bars Every Many Should Drink In Before He Dies.” Much to our disappointment, there’s not a single Colorado watering hole on the roster, which does, however, ballyhoo bars in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York,…

It’s BrewGrass time on Old South Pearl Street, the kick-ass bluegrass block party that combines energetic guitar picking with dirty dancing, feasting and imbibing. The annual celebration, which rocks the 1200 block of South Pearl, kicks off at noon tomorrow with suds from 15 breweries, many of them local, numerous…

Indian food is always a feast, and here, where the above snap was flashed, dinner is a parade of delicious dishes that always ends with lugging home my kid’s leftovers, because, according to him, Indian food is “gross,” except, he contends, for the naan, which in this case is pelted…

“I’ve been doing raw food for six years and was shocked when I moved from meat-and-potatoes Chicago to healthy Boulder and saw that there was such a big gap in raw food restaurants,” says Daniel Asher, chef of Root Down and the former chef of Organic Orbit, a vegetable-focused Boulder…

Grand Junction isn’t what you’d call a culinary food capital, but the mountain town does have at least one claim to fame: Enstrom’s Almond Toffee, the Colorado toffee company that will celebrate 50 years of sugar rushes later this fall with a confection of fanfare. In the meantime, Colorado’s own…

Andrew Lubatty The Avenue Grill 630 East 17th Avenue 303-861-2820 www.avenuegrill.com This is part two of Andrew Lubatty’s Chef and Tell interview. To read part one of that interview, click here. Culinary inspirations: When I was fourteen, I worked at this place called J.G. Melons in Bridgehampton, Long Island, that…

Film director Adam Green, who released Frozen earlier this year and just completed Hatchet II, which you can see later this fall, has hooked up with 1492 Pictures, the production firm that produced the Harry Potter films, The Goonies and Gremlins, to bring Killer Pizza to the cinematic screen. The…

Viva la fresh mozzarella. “Age is not important unless you’re a cheese.” Helen Hayes “Cheese – milk’s leap toward immortality.” Clifton Paul Fadiman “If I had to give up cheese or chocolate, I’d give up chocolate in a heartbeat.” Amanda Peet “Wine and cheese are ageless companions, like aspirin and…

Andrew Lubatty The Avenue Grill 630 East 17th Avenue 303-861-2820 www.avenuegrill.com Andrew Lubatty can’t contain his excitement. The Avenue Grill executive chef is just hours away from boarding a plane and jetting off to Washington, D.C. — specifically, the White House — where he’s joining eight more Colorado chefs, all…

At last night’s Plates the Peak, a fundraiser/silent auction to benefit Urban Peak, fifteen of Denver’s star chefs convened in the hellishly hot kitchen of Vesta Dipping Grill to feed the sweaty gastronauts who grubbed on everything from chicken-fried steak biscuit sliders and lamb shoulder mini “Phillys” to blue crab…

“In a perfect world, we’d open on June 18, but realistically, it looks like we’ll open to the public on Monday, June 21,” predicts Jeremy Marshall, operations manager of Mad Greens, the Denver-based gourmet salad chain that will unveil its tenth Colorado location later this month at 2073 South Colorado…

As part of an upcoming photo essay project spotlighting Denver restaurant pros whose tatts are as prevalent as their dissections, burns, blisters, knife slashes and stabs, we promised that we’d post some of the best ink on the Cafe Society blog…

When Mike Delmonico mentioned the name of his new restaurant, The Hole, I swallowed a giggle, hesitating before eventually asking him if he’d thought about all the different ways in which a name like that could be misconstrued, maligned or misinterpreted. “I’m not worried,” he deadpanned. Fair enough, but when…

See that round of shots above? Those were the first of many shots that Cafe Society writers imbibed as we celebrated the start of a weekend dominated by — what else? — drinking. Can you guess where we got the party started? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct…

Jeremy Kossler and his wife, Kelly, are waging war. On August 17, the Kosslers plan to unleash the Denver Burger Battle, a beef-to-beef combat that’ll pit ten Denver cow-friendly palaces against one another in a showdown that will ultimately end with the crowning of Denver’s Best Burger. “We have an…

This is what I’m having for breakfast tomorrow. This — and corned beef hash with two eggs over easy. Where will I be eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I drinking/eating posts is entered into a pool — and every Monday,…

Ya Ya’s Aaron Whitcomb, the mouthpiece in this week’s Chef and Tell interview, promises that his recipe for duck confit, despite the numerous ingredients and steps, isn’t difficult. “Just make sure,” advises Whitcomb, “that you pack the duck tight with cure and completely rinse the cure off after 24 hours.”…