Stick-e-Star closes

Stick-e-Star, the catering operation/Asian fusion/American restaurant — and former home of Star Market and Catering — at 2070 South University Boulevard, closed earlier this week, leaving University of Denver students yearning for chicken satay, Cubanos and Thai ribs. Owners (and DU alums) Mike Schettlerand and Ton Phairatphiboon are vacating the…

In the kitchen with Jennifer Jasinski, chef of Rioja and Bistro Vendome

Jennifer Jasinksi, executive chef of Rioja and Bistro Vendome, and the subject of this week’s Chef and Tell interview, recently wrote The Perfect Bite , a soon-to-be released cookbook chock-a-block with recipes from Rioja, including one of our favorites, the black truffle crème fraîche potato salad. “We have served this…

Guess where I’m drinking?

Nearly everything the kitchen trots out from this neighborhood slurp house is excellent. The beer and wine lists are formidable, too, but at the moment, we’re most besotted with the artfully composed and intelligently-crafted cocktails. Can you guess where I’m drinking?…

Mountains of food and wine at the Taste of Vail

You know that spring has sprung when the crest of Vail Mountain morphs from a skier’s powdered paradise into an al fresco grazing ground for foodniks and oenophiles, a transformation that takes place every year during the Taste of Vail, a three-day gastronomic romp that begins today…

A Flavor for Vail

You know that spring has sprung when the crest of Vail Mountain morphs from a skier’s powdered paradise into an al fresco grazing ground for foodniks and oenophiles, a transformation that takes place every year during the Taste of Vail, a three-day gastronomic romp that exposes culinary warriors to wine-and-spirits…

Cooking with Pete: Split pea soup

Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market’s choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast. “Eternity is a ham…

Chef and Tell with Jennifer Jasinski from Rioja and Bistro Vendome

Jennifer Jasinski Executive chef/owner: Rioja and Bistro Vendome Unless you’ve been in self-imposed isolation or mandatory lockdown, you’ve no doubt heard the news: Jennifer Jasinski, executive chef/co-owner of Rioja and Bistro Vendôme, is just months away from opening Euclid Hall Bar and Kitchen, an American tavern that she describes as…

Fruition’s Alex Seidel named a Food & Wine magazine Best New Chef

Just minutes ago, Food & Wine magazine released the names of the country’s Best New Chefs for 2010, and Alex Seidel, executive chef/owner of Fruition, earned one of the ten coveted spots. Bryan Moscatello, the former exec of the long defunct Adega Restaurant and Wine Bar, was the last Denver…

Café Aion opens in Boulder

When Burnt Toast closed last December, on the day before Christmas, Boulderites mourned the loss. But the mourning was short-lived, because owners Buddy Kring and Ellen Dale sold the joint to Dakota Soifer, one of their chefs. Soifer, whose past gigs include an executive chef stint at The Kitchen [Upstairs],…

Tonight: Margerum wine dinner at Black Pearl

Tonight, at 6:30 p.m., Black Pearl, 1529 South Pearl Street, is hosting a wine dinner with winemaker and grape guru Doug Margerum. The Santa Barbara-based, private winery produces three primary wines: a sauvignon blanc called Sybarite, a syrah named Über and a Rhone blend with the name M5. Margerum, whose…

Tavern Downtown uncovers its colossal rooftop patio

“I don’t worry about what they think, I worry about what I think,” answers Frank Schultz when I ask what the owners of Lodo’s Bar & Grill, located directly across the street from the new 9,500-square-foot rooftop patio that Schultz unveiled earlier today above the Tavern Downtown, say about what…

Guess where I’m eating?

Over a succession of several different dishes at a restaurant whose soundtrack is more Sinatra than Sound Tribe Sector 9, the scampi puddled in a buttery white wine broth scented with garlic and studded with Italian parsley, was the runaway favorite. Can you guess where I’m eating?…

Vietnamese noodle bowls at the new KimBa Grill

For the past 25 years, Ba Forde has been the matriarch behind Kim Ba, the excellent Vietnamese joint at 2495 South Havana that’s been the recipient of numerous Westword Best of Denver awards, including Best Vietnamese Restaurant, a prize it snagged every year between 2005 and 2009. And now her…

Cafe Society: Week in review

What you may have missed this week on Cafe Society, while bickering over whether Argyll, Colt & Gray, Olivea or TAG should have walked away with the Best New Restaurant award in this year’s Best of Denver 2010 (Argyll, if you didn’t already know, won that award):…

Food Ink: Matt Selby’s tatts

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 on the Cafe Society blog. Earlier this week, we posted the food ink of Brandon…