Cafe Society dished up four Guess Where? contests last week, including a bowl of mussels submerged in tomato sauce from Armandos Pasta & Pizza and a duo of miniature pupusas from Uno Mas. We also showcased a stiffened slice of pizza from Pino’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar, as well as…

Le Grand Bistro & Oyster Bar — a transformative French restaurant downtown — just launched its fall menu, and chef John Broening, who conceived that menu, is giving us a reason to celebrate autumn’s bounty. The menu, 90 percent of which is new, is swelled with root vegetables, woodsy mushrooms…

I like red sauce as much as the next person, but I have no desire to bathe in the stuff, and nor do I want my mussels submerged in an river of red, but that’s exactly what I got at this suburban Italian restaurant. Can you guess where I’m eating?…

In this week’s Chef and Tell interview with Samm Sherman, pastry chef of Linger and Root Down, she admits that the pot au chocolat, a dessert she had at the Kitchen years ago, changed her life, pointing her down the path to a pastry career. Today, Sherman shares her own…

Small in stature, but big on flavor, these mini pupusas, stuffed with corn and shrimp and slicked with salsa, take a detour from the Salvadorian staple, but they suit me — and this Mexican joint — just fine. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the…

Samm Sherman Linger 2030 West 30th Avenue 303-993-3120 lingerdenver.com Root Down 1600 West 33rd Avenue 8500 Peña Boulevard (DIA) 303-993-4200 rootdowndenver.com This is part two of my interview with Samm Sherman, pastry chef of Root Down and Linger; part one of my chat with Sherman ran yesterday. Your five favorite…

Autogrill, a chain of roadside food stops that dot the Italian motorways, are what “Italy has in place of the oddball combination of fast food restaurants under one roof that we have at Jersey Turnpike rest stops,” writes Frank Bruni, former New York Times restaurant critic. But instead of pimping…

Four months ago, the Archive Room, which originally opened in 2009 in Olde Town Arvada, a charming neighborhood that boasts an abundance of bars and restaurants, underwent some major changes, including a big one in the kitchen: Aaron Youngblood, the former exec chef of the now-gone Dixons, took over the…

Samm Sherman Linger 2030 West 30th Avenue 303-993-3120 lingerdenver.com Root Down 1600 West 33rd Avenue 8500 Peña Boulevard (DIA) 303-993-4200 rootdowndenver.com This is part one of my interview with Samm Sherman, pastry chef of Root Down and Linger; part two of my chat with Sherman will run tomorrow. It was…

Right, so here we are without a government. Isn’t that just dandy? Thousands of federal employees are facing the prospect of shrunken paychecks, while the House and Senate are at a standstill, with both sides refusing to budge. And this whole debacle is making people cranky — really cranky, kind…

In mid-August, Fired Up, the restaurant that chef-owner Josh Barhaug opened in 2012 at 1135 Bannock Street, more than lived up to its name: Barhaug’s office erupted in flames, the sparks of which resulted in substantial damage and a temporary closure that was finally lifted yesterday, when Fired Up reopened…

Last night’s dinner table discourse encompassed just about every subject imaginable, but the conversation took a sharp turn when one of the pizzas, its stiff crust unyielding to flop syndrome, prompted the owner to quip that the dough benefited from a jolt of Viagra. He was kidding (I think), but…

Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation, a national nonprofit that raises funds to fight hunger on local, national and international levels, celebrated its 26th year with a fundraiser last night at McNichols Civic Center Building, raising nearly $20,000 to benefit Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign, a statewide,…

“Conversation starts at the tabletop, friends meet at the tabletop, and it all starts when you pull a chair up to the tabletop,” says Sita Keda, who, along with her husband, Dipesh Amin, will soon open the aptly named Table Top Tasting Room at 2230 Oneida Street, in a former…

I make it my mission, as do many of you, to visit a taproom at least once a week, but the search for what might be my favorite Denver taproom may have ended over the weekend with a stop at this tiny brewery that pours some really sensational beers, including…

Years ago, in a small strip mall just off I-70 and Kipling, there resided a tiny Thai restaurant — the name escapes me — but I definitely remember the food, a jumble of exquisitely spicy curries, slippery noodles stir-fried with vegetables and strong-smelling bowls of steaming soups. That restaurant is…

Cafe Society dished up five Guess Where? contests last week, ranging from a truly magnificent breakfast sandwich from Pierre Michel Organic French Bakery Cafe, to an excellent Vietnamese noodle bowl brimming with marinated meats from Pho 79, to a gimmicky Coronita margarita from a local Mexican joint, where they’re served…

UPDATE: We have a winner of our Taste of the Nation contest, in which we asked Cafe Society readers to answer this question: How many hours have Cooking Matters Colorado volunteers contributed so far in 2013? Congratulations to sarakep, who guessed 6,000 hours; the actual number is 6,551. Sarakep, we’ll…

What defines an essential restaurant? Several opinionated friends and I were recently discussing that topic during dinner at a trendy newcomer that’s amassed a flurry of flattery since opening its doors. It’s a restaurant-of-the-moment, but will it still be relevant in six months? Will the crowds continue to jam the…

The wait for a table is nothing short of ridiculous, and even if you’re one of the lucky ones who manages to slide your butt into a chair, there’s the real possibility that whatever you’re eying on the menu sold out long before you got there, but if you time…

Last August, when global chef and restaurateur Richard Sandoval opened Al Lado, a Latin wine and tapas bar directly adjacent to Zengo, his Latin-inspired food temple in Riverfront Park, he described the sultry wine bar as his “homage to a new generation of Latin winemakers, and the thoughtful cuisine that…