From the hillside overlooking downtown, La Loma has been slinging green chile for close to four decades. It’s the recipe created by grandma Savina Mendoza, whose chile became so popular that the two families that opened La Loma in an old bungalow back in 1974 soon had saved enough money…
There’s plenty of action in the 2000 block of Larimer Street these days. The Gin Mill is finishing up the Barn Out Back, its backyard patio; the Three Door Bistro is looking at a July debut; and across the street at 2046 Larimer, Zanzibar Billiards Bar & Grill is getting…
If this were a movie, one insider theorizes, it would be like Crash, with everyone going through the same situation — but seeing it entirely differently. Last Monday, as Westword was going to press (we have new deadlines for our new format — although the paper still hits the street…
The Gin Mill, at 2041 Larimer Street, has become an integral part of Denver’s oldest commercial neighborhood in just a few years, as this recent slide show makes clear. And now the watering hole is about to become even more indispensible: In a couple of weeks, it will open the…
While other chains contract, Baker St. Pub & Grill has been taking advantage of the economy by snapping up now-empty locations in the metro area. First it took on a Chili’s at 1729 28th Street in Boulder; now it’s adding the former Nine75 north space at 2831 West 120th Avenue…
The last bill of the legislative session has been signed, and it’s all over but the shouting — particularly in front-page stories over the governor’s vetoes of union-friendly bills (and likely when the governor is on Mike Rosen’s show at 9:15 a.m.). But Bill Ritter also managed to please at…
In today’s Denver Post, Bill Husted writes about Jason Sheehan’s upcoming book, Cooking Dirty: A Story of Life, Sex, Love and Death in the Kitchen, and quotes from a negative (and very entertaining) review published last week in the Los Angeles Times by that paper’s food writer, Russ Parsons. “You…
As Jason Sheehan reported yesterday, sometime this summer Yanni Stavropolous will move Yanni’s, his Greek taverna, from the strip mall at 2223 South Monaco where it’s been for eighteen years to the Landmark development in Greenwood Village. But not all of the equipment is making the move. The Squeaky Bean,…
It was 1969 all over again yesterday, when Governor Bill Ritter signed a bill that, as of July 1, 2009, will establish the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media. Re-establishes that office, actually: On July 1, 1969, Colorado became the first state in the country with a state film…
As Mindy Sink discovered, it’s not easy being a tourist in your own town — especially when you’re writing a guidebook with a deadline months ahead of when the book actually hits the streets. The Colorado native worked for six months last year on Denver, a Moon Handbooks guide that…
The name “Commerce City” may not be the most marketable. Still, two years ago residents voted two-to-one to keep the business-boosterish name. But that doesn’t mean Commerce City can’t work on its tarnished image — and, in fact, it’s paying a consultant $80,000 to help bring high-end projects to the…
Late last week, the big banner went up on the Sugar House, Scottie Ewing’s controversial club at 1395 West Alameda Avenue, proclaiming that as of June 1, it would be serving “Denver’s sexiest lunch.” What, a special on New York strip? Salad, hold the dressing?…
The Highland branch of Pasquini’s, at 2400 West 32nd Avenue, is going for a cabaret license so that it can offer live music at the restaurant, which has become quite the hipster hangout as well as a major pizza purveyor. The hearing is at 9 a.m. tomorrow at the Department…
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the “Rush to the Rockies.” As rumors of the May 1859 gold find echoed back east, hordes of fortune-hunters started the arduous trek across the plains to the confluence of the Platte and Cherry Creek. Many never made it to what was then…
News from Cherry Creek: The space at 287 Columbine Street that had been Java Creek, that neighborhood hot spot, then became C.R.E.A.M, is now turning into Café Colorado, and will be renovated to include a more complete kitchen…
James Mazzio had hoped that the Icehouse Tavern, the replacement that the Momo brothers are putting into the former home of Via at 1801 Wynkoop Street, would be ready to go by June 1. But the place is going through a complete overhaul — with award-winning chef Mazzio doing some…
Cheba Hut is coming to the 16th Street Mall this summer, bringing its “counter-culture” sandwiches, including Kind, Kush and Chronic. But according to Matt Clark-Johnson, co-owner of this store as well as the Boulder franchise of the Tempe, Arizona-based chain, Cheba is about more than pot references. “it’s juvenile, but…
Here’s the great thing about a book. Once you have it in your hands, it never goes offline. The Denver Office of Cultural Affairs hasn’t been so lucky with the web site where the city’s residents are invited to help choose the next One Book, One Denver selection. Voting allegedly…
The venerable Castle Bar, at 6657 South Broadway, has new owners: Tapp (great name for a tavern owner!) and Kara Smith. After several years in the bar and restaurant business (Tapp most recently at an Old Chicago on South Wadsworth Boulevard and Kara at the Elephant Bar in Belmar), the…
KJ’s Coffee Bar opened last summer at 1710 East 25th Avenue, but it finally held its grand opening celebration on May 23. And KJ’s could soon have more reason to celebrate. This community gathering place for the Whittier neighborhood is going for a beer/wine liquor license, with a hearing slated…
RESTAURANT OPENINGS IN MAY Belemonti’s Pizzeria, 644 Santa Fe Drive Otto’s Grill, 2200 Market Street Pho on 6th, 1312 East Sixth Avenue Olivea, 719 East 17th Avenue Buffalo Wild Wings, 15570 West 64th Avenue, Arvada Recovery Room, 819 Colorado Boulevard Pizza Republica, 5375 Landmark Place, Greenwood Village Gelato Spot, 607…
Now that we won’t be spending the week buying our Birdman hair gel and getting our support-the-Nuggets tats, it’s time to get back to reality. And there’s plenty of that. Today marks the start of Denver’s “Home Renovation Bonanza,” a two-week period in which homeowners and licensed contractors can get…
