You can teach an old dogie new tricks: The 109th annual National Western Stock Show kicks off today with its first-ever barbecue competition, the National Western BBQ Throwdown. It’s a Kansas City Barbeque Society-sanctioned event at which forty teams comprising the world’s elite barbecue contestants — the majority of them…
What will be the big food trends in Denver in 2015? Paleo and pickling are both going strong, and hemp seeds are popping up on menus across town. And then there’s moringa, an import from Africa that’s been compared to spirulina and wheat grass. Yum! See also: Five Five Trends…
Back in the early ’80s, before the bust, the crane was considered Denver’s official bird. And now the cranes are back — in a big way. From my LoHi kitchen window overlooking downtown (and yes, I-25), the sunrise glints off the windows of all the new buildings that have been…
A flood of craft-beer businesses came into Colorado last year, and they’ll keep coming in 2015. At least ten new breweries plan to open within Denver city limits this year alone, as Jonathan Shikes reported on Friday. But is that too much of a good thing? See also: Ten Breweries…
For years, nosy neighborhood groups, restaurant-industry insiders and food-and-beverage reporters have relied on the Denver Department of Excise & Licenses website, which features a page devoted to Liquor License Public Hearings. But for most of December, that page was blank. We contacted Stacie Loucks, head of the Excise and Licenses…
Colorado’s minimum wage went up 23 cents on January 1, to $8.23. Twenty-three pennies for your thoughts? While some activists are pushing for $15 — or $10 at the bare minimum — others say minimum wage has gone high enough. The reader who says that Westword is “part of the…
Denver International Airport will celebrate its twentieth anniversary on February 28. Although there were several postponements before the airport hit that 1995 opening date, one goal remained constant: DIA would have a great collection of public art, which today comprises more than thirty permanent pieces and has won international awards…
Close to 300 restaurants opened in metro Denver in 2014, and while some of them introduced new concepts to the areas, many relied on new versions of tried-and-true favorites: Chicken and waffles. Burgers. Mac and cheese. See also: Restaurant Roll Call for 2014 — Nearly 300 Restaurant Openings…
Over the years many people have predicted the destruction of Denver — and we’re not just talking about prudey-pants amateurs who argued that same-sex marriage signaled the end of the world, or that Amendment 64 equaled Armageddon. No, some professional prognosticators have also warned that Denver would be wiped off…
“The big trend to me is the pull-away from romantic art to what’s really happening in Western art,” explains Rose Fredrick, who’s curated the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale for nineteen years. “I think a lot of artists in this region want to speak about land usage, the things…
What food trends will you be happy to kiss goodbye in 2015? Jenn Wohletz offered her list of the top five fads that should die in 2015, including pretzel buns and fancy mac and cheese. Not surprisingly, some readers took issues with her hit list — while others offered their…
Earlier this month, Oklahoma and Nebraska filed suit against against Colorado’s Amendment 64 in the U.S. Supreme Court, and Kansas is considering joining in. The move set off a border war, a war of the words between residents of those states to the East and the Coloradans who’ve been pulled…
At this time of year, everyone gets in the prediction game — but it can be a risky business. New plans for the VC Hotel reminded us of an infamous chapter in the history of the building that started out as a Holiday Inn: It was once the hangout of…
We knew rents were soaring here in Denver, but this is ridiculous: Last week word came that the Nichols Partnership is turning the old VC Hotel (which started life by Mile High Stadium as a Holiday Inn) into micro-apartments, where you’ll be able to lease a 330-square-foot studio for around…
UPDATE: After spending most of December 2014 down while the city completed an update to it, Denver’s liquor license public hearings page is up and running again. For years, nosy neighborhood groups, restaurant-industry insiders and food-and-beverage reporters have relied on the Denver Department of Excise & Licenses website, which features…
Our Backbeat blog shared the sad news yesterday: D Note, a mainstay in Arvada for a dozen years, will close on January 3. When the DeGraff family sold the spot two years ago to Dave and Mernie Rosenberg, live music became as integral to the spot as the pizza that…
What is it with Colorado? The thin air? The altitude? For whatever reason, we have more than our share of out-of-this-world kooks. Monte Kim Miller, for example, a former market exec for Proctor & Gamble who started the Concerned Christians cult and, after his prediction that an earthquake would level…
Even before the sale of recreational marijuana started in Colorado on January 1, law-enforcement officers in Nebraska and other states to the east were pulling over Colorado drivers for not much more than having those green-and-white plates. But earlier this month, Nebraska and Oklahoma took their anti-cannabis campaign a step…
Denver has given birth to many fast-casual efforts, from the giant Chipotle to Smashburger to the just-opened, one-of-a-kind Biju’s Little Curry House. But after we rounded up the ten best new fast-casual spots in Denver last week, some readers made it clear they don’t find the fast-casual concept very appetizing…
While the Nichols Partnership is looking to the future, turning the former Hotel VQ, right next to Sports Authority Field at Mile High, into 179 micro-apartments, we’ve been looking to the past of that building, whose circular design was once considered so cutting-edge. Out-of- this world, in fact, particularly when…
While Cafe Society writers have been looking back over the past year, would-be restaurateurs are still scrambling to get their spots open and grab some of the last holiday business before the January doldrums hit. City Stacks, a bookstore/coffeehouse, has started a new chapter in LoDo. Waffle Brothers finally opened…
The Cherry Creek Shopping Center was already packed with holiday shoppers when protesters convened there on Monday night for a demonstration against police brutality. Even though the “die-in” took up valuable floor space, mall officials decided to take a hands-off approach. “I am really happy to see how well it…
