In 2013, more than 250 restaurants opened in metro Denver, everything from ambitious crowd-pleasers like Old Major and Best of Denver winner Lower48 Kitchen to a smattering of out-of-state doughnut houses. While 2014 might not be quite on pace to top last year’s opening numbers, there’s been no shortage of…
Suffice it to say that America has had its share of unethical politicians. From small-town mayors caught with their hands in the till all the way up to presidents caught with their hands elsewhere, this country seems to breed shameless politicos. Just in time for Independence Day, fifty writers and…
Every year, we celebrate the impossibly dense and diverse Denver music scene with the Westword Music Showcase and Westword Music Awards. We brought those to a close last week with our awards ceremony; you can find a list of all the nominees and winners at backbeatblog.com. We’re starting to think…
Westword’s Anthony Martin visited two urban farms and Denver Urban Homesteading, a farmer’s market in the heart of Santa Fe Boulevard’s warehouse district, and talked to farmers and retailers attempting to make a living from reclaimed land, small spaces and a Denver client base looking for alternatives to industrially produced…
It was a busy weekend for taco lovers in Denver. Hard on the heels of Thursday’s Top Taco contest came the Denver Taco Festival, which had more tequila and tacos then even a hardcore eater could handle — along with tiny dogs and wrestling. Photographer Danielle Lirette was there to…
No. 98 Cochinita Pibil at Work & Class 2500 Larimer Street 303-292-0700 It’s possible that every menu item at Work & Class, the raucous but welcoming homage to American slow cooking — with a healthy dose of Mexican flavors — could make our 100 Favorite Dishes list. The kitchen’s spoon…
More than two dozen new eateries opened in June, everything from Argyll Whiskey Beer, the ambitious reincarnation of Robert Thompson’s original Argyll in Cherry Creek, to the modest Kolache Cabin to an East Colfax Avenue outlet of the popular Sassafras. But while Sassafras is thriving in Jefferson Park, Corner House…
Our Mutual Friend knows that street food goes well with beer, so it hosted a Food Truck Fiesta in its parking lot on Final Friday in RiNo. On June 27, multiple local food trucks were on hand to serve cupcakes, burgers and more at this block-party style affair. Photographer Ken…
There are some excellent shows in town this week as we lead up to Fourth of July weekend, including Fitz & the Tantrums two-night stand at the Ogden Theatre, Sarah McLachlan at Red Rocks, as well as Zeds Dead and Dada Life co-headlining at Red Rocks…
You’ll soon be able to get Denver’s Best Veggie Burger in the RiNo/Ballpark neighborhood — because Park Burger, the homegrown chain that got its start when Jean-Philippe Failyau opened his first spot in Platt Park five years ago, is on the move again. See also: Park Burger’s veggie burger remains…
The little brick storefront tucked under a looming tan awning at Iliff and Havana isn’t exactly an eye catcher. Perhaps that’s why restaurants — including Sumo Sushi and Seoul Dook Baegi — haven’t had much success gaining a foothold. Newcomer (at least to Denver) Tofu House is the latest to…
Here at Schmuck of the Week headquarters, we’ve heard plenty of excuses for bad behavior. But few of them are as weird, weak and creepy as the one allegedly offered by Neil Cleary, a staffer at Denver International Airport, for surfing for child pornography while on the job: “Getting old…
Number 99: Gurage kitfo at Megenagna Ethiopian Restaurant 307 Ironton Street, Aurora 720-532-0266 Kitfo — finely minced beef seasoned with the Ethiopan herbed clarified butter called niter kibbeh and the tongue-searing spice blend called mitmita — originated in the foodways of the Gurage people of southern Ethiopia. The deceptively simple…
The mighty King Rat turns twenty this weekend and will celebrate with a pair of unusual shows at Three Kings. If you go to nothing else this weekend, we advise you go there. But we understand if you go to Red Rocks instead for Widespread Panic’s annual weekend getaway in…
On this week’s episode of the Voice Film Club podcast, Voice film critics Alan Scherstuhl and Stephanie Zacharek, along with L.A. Weekly film critic Amy Nicholson, discuss rom-com Begin Again (2:26), starring the always-interesting Mark Ruffalo. They also talk about the biting rom-com parody They Came Together (15:47), which might…
No. 100 Chile Relleno at La Fiesta 2340 Champa Street 303-292-2800 The traditional chile relleno is soft — like the relleno served at El Chingon, which Gretchen Kurtz reviews this week; Gloria Nunez, who shares the kitchen there with her grandson, grew up in Mexico City. But crispy rellenos also…
The twentieth annual Westword Music Showcase brought over 11,000 people to the Golden Triangle to watch more than 150 bands of every possible variety. Our writers and photographers saw excellent lunacy and affecting songs — the bands and artists of Denver have built a music scene that contains the best…
The construction projects that have tangled traffic in Cherry Creek might have been the final straw. On Friday, as World Cup fans were hunting for a place to watch the game, they found that Earl’s in Cherry Creek had closed its doors. See also: Kitchen flood temporarily closes Glazed and…
We’ve talked plenty about the artists who played at this year’s Westword Music Showcase. But, as many of them noted, there isn’t much worthwhile about a music scene without fans. So videographer Bailey Geoghan talked to attendees at this year’s Showcase. She collected advice from them on summer festival fashion…
The Westword Music Showcase brought several thousand fans to see over 150 bands in the Golden Triangle over the weekend. You can find more coverage of the festivities elsewhere on Backbeat, but we wanted to give the bands a moment to weigh in. Earlier, we asked several artists playing the…
A few spectacularly heavy hitters come to Colorado this week — both Nick Cave and Merle Haggard are in town. Sharon Van Etten, playing Tuesday at the Bluebird, has plenty to show for her own relatively short career. You can read our extensive interview with her elsewhere on Backbeat this…
After months of delays, the owners of Glazed and Confuzed, the popular doughnut purveyor, finally opened the doors of their first brick-and-mortar location on Friday the 13th. But the real bad luck lay ahead: On June 19, after a much-needed day off, they showed up at the shop at 5301…
