Food & Drink

Pasta Jay’s has opened a new restaurant at 9226 Park Meadows Drive in Lone Tree. That makes three for the Boulder-based business, which didn’t have much luck when it made a brief foray into LoDo, at 1435 Market Street (now the Pour House Pub), more than a decade ago, but…

Star Trek cereal Kellogg’s Rating: Three spoons out of four Cereal description: Oat discs that resemble mini-cinnamon rolls, even though the designers insist that they represent spinning galaxies. (Maybe to someone who’s never been to a bakery.) These bits are supplemented by marshmallows stamped into two primary shapes — circles…

One of the best food events of the year, Plates for the Peak, a small plates fundraiser and silent auction to benefit Urban Peak, a non-profit that saves kids from the jaws of homelessness, returns for a sixth year to Vesta Dipping Grill, 1822 Blake Street, tonight from 6 to…

When Colt & Gray, the new gastropub taking shape at 1553 Platte Street, opens next month, owner and executive chef Nelson Perkins says he’ll be ready. “This restaurant has honestly been in the works for more than two years, and I think we’ve achieved what we set out to do,…

What you might have missed this week on Cafe Society:Jason Sheehan was stumped for a restaurant suitable for his mom, but came up with a sweet idea.Vesta is putting locavores in high spirits, literally, with a happy hour featuring cocktails made with Colorado liquids.Jason found his favorite single dish in…

So now that I’ve squared things with Rioja in this week’s re-review and detailed about a decade’s worth of history on Larimer Square, what else is there to do?So glad you asked… Below, find this week’s list of all the best places on Larimer Square — and why. Now, if…

Stella Cordova celebrated her hundredth birthday on April 20. But she’s the one who gave Denver the gift: Chubby’s, the old drive-in at 1231 West 38th Avenue that she turned it into a neighborhood icon, as well as a purveyor of the town’s hottest, meanest green chile.Stella kept an eye…

Spent this past week chasing down the restaurants and watering holes that will join Whole Foods Market at the new Streets of SouthGlenn (Arapahoe Road and University Boulevard), which will hold its grand opening Thursday, August 27 through Sunday, August 30. The majority of restaurants are familiar chains, some homegrown,…

Earlier in the week, I put forth the question: When all the traditional choices have been burned through, where is the best place to bring your mom when she comes to town? I got a lot of great answers.  Potager, the Berkshire, Solera and Strings (no), Duo (I would’ve gone…

Details are finally coming in on the Simms Steakhouse redo. According to the announcement, the restaurant “is now splashed with deep hues of red, turquoise, green and brown and adorned with unique lighting, creating a sleek new ambience with a modern, yet welcoming feel.” (Judging from the photo above, the…

Public House, the former Michigan State-friendly bar at 1920 Blake Street that gave up last year, has finally been taken over by the folks who run the Giggling Grizzly, close by at 1320 20th Street. They plan to turn the space into Lizard’s Bar & Grill sometime in July. And…

The Denver Botanic Gardens, 1005 York Street, is kicking off its inaugural Garden Grapes & Hops party tonight at 5:30 p.m. with a flower pot auction, live music from Chris Daniels & the Kings and all-you-can-eat food and drink from 15 local restaurants, including Steuben’s, Wynkoop Brewing Company, Bombay Clay…

All the rain in Spain couldn’t have dampened the spirits at last night’s Hot Rocks Griller Challenge at Elway’s Cherry Creek (2500 East First Avenue), a benefit for the Denver Heath Foundation that brought together eleven Denver chefs, chaperoned by Denver Bronco cheerleaders, who coerced and sweet-talked patrons into “voting”…

Okay, so what’s better than a new pho restaurant opening in town?  A new pho restaurant that also serves frozen yogurt! Seriously, how can you not be excited by that?  It’s so weird, so bizarrely, wrongly right, that I know you just can’t wait to get there yourself.  But if…

Summertime is smoothie season, and these gems beckoned to us from a dusty Big Lots shelf, hinting at a world of cool refreshment. Okay, so we’re not quite naive enough to believe that some off-flavor Skittles could possibly offer us much more than a lurking sense of disappointment; even so,…

Yes, mom-and-pop places are suffering in today’s economy — but so are strip clubs! According to a story by former Denver Post writer Kris Hudson in today’s Wall Street Journal, the country’s two publicly traded strip-club chains have been hit hard by the recession, and are now “catering to a…

Eating 20 hot dogs (with buns) in under 12 minutes used to be such a feat that competitive eaters coined the phrase “doing the deuce” for the achievement. But that was before winning totals in the annual July 4th Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Contest rocketed past 30, shot into the…

See a slideshow from the event at westword.com/slideshow. Last night’s Hot Rocks Griller Challenge at Elway’s in Cherry Creek was hot (if a bit damp). Some of Denver’s most talented chefs grilled up a storm, creating sliders for a cause (the event benefited the Denver Health Foundation). Come back here…

This just in: The Icehouse Tavern at 1801 Wynkoop Street will be opening June 22, according to James Mazzio, the award-winning chef who ran the kitchen at the space’s previous incarnation, Via, and who’s taken a very active role in its transformation into the Icehouse Tavern.It’s still owned by the…

Hey, meatheads! Beginning today and continuing through Sunday, June 14, Steven Raichlen — grilling and barbecue big shot, cookbook author (28 and counting), former Food Network host and current PBS television mouthpiece — brings his big-man-on-campus barbecue prowess to the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs for BBQ University, a fired-up,…