The James Beard Foundation has just released the semifinalists list for its 2009 restaurant and chef awards. And Frank Bonanno — of Mizuna, Luca D’Italia and Osteria Marco (and now Bones, which opened at the very end of December) fame — is one of twenty people up for Outstanding Restaurateur.No…
There’s a sign in the window of the Common Grounds at 1601 17th Street, and it’s not good news. The landlord has put this prime piece of real estate up for lease, and that means LoDo could lose a great local coffeehouse (and a barista who was once on Survivor)…
We recently heard about organic chocolate bars from Shaman Chocolates, and were eager to try out these chocolates for a good cause: 100 percent of the profits go to support the Huichol Indians in the Sierra Madre mountains in central Mexico, and sales of the Fair Trade-certified chocolate have already…
It turns out that Quiznos – the carnivorous, Denver-based chain that gave us subs like the 5 Meat Stack and Prime Rib Cheesesteak, with a double-meat option – has been engaged in behind-the-scenes talks for a year with the most notorious veggie lovers of them all: PETA. (I use the…
When Bar Luxe opened three years ago, it was a sleek Cherry Creek bar, soon to be joined by Euro, a hip Cherry Creek restaurant helmed by Olav Peterson, formerly of Restaurant 1515. But Euro was gone by the end of 2007 (Peterson is now at Bistro One), and Bar…
Tell Dr. Atkins to shove off and stick that paleo diet back in its cave: Local political writer Ari Armstrong’s low-carb, personal-liberty food-stamp diet is the hottest thing since sliced bread (sliced bread bought with food stamps, that is). Turns out our recent account of dining with Armstrong during his…
At the bottom of this week’s Bite Me, I wrote about my troubles getting a decent hoagie out of Taste of Philly — specifically the one at 18121 East Hampden Avenue in Aurora, but I’ve had similar issues at other locations. Although every once in a while I’ll get a…
Like Little Anita’s, Il Vicino is one of the few Albuquerque chains to survive the trip to Denver. But while Little Anita’s has never been a top-tier spot back home (though it has some of the best chile I’ve found here in Denver), Il Vicino has always been one of…
The Sandwich: Greenwich Village What’s on it: Pastrami-seasoned turkey, Swiss cheese, coleslaw, lettuce, tomato and Russian dressing on rye Where to get it: Mendelson’s New York Delicatessen (600 17th Street, 303-996-5555) How much: $9.75 If sandwiches were movies, then Mendelson’s triple-deckers would be the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a…
Squeaking in just under the wire before one of the biggest dining nights of the year is Arugula, a very-very-Boulder restaurant that’s scheduled to throw wide the doors at 2785 Iris Avenue on February 13 — just 24 short hours before the big Valentine’s Day rush. That’s a helluva way…
For Jason and Devin Stallings, who opened DJ’s Berkeley Cafe in August 2006, one restaurant wasn’t enough. Maybe that’s because their first place was so ridiculously successful. Maybe it’s because of the brothers’ weird compulsion to work 24 hours a day (you can see what a job it was to…
See more photos of DJ’s at westword.com/slideshow Laura and I are in bed, sheets pulled from the corners, blankets mussed and tangled. I can feel her, warm beside me, and from the sweet edge of exhausted sleep, I can hear her voice. “Dammit. Why didn’t we order a pizza first…”…
M&M’s (2621½ Welton Street) ain’t the sort of place you just wander into for a drink. Not that it’s hidden from street view or entirely without signage — a small, circular Budweiser emblem juts out above the door. But these days, almost nobody wanders along Welton Street in Five Points…
See photos of oysters from all over the world at westword.com/slideshow. For video of how to shuck an oyster, visit the Cafe Society blog. Nearly four inches long, the “Sand Dune” oyster from Prince Edward Island was so plump, it was bulging out of its shell “like a large breast…
DJ’s Berkeley Cafe (this week’s review) blows the current economic bell curve by being not just full, but overflowing at a time when most restaurant owners would strip naked and hang coupons from their ding-dongs just to get a few more people through the door. A five-page wait list for…
Think you want to open a restaurant of your own? Well, before you get too excited, I suggest you check out djscafe.blogspot.com — a website that Jason Stallings put together to detail every phase of the construction at DJ’s Berkeley Cafe and all the nightmares that went along with it…
Bad news for you fans of serious Vietnamese food: Ha Noi Pho, my Best Taste of Hanoi, has been sold. This happened just yesterday, but already the joint is operating under another name: Can Tho Pho. At least according to the sign out front at 1036 South Federal. When I…
In this week’s Westword, Robb Walsh, the author of Sex, Death and Oysters: A Half-Shell Lover’s World Tour, writes about why this Valentine’s Day weekend may be your best chance to eat oysters for years to come. Watch the video above to see Walsh properly shuck an oyster…
This week’s Westword, on newsstands and at westword.com later today, is especially friendly to foodies. Along with the usual lineup of reviews and columns, this week’s cover story, by Sex, Death and Oysters author Robb Walsh, focuses on the world’s vanishing oyster supply. To tide you over until this afternoon,…
Hisashi Takimoto, who owned Taki’s Healthy Japanese Food Restaurant, 341 East Colfax Avenue, died Monday at the age of 62 (read the Denver Post story here). Taki’s was an East Colfax landmark, and we have plenty of memories of the place, including one from just this week about Taki’s famous…
Oskar Blues will open its new tasting room, the Tasty Weasel, at 11 a.m. this Friday, February 13, inside its brewing and canning plant in Longmont. At 4 p.m., the Weasel will tap a firkin (roughly a quarter of a barrel) of something to celebrate the grand opening. In fact,…
We get a booth against the wall, where we drink tea and watch the neighborhood turn over on the floor; the clock rolling from breakfast rush into lunch. Almost everyone in the place seems to be a friend, a regular — making the Sunday morning or afternoon pilgrimage for eggs…
