Only a few weeks ago, I besmirched champagne cocktails, questioning a man’s sexuality because he’d ordered a “girl drink.” Now, however, I must drink my words, because not only is Corridor 44 the swankiest, most posh and glamorous spot to hit Denver in the past year, but it’s come up…
Has anyone seen an escaped monkey? I’ve been scouring the papers for such information since a night at Brix (3000 East Third Avenue), when the little simian that has plagued periods of my drinking career was on the loose, relieving himself in my mouth after I passed out. (I’ve heard…
When I stopped by the new, improved Mickey’s Top Sirloin for lunch last week (a few months ago, it had moved from its decrepit, decades-old home across the parking lot to a shiny, family-friendly, cookie-cutter space with bright-green corrugated siding), the strangest thing about it was the pictures of the…
Eels and tofu, sweet raw shrimp and tuna head and giant clam — I eat it all. Flying-fish eggs, as alien to a suburban rust-belt brat as eating asbestos or living on freon and Pixy Stix, are now a regular part of my diet. They get caught in my teeth…
The Chen brothers didn’t just take on an awkward strip-mall space when they made their break from the chain and opened the renegade Fontana Sushi in Littleton (see review). They also picked up one of the more unusual Sushi Basho locations — a former old-school IHOP at 2188 South Colorado…
Childless by Choice. I don’t hate children. In fact, at times I find them as cute as puppies. I love my niece and nephew even when they are terrors, and I’ve developed relationships with some of my friends’ children that are so enjoyable, I’d actually consider taking care of them…
We here at the Institute of Drinking Studies regard alcohol as a wonderful tool in the battle against age. With a few on board, it’s easy to recall those days when you felt invincible and even your most moronic antics seemed funny to you and occasionally a few other people…
While the Chen brothers now have their own Fontana Sushi in Littleton (see review, page 57), former partner Kevin Lin continues to run the original Fontana Sushi in central Denver. The two Fontanas have similar menus — both places offer tempura and gyoza, donburi plates and soba noodles — but…
We saw Hog Heaven Bar-B-Que coming from a distance. Laura and I had been out wandering — ostensibly making a quick, up-and-back run over Guanella Pass to see the aspens changing like good Coloradans, to ooh and aah over the foliage along with several thousand other day-tripping yuppies in their…
I have always lived and worked under the precept that too much is never enough. Too much food, too much drink, too much fun. No one ever wants to hear the story about the guy who had just enough of something and then called it a night. This week, I…
U-ROC. Every bartender should have a signature drink — and I’m not talking about a “great” Cosmo. How about a little originality? And while we’re at it, how about a cocktail that isn’t so sweet it induces diabetes? I’m going to give the bartender at McLoughlin’s a tiny break, though,…
When women get together after a long separation, their discussion seems to focus on who’s pregnant, married, divorced, cheating and/or fat. Men discuss who’s seducing their secretaries, how much money they’re making, the latest “sweet” deal they closed and who’s fat. Guys, on the other hand, pick up right where…
I had barbecue on the brain this week, and stopped by a spot that nearly killed me on my first visit just from the sheer volume of food a ten-spot can buy. L&L Hawaiian Barbecue has been around in its current incarnation since 1976 — a Big Island marvel that…
They asked if I spoke Spanish when I first walked into Los Cabos II, the beautiful Peruvian restaurant-slash-social club hidden behind the ugly facade at 15th and Champa streets. And I do, sort of. Mostly kitchen Spanish, which — if you cut out all the extraneous cursing and references to…
Steakhouses, burger joints, places serving safe, recognizably Betty Crocker, ham-and-pineapple-slices American grub close all the time and for all sorts of reasons, so just imagine how tough it must be for a place like Los Cabos II (see review) to stay open while serving monster-shrimp soup and laurel bouillabaisse and…
Careful, dude, it’s creeper weed. A football player named Mike always showed up to our high school English class with about a dozen assorted candy bars. He’d start out looking a little squinty-eyed, then gradually become stoned out of his gourd as the class went on. Mike also sold pot:…
Denver narrowly missed a cataclysmic disaster last week. “I almost walked out of my place without my pants,” JP confessed as he clambered into the cab. We were headed toward LoDo and Above the Dove (1949 Market Street), the rooftop bar above the Soiled Dove that overlooks Coors Field. In…
Denver’s ethnic eateries sneak up on you. La Praviana (first reviewed in Westword on May 20, 1999) is a stand-alone joint facing Broadway that in a previous life was a breakfast bar called the Omelet House. Then Hector and Maritza Gil took over, and today it still does three-a-day service…
“Lucky Star.” “Shining Star!” “The Star Chamber.” “Enough,” I said. “Star Quality!” I held up a hand. “That just sucks. Okay, who’s got that key lime thing?” The decimated remains of a key lime tart were passed my way, and I pressed my thumb into the crumbs, then licked off…
Normally I avoid opening events like the PR plague they are. Soft openings, hard openings, grand openings, invitation-only VIP openings — all really just code words for the same thing: amateur night. While I understand the necessity of openings and the point of such parties (everyone has to have a…
Black Pearl is the newest gem on Old South Pearl, a street full of jewels. The restaurant is beautiful, highly stylized, sleek and modern, with Zen-like enhancements — the wall of backlit bottles in the bar, for example, and the patio with a community table complete with an ultra-cool fire…
When the planets align, Institute members answer that primal call to go out and get overserved — no matter what else may be going on, and no matter who drops the organizational ball. On this particular evening, it was JP and me — but our group somehow still convened at…
