Three months. For most critics, that’s the amount of time that must pass before a brand-new restaurant is considered fair game for a review. Ostensibly, three months should be long enough for a place to survive its opening jitters, find a true tone and voice, and get a good set…
Dean was the son of a wino, one of the most tottering bums on Larimer Street, and Dean had in fact been brought up generally on Larimer Street and thereabouts. He used to plead in court at the age of six to have his father set free. He used to…
While numerous nightclubs have sprung up in Denver over the past year, many have already dried up and blown away. But not Lotus: The Union Station discotheque is in full bloom. Brought to us by the owners of the swank Mynt True Lounge and Blue 67, this 10,000-square-foot club combines…
One recent Thursday at Hemingway’s Key West Grille (1052 South Gaylord Street), we found ourselves spinning back into the Vortex. I don’t know whether the patio out back was infused with a particularly virulent type of spring fever or we were simply inspired by the legendary drinking abilities of the…
This was one of those weekends when too much introspection and too many bad memories had turned me sour, when anything could trigger an avalanche of old junk down in my subconscious basement, raising dust and making my head hurt. Some ill-timed souvlaki, a lack of sleep and the smell…
A study released last week by the big brains at the Brookhaven National Laboratory has finally proven something I’ve known all along: Bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches are addictive. Like cigarettes, heroin and reruns of the original Star Trek, certain foods — cinnamon buns, for example, fried chicken, ribs and…
This Saturday is my favorite holiday: Kentucky Derby Day. In keeping with a tradition set forth long ago by my grandmother, I’m decorating a big hat with lots of ribbon and flowers, mixing up a batch of strong mint juleps and hosting a garden party. Then, once the winning Derby…
There are many time-honored traditions that guys hold dear. Super Bowl parties, spring break, annual hunting or fishing trips, golf outings, bachelor parties. Especially bachelor parties. We’re a sentimental bunch and feel very deeply that every guy deserves to be sent off into marriage after a night of such debauchery…
I have yet to become acclimated to the vastness of the American West. It’s been almost five years since I left New York (the state), longer since I spent any significant amount of time in New York (the city), and still, my internal cartography remains keyed to East Coast measures…
Welcome to the first round of what will soon be America’s all-time favorite question-and-answer game: Ask the Critic. The mailroom here at Bite Me HQ is always deluged with questions about the Denver dining scene and food in general. And while my faithful research staff does its level best to…
John Jewsbury’s list of America’s best corned-beef cities is short: New York, Chicago, Denver. What? “When I first started here,” Jewsbury says, “people always said, ‘Ah, you can’t get good corned beef in Denver.’ I’ve had to prove them wrong.” A Missouri native with a family background in beef and…
Prepare for an out-of-this-universe experience at Sputnik, a Broadway lounge named for the world’s first artificial satellite, which was launched by Russia in 1957. To fuel your flight, down several sweet Lenin Martinis ($7), made with vodka, Grand Marnier, fresh lemon juice, a splash of grenadine and Tang — the…
You know it’s going to be a good night when less than an hour into the proceedings, the Head of Research says, “I’m not even hungry anymore.” Since this came after not a seven-course meal, but two hot wings, two Coors Lights and three shots of something called “Tuaca” (Spanish…
It was a beautiful piece of fish. Generously cut from mid-body with a gentle, mathematically pleasing slope from the thick flank to the thinner, slightly more tough back quarter. The lovely white flesh was shiny with oil, golden-brown on the top and bottom from a pristine pan-sear and a broil…
Chef Jun Makino’s resumé may boast a connection to Jean-Louis Palladin (see review, page 65), but he’s not the only hometown boy who’s made good outside of the Rocky Mountain West. Denver’s kitchen community is chock-full of chefs who’ve done time with some of the food world’s serious heavy-hitters. Even…
With the resounding thwack! of wooden bats, baseball joyfully returned to downtown Denver this week. And while I don’t particularly enjoy watching the slow-paced game, I truly love the spring-summer drinking season that accompanies it. When I want to tie one on before diving for fly balls at Coors Field,…
I’m a hopeless romantic. There’s simply no other explanation for why I took my girlfriend to Hooter’s (1390 South Colorado Boulevard) the other night. Some guys try to compartmentalize their relationships, but I feel it’s important to include my girlfriend whenever it’s practical. That way, if and when we inexplicably…
This is important, so pay attention. I’m going to tell you the secret of eternal happiness — and it won’t cost you a dime. You’re getting it in a free paper and from a restaurant critic, which just goes to show that you never can tell where or when enlightenment…
Believe it or not, I did exhaustive research to arrive at the secret of eternal happiness that I reveal in this week’s review of the Walnut Cafe (see review). Like the theory of relativity, it seems deceptively simple when seen for the first time. I mean, duh: a nice long…
Spring has definitely sprung in Denver, and that means one thing: Warm evenings will find me drinking cool beers on the magical urban patio behind My Brother’s Bar. The bar has eighteen brews on tap, with everything from Boddington’s to Left Hand Jackman’s Pale Ale, but my favorite spring sipper…
I firmly believe that if I were in charge, this world would be a much better place — for me, at least. I wouldn’t get chest pains over lousy drivers, idiots who take more than five minutes to order coffee, Average Joe, not having four NFL games on every Sunday…
John has a British accent — cultured, smooth, well-practiced, but fake. It keeps dropping off mid-sentence and goes out entirely when he has to raise his voice to be heard over the Saturday-night crowd of beautiful people and liars at Mao Asian Bistro and Sushi Lounge, hereafter to be known…
