One more bean sprout, Jay, and I swear to God, I’m gonna shank someone.” I laughed. Not out loud, though, because Glen’s threats aren’t always idle. “You gotta trust me,” I told him. “You’ll like the place. And it’s better than the bird food you’ve been eating lately.” Glen’s doctor…
One of the great, guilty pleasures of a critic’s gig is having to wait for a table. Because I work anonymously, I don’t get to waltz into any room I choose and demand the best table in the house and untold adulation. No, I have to wait out in the…
Howard Lahti is a rock-it scientist. Fifteen years ago, the Canadian geologist/geochemist was pondering a stone sample over a snifter of Scotch (single malt) when he was struck by an idea: Why not use a piece of chilled Scottish granite to cool his favorite spirit? Today, Lahti’s bright idea is…
Back in college, a major portion of my diet consisted of neon blue, orange and red Mr. Freeze popsicles; boxes of the incandescent tubes were stacked in the freezer at all times. But I never realized that I missed Mr. Freeze’s flavor until I took a sip of the Blue…
Le Central is what most people picture when they daydream of lunch at the perfect French cafe — the perfect French cafe this side of France, that is. Whitewashed walls and sunlight streaming in through the windows. A cozy grouping of small dining rooms, with ten seats here, fifteen there…
My near-religious experience was inspired by mussels (see review, page 65); a guy I knew had a slightly less reasonable epiphany over a glass of wine. Mark was a cook, a blackout drunk and all-around unsavory character I knew back in the early days of my apprenticeship. I was just…
If you decide to skip the river of green beer that’s certain to run through LoDo this weekend in favor of a day of snowshoeing or schussing, you can still toast Ireland’s patron saint at the Beaver Creek Tavern, located at the base of the Centennial Lift (and known until…
The List at Lola was long and dignified. Long, because my name was about twentieth from the top — at 6 p.m. on a Saturday night on South Pearl Street. Dignified, because it seemed like every man, woman and child in the city of Denver who was cooler, richer, hipper…
While the crowds at Lola (see review) can seem downright predatory in their quest for the perfect table, the scene at Vega (410 East Seventh Avenue) — which opened just two months after Lola and started out billing itself as “nuevo Latino” — can be fairly sedate. According to chef-owner…
If James and Nate Banker have their way, “Pass the salt and pepper, please” will fade from polite dining-table conversation. The Banker brothers have launched a black-and-white quest for fortune, in the form of Spepper, a blend of salt and freshly ground black pepper. “It has that ‘Why didn’t anybody…
Lounge lizards looking for a new downtown joint are slithering out of LoDo and over to the mod Harry’s Bar, just off the lobby of the swank Hotel Magnolia. Harry’s serves up cosmos, appletinis and dirty martinis by the trayload, but the real crowd-pleaser is the bright-pink Negroni Martini ($8),…
If you’re wondering what to do with those two hours before a table opens up at Lola (see review, page 67), Jamey Fader’s yuppie-dense Mexican fish shack, here’s a suggestion: Head to Hanson’s Grill and Tavern, just down the road to 1301 South Pearl Street. Like Lola, Hanson’s opened this…
When most Americans think of Russian food, they think of frozen gray latitudes, trudging babushkas clutching bags of turnips and beet roots, and giant cauldrons whose sour-colored contents are glopped out onto chipped plates in cramped, dark apartments. They picture borscht — that most recognizable of old Soviet cuisine –…
According to Gorizont (Horizon), a popular Russian-language newspaper published in Colorado, this state’s population of ex-pat Russians is now 70,000 strong, with more coming every day. About two-thirds of this group live in the Denver area — and since these people all have to eat, several authentic, honest-to-Lenin Russian restaurants…
Drop the Nyquil. If you can’t seem to kick that nasty winter cough, head straight to SoBo 151 for an Eastern European cure: shots of Becherovka. A Czech spirit that’s a mixture of alcohol, medicinal herbs and spices, Becherovka has been packaged as cough drops; these days, it’s also often…
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. — Henry Hill, GoodFellas And as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to find the perfect Italian restaurant: the kind of place where goodfellas would go for linguini and clams, some sausage and…
“Cooking is like love,” wrote Harriet van Horne. “It should be entered into with abandon, or not at all.” ‘Tis the season that most cooks dream about and restaurant owners dread. With Christmas, New Year’s and now Valentine’s Day passed, we’re on that long, slow slide toward spring, when people…
Looking for a historical booze cruise? When Buffalo Bill Cody had a hankering for a stiff one, legend has it he’d saunter into the Buckhorn Exchange and order up the usual, apple juice and rye — not the tastiest combo, but one guaranteed to ease the pain of a long…
So here’s Laura and me, handling the logistics of dinner: I call; the phone rings; she picks it up. Me: “Okay, sweets. How’s dinner tomorrow at Tante Louise?” She: “On a Friday night?” Me: “Yeah, tomorrow. Nice romantic dinner on a Friday night.” She: “French food….” She sounds…unenthused. Me: “Denver’s…
One sweet deal: Open since Halloween at 1 Broadway, a space that has scared away several restaurants (and swallowed up a few more), Sweet Bob’s Bar-b-que is now running a special to lure people in the door. A five-spot gets you a Little Bob sandwich with your choice of meat…
The Uptown neighborhood, which was one of Denver’s wealthiest in the late 1880s and one of its grungiest eighty years later, has made a strong comeback, attracting an eclectic mix of fashionable restaurants, bars, markets, condo-dwellers and dedicated homeowners fixing up those old Victorian houses. Last summer, it also acquired…
Never draw to an inside straight. Never pet a burning dog. Never use margarine if there’s butter in the house. And never, ever call your restaurant a New York deli unless: a) It’s actually within the boundaries of New York City; or b) You’re from New York City yourself, as…
