The Best of Denver 2002 was a resounding success, at least according to concert promoter Barry Fey, who is always quick to offer feedback. “This time I can’t find anything wrong with your food picks,” says Fey. “What’s up with that?” From steaks to cheesesteaks, Fey has strong opinions on…
Chuck E. Weiss, one of the coolest cats ever to escape Denver, is back in town to “take care of some business” and visit his mom. But although he’s got a new record out, Weiss doesn’t want to talk music. No, he wants to jawbone about his other love: diners…
Q: I’d happily patronize restaurants that don’t allow smoking. Where are they? A: The easiest way to find Denver’s smoke-free eateries is to get a copy of the Smoke-Free Dining Guide from Boulder-based GASP of Colorado (Group to Alleviate Smoking Pollution). The nonprofit will mail the booklet, which includes over…
Denver diners have been waiting for the right twist on Mexican food, and Lime just might be it. Over the last year, a number of eateries have opened that feature either upscale Latin-derived cuisines (Cuban, Peruvian) or upscale Mexican fare, with prices to match (ten bucks for tacos). Although such…
Coffee, table, books: Time to wake up and smell the coffee, Starbucks. The brand-spanking-new Schlessman Family Branch Library, at 100 Poplar Street, has a surprise in store for visitors: a full- service coffee bar run by the Baroness Coffee Company. “This is the first time we’ve tried this,” says Celeste…
Living in a rapidly improving neighborhood has its pluses and minuses. In the Old San Rafael section of central Denver — my stamping grounds — the upside includes increasing property values, decreasing crime and fewer addicts smoking crack beneath the Neighborhood Watch signs. On the downside, there are heftier property…
Q: I’m a big Thai fan. I know you love Thai Bistro, but where else can I get top Thai food? A: I do have a fondness for the superb Thai fare at Thai Bistro (5924 South Kipling Street, Littleton, 720-981-7600), but I also love to Thai one on at…
Recently I’ve had to face the fact that I’m never going to climb Everest. First, there’s the problem of my day job, which doesn’t exactly allow for the time commitment — or, for that matter, the tens of thousands of dollars needed to have a guide carry me up there…
I’d walk several miles to eat more of Sean Kelly’s food, so it comes as good news that his Clair de Lune, at 1313 East Sixth Avenue (in the space that was Merano), will be open soon. “I’m shooting for the first week of April,” Kelly says. “I don’t have…
In the pleasant Cook Street kitchen, Marilyn Kakudo is instructing a handful of us in how to make bread. We all have different reasons for wanting to learn. One student plans to buy and operate a sandwich cart on the 16th Street Mall. She won’t be making the loaves and…
Q: I am getting married in June. Where should I get a wedding cake? A: If I were getting married, I’d head over to Gateaux (1160 Speer Boulevard, 303-376-0070), which makes drop-dead stunning cakes that also taste great. And at a friend’s recent wedding, I tasted a cake from Das…
Lentils may be good for you, but they taste like the dried paste from a kindergartner’s Popsicle-stick project. They sort of taste like the Popsicle sticks, too. Since lentils are a staple of Indian food, resourceful Indian cooks long ago figured out how to spice up the legumes. Enough cloves,…
Smokin’ to the left, smokin’ to the right: It’s getting harder and harder to find a restaurant that still welcomes smokers — even the very casual Benny’s Restaurant y Cantina (301 East Seventh Avenue) considered taking itself off the list of possibilities. Earlier this year, the popular Mexican eatery printed…
Ask any craft brewer today how he or she got started, and the answer will probably point to Charlie Papazian and his book, Joy of Homebrewing. Twenty-some years ago, Papazian founded the Boulder-based American Homebrewers Association and helped launch the craft-beer industry in the U.S. Boulder’s David Myers is a…
Q: Do you have any suggestions for a special dinner in the Vail/Beaver Creek/Edwards area? We’ve already done Sweet Basil, the Bristol at Arrowhead, Zino’s, Larkspur and Mirabelle. So we’re willing to pay the Vail Valley price of admission. A: The restaurants you mention are definitely among the best, but…
Lynn Smith’s to-do list is a little longer than most. She’s a mom; she runs a restaurant; she also goes to graduate school. “Some days I wonder, ‘What was I thinking?'” Smith says. “But most days I love it. I’m always being challenged, and so far, everything’s working out.” It…
Between its answering-machine message, its local advertising and the way staff members drop the news every chance they get, Sacre Bleu wants to make it clear that the place is under new ownership and new management. And — mon Dieu! — that seems to have made all the difference. When…
The lunch bunch: Kate’s at 35th Avenue (see review above) offers a nice, cozy lunchtime repast — but sometimes nothing will do but a fat pastrami sandwich on rye, served in a noisy, crowded deli evocative of New York City. In which case, run, don’t walk, to Deli Tech (8101…
Q: I’m a big prime-rib fan. Can you give me a list of places that do it well? A: What we call prime rib is actually a boneless cut from the super-tender eye muscle of a steer’s primal rib, also known as the ribeye roast. The name may have come…
The word chautauqua is Iroquois for either “two moccasins tied together” or “jumping fish,” depending on which historical linguist you believe — and its first use by non-Native Americans was to name a lake in western New York. Later the word referred to an institute for Sunday-school teachers, one that…
The waiting game: Restaurant service continues to be a hot topic, especially since folks with fewer dining dollars want to spend their money somewhere, anywhere, that doesn’t treat them like dog poop on the bottom of a shoe. Although the service was just fine at Chautauqua Dining Hall (see review…
I got my first taste of French kisses and Jolly Rancher candy at about the same time. In seventh grade, the adventurous girls counted on Jolly Ranchers for both fuel and breath-freshening. I smell a Jolly Rancher today, and I’m back stealing kisses in the bleachers with Leslie Henry, the…
