It was just a matter of time before the Ritz-Carlton, Denver’s swankiest slumbering pad at 1881 Curtis Street, realized that you’re only as good as your happy hour, which has never been one of the Ritz’s gazillion amenities – until now, anyway. Now, if you’re a guest at the hotel,…
As of late, Denver’s boutique ice cream war has been getting hot and heavy — or should we say cold and sticky. Sweet Action Ice Cream opened on Broadway in March, launching an icy broadside against the other super-premium ice cream joints in town, such as Red Trolley and Little…
Tonight, from 6 to 9 p.m., TrueChild, a national organization that works to abolish child stereotyping, is hosting a reception, silent auction and the “True Flavors Celebrity Cook-off” at Mise En Place, 1801 Wynkoop Street. The match-up features two culinary teams, one led by Top Chef’s Melissa Harrison, who cooks…
Everyone who lives along the Front Range must visit Casa Bonita once. Really, you’re not a resident if you haven’t seen the cliff divers and suffered the mariachis, climbed through Black Bart’s cave, muscled your way through the knots of sticky, rapidly greening children and eaten the sopaipillas. I’ve been…
Fried chicken isn’t the only thing worth eating at White Fence Farm. The place also makes some really mean fudge. I’m not a fan of fudge. I like my chocolate mostly in bar form, mostly plain and un-fucked with. Hershey’s is fine. I’ve got a weakness for Toblerone (though I…
“This here’s an Indian hangout,” Gary reveals to me and three friends just a few minutes after we’ve bellied up to the bar he’s tending. Although there are no Native Americans present right now, he says that during the March PowWow, the owner brings in three bouncers at night just…
After experiencing the tacky shlock and awe that is White Fence Farm, I headed for the one place that could stand toe to toe with its down-home country-cooking style and pure Americana weirdness. The one place where, I am not ashamed to admit, I have eaten more than once on…
We’ve just gotten word that LoHi SteakBar, the new restaurant spearheaded by Joe Vostrejs and chef-partner Sean Kelly, is opening tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. in the former home of North Star Brewery at 3200 Tejon Street, which is exactly seven hours (that would be 11 a.m.) after James Mazzio…
Nestle has recalled all its Toll House refrigerated raw cookie dough, for fear those packages are contaminated with that little nuisance, E.coli. Nationwide, dozens of people have become ill, possibly because of tainted dough. But wait, you say: How much danger is there of more people getting infected, since they’ll…
While I have spilled gallons of virtual ink over the shameless self-promotion of my new book, Cooking Dirty, one thing I haven’t yet managed to tell anyone? What the damnable beast is actually about. What, in fact, someone willing to lay down a little dough might get for their hard-earned…
Okay, so this one, I did not expect. For quite a while after Kevin Taylor shut down the Boulder outlet of his Prima brand — the one in the big, lovely space at 1801 13th Street, in the One Boulder Plaza development just spitting distance from the site of the…
First, Vesta Dipping Grill brought back a modicum of cheer to all the bummed out businesses in Denver suffering from the economy; then Vesta’s staff, otherwise known as the bearers of all things happy, initiated, for the first time in the restaurant’s history, a happy hour for the people –…
On Saturday, June 27, Northglenn residents will come to understand why the rest of us, including Jason Sheehan, are truly, madly, deeply in lust with Smashburger, the homegrown hamburger chain that’s multiplying faster than a calculator — here and throughout the United States. And when Colorado’s eleventh Smashburger opens at…
Hollie Burr has rolled back into Cherry Creek, this time with two food carts. Yes, she has Colorado Gourmet Hot Dogs, which was a hit last year with its grilled chicken breasts and gourmet dogs: the Italian stallion (sausage with pizza sauce and melted cheese), the Chicago (with all the…
Luca D’Italia, Frank Bonanno’s Italian restaurant at 711 Grant Street, celebrates six years in the Capitol Hill ‘hood this month with a parade of visiting Colorado chefs, including Mark Fischer, exec at Carbondale’s Six89 and Phat Thai, who joins Bonanno tonight in the kitchen. The five-course dinner, paired with wines,…
This ain’t my first rodeo, as they say. I’ve done my culinary tour of Colorado. I may not be to the Mile High born, but I have eaten the hell out of my adoptive home, taken to it with the fervor of a convert — of a man who knows…
Come August, Rob McColgan and Anthony Pigliacamto will open Modmarket at 1700 28th Street in Boulder’s flailing Twenty Ninth Street mall, a risky move that is nothing short of roulette, considering the succession of restaurants that have opened, and subsequently shuttered, in that wasteland of chains. But the 2,500-square-foot Modmarket…
Sand Creek Lounge turns 27 this weekend — and it’s been an eventful time. The first owner lost the bar when he sold cocaine to an undercover cop; the second lost it to noise complaints. Then Paul Engel won $10,000 on the dog races at the now-closed Cloverleaf Kennel Club,…
Here’s a little bit of what I wrote about San Lorenzo Ristorante two years ago: “Carpaccio di bue dressed in lemon and oil, whole peppers stuffed with cheese and prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella with fresh tomatoes and roasted peppers draped with marinated Italian anchovies, grilled salmon with roasted potatoes, garretto d’agnello…
It’s one of those eternal rites of summer: Stopping by the weekend farmer’s market, chatting up a few vendors and coming away with a juicy cantaloupe or two. But in the process, how often do you stop to inquire where, exactly, those cantaloupes came from? If you purchased them at…
It’s not too late to make reservations for the single malt scotch tasting at the Wynkoop Brewing Company, 1634 18th Street, slated for Thursday, June 25 at 6:30 p.m. But if you want to sample the slew of Britain’s best single malts — MaCallan, Famous Grouse and Highland Park Scotch,…
Lev Grossman is my new best friend. Who is Lev Grossman, you ask? Lev Grossman is the book critic for Time magazine. And in Time magazine, Lev Grossman (my new best friend) just wrote a killer review of my book, Cooking Dirty. Yeah, that Time magazine. And yeah, little ol’…
