So now that I’ve squared things with Rioja in this week’s re-review and detailed about a decade’s worth of history on Larimer Square, what else is there to do?So glad you asked… Below, find this week’s list of all the best places on Larimer Square — and why. Now, if…
Stella Cordova celebrated her hundredth birthday on April 20. But she’s the one who gave Denver the gift: Chubby’s, the old drive-in at 1231 West 38th Avenue that she turned it into a neighborhood icon, as well as a purveyor of the town’s hottest, meanest green chile.Stella kept an eye…
Spent this past week chasing down the restaurants and watering holes that will join Whole Foods Market at the new Streets of SouthGlenn (Arapahoe Road and University Boulevard), which will hold its grand opening Thursday, August 27 through Sunday, August 30. The majority of restaurants are familiar chains, some homegrown,…
Earlier in the week, I put forth the question: When all the traditional choices have been burned through, where is the best place to bring your mom when she comes to town? I got a lot of great answers. Potager, the Berkshire, Solera and Strings (no), Duo (I would’ve gone…
Details are finally coming in on the Simms Steakhouse redo. According to the announcement, the restaurant “is now splashed with deep hues of red, turquoise, green and brown and adorned with unique lighting, creating a sleek new ambience with a modern, yet welcoming feel.” (Judging from the photo above, the…
Public House, the former Michigan State-friendly bar at 1920 Blake Street that gave up last year, has finally been taken over by the folks who run the Giggling Grizzly, close by at 1320 20th Street. They plan to turn the space into Lizard’s Bar & Grill sometime in July. And…
The Denver Botanic Gardens, 1005 York Street, is kicking off its inaugural Garden Grapes & Hops party tonight at 5:30 p.m. with a flower pot auction, live music from Chris Daniels & the Kings and all-you-can-eat food and drink from 15 local restaurants, including Steuben’s, Wynkoop Brewing Company, Bombay Clay…
All the rain in Spain couldn’t have dampened the spirits at last night’s Hot Rocks Griller Challenge at Elway’s Cherry Creek (2500 East First Avenue), a benefit for the Denver Heath Foundation that brought together eleven Denver chefs, chaperoned by Denver Bronco cheerleaders, who coerced and sweet-talked patrons into “voting”…
Okay, so what’s better than a new pho restaurant opening in town? A new pho restaurant that also serves frozen yogurt! Seriously, how can you not be excited by that? It’s so weird, so bizarrely, wrongly right, that I know you just can’t wait to get there yourself. But if…
Summertime is smoothie season, and these gems beckoned to us from a dusty Big Lots shelf, hinting at a world of cool refreshment. Okay, so we’re not quite naive enough to believe that some off-flavor Skittles could possibly offer us much more than a lurking sense of disappointment; even so,…
Yes, mom-and-pop places are suffering in today’s economy — but so are strip clubs! According to a story by former Denver Post writer Kris Hudson in today’s Wall Street Journal, the country’s two publicly traded strip-club chains have been hit hard by the recession, and are now “catering to a…
Eating 20 hot dogs (with buns) in under 12 minutes used to be such a feat that competitive eaters coined the phrase “doing the deuce” for the achievement. But that was before winning totals in the annual July 4th Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Contest rocketed past 30, shot into the…
See a slideshow from the event at westword.com/slideshow. Last night’s Hot Rocks Griller Challenge at Elway’s in Cherry Creek was hot (if a bit damp). Some of Denver’s most talented chefs grilled up a storm, creating sliders for a cause (the event benefited the Denver Health Foundation). Come back here…
This just in: The Icehouse Tavern at 1801 Wynkoop Street will be opening June 22, according to James Mazzio, the award-winning chef who ran the kitchen at the space’s previous incarnation, Via, and who’s taken a very active role in its transformation into the Icehouse Tavern.It’s still owned by the…
I thought I saw a vision of Jesus in my latte, but it was actually the guy who’s bigger than Jesus, John Lennon. In this video, local latte artist Michael Keen of Studio 6 Coffee in the Santa Fe Arts District shows how to do one of his many foamy…
Hey, meatheads! Beginning today and continuing through Sunday, June 14, Steven Raichlen — grilling and barbecue big shot, cookbook author (28 and counting), former Food Network host and current PBS television mouthpiece — brings his big-man-on-campus barbecue prowess to the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs for BBQ University, a fired-up,…
This week’s review of Rioja served a couple of purposes. One, it cleared up a bothersome bit of karmic dead weight. Two, it gave me a chance to see how a strong-starting restaurant with a solid crew and a talented chef can get so much better in four years, when…
I’m sitting at Rioja on a Monday night. A full book Monday night — rare for the best restaurants in the best of times, bordering on miraculous for this day and age, this city. I have one of the weird tables: a lonely deuce stuck between two four-tops, sitting, essentially,…
Eighty-two year-old JoAnn Turner, who bought the Rustic Tavern (5126 West 29th Avenue) with her husband 52 years ago and continues to oversee its daily operations, is showing me her photo albums. There’s so-and-so: His dog got hit by a car and we buried it out back. There’s Uncle Fred:…
I gave Rioja four years before going back (in a professional capacity) and finally finding the meal I’d always wanted to have there. Richard Sandoval opened Tamayo, his “modern Mexican” restaurant, at the corner of Larimer and 14th streets in 2001. My predecessor, Kyle Wagner, reviewed it that same year…
The sandwich: Hawaiian Express What’s on it: Ham, pineapple ring, cheddar, lettuce, tomato and mayo on choice of bread Where to get it: Katherine’s French Bakery, Café and Catering (728 South University Boulevard, 303-282-5888) How much: $7.95 If you don’t do it Hawaiian style, you’ve never done it Hawaiian style,…
All you civilians are going to have to wait until Monday, June 15, to witness the unveiling of the state’s newest Whole Foods Market, the nineteenth in the Rocky Mountain region, and one of the first tenants in a wave of retailers, bars and restaurants that’s setting up digs in…
