Maggiano’s wants to buy you tomorrow’s dinner

Maggiano’s Little Italy introduced an amazing deal today. From now through July 8, if you dine at a Maggiano’s — and there are two in Denver, one in the Pavilions and one in the Tech Center — and order a chef’s $12.95 speciality dish, you’ll get your next night’s dinner…

One more thing — the best thing — about Rioja

Although I dedicated nearly 2000 words to Rioja in my review this week (and an additional grand to Larimer Square, where Rioja is located, plus a few more hundred to a blog teasing my review of Rioja), I forgot to use any of those words to mention my favorite thing…

Happy 75th, Bonnie Brae Tavern

The Bonnie Brae Tavern turned 75 on Sunday, and celebrated by serving 75 cent beers and plates of spaghetti for $1.75. “It was crazy in here,” says Michael Dire, who co-manages the place with his cousin, Rick. Michael and Rick are the third generation of Dires to work at the…

Fancy dancin’ at Katie Mullen’s

It’s already got four bars, a full menu, big crowds and, in my opinion, the best Guinness pour in the city.  It has a prime location (at 1550 Court Place) for foot traffic, a big patio and an entire hotel’s worth of captive customers.  So what else could Katie Mullen’s…

Better late than never for Chinook Tavern

A reader recently e-mailed me a good question: Whether the Chinook Tavern — which left its longtime home at 265 Detroit Street last June, in hopes of reopening at the Landmark last fall — was ever going to reappear.That e-mail got me thinking, because it seems like, well, forever since…

Tequila twins take on California

Twins Will and Dave Elger, who were born in Mexico but are very much Denverites, worked in the tequila business for a decade before creating their own five years ago: Muchote Tequila. Nancy Levine first caught up with it last September at Lime XS, where she discovered it made a…

Second chance for Rioja

Kurobuta pork belly, seared on the surface, rubbed with cardamom, properly rested so that it isn’t wet with fat, and mounted atop a chunky mound of curry-spiced garbanzo bean puree, green like smashed peas, smooth as whipped potatoes. It’s a singularly delicious plate — the best of a whole, long…

The Beer Buckle gets Twisted

The Beer Clothing Company, the Central City firm that graced the world with its (patent-pending) Beer Buckle, has landed a contract with Boston Beer (the maker of Sam Adams) to manufacture Beer Buckles branded with the Twisted Tea logo. The Beer Buckle is a genius creation: a belt buckle that…

Tony’s raises the bar for its neighbors

Westword’s last office was across the street from the Wynkoop Brewing Company at 1634 Wynkoop Street — and in the early days of that brewpub, our staffers drank a lot of beers (and other things) there. “Westword kept us in business for two years,” former brewmeister/now mayor John Hickenlooper recalled…

The 99 cent burrito and tamale deal at Gomez

Gomez, the Mexican pit stop at 3600 Park Avenue West, just off 38th Avenue and I-25, is beating the recession big time with all-day, every day 99 cent specials on the joint’s housemade pork-studded tamales and its egg, potato and cheese or bean and cheese burrito. If you want your…

Vesta Dipping Grill gets happy with its Colorado cocktails

For two hours last Friday, I was happy, happy, happy. The reason for my happiness? Vesta Dipping Grill, more specifically, the happy hour at Vesta Dipping Grill (1822 Blake Street), which runs Monday through Friday, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., and may very well be the happiest deal in Denver,…

Falling Rock Taphouse makes it a dozen

Falling Rock Taphouse, Westword’s Best Beer List winner three years in a row, celebrates its twelfth anniversary tonight with a party starting at 6 p.m. Enjoy free barbeque while it lasts, and try a couple pints of beer from Elysian Brewing, a Seattle-area brewery that is entering the Colorado market…

Pizzaman survives on The Bachelorette

Denver’s entry on The Bachelorette, “pizza entrepreneur” Mark Huebner, survived round three of the show last night. But while he’s wooing bachelorette Jillian — in TV time, at least — work continues at Huebner’s Denver Pizza Company, with the windows at 309 West 11th Avenue filled with city permits and…

A sign of the times at La Loma

From the hillside overlooking downtown, La Loma has been slinging green chile for close to four decades. It’s the recipe created by grandma Savina Mendoza, whose chile became so popular that the two families that opened La Loma in an old bungalow back in 1974 soon had saved enough money…

Zanzibar Billiards gets ready to break on Larimer

There’s plenty of action in the 2000 block of Larimer Street these days. The Gin Mill is finishing up the Barn Out Back, its backyard patio; the Three Door Bistro is looking at a July debut; and across the street at 2046 Larimer, Zanzibar Billiards Bar & Grill is getting…

Feast tonight at Feast on the Fax

Eleven East Colfax restaurants will take part in tonight’s Feast on the Fax, an annual event organized by the East Denver Colfax Partnership and local businesses that encourages foodophiles to walk, bike or hop on a free shuttle bus that takes patrons from restaurant to restaurant — where they can…

First impressions of Choppers Custom Salad Works

Being a somewhat reluctant advocate of the salads at Green Fine Salad Company and Mad Greens, both Colorado-based weed joints (in the gourmet lettuce kind of way, people), I thought I’d check out the new Choppers Custom Salad Works at 5302 DTC Boulevard, in Greenwood Village. It, like the others…

Door to Door makes local food easy

I didn’t make it to the Boulder Farmers’ Market this weekend, and to clear my karma I just may have to call Door-to-Door Organics. This local company has offered delivery of organic food for a while now, but in July it will reintroduce its “All Local” box, with delivery of…