After finishing my review of The Berkshire, I called owner Andy Ganick to find out what freaky pig savant was running his kitchen. Turns out the guy with the porky jones is Ganick himself. “I was raised in a Jewish household,” he told me, and while his family wasn’t kosher,…
Oxymoron, or just moron? I’m trying to adopt a Great Dane that I want to rename Tiny — or, if I’m willing to spend the rest of his life explaining his name, Chopine (that’s a bottle of Bordeaux containing a third the volume of a standard bottle of wine). I’ve…
The Hill-Top Tavern (4907 Lowell Boulevard) will not run a tab for anyone. I know this because a sign taped behind the bar says so. Other signs, some written in Sharpie on scraps of cardboard and paper, some typed but so yellow they look like they were hunted, pecked and…
I didn’t order the ribs at the Berkshire for one simple reason: Ribs should be saved for a place that specializes in them. Baby back pork ribs, in particular — which is where Big Papa’s BBQ comes in. When you get your baby backs here, you pull one bone free,…
Play a game with me. I promise it won’t take long. Say you’re dying. Say, for comfort’s sake, that all the crap you learned in Sunday school or Hebrew school or wherever is true. Your god is a god of love and mercy and forgiveness, but has a wicked sense…
Jason Sheehan’s raved about Les Delices de Paris, and now Alexandre and Christelle Donats’s bakery/cafe is bigger and better than ever. It’s moved from its spot at 5303 Leetsdale (which Sheehan said “could be the most inconvenient location on Leetsdale, but on its best days, is the best-smelling spot in…
Un café con leche, por favor. Denver’s fast becoming a coffee town, with baristas slaving over antique espresso machines on this corner and java geeks requesting Ethiopian varietals brewed through $11,000 coffee machines on that corner. But we’ve suffered a lack of good Cuban coffee, a smoothly sweet concoction derived…
Leggo my sammich. Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches 110 16th Street and three other metro locations 303-623-5050 Italian Night Club Genoa salami, Italian capicola, smoked ham, provolone, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo and Italian vinaigrette $5.55 There’s no reason why Jimmy John’s should be as good as it is. The menu is…
Inside Rockbar, a rock bar. Wicked Garden debuted last Thursday in the old home of Open Bar (and before that, Hush), right next door to Ted’s Montana Grill in Larimer Square. A recent invitation to a Wicked Garden party calls the club “Denver’s only Rock Bar” — which has got…
There’s a certain sense of excitement I get when I walk into a restaurant I’ve never been to. When I stumble upon a small, somewhat rundown, definitely risky place, that excitement is amplified. The excitement is the hallmark of an adventurous eater. It seems like there are fewer and fewer…
Berkshire chef Woodie Thomas shows off a bacon flight. The Berkshire, which Andy Ganick opened in December in Stapleton, is all about the pig. It’s named, of course, after the most famous of the heritage breeds. Its décor is piggish, though not cutesy — focusing mainly on the repeated motif…
Zen Ultra Lounge opened last week — but it’s not related to Zen Asian Bistro & Sushi, one of several restaurants suddenly springing up in the northern suburb, in this case, in Westminster at 11940 Bradburn Boulevard. Zen Ultra Lounge took over the space at 940 Lincoln Street that had…
Free!?! God Bless America. Sure, it’s your civic duty to vote, and the future of civilization just might depend on it. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t milk some free stuff out of it. Here’s an Election Day meal guide to all the freebies offered around town. (Hold on to…
A pal called in search of a place in town that serves paella. Our longtime favorite was at Don Quixote, but that Spanish spot at First and Federal quit tilting at windmills a decade ago. A couple of miles away at 1575 Boulder Street, Lola offers a Sunday night, family-style…
All the food groups. All I want for Christmas this year are some delicious, warming Christmas beers, and all I want for Hanukah is a place to find out which ones are available in Colorado. What’s that you say? Hanukah Claus has answered both of my wishes already? Oh, merry…
I went to the original Brooklyn’s at 2644 West Colfax Avenue after the Broncos game yesterday, and ordered a Manhattan. Not only was it served in the smallest plastic cup I have ever seen, it was a whopping $6.25 for well liquor. I guess when you have a captive audience…
Gordo’s, that longstanding Mexican joint that stood over Sixth Avenue at Sheridan for decades, recently closed up that location and started serving at a new spot — with a new name.The 44th Avenue Grill, at 44th and Wadsworth in Lakewood, is acting as a satellite location of Gordo’s — serving…
I am a serious science fiction geek. And while, in the food world, I generally contain my geekery to zombie movie references, Starblazers jokes, Blade Runner allegories and a recent, minor obsession with the high-tone weirdness of molecular gastronomy, lately I’ve been thinking about some of the other foodie promises…
Boo Berry General Mills Rating: Three spoons out of four Cereal description: Whole-grain-corn cereal pieces featuring triangular eyes — the better to see you with, my dear. They’re accompanied by purple, pink, blue and white marshmallows shaped like bats, ghosts and other spooky stuff. If that sounds similar to Frankenberry,…
The Ballpark neighborhood is hot. Last week I raved about Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza, at 2129 Larimer Street. And just up the street at 2233 Larimer, in the old home of Kokopelli’s (and Manny’s Smokehouse before that), the lower-cased twelve restaurant will open on Tuesday, November 4. The chef/owner is Jeff…
On day two of Naturally Boulder Days 2008, the city’s fourth annual celebration of the $62 billlion natural-foods business, we put down the bread, ate all the chocolate and began with the real substance. Chef Ann Cooper offered the keynote, speaking about her passionate attempts to change the way children…
In the great Venn diagram of foods, there’s a circle of foods we love, and a circle of foods that just don’t taste right—and then there’s the wonderful, sometimes surprising, always guilt-inducing delicious area where the two cross over. Yes, some foods just don’t taste like they’re supposed to. Let…
