Food & Drink

Shotgun Willie’s

Poor Lala’s. If the history of the space at 410 East Seventh Avenue wasn’t enough to contend with, the new upscale pizzeria and wine bar also has to battle phonetics. I can hear the conversation now. “Hon, tonight should we eat at Lala’s?” “How about Lola?” “Actually I kind of…

Carl’s, please don’t change! Change can make a person hungry. And after standing in line in the sun for two and a half hours, watching speeches and bands for another five (Yes We Can!), hearing constantly about change, and then being funneled nearly a mile in the wrong direction by…

By this morning, most of the big names from the Democratic National Convention, Hollywood and the traveling press will have packed up their bags and headed for home (or the Twin Cities for the Republican National Convention). But for those of you who just aren’t quite ready to let it…

The 16th Street Mall today was the same mess it’s been for a week: ugly T-shirts, people selling ugly T-shirts and bewildered delegates and staffers haggling over a final-day discount on said ugly T-shirts. I dropped in to see my buddy Biker Jim at Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs in Skyline…

This is not the first invasion Denver has suffered. There was a sci-fi geek incursion just a couple of weeks ago, that basketball thing a couple of years ago. We’ve had Baptist conventions and World Series games and a thousand smaller, less publicized wrenches thrown in our collective works. And…

Tacos Jalisco does a good job of blending the Mexican, New Mexican, Texan and Coloradan styles of Mexican food into one reasonably coherent whole, and even offers authentic side trips into Michoacán and norteño cuisine. But Benny’s doesn’t even try. This is wholly and completely a Colorado Mexican restaurant —…

Cindy Adams. The Democratic National Convention in Denver. Denver’s a cow town. Doesn’t mean what we’re going to see here is the milk of human kindness. Means like what’s coming is a large load of bull. Having covered these rah-rah sis-boom-bah hoo-has since Lincoln’s day, I tell you Denver’s a…

Bringing Philly to Denver. Taste of Philly 1116 Broadway 303-861-5222 Mushroom Philly $7.25 for a 12-inch I haven’t been to Philadelphia since I was around twelve years old, and I don’t recall whether or not I had a cheese steak. In fact, I don’t remember much about the city at…

Still haven’t managed to wrangle yourself a floor pass for the Pepsi Center? Then the next best place for celebrity spotting is turning out to be Jesse Morreale’s Rockbar, renamed Barackbar for the festivities. (It’s located at 3015 East Colfax Avnue, on the ground floor of the All-Inn Hotel). Last…

Denver does a lot of foods well. We do steaks and potatoes out of historic, autonomic reflex. We do burgers because a man can’t eat porterhouse every day and live long at it. We do sushi because we happened to be the settling place for a handful of sashimi savants,…

Who knows how to party? The Ohio delegation knows how to party. That’s right, the lucky Buckeyes got what I think is the best draw in the city with their delegates, staff, families, fixers, riggers, middlemen and hangers-on lodged in the Curtis Hotel at 14th and Curtis streets, right in…

Keebler Cookie Crunch Cereal Kellogg’s Rating: Two spoons out of four Cereal description: Cookie Crunch is built on two separate foundations. The majority of the pieces are rugged ovals made of corn and wheat flour and speckled white and brown. They’re supplemented by corn ovals that are meant to resemble…

Quick shout-out to Biker Jim Pittenger. who’ll be manning the hot dog cart down in Skyline Park during the inevitable clusterfuck of the DNC. Though he did put things off ‘til the last minute, even he has gotten in on the spirit of the thing and come up with a…

Whenever Liz’s parent’s head up to the mountains and pass through Empire, there’s one destination that’s a must-stop. Lewis Sweet Shop is a great little store that’s been selling homemade candy in one capacity or another since 1951. Though the original owner, Dwayne Lewis, no longer runs the store, according…

If you’re feeling patriotic, peckish and a teensy bit naughty, you might want to get yourself over to Le Bakery Sensual, 300 East Sixth Avenue, for a glimpse (and maybe a little nibble) of their Obama and McCain cupcakes. Which one would get your vote?…