Bite Me

In its continuing attempt to make the world a better place through the distribution of caffeine to the masses, Allegro Coffee Company has started a partnership program that brings foreign coffee growers to the United States for an exchange of ideas on traditional handcrafted methods of growing, roasting and brewing…

Consumed

When “Daddy” Bruce Randolph Jr. says that “it’s more blessed to give than receive,” he knows what he’s talking about. Randolph’s father, the late “Daddy” Bruce Randolph Sr., was Colorado’s best-known food philanthropist, a down-home Mother Teresa who gave away thousands of home-cooked meals — especially at Thanksgiving — from…

Drink of the Week

It might be chilly outside, but the scene inside Mynt Lounge, a chic new LoDo club, is hotter than Miami Beach in July. Mynt features extensive mojito and martini lineups. Among the martinis is the Strawberry Banana Martini ($7), made with Stoli Strasberi Vodka and crème de banana. Served shaken,…

Hot Times

The name is not Cue-ba Cue-ba. It’s sexier than that, smoother. Say Koo-ba Koo-ba, and the words should slide off your tongue like you’re sucking on silk. The sound should make you feel like putting on a white Panama hat and growing a pencil-thin moustache. That goes for you ladies,…

Bite Me

What’s a word worth these days? Pick a good one like “organic” and you could be talking billions and billions of dollars. On Monday, October 21, the National Organic Standards and Labels program went into effect, ending over a decade of wrangling in Washington, D.C. The program guarantees that all…

Drink of the Week

Legend has it that sake, the Japanese wine made from fermented rice, was originally called kuchikami no sake, which means “chewing in the mouth sake.” An entire village would gather to chew up nuts, rice and other tasty grains and then spit the result into a tub, where the enzymes…

Burning Passion

Chefs love fire. Food may be their medium, but fire is their element. In the pan, fire is magic — binding, breaking and bringing out the hidden life in everything it touches. Emulsion, reduction, a blanc and a point — when you learn how to play with fire, you have…

Bite Me

Adega Restaurant & Wine Bar (1700 Wynkoop Street), whose May opening was the talk of the town, just got a big boost to its reputation as the defining restaurant in Denver’s up-and-coming food scene with its inclusion in Esquire’s 21st-annual “Best New Restaurants” survey. Food and travel writer John Mariani…

Consumed

When Joe Scherber tells you his pumpkin patch produced just three pumpkins this year, it sounds like his crop was a bust. But together those three pumpkins weigh over 2,220 pounds, making the Wheat Ridge dentist one of the most fruitful pumpkin growers in the nation. Scherber raises massive pumpkins…

Drink of the Week

Cool, dark and smoothly sexy — that description applies to both Sambuca Jazz Cafe and its Chocolate Mint Martini. Made with Fris Vodka, DeKuyper Peppermint Schnapps and Godiva Dark Chocolate Liqueur and garnished with a cherry, this black martini ($8) is served straight-up with a thin layer of ice on…

Bit by Bit

Stepping off the crowded Pearl Street Mall and into Triana is like burying your face in a flamenco dancer’s best dress or jumping into a pile of autumn leaves. Fiery reds and oranges explode in this small space. The ceiling is painted black, a dark sky but for the exposed…

Bite Me

Blurry, at best: That’s how I remember my one-night stagger through the Great American Beer Festival, the 21st incarnation of this beer-sodden extravaganza. But it was my first encounter with the GABF, and being the responsible young reporter that I am, I felt it my duty to taste and record…

Drink of the Week

No bar in Denver celebrates the good life like the elegant art-deco Cruise Room, located off the lobby of the 111-year-old Oxford Hotel. Opened with much celebration on the day that Prohibition was repealed, this long, narrow lounge is still unmatched for its glowing atmosphere, polished service, comfy leather booths…

Deli Dally

The strip mall looked half-dead. There was a scruffy guy dressed Unabomber style in a hooded sweatshirt and cheap, wraparound mirrored sunglasses loitering outside the liquor store, and a bunch of contractors in hard hats standing at the squat little complex’s far corner, as if sizing up the place for…

Bite Me

The restaurant space at 250 Josephine Street, former home of Papillon Cafe, has been the focus of much speculation lately. Since Radek Cerny suddenly closed Papillon’s doors a few months ago, there have been hunches on top of rumors frosted with out-and-out lies about what was going to happen to…

Drink of the Week

Start saving your pesos: A night at Tamayo, Larimer Square’s upscale, modern Mexican cantina, could wind up costing you a pretty penny. Or leave work early, because hora feliz, Tamayo’s version of happy hour, is one of the town’s best bargains. From 5 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, Tamayo…

Foreign Intrigue

Do you remember your first Chinese meal? Think back to your introduction to egg rolls and the virgin sting of soy sauce on your tongue. Did they feel like foreign foods to you then? Did the words wonton, chow mein and moo goo gai pan feel as strange in your…

Bite Me

After a little snooping, I found a few places besides Ocean City Restaurant (see review, page 69) where the adventurous chow hound can go for an authentic taste of China. Pavilion (3333 South Tamarac Drive) has a secret, second menu that features Chinese vegetables, squid, pork butt and all those…

Consumed

This weekend, over 20,000 beer nuts will invade the Colorado Convention Center for the Great American Beer Festival, raising toasts to the brewing artisans who craft their precious drink. But the tippling throng should be hoisting a glass to the unsung hero that most deserves beer-making recognition: yeast. Yeast –…

Drink of the Week

With ceiling fans spinning lazily over the old wooden bar, sexy bartenders, and Gloria Gaynor blasting from the speakers, JR.’s is the perfect place to spend a naughty night. This is definitely one of Denver’s most happening gay bars, and the Blow Job shot ($5) is one reason why. Made…

The Brains of the Operation

So where’d you go for lunch?” I asked. “We ended up at El Taco de México — it’s got real Mexican Mexican food. You been there yet?” I shook my head. I’ve been eating like a pig since I came to town a few months ago, and despite the fact…