Carnitas are the very essence of perfect pig flesh: unadulterated, bereft of spices, save for salt and caramelized until they reach that ideal climax of sweet, succulent and tender. See that plate of carnitas in the above pic? That’s exactly what I’m talking about. The refrieds and rice won’t generate…
Why did the chicken cross the road? To get away from McDonald’s. Ronald McDonald apparently wants his laying hens to spend their days inside a cage too small even for a waif supermodel s addicted to binging and purging her morning Egg McMuffin. The Humane Society of the United States…
Cafe Options, the classy, fast-casual spot at 1650 Curtis Street, is celebrating its first birthday by giving a present to customers — free coffee from 9 to 10 a.m. today. The cafe has a full-service coffee bar, and also serves up freshly baked pastries, made-to-order salads, fresh soups and big…
Cafe Society served up six Guess Where I’m Eating/Drinking contests last week, featuring everything from a bowl of chili at the renovated Mountain Ranch Club at Coors Field and white sangria at Cucina Colore to a fennel-stuffed branzino. For correctly identifying that dish as coming from Empire, Ferris is now…
We’ve heard from a couple of faithful Cafe Society readers that our e-mail sent out more than a hundred random e-mails on Friday. We’re trying to get to the bottom of the glitch; if you were a victim, could you please e-mail cafe@westword.com? And in the meantime, accept our apologies…
What you may have missed this week on Cafe Society, while checking out the Chef and Tell interview with Matt Mine, exec of the Oceanaire Seafood Room, who’s fishing for a new girlfriend. Red Claw Seafood & Wings opened today in the former Pho Van Noodle Souper space with a…
Despite our usual aversion to stupid kitchen gadgets, cheeseburger-inspired jewelry and food that’s been lacquered and strung on a rope, we still love fun food-themed gifts, especially when we’re not likely to find them at every mall store on the planet. There are dozens of must-have food-related finds all over…
A lovely biscuit is one of those things that seems so simple, yet is entirely too easy to get wrong. While you hope for buttery, tender and flaky, the few simple ingredients can result in a biscuit that’s just as likely to be mealy, tough or tasteless. But with a…
Smashburger, the homegrown burger barn that’s multiplying like calculators, will open its eleventh Colorado location in June at 1203 16th Street in the lower level of the Tabor Center. The burger chain, which began building its beef empire back in 2007, isn’t skedded to build any more outlets in Colorado…
Breakfast! It’s what’s for dinner! That’s the siren song of this year’s Breakfast for Boobs, a benefit to battle breast cancer. The fundraiser, which takes place on Sunday, April 18 from to 5 to 8 p.m. at Hot Cakes Diner, 1400 E. 18th Ave., is hosted by the Denver chapter…
Tocabe, the native American fast-casual restaurant at 3536 West 44th Avenue that Ben Jacobs and Matt Chandra opened in December 2008, is the focus of a new Atlantic story headlined “Fry Bread Nation.” While the piece looks at the increased hunger for native American foods nationally, Tocabe gets the most…
Now that they’ve seen what a bloody steak can do for your libido, ELWAY’s Downtown, 1881 Curtis Street, is adding a sushi bar to bait and hook raw fish aficionados. It’s still fishy as to when, exactly, the sushi bar will open, but Elway’s Downtown spokesperson, Allison Fredeen, says they’re…
First things first: You’ll need to traipse to a restaurant in Boulder Country to swim with the fish in the above pic, a fennel-stuffed branzino that was the finale to an excellent multi-course dinner in an underrated restaurant, whose kitchen is churning out some really sensational dishes. Can you guess…
This is part two of Lori Midson’s interview with Matt Mine, executive chef of Oceanaire. You can read part one of that interview here. Culinary inspirations: Many things, but the weather and the seasons usually play a big part in how I cook, in everything from the ingredients to the…
Imagine a world without hangovers. Go on, imagine: ten-day benders without alcohol poisoning; all-night binges with 8 a.m. board meetings the next day; the end of brain-numbing, stomach-souring, entire-day-losing debilitation at the groping, productivity-pilfering hands of booze. It’s glorious, this make-believe world where adults can drink whatever they like, as…
I first heard about iX MiXer through Nick, the Squire bartender, who reached out to me via e-mail after reading about my tequila-mixing woes in the Drunk of the Week column about Root Down. “You mentioned that you are a self-proclaimed tequila connoisseur,” he wrote, “but have had some difficulty…
Lance Barto, executive chef of Strings, 1700 Humboldt Street, is always playing with his menu, as are most chefs this time of year when the freshness of springtime calls for new ingredients and new dishes. He’s just added kesra, a traditional Moroccan flat bread, to his spring menu, the recipe…
The Colorado Rockies seem full of beans this season — and so was this chili. Can you guess where I was eating?…
It must be spring if I’m jonesing for a seat on the patio and drinking one of these. Great people watching is an added bonus. Can you guess where I’m drinking?…
Yes, it’s yet another list. Livability, the site that invites you to “discover America’s best places to live,” has just released its list of “Foodie Finds: 10 Surprising Food Cities,” and Colorado occupies two of the top slots. That Boulder ranks third is no surprise at all; after all, it’s…
As part of an upcoming photo essay project spotlighting Denver restaurant pros whose tatts are as prevalent as their dissections, burns, blisters, knife slashes and stabs, we promised that we’d post some of the best ink on the Cafe Society blog. We’ve already exposed the tatts of Matt Selby, executive…
Matt Mine Oceanaire Seafood Room 1400 Arapahoe Street 303-991-2277 www.theoceanaire.com This is part one of Lori Midson’s interview with Matt Mine, executive chef of Oceanaire. To read part two of that interview, click here. Matt Mine, the executive chef of Oceanaire, is searching for a new girlfriend, and since he…
