Ask the Critic: What is Denver’s food scene missing?

So here’s a question for all you hardcore gastronauts out there: We all know that Denver is a good food town. There are seasons when it can almost feel like one of the great ones. We have fine dining and we have innovation, we have French, we have Italian, we…

Guess where I’m eating?

See that blasphemous sandwich above? It’s meant to be a French dip — a French dip stacked with sliced prime rib. But if you look closely, you’ll notice that there’s nothing sliced, shaved or otherwise sheared about it. Instead, some idiot in the kitchen who was obviously still on a…

India’s reopens in Tiffany Plaza

After twenty years of slinging naan against the tandoori oven at 3333 South Tamarac Drive, Krishan Kapoor, the owner of India’s, spent the majority of his summer schlepping that oven and pretty much everything else from the restaurant’s former digs to his new space at 7400 East Hampden Avenue, in…

Mellow Mushroom opens today

The first Mellow Mushroom opened back in 1974 in Georgia. More than a hundred locations and 35 years later, the “bohemian-chic” pizza chain has finally landed in metro Denver, where today a Mellow Mushroom will open at the Streets at Southglenn. Morris and Sharon Purcel, their son Shane and their…

Mysteries of Sheehan’s Desk: Day 14

Another day, another weird item from my desk. Although really, the only weird thing about it is that there was anything left in that bottle at all when I took the picture. I don’t like cleaning, you see (as should be painfully obvious to anyone who saw the picture of…

Milking It: Corn Flakes Touch of Honey/Toque de Miel

Corn Flakes Touch of Honey/Toque de Miel Kellogg’s Rating: Two spoons out of four Cereal description: Yes, they’re flakes made of corn. But unlike other flakes made of corn — or corn flakes, if you insist — they give off a glossy bronze glow, as if they’ve been spending most…

Tonight: It’s all about wine and chocolate

Tonight at 6:30 p.m., self-described chocoholic and local book author Julie Pech, who penned The Chocolate Therapist: A User’s Guide to the Extraordinary Health Benefits of Chocolate, is the featured guest at the International Chocolate & Wine Pairing seminar at Arapahoe Community College, 5900 South Santa Fe Drive in Littleton…

Free BBQ for Daves at Famous Dave’s

The headline pretty much says it all: In celebration of fifteen years of barbecue-slingin’, Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que is offering free ‘cue for anyone named Dave. If your first name is Dave, you get one entree free (maximum value $15). Middle name Dave? Then you’re only half as lucky, and get…

Cafe Society: Week in review

What you might have missed this week while chowing on some Nut Poppers…Green chile mania!  Jason ranked the top ten green chile joints in Denver, and even got some input on the best vegetarian versions.  We pitted El Taco de Mexico’s chile against Santiago’s and found a surprise victor.We took…

The pizza battle continues between Belmar and Virgilio’s

If you’ve been following the pizza war between Virgilio’s and Belmar, a turf battle over Belmar’s upcoming Festival Italiano and its refusal to allow Virgilio’s to participate, then you know there’s a heated debate in the comments section (seventy and counting, last time I looked). One of those comments is…

The List: Denver’s top ten pho spots

Pho is the most recognizable example of the Vietnamese canon, a street food lifted whole from the avenues of Saigon and Bien Hoa and brought to the United States by waves of immigrants who came here following the war and the reconstruction. Many of those immigrants washed up in Denver,…

Jack-n-Grill makes a move up the hill to Littleton

Just got word from Jack Martinez, the patriarch behind Jack-n-Grill, the New Mexican joint at 2524 Federal Boulevard, that he’s opening a second outpost of his chile shrine at 2630 West Belleview Avenue. That’s the vacated space bordering the banks of the Platte River that the Santa Fe Tequila Company…

There’s always room for one mo’ pho

Later today, we’ll post my list of the town’s best spots for pho, which includes Pho 95, a wonderful place I review this week, and several other pho shops along Federal Boulevard. My all-time favorite spot for pho was in Aurora. Sadly, Pho 2000 closed years ago, but it stucks…

Mysteries of Sheehan’s Desk: Day 13

Worst. Product. Idea. Ever. I get a lot of dumb and worthless shit sent to me — worthless shit being essentially any sample product that doesn’t come in a nice glass bottle with “Product of Ireland” written somewhere on it. But in the history of dumb and worthless shit, this…

Get your junk food fix at the Colorado State Fair

The Colorado State Fair kicks off today in Pueblo with rodeos, carnival rides and parades, but the real reason to hit it up? The frosty lemonades, ice-cold beer, meatball sandwiches, tacos, nachos, menudo, green chile, pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, roasted corn, pork chops-on-a-stick, Thai food, blooming onions, funnel cakes, ice…

Candy Girls: Twilight Sweethearts, Forbidden Fruits

Okay, so we’ve never read or seen anything from the Twilight series.  Clearly the success of the books-turned-movie has not suffered the loss of two candy-obsessed ladies, but we are always willing to entertain a new themed confection that comes with the promise of “secrets” and “forbidden fruits.”The box is…

What’s Cooking? It’s bacon, says Pete Marczyk

Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They usually bring a selection of some of their market’s choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast…

Guess where I’m eating?

 I think I may have just found my new obsession. It’s another Mexican joint, of course, but while the twelve-page menu lists tortas (and “super mega” tortas), huaraches, enchiladas de mole, ensadada de nopales and fried jalapenos soaked in soy sauce, salt and lime juice, the kitchen also turns out…

Mysteries of Sheehan’s Desk: Day 12

Yesterday, I posted a picture of the alien head that had maintained a position of honor on top of my monitor for a couple of years before our office remodel relegated him to a cardboard box. In that picture, said alien head was wearing a baseball hat with a virtually…

Tonight: A chorus of wines and courses at Encore

At 6:30 p.m. tonight, Encore, at 2550 East Colfax Avenue, is hosting a party-on-the-patio winemaker dinner showcasing all carbon-neutral, organic and sustainable wines from Parducci and Paul Dolan Vineyards. The eight-course menu, created by exec chef Paul Reilly, is a smorgasbord of Colorado-inspired plates, including Colorado bass crudo with lemon…

Bowled over by Pho 95

We all watched as the little girl with the blue leotard and blonde hair staggered on the mats. We all watched as she stood there, staring blindly out into the crowd, glancing up at the uneven bars, furrowing her small brows. Everyone in the place was watching. The room was…