A food-centric trip to NYC, cash and dinner with Flay: All yours with the winning recipe in Cook Street School of Fine Cooking’s recipe contest

This summer, Cook Street School of Fine Cooking, 1937 Market Street, celebrates ten years of teaching idiots, pretenders, professionals, iconoclasts and everyone in between the tricks and tools of the cooking trade. To mark the anniversary, it’s holding a series of events, including a recipe contest (in conjunction with the…

The Market Report, June 13

As the weeks roll on, visiting the Boulder Farmers’ Market is beginning to make me feel like the Octomom at a Baby Gap: Overhwhelmed by the options, I start thinking, “I just want it all!”This past Saturday, I was blown away by the explosion of summer greens (like chard, kale…

Denver’s top dog: Report from the Nathan’s Hot Dog Qualifier

See more photos from the contest at westword.com/slideshow.John Proctor, a supervisor at the Park Meadows Sam’s Club, knew he could eat a lot of hot dogs — but downing eight and a half in ten minutes in the amateur hot-dog eating competition on Saturday afternoon unlocked a hidden talent. “I…

Pasta Jay’s adds an outpost in Lone Tree

Pasta Jay’s has opened a new restaurant at 9226 Park Meadows Drive in Lone Tree. That makes three for the Boulder-based business, which didn’t have much luck when it made a brief foray into LoDo, at 1435 Market Street (now the Pour House Pub), more than a decade ago, but…

Milking It: Star Trek cereal

Star Trek cereal Kellogg’s Rating: Three spoons out of four Cereal description: Oat discs that resemble mini-cinnamon rolls, even though the designers insist that they represent spinning galaxies. (Maybe to someone who’s never been to a bakery.) These bits are supplemented by marshmallows stamped into two primary shapes — circles…

Colt & Gray on the fast track to a Fourth of July opening

When Colt & Gray, the new gastropub taking shape at 1553 Platte Street, opens next month, owner and executive chef Nelson Perkins says he’ll be ready. “This restaurant has honestly been in the works for more than two years, and I think we’ve achieved what we set out to do,…

Cafe Society: Week in review

What you might have missed this week on Cafe Society:Jason Sheehan was stumped for a restaurant suitable for his mom, but came up with a sweet idea.Vesta is putting locavores in high spirits, literally, with a happy hour featuring cocktails made with Colorado liquids.Jason found his favorite single dish in…

The List: Living it up on Larimer

So now that I’ve squared things with Rioja in this week’s re-review and detailed about a decade’s worth of history on Larimer Square, what else is there to do?So glad you asked… Below, find this week’s list of all the best places on Larimer Square — and why. Now, if…

Rest in peace, Stella Cordova

Stella Cordova celebrated her hundredth birthday on April 20. But she’s the one who gave Denver the gift: Chubby’s, the old drive-in at 1231 West 38th Avenue that she turned it into a neighborhood icon, as well as a purveyor of the town’s hottest, meanest green chile.Stella kept an eye…

In answer to your question, D Bar

Earlier in the week, I put forth the question: When all the traditional choices have been burned through, where is the best place to bring your mom when she comes to town? I got a lot of great answers.  Potager, the Berkshire, Solera and Strings (no), Duo (I would’ve gone…

Simms Steakhouse update

Details are finally coming in on the Simms Steakhouse redo. According to the announcement, the restaurant “is now splashed with deep hues of red, turquoise, green and brown and adorned with unique lighting, creating a sleek new ambience with a modern, yet welcoming feel.” (Judging from the photo above, the…

A full weekend of food fun

The Denver Botanic Gardens, 1005 York Street, is kicking off its inaugural Garden Grapes & Hops party tonight at 5:30 p.m. with a flower pot auction, live music from Chris Daniels & the Kings and all-you-can-eat food and drink from 15 local restaurants, including Steuben’s, Wynkoop Brewing Company, Bombay Clay…

Free soup! Pho-Yo’s grand, grand opening deal

Okay, so what’s better than a new pho restaurant opening in town?  A new pho restaurant that also serves frozen yogurt! Seriously, how can you not be excited by that?  It’s so weird, so bizarrely, wrongly right, that I know you just can’t wait to get there yourself.  But if…

Candy Girls: Skittles Smoothie Mix

Summertime is smoothie season, and these gems beckoned to us from a dusty Big Lots shelf, hinting at a world of cool refreshment. Okay, so we’re not quite naive enough to believe that some off-flavor Skittles could possibly offer us much more than a lurking sense of disappointment; even so,…

Stripping down strip clubs

Yes, mom-and-pop places are suffering in today’s economy — but so are strip clubs! According to a story by former Denver Post writer Kris Hudson in today’s Wall Street Journal, the country’s two publicly traded strip-club chains have been hit hard by the recession, and are now “catering to a…

Denver’s hot dog champ chomp

Eating 20 hot dogs (with buns) in under 12 minutes used to be such a feat that competitive eaters coined the phrase “doing the deuce” for the achievement. But that was before winning totals in the annual July 4th Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Contest rocketed past 30, shot into the…

Hot rocks, hot chefs at Elway’s last night

See a slideshow from the event at westword.com/slideshow. Last night’s Hot Rocks Griller Challenge at Elway’s in Cherry Creek was hot (if a bit damp). Some of Denver’s most talented chefs grilled up a storm, creating sliders for a cause (the event benefited the Denver Health Foundation). Come back here…