SAME Cafe: The restaurant where you pay what you can

To find out what recent customers paid for meals at the SAME Cafe, go to westword.com/slideshow. The first thing Brad Birky does is hand me an apron. “Would you mind starting on soup duty?” he asks, guiding me toward two large industrial cookers near the front counter. “This is tomato…

Colicchio goes a-whorin’ for Diet Coke?

On Oscar night, the entire food world was abuzz. Not because of anything that happened during the Academy Awards ceremony, but because of one of the (million and one) commercials that showed during the proceedings: namely, the Tom Colicchio Diet Coke spot that appeared to show the Top Chef judge and…

In anticipation of the Top Chef finale

I swore a few weeks ago that I wasn’t going to write another word about Bravo’s Top Chef until it stopped sucking. Until they stopped breaking the action every thirty seconds with completely inappropriate product placements (Diet Dr. Pepper cookoff!), until Fabio and Stefan stopped giving the mafia kiss of…

Auld Dubliner now Marmalade Bar & Cafe

The Auld Dubliner, at 2796 South Broadway, closed just five weeks ago. Now owners Phillip and Lorri Donaghy, who also owned the Squealing Pig in Cherry Creek (which closed last month, too), have reopened the place as Marmalade Bar & Cafe. It’s open daily for breakfast at 7 a.m. and…

Get some Sweet Action on Broadway

Do you long for baklava, adzuki red bean or garam masala ice cream? Your wait will end one week from Friday when Sweet Action Ice Cream opens at 52 Broadway. The space, formerly occupied by Fahrenheit Books, will be shared with Twisted Sol, the tattoo shop moving down from Capitol…

Our Weekly Bread: Cheesesteak Connection

The sandwich: Hoagie Philly Where to get it: Cheesesteak Connection What’s on it: Chopped steak, melted American cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo (with sauteed onions and mushrooms added) How much: $5.49 There are few foods that I don’t like, few styles that I can’t develop an appreciation for on some…

Two Spoons to bring soup and gelato to the masses

Two Spoons opened this month in the former location of Gelato Bacio, at 1021 Pearl Street in Boulder, and owner David Cohen, who for seventeen years has owned Spruce Confections, at 767 Pearl Street, is now serving up more joy by the gelato and soup spoon. “We make everything from…

Getting in on the conversation at Bistro One

“Talk to me about your fish.””The monkfish?””Yeah…”I’m writing about Bistro One this week — and this review’s a little different.  For a change, it’s all about the food.  More to the point, it’s all about chef Olav Peterson and his menu and the things that go right and wrong between…

Organixx is greener than a Prius — let’s hope the food tastes good

The website of Organixx, the new restaurant at 1520 Blake Street, offers this on its home page: “Sustainable, eco-friendly, reusable, recyclable, fair trade, natural, energy efficient, organic, local, green, low-impact, fresh. These are words that inspire us at Organixx.” Amazing: In a single sentence, there’s every possible key word used…

Manischewitz! Denverite competes in national cook-off

When I last talked with Deborah Leebove, daughter of Joyce Foster (the former city councilwoman who is now a state senator), she’d just reached the finals of the third annual Simply Manischewitz Cook-Off.And now Leebove, pictured here with her entry, elaborates on the experience: “I desperately wanted a new kitchen,” she…

Another round at Katie Mullen’s

I dropped by Katie Mullen’s on Friday night to get a look at the finished place — and to see whether the numbers quoted to me regarding its first few days of business (800 covers one day, pushing 900 the next) were within hollering distance of the truth.And you know…

Sexy Pizza’s sexy facelift

Back in October, I wrote about Sexy Pizza, a new pizza joint at 1018 East 11th Avenue that was enjoying good word-of-mouth for both its name and its pizzas. At the time, partner Kayvan Khalatbari told me that Sexy’s owners were planning some renovations that would make the name seem…

It’s Denver Cupcake Week for Lovely Confections Bakery

When the going gets tough, the tough sell cupcakes. Lovely Confections Bakery, located at 1489 Steele Street Unit C, started celebrating Denver Cupcake Week on February 21; it will run through this Friday. The bakery is marking its first anniversary by offering two cupcakes for $5.280 and one cupcake for…

Room for one Pho

Sixth Avenue is about to get a new restaurant. According to signs in the window of 1312 East Sixth Avenue — a former market that got all tricked out as Thai Thai Hibachi two years ago, then transformed into Hue Asian Bistro at the start of 2008 — it will…

Milking It: Jumbo Multi-Grain Krispies

Jumbo Krispies Kellogg’s Rating: Three spoons out of four Cereal description: Rice alone isn’t enough to make these Krispies. The supersized kernels also feature wheat, corn and oats — hence the words “Multi-Grain” squeezed between the “Jumbo” and “Krispies” in the cereal’s name. The pieces aren’t blasted out and hollow,…

Oodles of noodles and more news from Jet Entertainment

Frank Bonanno got his noodle bar, Bones, at 701 Grant Street, up and running at the end of December. Dave Query opened his Happy Noodle House at 835 Walnut Street in Boulder on Friday, February 13. The only holdout now?  XO, the noodle bar and healthy Asian concept from the…

Stimulate this! Denver Restaurant Week extended

By now, you’ve probably heard that the economy is in just a wee bit of trouble.  A bank failure here, a million foreclosures there.  Nothing serious, really…But just for safety’s sake, the good people behind Denver Restaurant Week have now officially extended the festivities for an extra week. Though their…

Candy Girls: Baskin Robbins Soft Candy, Mint Chocolate Chip

The lure of the “New!” tag is hard to resist, even when the candy to which it’s affixed seems somewhat appalling.  Like chewy ice cream.  This is yet another instance where we don’t think the candy designers thought very hard about the flavor/texture combination they were creating.  Otherwise how would…

A Twinkie-filled weekend at Steve’s Snappin’ Dogs

We’re almost two months into this new year, so it’s a good time to throw resolutions out the window. Resolve to stop by Steve’s Snappin’ Dogs this weekend for a free Hostess Twinkie or cupcake, which Steve’s will be handing out to patrons to mark the hot-dog joint’s third birthday.Last…

Bag it! Take a whack at a free Qdoba lunch

“Whack the sad sack pinata!” urges a Facebook posting. “At Qdoba we know that packing your lunch is the pits. That’s why this Friday in downtown Denver, Qdoba is giving you a break from having to eat lunch at your desk.Head down to the 16th Street Mall and have a…

From Gallagher’s to 5280 to Hickory Prime

Driving down Arapahoe Street Wednesday, I almost crashed my car when I saw that the restaurant at the corner of 15th had changed its name. Again.For years, this space was the home of the execrable Gallagher’s, where I once had a very long night with then-Westword restaurant critic Kyle Wagner…

Today’s bite of Cafe Bites

Several of the area’s liquid assets are on display today. From 3-8 p.m., the Twisted Pine Brewery, at 3201 Walnut Street in Boulder, hosts a release party in its tap room for Pearl Street Porter, created to commemorate Boulder’s 150th anniversary; find details at www.twistedpinebrewing.com. From 5-7 p.m., Zen Ultra…