There’s Something About Mary’s

One of the most awesome things about this job is that I never have to worry about who’s buying the cheeseburgers. I just have to worry about finding new cheeseburgers for my boss to buy. That’s no knock against Denver — God knows, this city has more burger joints than…

Moon Time Chills Out

Moon Time, at 846 Broadway, is the second office of Westword’s editorial department, the nearby bar where we go when we need peace and quiet and…um…beer. But while the beer is cold, the air there rarely is — and so we had mixed feelings when we stopped by at 5:30…

Milking It: Chocolate Honey-Comb

Chocolate Honey-Comb Post Rating: Two stars out of four Cereal description: Corn and oat flour mashed into the ingenious Honey-Comb shape — a modified hexagon, thickly constructed, with six holes geometrically arrayed around the perimeter and another drilled at the center. Then, the professors at Post sprayed the bits brown,…

Join the Lunch Bunch at Billy’s

While other restaurants are cutting back on hours, Billy’s Inn is expanding. Open just over two weeks (that’s reopened — the original Billy’s opened more than 75 years ago, and just shut down earlier this year for a change in ownership and a massive renovation), Billy’s will add lunch to…

Cool to Colorado Green Chile

The new issue of Westword includes excerpts of a letter from one R. Rubio of Phoenix, which offers a flavor of a visitor’s view of the city — as well as a taste of what bad service can do for a town’s reputation. Here’s the entire letter: I am visiting…

Chef and Tell!

TV or not TV? Top Chef season four contestants Antonia Lofaso and Ryan Scott will be in Cherry Creek tomorrow as the seventh stop on “Top Chef: The Tour,” a nationwide promotional trip featuring a customized traveling “Top Chef” 18-wheeler semi-truck with a state-of-the-art kitchen. The former chef/contestants will offer…

Apple Fries?

Burger King is rolling out a test-market product here in Denver this month: Apple Fries. Basically, they’re slices of apple — or perhaps slices of an apple-like product. For all we know (and based on the long and dependable history of ridiculousness in the fast-food industry), they could be processed…

Candy Girls: Desiderio Chocolates

We first encountered Desiderio Chocolates at the Chocolate Expo in May. A line snaked around the booth where row upon row of elegantly crafted chocolates were on display. Though they were offering samples of several flavors, the crowd favorite was clearly the salted caramel. So, later, when we were offered…

Say It Ain’t So, Joe: Starbucks Closes Stores

Reporters are renowned for how much they can drink. But not coffee, apparently. Yesterday, Starbucks Corp. posted the list of 600 stores it will close by early next year: nine of those in Colorado, three of those in Denver, and exactly one of those in the Denver Newspaper Agency building,…

Lost and Found: Indochine

I found myself wandering around the south ‘burbs last week, lost and chasing down a vague tip about some Vietnamese place in Parker that does killer pho and bahn xiao (kinda like a Vietnamese pizza — a rice-flour crepe covered in black bean sauce, sprouts, a little pork, maybe some…

Pho 99

My dentist hits the button and slowly brings the chair back to vertical. “All right,” he says. “We’re done. How ya doing?” I nod, say something about being okay, all good, splendid. “Really done?” I ask. “That was…” Gross. Annoying. Disturbing. Double-gross. “…not so bad.” He smiles, turns half away…

Pho Fusion

Pho 99 serves a surprisingly authentic, working-class, streetside kind of pho that, while not exactly rare in Denver (what with its million numbered pho shops and half-million more unclassifiable Vietnamese restaurants), is not the most common iteration of the classic Vietnamese breakfast-lunch-dinner-midnight-snack food, either. Its focus on ingredients and plain…

So Pho, So Good

Inside Pho 99, there are more fish than people – fish in tanks by the door, on the counter, by the register. This is a simple space — comfortable and open and bright, friendly but not much more than functional. People come to Pho 99 to eat, nothing more. Which…

Milking It: Cap’n Crunch’s Home Run Crunch

Cap’n Crunch’s Home Run Crunch Quaker Oats Rating: Three and a half spoons out of four Cereal description: Home Run Crunch is dominated by the same corn-and-oat pieces that have been the foundation of original Cap’n Crunch since time immemorial — yellowish squares that do unimaginable mayhem to the roofs…

Lotsa Luck, Juicy Lucy’s

Can Juicy Lucy’s overcome the curse of 250 Josephine Street? Despite the fact that the address comes with a parking lot — a rarity in Cherry Creek — restaurants that take on this spot never seem to last too long. Papillon had a fairly long run here, but after that…

We Brake for Billy’s Inn

Billy’s Inn, at 4403 Lowell Boulevard, opened quietly last week — but don’t expect it to stay quiet for long. With a great location, smart menu (dinner only for now, but that will change) and big selection of tequilas, Billy’s — which was a northwest Denver mainstay for more than…

Candy Girls: The Chocolate Therapist

When the Candy Girls caught wind of a chocolate therapist in town, we knew this was something we were destined to investigate. Turns out Julie Pech is an author and lecturer living in Denver who has launched a career speaking to groups about the health benefits of chocolate. Additionally, once…

Tomorrow is Free Slurpee Day at 7-Eleven

Get ready to get your drink on! The 7-Eleven convenience store franchise is getting up there in age, and tomorrow will commemorate its 81st year in business. Despite the fact that we think every day can be free Slurpee day (listen, I’m not going to fill my Super Big Gulp…

Mona’s

I’d been having such a good day. A full night’s sleep and then some — rare for me, insomniac that I am. Waking late, bumming around the house in sweatpants, in a rush to get precisely nowhere. First cigarette of the day and a mug of green tea on the…

Coffee Klatch for a Cause

There are lots of reasons for attending the “Live to the Fullest Cup” event at Fluid Coffee Bar, 501 East 19th Avenue, this Friday at 7 p.m., which will raise money for 26-year-old Semeon Abay, head roaster for the Denver-based Novo Coffee, who was recently diagnosed with advanced metastatic prostate…

Week Two in Hell’s Kitchen: Playing Hurt

Jason Sheehan is no fan of Hell’s Kitchen, but he watches it. And now he’s playing it, as he describes here and here, in his account of week one. Now on to week two: One of the many complications of working in kitchens is being able to do it hurt…