“We’ll have head cheese at Olivéa on Friday — I expect to see you there,” summoned the e-mail. The note, short and to the point, was from John Broening, the executive chef at Duo and Olivéa — the former a restaurant in Highland with a field-to-plate, seasonal approach to food,…
Bakers have a great terror of trying to bake at altitude. Books have been written about the complications, volumes of secret lore passed down through generations of bakers and patissiers, all dealing with adjustments in measure, in time, in how to make the magic of flour, water, butter and eggs…
Writer Square, Joel Warner
A few weeks back, I gleefully reported that my favorite hot-dog man, Biker Jim Pittenger, had finally taken the plunge and was going to open a brick-and-mortar location in the Southlands development. He had a great location, he had some partners in the Waffle Brothers (with whom he’s been working…
I’m assuming that most of you who follow Cafe Society know a thing or ten about our hometown restaurant scene — and now comes your chance to prove it. As part of the ten-year anniversary celebrations at Cook Street School of Fine Cooking, 1937 Market Street, there’s an opportunity for…
Last night a very good friend of mine, who happens to be pregnant, was looking at all the snaps in my camera, most of which are food shots, and commenting about how she could never eat this, or that, or that other thing, because oh my god, that’s so gross!…
“We’ll have head cheese at Olivéa on Friday — I expect to see you there,” summoned the e-mail. The note, short and to the point, was from John Broening, executive chef at Duo and Olivéa — the former a restaurant in Highland with a field-to-plate, seasonal approach to food, the…
“Sustainable, eco-friendly, reusable, recyclable, fair trade, natural, energy efficient, organic, local, green, low-impact, fresh. These are words that inspire us at Organixx. From the building materials that surround you in our dining room, to our food product choices, culinary procedures and sanitation practices, we strive to have those words define…
That picture above? That’s my desk as it existed this morning, shortly after I was told that I was going to have to move that glorious collection of crap, box it all up and put it in storage while the Westword offices are remodeled. I love my desk. Seven years…
Jon Edwards, co-owner of Gaia Bistro, isn’t particularly happy with the City and County of Denver. Edwards, along with his business partner, Patrick Mangold-White, had hoped to open Kaos, a little pizza operation in the small wedge of space at 1439 South Pearl Street that formerly held Nosh, by the…
I am something of a killjoy when it comes to marketing fad masquerading as political movement. I am, by nature, highly suspicious of anyone who hangs their ideals out there in undisguised effort to make a buck. Sure, these might be deeply felt beliefs. They might have, at their core,…
When I Googled “Cesar salad,” Google asked me if I intended to search for the correct spelling of the item in question, which, of course, is a Caesar salad. I’m guessing that the restaurant whose menu is in the snap above didn’t use Google (or an old-fashioned dictionary) when creating…
Someone has been stealing letters from the marquee at Bastien’s — but Emilio’s, the Mexican joint at 338 East Colfax Avenue, lost an entire sign. Yes, the classic Super Chef sign (right) that belonged to the original diner on this corner, and was lovingly restored when Emilio’s took the space…
The e-mail came yesterday from an East Colfax restaurateur insisting that we had to run out, like now, to snap a picture of the marquee in front of Bastien’s, the antiquated steakhouse at 3501 East Colfax. “You have got to put a picture up on Cafe Society,” demanded the e-mailer…
Sometimes hitting a ball with a stick is just hitting a ball with a stick; sometimes it is more. On Sunday, August 23, the Lake Valley Golf Club (located at 4400 Lake Valley Drive in Longmont) is hosting the Danan Schufman Open, a benefit for The Danan Schufman Fund. Schufman…
Native peaches belong on a short list of the best things about Colorado. The Forte Farms stand has other things as well — plums and tomatoes — but the peaches are the real draw. In the five or ten minutes I was standing there at last Tuesday’s Civic Center Eats,…
Senger’s on the Fax closed very quietly — and quickly — last month, with a sign on the door at 3014 East Colfax Avenue noting that it had been seized for nonpayment of taxes. But now the space is open again as 3014, under the ownership of Nick O’Sullivan, one…
The space at 231 Milwaukee Street that most recently held Bar Luxe and Euro is empty again — except for all the ghosts. Over the last thirty years, this address has been home to everything from the Kiva (great green chile recipe) to the Bay Wolf to Vartan’s Jazz to…
The Denver Five, a platoon of five local chefs who cooked together earlier this year at the James Beard House in New York City, and then decided that they’d like to cook with one another — yet again — in each other’s hometown restaurant kitchens, gathered at Lola two weeks…
This week’s Ask the Critic question came in via the Cafe Society twitter feed from LizKeg: “Trying to decide where to go for happy hour. Any good suggestions for a downtown spot?”It ain’t exactly downtown, but I am a big fan of the happy hour at the Fainting Goat because,…
All the necessary information is contained in that one picture above. Yes, Brandon’s is reopening (finally) at 955 Lincoln Street after a delay of several weeks. Yes, it is “for real.” Yes, it will be doing so on Friday, August 14 at 3 p.m. And yes, it appears that the…
Over the weekend, I had what was easily my best meal of the year, which is saying a lot, considering that the year is half over and I eat out, on average, twice a day, every day. And it would have been absolutely perfect, had it not been for our…
