Park Burger’s moment to shine

Sitting in the bar, I knew I needed a burger. A couple of them, maybe. Big, fat burgers, mid-rare and bleeding juice over the sides of the buns. I needed the kind of burgers they show in commercials — straight-up porn-star burgers, all greasy and fat and bad for me…

Last rites for Nine75

The space at 975 Lincoln Street is dark now. The doors are locked, the lights are out. Yesterday, George Eder and some of his guys from Jet Entertainment Group gutted the place, taking out everything they could — food and dry-stock, the art from the walls.  All that’s left are…

It takes a Village…

Why am I here? I’m squeezed into a booth, my eyes reduced to bloodshot slits staring into the middle of nowhere. I can’t be here for the food or the atmosphere. I have no real connection with the place and don’t especially care about its history, so I’m not here…

Civic Center Eats: Yo’s Cheesesteaks

Nick Wrona is no stranger to the spatula. He grills cheesesteaks out of a truck these days, but he was the original executive chef at the Berkshire in Stapleton, then experimented with a crepe cart before settling on cheesesteaks six months ago. “I like this. I want to stick with…

Tonight: No tricks, just tastes on East Colfax

It would be really easy to simply divert you to the Youtube video above and leave it at that, but the constant bleeping of the F-bomb gets annoying — fast — and the dude in the video doesn’t actually have the fax facts. I do. And here they are: Tonight,…

Seven goes dark in Boulder

It looks as though Seven Eurobar (which had, at some point in its brief history, become just “Seven” or, occasionally, “Seven on Pearl”) has gone dark at 1035 Pearl Street in Boulder.  No one is picking up the phone (even though the voicemail still encourages callers to leave reservation requests)…

Ask the Critic: Can’t always get what you want

I did a reading last week at the Tattered Cover and it was nice — drew a good crowd, met some nice people, signed a lot of copies of Cooking Dirty.  During the event, I paused briefly in my witty, stream-of-consciousness banter about kitchens and cooks and all the dirty…

Two Edgewater joints go dark

Well, that sucks. Just called Johnie’s Bar-B-Cue, the new, late-night smokehouse at 5280 West 25th Avenue in Edgewater, only to get a voicemail greeting announcing the following: Thank you for calling Johnie’s Bar-B-cue. At this time we are sad to announce the closing of Johnie’s Bar-B-Que due to issues with…

Denver’s best Caesar salad award goes to…

Last night I witnessed the Greatest Caesar Salad competition, an annual battle of the romaine hosted by the Colorado Chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food, that pitted seven local restaurants — Squeaky Bean, Root Down, Campo de Fiori, Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza, Opus, Black Pearl and Izakaya Den…

Smashburger’s a smash

Nation’s Restaurant News, the bible of the food-industry world, has just named Smashburger, a homegrown burger joint that rated our Best Local Chain in the Best of Denver 2008, a 2009 Hot Concept. “We are both honored and humbled to receive this prestigious award from Nation’s Restaurant News,” Tom Ryan,…

Milking It: Apple Jacks Gliders

Apple Jacks Gliders Kellogg’s Rating: Three spoons out of four Cereal description: Corn, wheat and oat flour provides the foundation for this crunchy treat, but the colors of the pieces, which include “limited edition” gliders (a.k.a. puffy triangles with a whole in the middle) along with the familiar bespeckled doughnuts,…

Tonight at Lola: The Denver Five roll out the first of five dinners

Keegan Gerhard (D Bar Desserts), Troy Guard (TAG), Tyler Wiard (Elway’s in Cherry Creek) and Matt Selby (Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben’s) will join host chef Jamey Fader at Lola, 1575 Boulder Street, tonight at 6 p.m., when all five chefs will convene in Fader’s home kitchen to prepare a…

Sunday’s Caesar salad battle tosses competitors

Seven Denver restaurants – Squeaky Bean, Izakaya Den, Root Down, Opus, Encore, Campo de Fiori and Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza – are fighting for the Caesar salad crown in this year’s Greatest Caesar Salad Competition, a no-holds-barred smackdown that gets tossing at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 26 at the Magnolia…

Second Snooze set to rise Friday, July 31

Friday, July 31st at 9 a.m.–that’s the opening that Snooze owner Jon Schlegel is promising for the second location of his two-unit breakfast empire. “I don’t know if you’ve peeked inside,” Schlegel said to me this morning (I have), “but it’s so close.” And man, it better be.  Because while the public…

Downtown Littleton is high on sugar

When it comes to sugar, downtown Littleton is on a high. On Main street alone, there’s the relatively new Lola’s Sugar Rush (2490 West Main Street), which would make Augustus Gloop go bat shit. The town’s main drag also houses the Chocolate Therapist (2560 West Main Street), a confectionery run…

Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill plans fifth Denver location

Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill, a Centennial fast-casual concept restaurant with four stores, plans to open a fifth location at the Cherry Creek Hotel, 600 South Colorado Boulevard, according to a sign hanging on a fence in front of the hotel, which is being completely renovated. A Panera Bread outlet will also…

Meet your meat at Fogo de Chao

Fogo de Chao (pronounced fo-go dee shoun), the Brazilian churrascaria at 1513 Wynkoop Street, just three blocks down the street from Rodizio Grill, Denver’s first Brazilian steakhouse at 1801 Wynkoop Street, opens tonight for dinner, but last night, I got a sneak peek of the meat of the matter and…

Candy Girls: Icicle Pop

This cool-looking candy seemed like just what we needed on a hot day.  Distributed by Kid’s Brands, the Icicle Pop does its best to invoke the brand Popsicle without actually using it.  The familiar shape and colors in the logo make it clear that this double lollipop is designed to…