A closer look at LoHi Steakbar

The boys from Larimer Square have been making us wait seemingly forever for LoHi SteakBar to open in the former North Star space at 3200 Tejon. Their last neighborhood venture (beyond Larimer Square) was the wildly successful Billy’s Inn, which has been packing them in since its opening. Like Billy’s,…

The fried chicken at White Fence Farm really flies

Everyone who lives along the Front Range must visit Casa Bonita once. Really, you’re not a resident if you haven’t seen the cliff divers and suffered the mariachis, climbed through Black Bart’s cave, muscled your way through the knots of sticky, rapidly greening children and eaten the sopaipillas. I’ve been…

God bless the USA… and Cracker Barrel

After experiencing the tacky shlock and awe that is White Fence Farm, I headed for the one place that could stand toe to toe with its down-home country-cooking style and pure Americana weirdness. The one place where, I am not ashamed to admit, I have eaten more than once on…

Say hello to two new debuts: LoHi SteakBar and Icehouse Tavern

We’ve just gotten word that LoHi SteakBar, the new restaurant spearheaded by Joe Vostrejs and chef-partner Sean Kelly, is opening tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. in the former home of North Star Brewery at 3200 Tejon Street, which is exactly seven hours (that would be 11 a.m.) after James Mazzio…

Cooking Dirty: A peek inside

While I have spilled gallons of virtual ink over the shameless self-promotion of my new book, Cooking Dirty, one thing I haven’t yet managed to tell anyone?  What the damnable beast is actually about.  What, in fact, someone willing to lay down a little dough might get for their hard-earned…

Barbecue in Boulder, by way of Kansas City

Okay, so this one, I did not expect. For quite a while after Kevin Taylor shut down the Boulder outlet of his Prima brand — the one in the big, lovely space at 1801 13th Street, in the One Boulder Plaza development just spitting distance from the site of the…

Newest Smashburger one burger short of a Colorado dozen

On Saturday, June 27, Northglenn residents will come to understand why the rest of us, including Jason Sheehan, are truly, madly, deeply in lust with Smashburger, the homegrown hamburger chain that’s multiplying faster than a calculator — here and throughout the United States. And when Colorado’s eleventh Smashburger opens at…

A la cart in Cherry Creek

Hollie Burr has rolled back into Cherry Creek, this time with two food carts. Yes, she has Colorado Gourmet Hot Dogs, which was a hit last year with its grilled chicken breasts and gourmet dogs: the Italian stallion (sausage with pizza sauce and melted cheese), the Chicago (with all the…

Down on the Farm

This ain’t my first rodeo, as they say. I’ve done my culinary tour of Colorado. I may not be to the Mile High born, but I have eaten the hell out of my adoptive home, taken to it with the fervor of a convert — of a man who knows…

Can Modmarket make it at Boulder’s Twenty Ninth Street mall?

Come August, Rob McColgan and Anthony Pigliacamto will open Modmarket at 1700 28th Street in Boulder’s flailing Twenty Ninth Street mall, a risky move that is nothing short of roulette, considering the succession of restaurants that have opened, and subsequently shuttered, in that wasteland of chains. But the 2,500-square-foot Modmarket…

Sand Creek Lounge celebrates 27 eventful years

Sand Creek Lounge turns 27 this weekend — and it’s been an eventful time. The first owner lost the bar when he sold cocaine to an undercover cop; the second lost it to noise complaints. Then Paul Engel won $10,000 on the dog races at the now-closed Cloverleaf Kennel Club,…

San Lorenzo Ristorante goes dark

Here’s a little bit of what I wrote about San Lorenzo Ristorante two years ago: “Carpaccio di bue dressed in lemon and oil, whole peppers stuffed with cheese and prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella with fresh tomatoes and roasted peppers draped with marinated Italian anchovies, grilled salmon with roasted potatoes, garretto d’agnello…

Cooking Dirty: Eight days and counting

Lev Grossman is my new best friend. Who is Lev Grossman, you ask?  Lev Grossman is the book critic for Time magazine.  And in Time magazine, Lev Grossman (my new best friend) just wrote a killer review of my book, Cooking Dirty. Yeah, that Time magazine.  And yeah, little ol’…

Phil’s Place was quite the place on Father’s Day

Phil’s Place, a watering hole at 3463 Larimer Street, was the unlikely setting Sunday for a book-signing event by Dick Kreck, the former Denver Post scribe who’s the author of Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family. After all, for close to sixty years the Smaldones ran Gaetano’s,…

T-Wa Inn celebrates 25 years on Silk Road with a $25 menu for two

T-WA Inn, which opened on January 1, 1984 as Denver’s first Vietnamese joint, is celebrating 25 years at 555 South Federal Boulevard by offering a four-course dinner for $25 per couple. The deal, which continues through Sunday, June 28, includes your choice of soup (chicken Thai, hot and sour or…

Get your boozenfüd on at City, O’ City

Great Divide Brewing Company and City, O’ City, the bohemian vegetarian restaurant, bar and bakery at 206 East 13th Avenue, are hosting Boozenfüd (useless trivia: “boozenfüd” has exactly six Google entries, all of which are related to this dinner), a multi-course meal featuring four Great Divide brews paired with four…

Dixons introduces a real happy hour

After twelve years, Dixons Downtown Grill, at 1610 16th Street, is finally introducing a happy hour. And it’s really making up for lost time. The happy hour, which starts today, will run from 3 to 6 p.m. seven days a week, and feature cocktail specials ($3 Ketel One John Daly…