Potato Shortage? Let the Chips Fall Where They May

Like everyone else in the world, I am a big fan of potato chips – particularly Lay’s, especially since they started doing all their chips in non-trans-fat sunflower oil, which gives them a kind of smoothly nutty flavor that I find completely addictive. This week, when I went to my…

Kabobs and a Pizza the Action on Larimer Street

Three things to enjoy on a hot summer night at Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza on Larimer Street: The excellent, thin-crust pizza, the very powerful air-conditioning, and a good view of the incredible changes on this 2100 block of what was once Denver’s skid row. Sure, there are still pawn shops, but…

D Bar Desserts

The first time I saw Keegan Gerhard, it was on TV. That was also the second place I saw him. And the tenth, fiftieth and hundredth. Given Gerhard’s ubiquitous star status, there was a time — like, right up until last week, maybe — when a man (like me) could’ve…

Devil’s Food Bakery

After my time at D Bar Desserts, I wanted to revisit another dessert bar. One major problem: Though Denver has seen a few dedicated dessert bars open, it has also seen just about all of them close soon after. Remember Emogene and how fast that nascent chain tanked? Though the…

Tony’s Market Will Open a Broadway Bistro

Mick Rosacci’s favorite sandwich at Tony’s Market, where he is head chef, is the Italian Sub, which comes with mortadella, capicola, two kinds of salami, provolone, oil, vinegar, lettuce, tomato and peppers on artisan bread. “That one makes me crazy!” he says. But like a lot of people, Mick has…

Diane DeGette Testifies on a Hot Topic

Earlier this week, a jalapeno pepper in southwest Colorado tested positive for salmonella. That finding gave particular weight to the testimony that Representative Diana DeGette, vice-chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, gave today before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture at a hearing to discuss…

All Keegan, All the Time

The first time I saw Keegan Gerhard in person was at the James Beard Awards in early June. He was cooking the final course for the awards dinner — a dessert, natch, of smoked cherries and chocolate that involved super-call scotch as a main ingredient — and because my table…

Say Sayonara to Mori Japanese Restaurant

There’s sad news on Market Street — and it’s not the closing of Buca de Beppo. No, six blocks away at 2019 Market, the space occupied by Mori Japanese Restaurant is flying a rain-soaked, “temporarily closed for renovation” sign. More telling, though is the sign on the other side of…

The Dish on Jonesy’s EatBar

Just heard from Leigh Jones regarding Jonesy’s EatBar, which took over the space that once held her Dish Bistro at 400 East 20th Avenue. While Dish was definitely a bistro — a small, informal restaurant serving wine — Jones says the new joint is absolutely a gastropub: a neighborhood bar…

A Late Update on The Early Show and Chef Jen

Yes, Jen Jasinski’s segment on The Early Show was on awfully early — 6:30 a.m. last Saturday, July 26, when the Rioja/Bistro Vendome chef/owner was cooking live in the New York studio of the CBS show. But better late than never — because you can still catch Chef Jen in…

Frasca at my Block Party

Dear Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, I’ve heard you are a great chef, and that your restaurant, Frasca (1738 Pearl Street, Boulder), is awesome. But it is unlikely I will get to Boulder anytime soon –and even if I did, my budget at the moment doesn’t allow for a lot of fancy stuff…

Hover Bacon Virus Destroys Nation, World

CVVC Virus Report, 7/25/08: The Center for Viral Video Control has reported that this video (shown after the jump) has been responsible for the sudden cranial detonation of approximately 90% of the population of the North American continent. Unconfirmed reports have the video (in translated form) already appearing in Central…

Milking It: Cocoa Puffs Combos

Cocoa Puffs Combos General Mills Rating: Two and a half spoons out of four Cereal description: Whole corn grain and corn meal inflated into uniform orbs — half of them a pleasant light brown that visually says “chocolate,” the rest a light tan hue that, well, doesn’t. Vanilla is so…

The Candy Girls Go on Vacation

This week the Candy Girls didn’t really get to go on vacation, but Aubrey did manage to make it out of town a couple of weeks ago to visit her home state of New Mexico. While in the Land of Enchantment, she picked up a few treats at Senor Murphy,…

Early Bird Special: Jennifer Jasinski

Jennifer Jasinski will be cooking at your house tomorrow morning — but you may need to eat breakfast out afterwards. That’s because Jasinski, chef/owner of Rioja and Bistro Vendome, has accepted the “Chef on a Shoestring” challenge issued by CBS’s The Early Show, and will be preparing a $30, three-course…

Week Four in Hell’s Kitchen: Drunk, Again

Jason Sheehan is no fan of Hell’s Kitchen, but he watches it. And now he’s playing it, as he describes here. Now on to week four: Playing Hell’s Kitchen drunk was embarassing but fun, which was why I let my buzz roll me right through into week four. Another table,…

Week Three in Hell’s Kitchen: Drunk and Disorderly

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. Now on to week three: At a certain point in my career, working drunk (or worse) became a job skill rather than a liability. True, it was…

Hamburger 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…

Marczyk Fine Foods/Marczyk Fine Wines

After my first meal at Hamburger Mary’s, I went next door to Marczyk Fine Foods to poke around and see what was going on behind the market at Marczyk Fine Wines, since this was the first Sunday when it could sell liquor. The clerk seemed happy to be working on…

The Sorrow and the PETA

How do you like your summer internships, kids? The jobs have to be better than the one assigned to Cassandra Callaghan, who’s apparently acting as a piece of meat all summer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. A piece of meat who can write, as Cassandra proves with…

Gaslamp Grill Goes Dark

It’s lights out, nobody home at Scott Tallman’s Gaslamp Grill. After eighteen months in business, Tallman decided last week that he just couldn’t keep his restaurant at 9199 West Alameda Avenue open any longer. (He’d been paying some of the bills out of his own pocket for the past several…