It’s a good thing that it’s the nose and not the ears that are connected to your sense of taste — otherwise, you’d be unable to discern a single flavor at Campo de Fiori. The buzz started even before the restaurant opened three months ago. Elizabeth and Luigi Giordani founded…
Like most addicts, I always know where I’m likely to get my next fix. At any given moment, I can tell you exactly where the nearest dealer is, and I often plan my day around taking time out for a quick high. Of course, I could quit any time –…
Following chef James Mazzio through various restaurants over the past six years has been like flipping through the portfolio of a photographer who’s captured a rose from bud to blossom. Each exquisite frame echoes what’s gone before and hints at what beauty is yet to come. Right now, Mazzio is…
The Soviet bloc crumbled almost a decade ago, but Boulder’s Little Russian Cafe held on until last fall, when its owners finally decided that the stuffed cabbage and borscht had to go. “We knew we had to do something, because the business just wasn’t there anymore,” says Sasha Ionikh, who…
Someone may be in the kitchen with Dinah on weekend mornings, but whoever it is needs to brush up on food preparation. Brunch is a relatively new offering at the Denver ChopHouse & Brewery, the train-themed eatery that sits in the old Union Pacific Railroad headhouse between Union Station and…
Starting the day off sunny side up can be tough in a town where the morning options lean heavily toward quasi-cheery chains and dreary mom-and-pop dives. And the familiar standbys that don’t fall into those categories — Racines and Dixons, Dozen’s, the Delectable Egg — are always packed by the…
New York has the Carnegie Deli. San Francisco has the Fog City Diner, Chicago has Geno’s, New Orleans has Commander’s Palace, and Philadelphia has Pat’s. Every city has a restaurant that reflects the people, the culture, the reality of the place — not the town you see in a tourism…
Somewhere in Europe, there may be a stinky, smoky, dimly lit bar with a Rebel flag hanging in one corner, greasy burgers and jalapeño poppers on the menu, nothing but Bud and Coors on tap, and a jukebox that plays Hank Williams Jr. and Elvis tunes. A broken pinball machine…
Show me a plate of bad food, and I’ll show you an unhappy chef. A chef who thinks his mood doesn’t have any bearing on a diner’s experience should think again: Anger makes a lousy sauce. Miserable chefs cook uptight, cranky food, which is delivered by servers who always look…
No cuisine has its roots more deeply buried in this country than Southwestern, a cooking style that originated with the region’s first inhabitants and evolved as Spanish, Mexican, Texan, Cajun and Creole elements were added to the indigenous ingredients used by Native Americans. As a result, Southwestern cooking is full…
Like any road that’s well-traveled, the Silk Road sprouted many resting places along the way. At first these were simple teahouses that offered yum cha, the tea ritual, and a place to put your feet up; back in the tenth century, the Chinese thought that eating food while drinking tea…
As the hostess seated us, she asked if this was our first visit to Déjà Vu. “Yes,” we replied, adding that we’d eaten at the restaurant that had previously occupied the space. “Oh, we’re exactly the same,” she said. But even if that were true — and it wasn’t –…
It’s 4:42 p.m. on a Friday when I get in line at the Trail Dust Steak House, which opens for dinner at 5 p.m. every night. Since I last ate there (“Cattle Call,” February 4, 1999), the restaurant was ravaged by fire and then rebuilt; when it finally reopened this…
If there’s a time and a place for everything, 3rd Ave. Eclectic Burgers and Cuisine is halfway there. The time is certainly right for restaurants: People are eating out more than ever – not just at trendy spots, but at comfortable, casual eateries where you can have a fast dinner…
Since the word “pho” can mean “your own bowl” in Vietnamese, you’d think that a restaurant named Pho 79 was prepared to bowl you over with 79 different soup possibilities. In fact, Pho 79 misses by about fifty — but what it does offer is more than enough for me…
The early bird gets the Sunday brunch at The Tuscany. The all-you-can-eat gourmet smorgasbord at the Loews-Giorgio Hotel is so popular that you sometimes must book a late meal in order to get in. That means 1 p.m. or so, and by that time, hungry diners have been at the…
I think I’m gonna hurl,” the teen announced to anyone within earshot. His girlfriend, the one with the blank stare and bare midriff who’d been holding his hand so tightly it looked like she might be hurled into space if she let go, didn’t even blink. “Ohhhh,” he moaned, holding…
The diner sitting on my left has stomach cancer and isn’t sure what treatment he’s going to try. The diner sitting on my right has a seventeen-year-old daughter who’s pregnant. Fifteen minutes into a beef curry bowl at Kokoro, and already I know more about these two than I do…
You can’t judge a cook by its cover — particularly not when you’re dealing with Mexican restaurants. Some of the best I’ve eaten in looked the worst: dark and dirty, with busted windows or no windows, hand-painted signs or signs about to fall off, cigarette butts scattered all over the…
Eating at the new Rose’s Cafe is a little like sitting in your grandmother’s rocking chair after she’s passed away: It’s still shaped like her, it still smells like her and feels like her, and you can’t quite avoid the uncomfortable sense that it still very much belongs to her…
The server didn’t bat an eye when a member of our party asked for a Bud Light. The sommelier did. “Hey, maybe you have some in your car,” he joked, poking our server in the ribs. The server thought for a moment, then shook his head. “I think we do…
A hungry visitor from another city — hell, a hungry visitor from another planet — dropping into Denver would recognize in a heartbeat that we’re a little short on exciting cuisine right now. The few interesting restaurants we have are often doing exactly what the other interesting restaurants are doing…
