The Six Tastiest Events on the Culinary Calendar This Week

Dueling wine dinners, biking with bachelors, drinking beer with a Burmese dinner and celebrating the wild, wild West: It's an eclectic week in Denver. Here are our picks for the six most intriguing food and drink events for June 26 through June 30.

[image-9]Monday, June 26
Know anything about the second-largest island in the Mediterranean? We don't, either. But Coperta, 400 East 20th Avenue, is trying to up the average Denverite's knowledge of Italian island cuisine with its Sardinian Wine Dinner on Monday, June 26. The menu is filled with unfamiliar but melodious names: baccala, carta di musica, fregola, malloreddus, sugo, pasata. Do some cursory Googling and you'll discover you can expect dried salt cod with crisp flatbread, couscous-like pasta with mussels, gnocchi in tomato sauce, and lamb and veal liver sausage with artichoke sauce. The four-course menu and wine will run you $49, and the meal begins at 6:30 p.m.; call the restaurant at 720-749-4666 Avenue for reservations.

Tuesday, June 27
Avelina, 1550 17th Street, is hosting its own wine dinner on Tuesday, June 27, with libations from Robert Sinskey Vineyards. The menu promises creative treats such as watercress and cucumber broth with veggies, carrot salad with curry panna cotta, and beef tenderloin with whipped bone-marrow butter. Dinner starts at 6 p.m. and costs $110. Avelina's Facebook page has all the details, but you'll need to call 720-904-6711 to ensure you get a seat for this dinner.

Wednesday, June 28
As everyone in Colorado knows, Wednesday, June 28, is Bike to Work Day. If you're on the fence about taking two-wheeled transportation to work, Ratio Beerworks' Bike With the Bachelors Happy Hour might help you decide. Show up at the B-cycle station at 18th and Arapahoe streets at 4:30 p.m. for a bike ride with a couple of former contestants of The Bachelorette that will end not with a sad limo ride away, but at Ratio's taproom, 2920 Larimer Street. If the idea of cycling with former reality-TV celebrities doesn't interest you, simply show up at Ratio on your bike before 6:30 p.m. and you'll receive a free pint. Check out the brewery's Facebook page if you want to know exactly which high-cheekboned man (who is totally at this happy hour for the right reasons) you'll be biking with.

Firenze a Tavola's monthly Community Table dinner sets sail with an all-seafood menu on Wednesday, June 28. Enjoy a selection of antipasta, pasta, entrees and desserts including ciabatta with calamari and spinach, lobster ravioli, seafood stew in the style of Livorno, and lemon-sage sorbet. A seat at the Community Table at 4401 Tennyson Street (beneath Parisi) runs $40 per person (beverages are extra);reservations can be made on the restaurant's website or by calling 303-561-0234.

Keep reading for more events.
Thursday, June 29
Looking for something a little different for dinner? Consider the Global Food & Brews Festival on Thursday, June 29. From 5 to 8 p.m., The Spring Cafe, at 1373 Grant Street, will provide unlimited beer from Ratio Beerworks, as well as Ethiopian, Syrian and Burmese cuisine. The latter two are especially difficult to find in Denver; in fact, there are currently no local restaurants specializing in Burmese food, so this may be your only opportunity to sample this food for some time. Tickets, $35, are on sale at eventbrite.com.

Friday, June 30
Everything old is new again, especially when it comes to the Old West. The McNichols Project's second installation, The Wild West Project, will open its doors on Friday, June 30, from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. The exhibit juxtaposes diversity in the modern West with diversity in the Old West through two art exhibitions at the McNichols Building, 144 West Colfax Avenue. Also on hand will be regionally inspired cocktails from Bear Creek, Deerhammer and High West distilleries, live music (that's country and Western) and snacks. Tickets are just $30, and whether your idea of Western life is gunslingers, swinging saloon doors and hookers with hearts of gold or getting high while sipping your craft beer and keeping your carefully waxed mustache from getting foamy, circle the wagons and get those tickets at the event website before they go the way of the Hatfields and McCoys.

See the Westword calendar for even more food and drink event listings.