Best Fried Chicken 2001 | Smacks Cafe | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Fried Chicken

Smacks Cafe

Smacks Cafe is a very small eatery that sits in a strip mall and looks like the sandwich shop it used to be. In short, you'd never expect the place to fry up the best chicken this side of the Mississippi, but that's exactly what Smacks does. Deep-fried to order, the fried chicken can take anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes, depending on how busy this rib joint is -- but it's always worth the wait. Each piece (a half-bird's worth to an order) has been lightly salted, barely dusted with flour and then fried until the skin turns into a crisp shell barely holding in all the juicy, salty, lightly greasy flesh beneath. Add a side of homemade cornbread, macaroni blanketed with freshly grated cheese, and Smacks' down-home collard and mustard greens, as well as a slice of white cake, and your mouth's gone south for the winter.

Best Fried Chicken

Smacks Cafe

Smacks Cafe is a very small eatery that sits in a strip mall and looks like the sandwich shop it used to be. In short, you'd never expect the place to fry up the best chicken this side of the Mississippi, but that's exactly what Smacks does. Deep-fried to order, the fried chicken can take anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes, depending on how busy this rib joint is -- but it's always worth the wait. Each piece (a half-bird's worth to an order) has been lightly salted, barely dusted with flour and then fried until the skin turns into a crisp shell barely holding in all the juicy, salty, lightly greasy flesh beneath. Add a side of homemade cornbread, macaroni blanketed with freshly grated cheese, and Smacks' down-home collard and mustard greens, as well as a slice of white cake, and your mouth's gone south for the winter.

Best Free Happy Hour

Del Mar Crab House

Don't be crabby: Join the downtown club that's already found the best place to get happy -- and fed -- as the weekend swings into action. When you buy two drinks during Friday's 4-6 p.m. happy hour at Del Mar Crab House, the feed is free -- and it's a real catch, including shrimp-filled quesadillas, peel-your-own shrimp, hot wings, pepper poppers, and tri-color chips with salsa. If your ship came in at work this week, treat your newfound friends by shelling out for some oysters at reduced prices from the raw bar. This place is a pearl.

Best Free Happy Hour

Del Mar Crab House

Don't be crabby: Join the downtown club that's already found the best place to get happy -- and fed -- as the weekend swings into action. When you buy two drinks during Friday's 4-6 p.m. happy hour at Del Mar Crab House, the feed is free -- and it's a real catch, including shrimp-filled quesadillas, peel-your-own shrimp, hot wings, pepper poppers, and tri-color chips with salsa. If your ship came in at work this week, treat your newfound friends by shelling out for some oysters at reduced prices from the raw bar. This place is a pearl.

Best Thin Pizza

Tonti's

Who'd think that a tiny Italian eatery in Parker would offer the area's best version of New York-style pizza? There's no question, though, that Tonti's makes the real thing: a drippy pie with a sweet, sweet sauce, thin, crackery crust and enough cheese that each bite creates a string that could stretch from one end of the restaurant to the other. It's tempting to order this pizza by the slice, so that you can eat it the way New Yorkers do: folding it in half and letting orange-colored oil run down your hand. But instead, we recommend that you order the whole pie, since we know you'll want to eat that much and more. Tonti's is a real bite of the Big Apple.

Best Thin Pizza

Tonti's

Who'd think that a tiny Italian eatery in Parker would offer the area's best version of New York-style pizza? There's no question, though, that Tonti's makes the real thing: a drippy pie with a sweet, sweet sauce, thin, crackery crust and enough cheese that each bite creates a string that could stretch from one end of the restaurant to the other. It's tempting to order this pizza by the slice, so that you can eat it the way New Yorkers do: folding it in half and letting orange-colored oil run down your hand. But instead, we recommend that you order the whole pie, since we know you'll want to eat that much and more. Tonti's is a real bite of the Big Apple.

Best Guilt-Free Butcher

Timberline Meats

From the heady aroma of medium-rare prime rib that greets you each Wednesday through Saturday, to the USDA prime steaks laid out like Tiffany flatware, to the astounding jumble of delicacies in the freezer -- ostrich cutlet, anyone? Elk medallion? Colossal prawn? -- Timberline Meats is a carnivore's dream. But anyone can sell meat: What sets Timberline apart is the love. Everyone who works at this tiny yet alluring meat market is not just interested in, not just obsessed with, but head over heels in love with edible animal parts. Buyers are sent off with a comforting "Oh, you'll think you died and went to heaven" from the owners, who used to run the Shriner's Temple kitchen.

Best Guilt-Free Butcher

Timberline Meats

From the heady aroma of medium-rare prime rib that greets you each Wednesday through Saturday, to the USDA prime steaks laid out like Tiffany flatware, to the astounding jumble of delicacies in the freezer -- ostrich cutlet, anyone? Elk medallion? Colossal prawn? -- Timberline Meats is a carnivore's dream. But anyone can sell meat: What sets Timberline apart is the love. Everyone who works at this tiny yet alluring meat market is not just interested in, not just obsessed with, but head over heels in love with edible animal parts. Buyers are sent off with a comforting "Oh, you'll think you died and went to heaven" from the owners, who used to run the Shriner's Temple kitchen.

Best Seafood Restaurant

Roy's Cherry Creek

While Roy's Cherry Creek landed in Denver just over a year ago, it's definitely a keeper. Owner Roy Yamaguchi, an internationally renowned chef whose chain is based in Hawaii, knows how to combine exceptional service, sleek but luscious surroundings and imaginative, well-executed seafood dishes made with the freshest specimens available (try the oily, deeply flavored monchong or the cornmeal-rubbed dorado) for an extraordinary catch. We're hooked.

Best Seafood Restaurant

Roy's Cherry Creek

While Roy's Cherry Creek landed in Denver just over a year ago, it's definitely a keeper. Owner Roy Yamaguchi, an internationally renowned chef whose chain is based in Hawaii, knows how to combine exceptional service, sleek but luscious surroundings and imaginative, well-executed seafood dishes made with the freshest specimens available (try the oily, deeply flavored monchong or the cornmeal-rubbed dorado) for an extraordinary catch. We're hooked.

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