From Bacon to the Friday Night Bazaar: Thirteen Best Culinary Events This Weekend

This weekend is packed with food fun.  You can pig out at Cochon 555; spend an evening shopping, eating, drinking and dancing at Denver's newest local market, or overdose on chocolate. And that's just the start of the tasty events on the culinary calendar. Keep reading for more.

Friday, March 6

The people behind BigWonderful have put together another great local market that will launch this evening. Friday Night Bazaar will feature local farm-fresh food, artisan vendors, live music, cocktails, crafts and more in one centralized marketplace. For the launch, the bazaar will host swing jazz artist Jeremy Mohney and avant garde-jazz super-group SuperCollider, and there will be free swing dancing lessons from Denver-based non-profit dance company Swingin’ Denver. And this is just the start: The Bazaar will continue every Friday from 6 p.m. until midnight at 3530 Brighton Boulevard. For more information, visit thebigwonderful.com.

Settembre Cellars Winery at 1501 Lee Hill Drive in Boulder will be displaying Katherine Homes's paintings in its tasting room and pouring $10 flights and $8 glasses of wine for the NoBo Art District's First Friday. Dozens of other studios and galleries in north Boulder will also be participating in the event, which runs from 6 to 9 p.m. Check out Homes' paintings on her website; for more on NoBo's First Friday celebrations, click here.

Go hog wild with Cochon 555. The pork-centric weekend gets under way with “A Nickel Bag of Porc,” a seated, five-course dinner paired with beverages at The Nickel and hosted by competing chef Christopher Thompson; The Nickel will also welcome guest chefs Justin Brunson, Paul Reilly, Matt Selby, Theo Adley and Cochon 555 founder Brady Lowe. Dinner will begin at 7 p.m. and tickets are $125; purchase them here.

The Chocolate Crisis Center will kick off St. Patrick's Day celebrations on First Friday with green cocktails and green chocolate. For more information, click here.

The Boulder International Film Festival is introducing a new culinary experience from 5 to 7 p.m. today at the Event Center at Rembrandt Yard in Boulder. CineCHEF challenges chefs to choose a movie theme and create a film-inspired dish for a light-hearted, friendly competition. Some of Boulder’s top chefs will have tasting stations serving small plates based on their chosen theme; participants will vote on their favorite offerings, and the winning chef will be awarded a coveted Vielehr award sculpture and the title Best CineCHEF, BIFF 2015. Tickets are $95 and will benefit the film festival; get them here.

Black Shirt Brewing will host a one-night, pop-up art and music show starting at 7 p.m. tonight. The bash will feature works from Daniel Luke Holton, Melanie Steinway, Daniel Evan Garza & Brandon Finamore. There will also be live music from John Hyde of Two Tone Wolf Pack and plenty of beer. For more information head over to the Facebook event page.

Tonight from 6 to 9 p.m., Colorado Horse Rescue and Chautauqua Dining Hall will host Equine Expressions, an art sale and benefit benefiting efforts to provide care and lasting homes for Boulder County’s abused, neglected,and unwanted horses. In addition to the art sale, there will be food, beer and wine as well as live music. Tickets are\$50; grab yours at chr.org. 

Saturday, March 7  

Tamayo will introduce Bike 2 Brunch today: Guests who ride to brunch can enjoy complimentary guacamole for the table when ordering Tamayo’s $35 bottomless brunch, and also get a 20 percent discount at Timbuk2 across the street. Bike 2 Brunch will run from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. every first Saturday through the summer. For more information, visit richardsandoval.com or call the restaurant at 720-946-1433. 


CU Denver is conducting a sub-area plan in conjunction with the Bluebird Business Improvement District and they need your help. Today at 3 p.m. stroll to Trattoria Stella and join community members of the Bluebird District in a discussion of ways to improve life on East Colfax —over free beer! For more information on the project, visit walkscope.org.

The weekend of pork continues with Cochon 555's Large Format Feast, a four-course meat-feast at Colt & Gray with host chefs Nelson Perkins and Kyle Foster. The Big Beef vs. Heritage Pig-themed dinner begins with a welcome reception of reserve Prosciutto di Parma, and includes Creekstone Farms Black Angus Beef, Creekstone Farms Durac Pork and California wines presented by Antinori/Antica of Napa Valley. Dinner starts at 7 p.m. and you can pig out until 10. Tickets are $110; grab yours here. 

From 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., The Seasoned Chef Cooking School will be teaching students to cook a homemade, and beautifully put together, Japanese meal today at its Sushi and the Habachi Grill: From The Avenue Grill class. This class will offer the basics of making sushi rolls (including where to shop, for what ingredients), as well as the secrets of creating traditional Japanese dishes on the hibachi grill. Tuition, $69, includes a Japanese beer or sake with your meal and and a sushi rolling mat to take home. For more information, click here. 

Sunday, March 8 

Five chefs, five pigs, five wine makers and one pork-tastic evening. Cochon 555,  the culmination of a whole weekend of pigging out, will pit five of Denver's top chefs, cooking five pigs, against each other in a friendly competition. This year’s competing chefs include Kelly Whitaker of Basta, Matt Vawter of Mercantile Dining & Provision, John Little of Harman’s Eat & Drink, Christopher Thompson of The Nickel and Rich Byers of the Corner Office. The five chefs will utilize the whole hog to prepare a maximum of six dishes with hopes to win votes from a crowd of hungry guests and judges. The winner goes on to compete for the title of “King or Queen of Porc” at the tour finale, Grand Cochon at Snowmass/Aspen in June. And that's just the main event, Cochon will also feature an artisan cheese bar, oyster bar,  TarTare Bar featuring Creekstone Farms and Chefs Nathan Stambaugh and Justin Brunson; and  the “Perfect Manhattan Experience” featuring Eagle Rare, Buffalo Trace and Breckenridge Bourbon. There will also be a pop-up butcher shop with a live butchering demonstration by Kate Kavanaugh and Josh Curtiss of Western Daughter's, to raise money for Johnson and Wales University. The evening kicks off at the The Ritz-Carlton at 4 p.m. for VIP guests and 5 p.m. for general admission, tickets are $200 for VIP and $125 for GA. For tickets and more information head to cochon555.com. 

Colorado Women's Education Foundation is commemorating International Women's Day with the Legacy of Learning fundraising event from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Warwick Hotel. You can sample wine, cheese and chocolate from local vendors and women-owned businesses while you learn more about several prominent organizations recognizing and assisting women. Purchase tickets here. 


For information on dozens of culinary events around town, visit our online Food & Drink listings — and if you have information for a culinary event you'd like included in our online calendar, send it to [email protected].

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