Biker Jim

The five best vegetarian/vegan dishes in Denver

Denver's a great town for vegetarians and vegans, as the Best of Denver 2013 attests. In that issue, you'll find accolades for Best Vegetarian Green Chile and Best Vegan Market, as well as many more green categories. But if you're looking for the best plant-based dishes in the city, look no further ... More >>

Tonight: Biker Jim's, Great Divide and Star Bar host a benefit to cover medical bills for employee who suffered two strokes

There's a lot going on right now in the culinary universe, but tonight's fundraiser at Star Bar goes way beyond food and drink. Early last month, Mike Bass, a 39-year-old line cook at Biker Jim's, had a stroke, and within an hour, he had another. And his medical bills, as you can imagine, are insurm ... More >>

Andrew Zimmern calls Bourdain/Midson photo a "valiant attempt to nail a little more street cred to the side of the barn"

Talk about the ultimate photo bomb. Last night, during the Denver Adventurous Eaters Club dinner at Parallel Seventeen (you can read all about it here), which was graced by none other than Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern, there was, as you can imagine, a lot of texting, tweeting, Facebooking and I ... More >>

Denver's ten best vegetarian dishes in non-vegetarian restaurants

Picking the Best Vegetarian Dish in a Non-Vegetarian Restaurant for the Best of Denver 2012 was a tough task. The owners of omnivorous restaurants have really gone above and beyond lately to cater to lacto-ovo vegetarians and totally plant-based eaters alike. In no particular order (save for number ... More >>

Biker Jim's brick-and-mortar celebrates one year in the wiener business with a bash on Sunday

At last night's one-year milestone bash at Row 14, chef Jensen Cummings managed to throw one of the best stoner food parties we've ever seen: carne asada fries, rabbit nachos, hellaciously hot chicken wings slicked with sauce killing us softly with ghost chiles, and tempurara-battered meatball slide ... More >>

Biker Jim's inspires a poem: We never sausage a thing!

Mark MangerHot dog! It's "Biker Jim" Pettinger. ​Paul Handley was so inspired by the success of Jim Pettinger -- and by his Biker Jim's dogs -- that he wrote a poem, "which I sent him and was published in Puffin Circus, as was an abbreviated version on-line in Every Day Poets," Handley reports ... More >>

Biker Jim will roll out his new food truck on Sunday -- and get five more minutes of fame on Unique Eats

​Since it motored into Denver earlier this month, Biker Jim's fancy new food truck, which he plans to take national, has been sequestered in a secret location somewhere in the city, but on Sunday, he'll introduce it to Denverites for the first time in conjunction with his latest appearance on ... More >>

Biker Jim gets his first food truck -- and has plans to go national

Biker Jim now has two hot dog carts, a brick-and-mortar and a new food truck that will go national.​The text from Biker Jim simply read: "Tired. Taking a nap." The sultan of sausages and high-priest of hot dogs had just returned from a food truck show in Las Vegas, where he pimped frankfurters ... More >>

Street-food queen Susan Feniger ballyhoos Biker Jim's on tonight's Denver episode of the Best Thing I Ever Ate

Lori MidsonAccording to Sue Feniger, Biker Jim's elk-and-jalapeno dog is the best thing she's ever eaten​It's good to be Biker Jim, who just keeps expanding his fifteen minutes of fame. First, there was Anthony Bourdain, who featured Biker Jim's 16th Street Mall cart on an episode of No Reser ... More >>

Reader: Bite me, Ludo!

Biker Jim's joint on Larimer Street.​We never sausage thing! On Tuesday, Ludo Bites America took on Colorado, , with a segment featuring Biker Jim's -- and fans of Jim Pittenger and his dogs are ready to take a bite out of host Ludo Lefebvre. Here's Jake's take: It was cool to see Biker Jim ... More >>

Denver episode of Ludo Bites America premieres tonight; viewing party at Biker Jim's

Kristine LefebvreLudo Lefebvre ​ Four months ago, in April, French-born, Los Angeles-based chef Ludo Lefebvre took a road trip to eastern Colorado, where he shot, skinned and butchered a bison. To show his respect for the beast, he then dropped to his knees and took a bite of its heart, stil ... More >>

Announcement! We have a winner of our Biker Jim slogan contest

Lori Midson​Biker Jim, Denver's most notable wiener wizard, has a fetish for more than just fat sausages; he also has an obsession with slogans, and early last month, we rolled out a contest asking Cafe Society readers to submit a few hot dog slogans of their own to replace the current catchp ... More >>

Got a winning wiener slogan? If so, you (and three of your closest pals) will feast for free at Biker Jim's restaurant

Lori Midson​When Biker Jim first hauled out his wiener wagon nearly six years ago on the 16th Street Mall, he wanted frankfurter fans to know that he wasn't pushing dirty dogs jacked up with unidentifiable bits, pieces, or by-products, so he created a slogan -- "Our meat is no mystery" -- to d ... More >>

Denver's five best hot dogs

Mile High Vienna Stand​Temperatures threaten to approach the triple digits as we prepare to celebrate our country's independence this weekend, which puts us smack into summer, the season of baseball, lazy patio nights and, of course, hot dogs, which we like to feast on as we wander the streets ... More >>

Justice League of Street Food rolls into RiNo

Jenny AnFried chicken biscuits from the Biscuit Bus.​ Denver's Wayfarer-wearing set descended en masse on RiNo, just north of Fuel Cafe, for Saturday's Justice League of Street Food party, the first of the season. Within two hours of the 5 p.m. start, the Biscuit Bus had already run out of pu ... More >>

Biker Jim gets booted from his 16th Street Mall turf, thanks to the filming of a Wendy's commercial

The calls have been coming in fast and furious to Biker Jim's cell phone, with befuddled callers wanting to know why the hell his hot dog cart isn't parked curbside at its usual address on the corner of the 16th Street Mall and California Street. Here's your answer: A film crew that's erected a sand ... More >>

Biker Jim's vegan dog a meat-free alternative to his elk/duck/rattlesnake options

​For a man who's known around the country for his meat-tastic fare served out of his original hot dog cart, Biker Jim is astoundingly sensitive to the needs of his non-meat-eating clientele. (His wife, we've heard, is vegan herself. How's that for a match made in heaven?) Walking into his bri ... More >>

The Hella Burger airstream trailer opens today at the Vallagio at Inverness

Lori Midson​Ron Bryant and Chris Casson, both of whom work in the enterprise business development department of Shamrock Foods, have spent the past year and a half bantering about the attributes of burgers -- and how they could erect a burger treasury of their own that would stand buns apart ... More >>

Food porn! Money shots! The pictorial essay of celeb chef Ludo Lefebvre at Biker Jim's!

Lori Midson​It had just gone 6 p.m., when light driblets of rain began to drop from the clouds, but the dozens of people with their noses to the window, peering in to catch a glimpse of the famous French chef, didn't seem to notice. Some, determined to be one of the first through the doors, h ... More >>

Pound the pavement (cuisine) at today's Innovation Day Food Fest on the Auraria campus

Lori Midson​The ground may be dusted with white powder, but a little snow isn't enough to put the breaks on the ten street food trucks and carts that will feed mouths on the Auraria Campus beginning at 10 a.m. as part of Innovation Day, an event hosted by Metro State's Center for Innovation, w ... More >>

Biker Jim's elk sausage is Susan Feniger's "Best Thing" she ever ate

Lori MidsonAccording to celeb chef Susan Feniger, Biker Jim's elk dog is one of those things that you must eat before you die.​Four years ago, Susan Feniger, Food Network personality, star chef, restaurateur, a leading authority on Latin cuisine and proponent of street food, was in Denver bum ... More >>

First look: Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs

Lori Midson​After getting derailed by a rogue electrician, Biker Jim wasn't sure that he'd be open by the first home game of the Colorado Rockies, but after years of hustling wieners from a cartel of downtown carts, he unlocked the doors to his brick-and-mortar, a long labor of love -- and a ... More >>

Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs won't open on St. Paddy's Day, but it will host a St. Paddy's Day party - on the Paddy-o!

Lori Midson​To the electrician who completely fucked up Biker Jim's opening, you pretty much suck. Jim Pittenger, aka Biker Jim, was all set to fling open the doors of his new brick-and-mortar, Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs, on St. Paddy's Day, but thanks to a half-ass electrician, the sausage sla ... More >>

Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs opens on St. Patrick's Day with Guinness beer brats and Belfast bangers

Lori MidsonBurn, baby, burn!​On Friday night, Biker Jim hosted a little party inside his new brick-and-mortar at 2148 Larimer Street, inviting a few friends and a trio of motorcycle stunt riders to christen the concrete floor with the lashings of burnt rubber, the decibel levels of which made ... More >>

Biker Jim makes Every Day With Rachael Ray's hot dog March Madness bracket

​ Biker Jim, Denver's favorite wiener wrangler, was one of 64 hot dog vendors across the United States whose dogs are on a roll to win America's Best Hot contest, a March Madness-style bracketed battle co-conspired by Every Day With Rachael Ray and a few frankfurter freaks from Seriouseats.com ... More >>

Hot dog dominator Biker Jim taking over the Silver Spoon airstream trailer at the Vallagio at Inverness

Lori MidsonThe former Silver Spoon at the Vallagio at Inverness will become another Biker Jim venture​Things just keep getting better for Biker Jim, aka Jim "the wiener wonder dog" Pittenger, who's already spoiled us with the city's best hot dogs, originally fleshed out from a stainless steel ... More >>

Top five street food dishes in 2010

Mark MangerLa Villa Real served up one of our favorite street food dishes of the year -- here are four more​In this week's Westword, I headed down to Alameda for a glimpse of the loncheras that ruled the streets before this year, when tricked out mobile vendors (or luxe loncheras) became a hot ... More >>

What's next for Biker Jim? World domination!

Lori MidsonWhile Biker Jim's brick-and-mortar joint has encountered delays, that hasn't stopped the sausage slinger from looking way, way beyond Denver for his next wiener venture​ "This is taking fucking forever!" Those are the words that tumbled out of Biker Jim's mouth thirty minutes ago ... More >>

Dishing up the next winner of our Dish tickets -- and yet another giveaway

​On Friday, we offered readers another chance to win a pair of tickets to Dish, Westword's annual celebration of dining in Denver, at the EXDO Event Center, 1399 35th Street, on Wednesday, September 22. Contestants had to tell us in five words or less why they deserved the tickets. And the ... More >>

Wiener alert! Biker Jim starts slinging dogs on the Auraria campus

Lori Midson​"We just made our first dollar, and then we lost it in a game of rock-paper-scissors," says Biker Jim, Denver's sultan of fat sausages. The game went down at 9:30 this morning, when Biker Jim sold a Coke for a buck to his first customer on the grounds of the Auraria campus, a gig ... More >>

No Reservations: Anthony Bourdain, Biker Jim's hot dogs and Frank Bonanno's blood sausage

​Anthony Bourdain shared hot dogs with Biker Jim, noshed with Frank Bonanno and ate his words on last night's episode of No Reservations, in which the lanky ex-chef toured America's heartland -- Austin, Texas; Des Moines, Iowa; Stanhope, Indiana; Livonia, Michigan; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minne ... More >>

Biker Jim gets love from Tony Bourdain on tonight's episode of No Reservations

Lori Midson ​Back in November, acerbic mouthpiece Tony Bourdain spent a few days in Denver, where he took down Sandra Lee and Rachael Ray (among others) from the stage at the Buell and stomached nearly a half dozen hot dogs from Biker Jim's wiener cart at 16th and Arapahoe, an apparent epiph ... More >>

The week in Cafe Society bloggery: Stupid lawsuits, shuttered restaurants, Biker Jim's new restaurant, Food & Wine Classic highlights, Chipotle bats 1,000 and Morton's Bob Wiltshire maligns molecular gastronomy

Lori Midson ​ Our favorite table scraps of the week from the Cafe Society blog: 1. Holy hot dog! After more than a year of searching for a freestanding restaurant to augment his fleet of carts, Biker Jim, aka gourmet wiener hustler, finally signed a lease on a build-out space at 2145 Larimer ... More >>

Brava! Pizzeria and Biker Jim's lead the evolution of street food on the 16th Street Mall

​It's hot on the first day of June, and the vast courtyard at the intersection of the 16th Street Mall and Arapahoe Street is crowded. Business people in A-line skirts and pleated khakis are eating their to-go lunches at sunny tables, soaking up a few minutes of real weather outside of the air ... More >>

Cafe Society: Week in review

Lori Midson​What you may have missed this week on Cafe Society while you were weighing in on twelve's Jeff Osaka, the restaurant's exec chef and owner who's at the center of this week's Chef and Tell interview -- and some controversy surrounding his comment regarding his most critical customer ... More >>

Biker Jim takes his wieners to the asphalt of Argonaut Wine & Liquor

Lori Midson​I got the first text late last night: "Lookin' like our new location is at Argonaut Liquor," it said. Two minutes later, another text: "Eeeyup." And, finally, "Come down to 16th and Arapahoe tomorrow and I'll make you rattlesnake or currywurst or something..." The barrage of texts ... More >>

Tony Bourdain in Denver: Another convert of Biker Jim and his dogs

Lori MidsonTony Bourdain meets his true love: Biker Jim's sausages​ "Look, when I was here in 2002, I walked for what, eight hours, all over downtown and you know what I found? I found chicken wings -- chicken wings and fried fucking mozzarella sticks. I didn't see anything that looked like it was ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes: Alaskan reindeer sausage from Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs

​ As a countdown to the Best of Denver 2010, coming April 1, Cafe Society is serving up a hundred of our favorite dishes in Denver. Send your own nominations to cafe@westword.com. No. 99 Alaskan reindeer sausage from Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs You know you've got a winning wiener when people l ... More >>

Hot dog! Biker Jim's Wednesday and weekly specials

​Just in case you've been living in between the bun and haven't feasted your eyes on Biker Jim's hot dog blog, this is just a little heads-up to let you know that every Wednesday, before lunch, Jim delivers a post all about the weird, wacky and wonderful dogs he's doing that day and for the re ... More >>

Biker Jim Update: Bad news for the southern suburbs

Southlands won't be seeing Biker Jim's dogs anytime soon.​A few weeks back, I gleefully reported that my favorite hot-dog man, Biker Jim Pittenger, had finally taken the plunge and was going to open a brick-and-mortar location in the Southlands development. He had a great location, he had some par ... More >>

Alto and ESPN Zone leave empty spaces downtown

Jason Sheehan is ready to face his critics

Ask the Critic: Where to get a good cart lunch

This week's question is for all you office drones out there, from one of your own: When time is tight and money even more so, what downtown cart serves the best grub in the city?Easy, right? Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs. He has two locations now, one in Skyline Park at 16th and Arapahoe and a new one at ... More >>

Get your red-hot Biker Jim wieners in two locations

The tools of Biker Jim's tradeBiker Jim Pittenger, whose Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs won our Best Cart on the 16th Street Mall in the Best of Denver 2009, now has a second location -- off the mall.Three days a week, he (or one of his minions) will now be on the plaza at 17th and California streets, gri ... More >>

More on Obama's mustard preference

Because nothing in the blog world ever really dies until it's been milked of every erg of usefulness or grim humor, may I humbly present this: The letter that the Grey Poupon people actually sent to President Barack Obama (and copied to me) in response to the teacup tsunami caused by his choice in c ... More >>

Biker Jim now takes credit cards: This is why I love living in the future

Back when I was a kid, back when I was a teenager, even back when I was only slightly less of a grown-up than I am now, one of the biggest drags about eating on the street was having to carry cash.  Today, you can add parking, the occasional vending machine soda and supporting the local homeles ... More >>

Biker Jim is on a roll

Hot Dog! Biker Jim’s Excellent Adventure

Hot Dog!

It’s not easy to find a tubesteak on the run.

Dog Days

You never sausage a thing.