Chile Peppers

Little Anita's New Mexican Cafe is firmly entenched in red and green

I had one of my first real New Mexican meals in New Mexico, at the Little Anita's location in Albuquerque...and I hated it. I was astounded that people would dump alternating layers of boiling hot green pepper sauce and equally steaming, nose-running-hot red pepper sauce on everything, and suck this ... More >>

Reader: Five Star Burgers looks lame, but now I can't wait to try it

While Gretchen Kurtz was eating a $13 burger at Tom's Urban 24, Jenn Wohletz dropped by a link in the tiny Five Star Burgers chain. "The green chile cheeseburger was an exercise in Southwestern excess and ecstasy, with a fat, medium-rare burger that dripped pinky beef juice, smothered with diced gre ... More >>

Five Star Burgers earns its five stars with Hatch green chile -- and deep-fried banana bread!

There is almost nothing better in the world than really good green chile spread on top of a juicy beef patty or slathered over a pile of hand-cut fries. Five Star Burgers is a transplant from Taos, and even with this city's staggering number of burger joints, Five Star manages to shine because of it ... More >>

Reader: I can make better green chile than Boone's on the hood of my car

The Best of Denver 2013 is out, with more than a hundred categories in our Food & Drink section. One of the most hotly contested categories is always Best Green Chile. This year, the readers voted for El Taco de Mexico, a many-time winner. Cafe Society's pick for Best Green Chile was a far more surp ... More >>

New Smashburger has an updated design, an industry rock star and amazing fried chiles

Tom Ryan, Smashburger's founder and chief concept officer, yesterday hosted the official unveiling of the new, redesigned Smashburger location at 6305 East Hampden Avenue, walking guests through an eight-course menu of Smashburger items as well as a tour of the store. It was a blast, and I discover ... More >>

At Kachina, the chiles pack heat -- but they can also be sweet

With a knack for the nuances of wine, sommeliers can taste caramel and a hint of peach when all the rest of us can do is sniff out oak. Oenophiles aren't the only super tasters around, though. Work with chiles long enough, as Patrick Hartnett has, and you learn to detect flavors far beyond mild, med ... More >>

Reader: Forget green chile -- nothing beats New Mexico red

Although Denver diners are obsessed with green chile, red chile has its fans, too. As Gretchen Kurtz notes, "red chile has an even deeper, more intriguing flavor, as fruits and vegetables left to reach their fully ripe potential tend to do." She couldn't get the Curtis Park Creamery, which she recen ... More >>

Red alert! Charlotte Saenz's recipe for great red chile

With Christmas ads filling the airtime vacated by campaign commercials, the holidays must be upon us. But it doesn't have to be Santa season for a server to ask if you want a Christmas tree. In New Mexico, where folks are even crazier about chile than we are, diners can choose to have their food smo ... More >>

Curtis Park Creamery serves up Mexican comfort food in endless combinations

Photos: A Closer Look at Curtis Park Creamery

Jack-n-Grill's green isn't vegetarian, but other dishes will grow on you

Jack Martinez came to Colorado from New Mexico to sell chiles, a business that grew into Jack-n-Grill. The fare in this family place is New Mexican, and it's renowned for its green chile -- although there's no vegetarian version of the green. Still, there are plenty of options for herbivores at Jack ... More >>

Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Pork chop with roasted corn, peaches and green chiles

Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast. "The delicious smell of roasted ... More >>

Vegan green chile for a seasonal favorite on Meatless Monday

It's the time of year when dozens of chile stands pop up along Federal Boulevard, complete with roasters. Although some people insist that green chile must have pork, the chiles are really key -- and it's easy to make a good meat-free version. This recipe was adapted from the Sam's No. 3 Kickin' Gre ... More >>

Reader: Green chile is central to Denver's culinary culture

It's green chile season. In her advice for new Cafe critic Gretchen Kurtz, former restaurant reviewer Laura Shunk said that it was important to have a favorite green chile...and then served up her own: Chubby's. And while one commenter dissed the mean green, far more readers are fans of Colorado's ... More >>

Good Times' new breakfast burritos -- lean and green

Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard, a homegrown chain, is heating up this green chile season by rolling out a roster of chile-injected menu items: a green chile burger, a green chile chicken sandwich, green chile sliders and breakfast burritos, all smothered with New Mexico Hatch green chiles. The ... More >>

Top five qualities of the best green chile stew

Green chile season is now upon us, and this means the pervading aroma of burning chiles will soon fill the air as parking lots fill up with eager chile-philes waiting patiently, burlap bags in hand, for their turn to watch the roasters work their rolling, smoking magic. This season also translates t ... More >>

Coloradans are partial to Santiago's mean green

Also read: Santiago's founder Carmen Morales talks to Cafe Society

Red Robin's "Cry Baby" and "Fiery Ghost" burgers: Where's the fire?

Red Robin, home of the juicy, fried-egg and crispy bacon-garnished Royal Red Robin burger, is hot for two new burger styles: "Cry Baby" and "Fiery Ghost." Having already tried much of the Denver-based chain's lineup at Red Robin's Burger Works, I had to find out of these two hottie burgers would fan ... More >>

Five Star Burgers grills up a five-star veggie patty

Tomorrow is the first day of summer, also known as burger season -- and then, just around the corner, comes the green chile harvest. Celebrate both at Five Star Burgers, the New Mexico transplant that recently made its way to Broadway.

Paxia, younger sibling of Los Carboncitos, has some catching up to do

Rio Grande puts the spotlight on its kitchen

Slide show: In the kitchen at Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant

Chile Billy hits the pavement at 16th and Boulder this Wednesday

Bill Yalch may be a Pittsburgh native, but it took just a few trips to the southwest for him to become utterly obsessed with New Mexican food -- namely green chile. "If you live in Pittsburgh, you have no idea what good huevos rancheros are," he admits, adding that he first sampled worthy huevos on ... More >>

Denver's ten best nachos

Whether our team makes it or not, Super Bowl weekend is always a wonderful time of year. Mostly because it's an excuse to daytime drink on a Sunday while we munch down truly impressive quantities of bar snacks, which vastly enhances our viewing pleasure. The festivities wouldn't be complete, either, ... More >>

Reader: Only green chile spelled with an "e" for me!

Cafe Society took a quick break in all the opening and closing action at the end of 2011 to stir the pot of a long-simmering discussion: Who makes the best green chile in Denver? Lori Midson served up her list of the ten best green chiles in Denver, which inspired yet another debate over how you spe ... More >>

Green chile discussion -- over sources, over spelling -- heats up in the new year

As an end-of-the-year public service to those who were going to need hot, hot green chile to cure their hangovers on January 1, Lori Midson offered her list of "Denver's ten best green chiles." Any discussion of green chile always stirs the pot. Fans of those that didn't make the list complain -- ... More >>

Denver's ten best green chiles

If you were born and raised in Denver, you are, by default, a green chile geek. And for those of you who popped out elsewhere (New Mexico notwithstanding), and simply don't get why we're so besotted with suffocating our burritos, enchiladas, rellenos and French fries with verde, we can only assume y ... More >>

Utumporn Killoran takes her cooking inside at Thai Street Food Restaurant

Slide show: Thai Street Food Restaurant photos

Tamales Moreno just might have Colorado's best tamales

Photos: Hidden Gems at Tamales Moreno in Lakewood

In the kitchen with Brett Smith: Habanero-mango salsa from Zolo Grill

Lori Midson​In this week's Chef and Tell interview with Brett Smith, the executive chef of Zolo Grill in Boulder, Smith admits that you won't find too many dishes on his menu absent of chiles -- a staple (along with pig) in his kitchen. While I was having dinner at Zolo, Smith brought out a b ... More >>

Applebee's is looking for the ultimate Colorado burger -- with Stinkin' Green

The Applebee's Cowboy Burger​When the homegrown Smashburger decided to create a burger for Colorado, as it already had for Idaho (topped with potato chips) and Minnesota (topped with cheddar bar cheese and garlic-grilled onions), it came up with an iconic combo for the Colorado Smashburger, ad ... More >>

Taco Mex makes tacos al pastor the traditional way

Readers: There's no such thing as Colorado green chile!

​Doubters! Although anyone who lives and eats in Denver quickly recognizes that Colorado cuisine includes a particular variation of green chile -- goopy, soupy and porkorific -- there are still those who doubt that there's a particular green native to this state. Blixco for example; New Mexi ... More >>

Twisted Pine is bottling Ghost Face Killah, the hottest beer in the world

​Boulder's Twisted Pine Brewing Company is bottling fire. The brewery, which is fond of adding unusual flavors to its whimsically named beers, will release Ghost Face Killah in twelve-ounce single bottles for Cinco de Mayo. It's the first time this very hot (very hot!) cult beer has been sold ... More >>

Readers: Is the best green chile in Pueblo? Or is it just hot snot?

​In Denver, no food inspires more heated discussion than green chile -- that thick, porky concoction that's native to this state. After we served up our list of "Denver's five best green chile fixes, everyone weighed in with their favorites: Benny's, Santiago's, Brewery Bar II, La Loma. Everyo ... More >>

Cordova's Original Recipes does right by matriarch Stella

Little Anita's chile no longer vegetarian -- for now?

Lori MidsonIs this green chile vegetarian?​After a reader tipped us off that the much-loved vegetarian chile at Little Anita's is no longer vegetarian, we contacted Giselda Lopez, the store manager at the location at 6830 South Yosemite Street in Centennial, to get the scoop.

Guess where I'm eating...green chile?

Lori Midson​ Smother love: It's easy being green in Denver in September and October, when the smell of roasting chiles overrides the odor of exhaust along Federal Boulevard, and the green chile at your favorite Mexican joint carries the heat of the new harvest. For the next several weeks, Ca ... More >>

A pre-Thanksgiving recipe that trots out turkey

​ Thanksgiving is still two weeks away, but should you feel like tackling a turkey early (you know, just for practice), Dedric McGhee, exec chef of Thyme on the Creek, the in-house restaurant at the Millennium Harvest House in Boulder (and the former chef of El Monte Sagrado in Taos), offers ... More >>

Sun Set

You could get burned by the wrong El Señor Sol.

Check, Please!

Readers give our food critic something to chew on.

The Loyal Treatment

Who do you have to know to get a seat at Señor Pepe's?

Wasting Away in Margaritaville

Mexican food for remedial and advanced eaters.

We'll Take Desert

To Grandmother's House We Go

Mouthing Off

Uptown Grill

A Fine Swine

Cream Puffs

MOUTH OF THE BORDER

FORT BRAG

BLAND ON THE RUN