Green Russell

Joe Hines, bartender at Williams & Graham, wins the Colorado Wine Cocktail competition

Last night at Green Russell, six local bartenders -- Joe Hines (Williams & Graham); Kevin Burke (Colt & Gray); Gerard Collier (Corner House); Ragen Horacek (Ace); Randy Layman (Steuben's); and host Adam Hodak, the star bartender of Bonanno Concepts -- battled for supremacy in the Colorado Wine Cock ... More >>

Round two with Taylor Drew, exec chef of Russell's Smokehouse

Taylor Drew Russell's Smokehouse 1422 Larimer Street 720-524-8050 russellssmokehouse.com This is part two of my interview with Taylor Drew, exec chef of Russell's Smokehouse; part one of our chat ran yesterday. Favorite Denver/Boulder restaurant(s) other than your own: I don't get out to eat nearl ... More >>

Best Chef: A nostalgic look back at our Best of Denver chef winners

In just a few short hours from now, the Best of Denver 2013 will start hitting the street -- and the web. This year's edition is packed with more than 400 winners (we're still counting). One of the most anticipated categories in our Food & Drink section is also one of the the most coveted: Best Chef ... More >>

Check, please! Keeping tabs on Denver's restaurant-inspection policy

Local restaurants plan fundraiser for former Denver chef Drew Inman, who's battling cancer

On Tuesday, February 19, several Denver restaurants -- Mizuna, Luca d'Italia, Bones, Osteria Marco, Russell's Smokehouse, Green Russell, Lou's Food Bar, Vesper Lounge, Barolo Grill and Potager -- will contribute a portion of their sales to Drew Inman, a former Denver chef, now in New York, who's bat ... More >>

Exclusive: Frank Bonanno will open Vesper Lounge in the former Lancer Lounge space

When longtime owner Becky Conda was evicted from the Lancer Lounge, the dive bar that resides between Bones and Mizuna, earlier this month, it seemed only natural that Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno, who own those restaurants, along with Luca d'Italia, Osteria Marco, Lou's Food Bar, Wednesday's Pie, G ... More >>

Frank Bonanno writes a poignant blog post about Luca, his son -- and the benefit to give back to the hospital that saved him

That month at Children's, Luca was surrounded with thoughtful, caring nurses. Nurses who talked him through the wires coming out of his head and the tubes coming out of his arms. Nurses who thoughtfully explained the video monitors and the bathroom protocol and the litany of medicines. Nurses who ha ... More >>

Five ways Colorado Urban WineFest will rock this week

What do Governor John Hickenlooper and chef-restaurateur Frank Bonanno have in common?

Rona VanSlyck: You don't have to follow all the rules

In this interview, Pizza Republica's Rona VanSlyck weighs in on the importance of being open-minded, her current back-bar obsession and the dive bar she frequents when she's not at work.

The Colorado Bartenders Guild announces its newly elected board

To give the Colorado Bartenders Guild all the credit for Denver's flourishing cocktail culture would be wrong, says Sean Kenyon, owner of Williams & Graham and one of the founding members of this state's chapter. But it certainly helped. "We were officially chartered in February of 2008," he says, " ... More >>

Jeremy Kittelson, chef of Ambria, on trends, Taco Bell and eyeballs

Jeremy Kittelson Ambria 1201 16th Street 303-623-8646 www.ambriadenver.com This is part one of my chef and tell interview with Jeremy Kittleson, exec chef of Ambria. Part two of our chat will run tomorrow. Before Jeremy Kittelson opened Ambria in mid-November, he conducted a tasting, and while h ... More >>

Michelle Baldwin: I want people to feel like they're part of my party

In this week's Behind the Bar interview, Ghost Plate & Tap consulting bartender Michelle Baldwin -- who also goes by burlesque name Vivienne VaVoom -- weighs in on punch, a party that warped the floors and the ladies' organization that bonds over cocktails while doing good in its community.

Bols Genever re-launches in Colorado this week

Gin may have come from genever, but you can't really put the two in the same box, according to Jacob Grier, Portland-based bartender and brand representative for Bols Genever. "Genever is really its own category," he explains. "We compare it to early tequila importers. They labeled the spirit 'Mexic ... More >>

Jonathan Greschler was notoriously shy...until he became a bartender

Jonathan Greschler, who recently landed behind the bar at Fuel Cafe, started bartending right after college. "I was in North Carolina working at a microbrewery," he remembers. "The guys behind the bar were older than me, and they took me under their wing. We had an advantage, because it was a microb ... More >>

Tonight: Bring a toy, drink for free and help a kid at the Steuben's Toy Drive

'Tis the season to eat, dink, make merry and give generously, and tonight, at Steuben's, you have the opportunity to kill four turtle doves with one toy.

Hot drinks for a cold weekend

​With more snow and cold temperatures in the forecast for the weekend and beyond, we're not really feeling ice cold drinks right this second. And that gives us a good excuse to check out the hot drinks that have popped up on menus around town. Here are a handful of winter warmers that are intr ... More >>

Tonight's Mixed Taste lecture at the MCA features suburbia and American gin

MCA Denver​If you're still trying to figure out what to do tonight, you might want to ingest some culture and pick up some tickets to the booze-themed Mixed Taste lecture tonight at MCA Denver.

Second Helping: LoHi Steakbar

​My meals at Westerkamps Steakhouse and Meat Market, which I review in this week's Westword, unleashed a strange but insatiable craving for steak -- cheap steak, like a griddled flatiron or hanger, preferably sided by a couple of eggs and a pile of potatoes. Which is how I found myself at LoHi ... More >>

Pelee Tamarind and French Revival at Lou's Food Bar

​I'm the first one to bitch and moan about how all the great dives in Denver are disappearing -- but then when someone like Frank Bonanno (Mizuna, Luca D'Italia, Osteria Marco, Bones and Green Russell) comes in and gentrifies the hell out of one of those dives, I can't wait to see what he's d ... More >>

Photos: Colorado Cocktail Project contest at MCA

Photo: Mark MangerBartender Marnie Ward puts the finishing touches on the Tree Line, her cocktail that won last night's competition. See more photos from the Colorado Cocktail contest.​Congrats to Marnie Ward, bartender at Avenue Grill and maker of the Tree Line, which nabbed first place in th ... More >>

Second Helping: Bones

The pork udon at Bones.​I haven't totally fallen for Lou's Food Bar, which I review this week, and my initial lust for Green Russell has ebbed, at least temporarily. But from my initial meal at Bones, which Frank Bonanno opened in December 2008, it was love at first bite, and my fondness for t ... More >>

Denver's five best first-date restaurants

The Village Cork, Denver's best first date restaurant​How is a first date different from a blind date? The blind date is basically an interview, after which you decide whether you'd like to go a second round. First dates imply that some level of familiarity and attraction already exists, and y ... More >>

Pig porn from Cochon 555, aka the Super Bowl of Swine

Lori MidsonCochon 555 chefs Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson, Kelly Liken, Alex Seidel, Frank Bonanno and Jennifer Jasinski ​ Lard, have mercy on my soul. To say that I pigged out this weekend is the understatement of the year, and if I was porky before, you should see me now. In fact, I'm fairly ... More >>

Frasca's Bobby Stuckey at the center of Denver Cochon 555 pig fight

You be the judge. ​Cochon 555, the porkeriffic national competition that trots into Denver on Sunday, April 3, recently announced the five Colorado chefs combating for the Prince of Porc title: Jennifer Jasinski (Rioja, Euclid Hall and Bisto Vendome); Kelly Liken (Restaurant Kelly Liken); Alex ... More >>

James Beard Foundation announces 2011 semi-finalists: Frank Bonanno, Yasmin Lozada-Hissom, Frasca and ChoLon among them

James Beard Foundation​Last November, the James Beard Foundation summoned the public to nominate its favorite chefs, restaurants and industry professionals for the 2011 awards. And after all the self-pimping and ballot-stuffing, the poll is closed. This morning, the foundation announced its ... More >>

Ocean Prime sails into one of the last empty spots in Larimer Square

Ocean Prime now holds down a corner of Larimer Square​"I'm looking at it across the street," says Joe Vostrejs, COO of Larimer Associates, gazing through his office window at Ocean Prime, the restaurant in the old Z Gallerie space. "They're ready." Not long after restaurateur Cameron Mitchell ... More >>

Denver's best bartenders raise $2,000 and collect more than 450 toys for the Salvation Army

​Earlier this week, fifteen local mixology magicians converged behind the bar of Steuben's, 523 East Seventeenth Avenue, as part of the retro diner's annual holiday toy drive, a festive, spirited party that involves clever cocktails, lots of willing imbibers, good will, good cheer, generosity ... More >>

Kevin Burke v. Denver Magazine, with a twist

​As a mixologist, Kevin Burke knows how to pour it on. And yesterday, he was all contrition in his apology to Denver Magazine, the publication that had repeated a bunch of whoppers that Burke, a finalist for the pub's Mixologist of the Year, had fed them for last month's food and drink issue: ... More >>

Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill is open for business, y'all