Subject: Lori Midson

• Chili today, hot tomorrow

  Lori Midson​We're hearing good things about Chili Verde, a new restaurant cooking up southern Mexican cuisine at 3700 Tejon Street. Good things, that is, about everything but its lack of alcohol -- but that could change next month. Owner Eder Yanez-Mota has a liquor-license hearing with the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses on September 11.

  August 25, 2009

• The Westword.com blog shortcut, August 25 edition

  Photo by Lori MidsonVirgilio Urbano at his namesake restaurant.​Just in case you're curious, Virgilio's pizza is a little slice of heaven. Today in Cafe Society: • Let the dough fly: There's a pizza battle brewing at Belmar. • Behind the Bar: Ky Belk of Elway's in Cherry Creek. • Brio Tuscan Grille to open next week in Cherry Creek. • Guess where I'm eating? • Chili today, hot tomorrow. Today in Backbeat Online: • Hope Sandoval, Juliette Lewis, the Sounds shows announced. •

  August 25, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

   Lori Midson​I think I may have just found my new obsession. It's another Mexican joint, of course, but while the twelve-page menu lists tortas (and "super mega" tortas), huaraches, enchiladas de mole, ensadada de nopales and fried jalapenos soaked in soy sauce, salt and lime juice, the kitchen also turns out goat soup, which sets this place apart from the competition. That, and the fact that an entire page of the menu is devoted to juice therapy. I spent nearly an entire afternoon here,

  August 27, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​See that blasphemous sandwich above? It's meant to be a French dip -- a French dip stacked with sliced prime rib. But if you look closely, you'll notice that there's nothing sliced, shaved or otherwise sheared about it. Instead, some idiot in the kitchen who was obviously still on a baby-food diet apparently thought I was on the same diet and wanted, you know, my food slashed Freddy Krueger style and masticated. Honestly?  This may very well be the worst whack job I've ever se

  August 31, 2009

• Modmarket is Boulder's newest green restaurant

  Lori Midson​Modmarket opens tomorrow at 1600 28th Street in the struggling 29th Street retail district in Boulder. But since Boulderites have a thing for green, and Modmarket's "menu is created from ingredients like you find along the perimeter of your local grocer ... you know, fresh produce, the highest quality of meats and grains," it might be exactly what the outdoor shopping mall was waiting for.I stopped in yesterday during a test run and found a minimalist space sprouting wheat grass al

  September 2, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​"Eat the dried chiles," advised our server, "but leave the fresh red and green ones alone because they're really hot," he warned. Problem is, I tend to roll my eyes and shrug when it comes to heat advisories, which is exactly what I did in this case. And that turned out to be one of the most ridiculously stupid mistakes I've ever made, because birdseye chiles, despite their relatively small size, are the devil in disguise. And the one snip that I chewed off the tip of the smallest

  September 8, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​Not the best chilaquiles I've ever had, but not the worst either. There's way too much lettuce and an overabundance of sour cream swirls and squiggles on the plate. But the green chile, tart with tomatillos, was requisitely spicy; the corn tortilla chips, scratch-made and crisp; the eggs softly scrambled; and the chorizo, boldly flavored. In other words, it satisfied my morning craving for fat and fuel. But next time? I'm getting the eggs benedict, which are awesome. The question i

  September 10, 2009

• Chile Verde liquor license hearing tomorrow

  Lori MidsonWouldn't these tables look better with beers on top?​ Cross your fingers for Eder Yanez-Mota, the owner of Chili Verde, the spot at 3700 Teon Street that's been cooking up southern Mexican cuisine for a few months now. He opened the restaurant without a liquor license, but all that could change after tomorrow morning's hearing with the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses.

  September 10, 2009

• Denver's newest road trip: Interstate Kitchen & Bar

  Lori Midson​Interstate Kitchen & Bar made its debut on Thursday, September 10, at 901 West Tenth Avenue (the former Santa Fe Tequila Company space). It's a kitschy urban roadhouse bedecked with utilitarian shelving -- a la Home Depot -- and a psychedelic robin's egg blue paint palette. In the back, by the bathrooms, there's an old Mobil gas pump and in the front, near the bar, you can slam shots of whiskey in the hollowed-out skeleton of a beat up red truck.

  September 15, 2009

• Golden's Empanada Express Grill graduates from a trailer to a restaurant

  Lori MidsonPabellon Criollo empanada from Empanada Grill​You  no longer have to lug your own butt cushion to the Empanada Express Grill, which up until three weeks ago was a simple freestanding trailer peddling Venezuelan street snacks -- empanadas, arepas and cachapas -- from an asphalt landing strip in Golden. Its new location at 2600 East Street isn't exactly fancy, the narrow space sparse with just a few tables and seats and a glass case filled, quizzically, with folded men's shirts t

  September 15, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​There are few things that piss me off more than restaurants that serve frigid tomatoes. I'm only going to say this once: Your walk-in, refrigerator -- whatever -- is a tomato's mortal enemy, its murderer of flavor, its slayer of scent. Ever wonder why the flesh of a tomato is mealy? Blame the idiot who stores it somewhere with arctic air.  Not all restaurants are guilty of tomato slaughter, including the one where I snapped the above pic. Those tomatoes, their flesh juicy, rip

  September 16, 2009

• Guess where I'm drinking?

  Lori Midson​What do you get when you cross a framed Farrah Fawcett photo with Jesus candles and bottles of Jack, Knob Creek and Colorado's own Stranahan's? If you're anything like those of us sitting at the bar where the above pic was snapped, there's only one answer to that question: Drunk. There was also talk of paying respects to recently departed pelvis thruster (and all-around awesome guy) Patrick Swayze, whose 8x10, we decided, should stand directly above Farrah's. That'll happen soon en

  September 18, 2009

• Cafe Society: Week in review

  Lori MidsonLobby American Grille opened to big crowds on Friday, September 25.​ What you might have missed this week on Cafe Society while getting your free jolt of instant java at Starbucks: A second outpost of Toast, the kick-ass pancake palace, took up residence in the former Village Inn space in Cherry Creek. Fresko, an upscale Mexican restaurant in the Tech Center ,went dark barely two months after first seeing light, while Lobby American Grille opened at the end of September to s

  October 2, 2009

• Guess where I'm drinking?

  Lori Midson​Back in high school, I had a little episode involving vodka and pig -- as in I drank too much vodka during a "liquid lunch" and subsequently puked on a fetal pig in biology class, right after I proclaimed my love for Mr. Svenson and his Harley. My punishment was a week at home to think about that poor pig and how I further contributed to his needless demise. To this day, I still fear vodka, but over the weekend, while rooting on the Broncos from a bar that's nowhere near my stompin

  October 5, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​ All I'm going to say is that the chef-owner of this Chinese restaurant, whose name is none of your business (for now), likes to clutter your table with edible gifts long before you've had a chance to glance at the menu -- an eight-page syllabus that doesn't include any of the dishes that you see in the above photo (just in case you thought you'd try to cheat). I have no idea if the kitchen delivers the same culinary gifts each day, but when I had lunch here earlier this week, our

  October 6, 2009

• Survey says: Denver's ethnic food scene sucks, according to Travel Leisure poll

  Lori Midson​Travel Leisure, the glossy travel title that encourages readers to anchor down in Amsterdam, escape to the Cape and luxuriate in Italy -- Santorini-style, has just released its America's Favorite Cities issue -- and the results, based on 60,000 votes, from residents and visitors alike, are in. While Denver cleaned up in the public park, environmentally friendly, cleanest city, family vacation, airport design and active/athletic residents categories, apparently our ethnic food sce

  October 7, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​ You know that autumn's in the air when restaurants start cooking hearty casseroles, soups and stews tumbling with root vegetables -- carrots, turnips and parsnips -- which is exactly why the shepherds pie, pictured in the above snap, immediately caught my attention. I totally dig root vegetables.Hearty, restorative and piping hot, a killer shepherds pie, made in classic peasant style, is exactly what I want on a chilly day. This shepherds pie, in particular, was bolstered by stewe

  October 7, 2009

• Part two: Chef and Tell with Sean Yontz of Mezcal, Sketch and Tambien

  Lori MidsonSean Yontz with his wife Alexa​This is part two of Lori Midson's interview with Sean Yontz, executive chef of Mezcal, Tambien and Sketch. You can read part one here. Culinary inspirations: Ferran Adrià, the chef at El Bulli, because of the way he's completely changed people's perception of Spanish food; Thomas Keller, because of his dedication to food and service; and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who melds together so many types of cuisines and whose food is just awesome, no mat

  October 8, 2009

• Illegal Pete's is now legal on East Evans Avenue

  Lori Midson​ Illegal Pete's, home of the fat fish burrito, has just opened its sixth location at 1744 East Evans Avenue, a textbook's toss from the University of Denver campus. Like its other outposts, the fast-casual coastal Mexican, whose beer-battered fish filets (and counter staff that mixes up your burrito ingredients) have made the joint somewhat of a local phenom, is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday until 2:30 a.m. Best thing about the join

  October 8, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​ It's Friday morning. Where are your pancakes? If you can pinpoint the exact location of the pancake in the above pic -- which on further examination, looks like a distorted Halloween mask, what with those freaky butter eyes (not intentional, by the way) and rivers of syrup that somehow managed to take on nose and mouth traits -- then you can get your pancakes on, too. But these aren't just any pancakes. They come from an unassuming shanty that specializes in a specific kind of pan

  October 9, 2009

• Menu mystery: Who made the chipotle muscles?

  Lori MidsonWhere would you find "chipotle muscles"? ​ The menu description in the above snap obviously never went through a menu Spellcheck. The more I look at it, the more I laugh -- I have this image of some 400-pound linebacker with bulging muscles sitting on the pot eating chips, and daydreaming about getting laid instead. Have your own image to share, or know the name of the restaurant that can't spell? Contribute below.

  October 12, 2009

• Panzano chef Elise Wiggins steers toward a nose-to-tail movement

  Lori Midson​ There was no morning sun on Saturday, the day that Elise Wiggins (above), executive chef of Panzano, had picked for her lunch and cooking class at Bear Mountain Ranch, the 100-acre parcel of land in Genesee that's grazing territory for the Black Angus steers that Wiggins is buying for her Northern Italian restaurant. Lori Midson​And cattle aren't the ranch's only four-legged occupants.The frigid air and frost seemed to piss off the pot-bellied pig that squeaked, shrieked, grunte

  October 12, 2009

• Guess where I'm drinking?

  Lori Midson​ I have no idea if there are 99 bottles of beer on the wall at this bar, but there were certainly enough choices to keep the bartender busy popping off caps for a good six or seven hours this weekend. Any idea on whose shelves these bottles reside? Bonus love if you can guess which beer blessed me with a hangover. Hint: It's not Coors Light.

  October 12, 2009

• Let's eat now at Mangiamo Pronto!

  Lori Midson​Downtown's Italian restaurant scene just grew by one with the opening of Mangiamo Pronto!, a sleek and modern cafe out of Santa Fe, in the former Common Grounds space at 1601 17th Street. "We had soft openings Friday and Saturday just to do some test runs and opened the floodgates today," said Enrique Guerrero, co-owner and chef."So far, so good," he continued. "We love it here and it looks like the neighborhood is going to love us back," he said, pointing to a woman who'd apparent

  October 12, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​At this relatively new Mexican restaurant, the menu is a mash-up of the usual suspects -- carne asada, burritos, fajitas and huevos rancheros -- and more interesting south-of-the-border foodstuffs like posole poblano, napoles and shrimp ceviche, the shout-out dish in the above photo. Splashed with fresh citrus juices and vivid with cilantro, tomatoes, half moons of avocado and specks of jalapeno, it was delicious -- and exactly what I was in the mood to eat. Just one problem: It to

  October 13, 2009

• Another Asian joint arriving on Alameda

  Lori MidsonThe future site of Asian Diner​ Directly across the street from Swing Thai, less than a block away from Fontana Sushi, exactly one block from Thai Basil and a short three-block walk from Crazy Asian Cafe, sits the future home of Asian Diner. And once it opens at 295 South Pennsylvania Street, that will make five Asian restaurants within a bamboo plant of each other. The vacated space -- a former bookstore -- doesn't show any inward signs of an impending restaurant, Asian or otherwis

  October 14, 2009

• Fuel fall with Rioja's new autumn menu

  Lori Midson Spinach veloute soup and chestnut soup with foie gras terrine from Rioja ​ Jennifer Jasinski, chef-owner of Rioja, 1431 Larimer Street, is renowned for both her use of local ingredients and seasonal menu changes. And her most recent iteration, a lovely autumn board of fall vegetables, rustic meats, sweetness and spice, earthiness and comfort, is no exception.

  October 16, 2009

• Pho Bowlevard set to bowl over Littleton

  Lori Midson​Okay, so the name is downright silly, and the curious location -- a sketchy strip mall with more vacancies than occupancies -- doesn't appear to be prime real estate for a new restaurant, but the sign is up at 5950 South Platte Boulevard for Pho Bowlevard Vietnamese Grill.According to owners Anh and Sang Truong, it's a fast-casual concept that'll "offer customers  popular Vietnamese food items that are both healthy and delicious in a friendly, upscale and comfortable environme

  October 20, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​It's been a while since I've found a formerly untrodden (at least by me) taqueria that showed promise, but that changed yesterday when I stumbled across this upbeat taco shack in Aurora. It was out of horchata, but had an ample supply of Mexican coke in the bottle, jarritos and jugs of really good cantaloupe agua frasca. Outside, the snowflakes were falling like giant teardrops and kids were throwing the first snowballs of the season. Inside, the small TV in the corner was tuned to

  October 22, 2009

• Part two: Chef and Tell with Sean Kelly from LoHi SteakBar

  Lori MidsonLoHi SteakBar exec chef Sean Kelly​This is part two of Lori Midson's interview with Sean Kelly, exec chef of LoHi SteakBar. You can read part one of Midson's interview with Kelly here. Ten words to describe you: Husband, father, cook, dedicated, extreme, blessed, impossible, critical, introspective and obsessive. Best food city in America: I adore San Francisco, and for me personally, it's the most inspirational place to go out to eat. But New York is the best food city, perio

  October 22, 2009

• Tacos Rapidos is open and turning out tacos 24/7

  Lori Midson​The yellow tape and chain-link fence formerly surrounding the Tacos Rapido compound at 2345 West Alameda Avenue have finally been removed, which means that all you drunkards hankering for breakfast burritos, tacos, tostadas and and tortas at 2 a.m. now have another 24/7 pit stop at which to get your Mex in the city. The original location at 2800 West Evans boasts the same hours but doesn't have a dining room, whereas this new joint can accommodate a whole posse of obnoxious inebria

  October 23, 2009

• Cafe Society: Week in review

  Lori Midson​ What you might have missed this week on Cafe Society while you were commiserating with Jason Sheehan over his abysmal dinners at Mark and Isabella, the Italian restaurant run by Arizona-based hot shot restaurateur, Mark Tarbell. A man was shot dead in an altercation inside Chopsticks & Sushi, the downtown restaurant at 16th and Welton that has absolutely nothing in common with Chopsticks China Bistro, the Chinese restaurant that recently relocated from Federal Boulevard t

  October 23, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori MidsonWould you eat that? ​ The dish that you see at the top of the page was sabotaged by the "chef," and returned to the kitchen with a plea that he redo the damn thing and make it look, well, if not stunning, then at least quasi-presentable -- which it wasn't when it first landed with a thud on the table.

  October 26, 2009

• Den Deli is staffing up

  Lori MidsonFuture home of Deli Den.​Looks like plans are moving fast for the new Den Deli and Sushi Market, which is going into 1501 South Pearl Street -- conveniently located between Sushi Den ( 1487 South Pearl) and Izakaya Den (1518 South Pearl). Brothers Toshi and Yazu Kizaki are hosting a job fair for their new place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, November 2, at Izakaya and, according to the ad, are: Interviewing for all qualified FOH and BOH positions. Barista, Deli, and or Sea

  October 27, 2009

• Park Burger adds breakfast, happy hour and sliders to its daily lineup

  Lori MidsonThe sliders are just one of several new add-ons at Park Burger​ Now that my kid's favorite Old School Burgers location has fallen victim to the economy, we've been hunting for a new burger palace. More to the point, we've been scouting a burger joint where my kid will actually eat a burger without gagging. He's weird like that.Anyway, as those of you in burgerville already know, those of us at Westword have an unhealthy obsession with Park Burger, the upscale burger barn at 1890 Sou

  October 28, 2009

• Guess where I'm drinking?

  Lori Midson​ It's billed as a Bloody Mary on the libations roster, but with the accompaniments of shrimp, blue cheese-stuffed olives, peperoncinis and a kick-ass, kick start mound of spices, it's more like a snack before breakfast. Or a prelude to a long afternoon of snowbound restlessness. I'm on my way to get one now, and if you can guess where I'm drinking, you can meet me there.

  October 29, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori MidsonGreet your meat​ Denver has a titillating new charcuterie contender in town. And for better or worse, it comes with a side of fleshy skin. You can double the pleasure, double the fun if you know where to go.Well?

  October 30, 2009

• Ondo's on schedule for a mid-November opening

  Lori Midson​While Jason Sheehan is busy building a dream team staff for Ondo's, the tapas restaurant taking over the subterranean space at 250 Steele Street, owner Curt Steinbecker, who trained with his wife, Deicy, at the Escuela de Cocina Luis Irizar, is just trying to get his restaurant open. With any luck, that will happen two weeks from now. "Things are going according to schedule, and it looks like November 15 will be our first day," says Curt.

  November 2, 2009

• Guess where I'm drinking?

  Lori Midson​I headed out to one of usual hangs on Sunday to watch the Donkeys get dicked over my daily dose of football, but there were apparently far fewer hangovers from the night before than I had envisioned, because my choice bar was ridiculously, impossibly busy. I ended up less than a half mile down the street, where the bar was ridiculously, impossibly empty. In fact, there were exactly three of us hanging our heads, plus a seemingly trustworthy bartender who swore to me that the

  November 2, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​One potato, two potato, three potato ... That's it for clues. You, too, can be a potato head if you can guess where I'm eating.

  November 5, 2009

• Today's daily dose of food porn, courtesy of C Y Steak

  A Flickr photo​ Just in case you haven't heard, there's a new steak house in town -- and it comes with a side of strip ... tease. Cliff Young, one of Denver's best-known restaurateurs, recently returned from a 12-year extended holiday in France at the Chateau Cote d'Or to open C Y Steak, a swanky French-influenced meatery and sexy strip palace for carnivorous alpha packs who like a side of skin with their steer. We can't show you pics of the peelers (you know, lawsuits and all), but w

  November 5, 2009

• Cafe Society: Week in review

  John Plessinger in a booth at the Nob Hill Inn, the bar his father put in his name back in 1969, when he was 21.​What you may have missed this week on Cafe Society while you were hanging on every last word of our hi-larious stories about the time we spent getting up close and personal with the regulars at Nob Hill Inn, which may very well be the best damn dive bar in Denver. Those of us who write this food bloggy thing called Cafe Society are communing at the Fainting Goat next Wednesday night

  November 6, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​ One of my favorite Denver restaurants just added blue plate specials to its menu, including shrimp and grits, which is the dish you see in the above photo. But while the addition of blue plates to the board just reinforces my unhealthy addiction to said restaurant, the fact that it also offers two daily happy hours, along with some of the best daily drink specials in the city, makes me want to pack up my belongings and move in. We can share a sleeping bag if you can guess where I'

  November 9, 2009

• The skirts are short, the boobies bouncy at the Tilted Kilt

  Lori MidsonSix pack abs and a nice rack are on the menu at Tilted Kilt​ The Tilted Kilt, which opens tomorrow at 1201 16th Street in the former ESPN Zone space, has a menu. I know this because I ordered from it last night during a preview dinner. But when you're surrounded by hot guys that inch up their kilts on command and girls dressed in tartan mini-kilts that barely cover their buttocks and matching bras swathing bouncing breasts, it's not exactly easy to concentrate on the task at hand, w

  November 10, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​Black truffles, shaved and whole, and bone marrow peppered with Hawaiian red sea salt on a stark white plate at a restaurant whose chef doesn't try to steal the spotlight -- even though he could. The dish in the above pic was one of many in a succession of fantastic plates. From whose kitchen did they come?

  November 10, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​ I've never met a charcuterie plate I didn't love. Not that this will surprise anyone, but the spread of salty meats and cheeses (and housemade breadsticks) in the above pic did absolutely nothing to change my mind. Which restaurant is to blame for furthering my addiction?

  November 11, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​ Steelhead trout, beautiful beets just yanked from the garden, greens and risotto. Half of the dish -- the trout and the beets -- was spot-on perfect, while the second half -- a gummy risotto that had turned to mush and the wilted weeds, which were gritty and intertwined with the woody stems from fresh thyme -- wasn't good at all. Aside from the obvious question -- where am I eating? -- I've got another one: If you got a bunch of thyme twigs, absent of leaves, in your weeds, would

  November 12, 2009

• The Drink to start pouring this weekend

  Lori Midson​ Paul Piciocchi has had his hands full this fall, turning the former Alto space at 1320 15th Street into not one, but three venues -- and also running his other popular Denver club, Tryst, at 1512 Larimer Street, right up the street from his new project. A third of that project will debut this weekend, when The Drink, the portion of the space that's billed as a "soft tavern & bar," is slated to open. Rack & Rye, the gastropub, and mix, a live music venue, should come on line

  November 13, 2009

• Starting tonight, Sushi Sasa goes late-night

  Lori Midson​Beginning tonight, Sushi Sasa, Wayne Conwell's hip temple of Japanese cuisine at 2401 15th Street, is adding late-night hours to its lineup. "Over the past few months, we've had numerous customers showing up at our doors after 10:30 wanting to eat sushi, so we thought, hey, let's stay open later," says general manager Joey Oliver. "Since we're so close to downtown, it just makes sense to go late-night so that people who don't want to eat diner food or just aren't ready to go h

  November 13, 2009

• Guess where I'm eating?

  Lori Midson​I love flapjacks as much as the next person (maybe even more), but the smoked salmon, red onion and caper pizza that you see in the above snap is seriously, deliriously delicious. And it's just one of several breakfast pizzas on the new brunch menu at a Denver restaurant that's also pouring Bloodys and bottomless bellinis.

  November 18, 2009