Luca D'Italia

Sparrow Market flies the coop

Crash Course

From the darkness, a ray of light that was Sonja DeVries.

TV or not TV? That's no question for these chefs

From the darkness, a ray of light that was Sonja DeVries.

Bad health reports, good pancakes at Children's Hospital

The 24/7 cafeteria at Children's Hospital has long been known for its pancakes, which survived the trip from the old facility in central Denver out to the new Children's campus in Aurora. Years ago, Westword columnist Marty Jones flipped over the flapjacks in his Consumed column; just ... More >>

Lancer Lounge kitchen is on the rocks...again

  The Lancer Lounge at 233 Seventh Avenue is one of this town's great dives, a spot where you can always count on a collegial evening of drinking, as Drew Bixby recently reported in Drunk of the Week. What you can't count on is finding food there. The most recent tenant of the Lancer's kitche ... More >>

No bones about it, Bones looks like it will open soon

Bones looks like it will win the battle to be the first of the town's new noodle houses to open. Frank Bonanno's place at 301 East Seventh Avenue already has its name -- the restaurateur's childhood nickname -- etched on the windows, and the renovation of the space inside (the old Sparrow Marke ... More >>

The food trends--or lack thereof-- in 2009

"Value." "The economy." "No new concepts." "Staying open." I talked to four of the top chefs in the state (and possibly the western United States) and asked each of them about the top Colorado food trends of 2009. I wanted to share their bold predictions, like "the new hottest ... More >>

Frank Bonanno ready to unveil Bones

Looks like Frank Bonanno is going to hit the mark with Bones, the tiny, hip noodle bar at 301 East Seventh Avenue that he wanted to get open in time for New Year's Eve. Although the promotional card says that Bones is coming in January 2009, the liquor-license hearing on December 19 went well, a ... More >>

Video: Chef Frank Bonanno makes his Bones as a TV star

Here's a video of 2008 Best Chef award-winner Frank Bonanno -- of Mizuna, Luca D'Italia, Osteria Marco and the newly opened noodle bar Bones at 701 Grant Street -- giving a tutorial on how to make Lobster and Edamame Ramen. The video-production quality ain't exactly Rachel Ray yell-a-vision, but it ... More >>

Best New Use of an Old Chinese Restaurant

Luca D'Italia

Frank Bonanno up for James Beard Award as Outstanding Restaurateur

The James Beard Foundation has just released the semifinalists list for its 2009 restaurant and chef awards. And Frank Bonanno -- of Mizuna, Luca D'Italia and Osteria Marco (and now Bones, which opened at the very end of December) fame -- is one of twenty people up for Outstanding Restaurateur.No Co ... More >>

Bite Me

How I Learned to Love Kimchi

Luca D'Italia kicks off its sixth anniversary chef dinner series tonight with Wayne Conwell

Luca D'Italia, 711 Grant Street, marks its six-year anniversary throughout the month with a march of visiting Denver chefs, including Wayne Conwell, exec at Sushi Sasa, 2401 15th Street, who will team up with Luca (and Mizuna, Osteria Marco and Bones) chef-owner Frank Bonanno tonight, June 3, for a ... More >>

Best Italian Restaurant

Luca d'Italia

South Pearl awaits Park Burger

Jean Phillippe Failyau, Frank Bonanno's right-hand man (and my former chef at Osteria Marco), is busy tying up the loose ends at Park Burger, which he says is about a month away from opening.As Jason Sheehan reported in December, although Failyau is working with Bonanno on this burger joint at 1890 ... More >>

How a big dump can wreak havoc, or how to get more bang for your buck

First, the bad news: As Jason Sheehan just reported, a call to Frank Bonanno's Bones revealed that, you guessed it, it's closed due to inclement weather. Not only is Bones black until at least tomorrow, but Bonanno's three other restaurants -- Luca D'Italia, Mizuna and Osteria Marco -- are also dark ... More >>

Food, Glorious Food

Denver chefs take a bite of the Big Apple.

Mambo Italiano

This festival dishes up an al fresco extravaganza

Behind the Scenes

Inside Look opens sculptors' studios

Birthday beat: Luca D'Italia and Jonesy's EatBar both have reasons to jubilate

Six89 and Phat Thai executive chef Mark Fischer Luca D'Italia, Frank Bonanno's Italian restaurant at 711 Grant Street, celebrates six years in the Capitol Hill 'hood this month with a parade of visiting Colorado chefs, including Mark Fischer, exec at Carbondale's Six89 and Phat Thai, who joins Bonan ... More >>

The Westword.com blog shortcut, June 24 edition

In case you were curious, these things are incredible.... Open wide. Today in Cafe Society: • Newest Smashburger one burger short of a Colorado dozen. • A la cart in Cherry Creek. • Birthday beat: Luca D'Italia and Jonesy's EatBar both have reasons to jubilate. • Vesta Dipping Grill revs u ... More >>

Sober and not-so-sober observations from the Taste of the Nation

Lori MidsonStaff from Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben'sYesterday afternoon, Denver's best chefs rolled out the culinary red carpet and rubbed tongs with smitten admirers and other do-gooders who showed up in droves at Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation, a charity event that benefits anti-hunge ... More >>

Crested Butte Land and Trust Food and Wine Festival uncorks today

The first day of the four-day Crested Butte Land Trust Food and Wine Festival uncorks today. And unlike some local food and wine festivals where our homegrown chefs are snubbed, the Crested Butte powwow, which includes wine seminars, wine walks, chef dinners, grand tastings and gourmet picnics, par ... More >>

Frank Bonanno, Alex Seidel, Jennifer Jasinski, Steve Ells and James Rugile among James Beard semifinalists

Lori Midson Venue chef James Rugile ​Restaurant and chef semifinalists for the 2010 James Beard Foundation Awards were released this morning, which gives all the nominees exactly 32 days to chew on their success before the five finalists in each category are announced on Monday, March 22. The ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes: Suckling pig from Luca D'Italia

Lori Midson Succulent suckling pig from Luca D'Italia ​As a countdown to the Best of Denver 2010, coming April 1, Cafe Society is serving up, in no particular order, a hundred of our favorite dishes in Denver. Send your own nominations to cafe@westword.com.

100 Favorite Dishes: Chicken and poblano crepes from Chili Verde

Lori Midson ​As a countdown to the Best of Denver 2010, coming April 1, Cafe Society is serving up, in no particular order, a hundred of our favorite dishes in Denver. Send your own nominations to cafe@westword.com.

No Bones about it: Frank Bonanno is looking for another restaurant

Frank Bonanno is hands-on at the award-winning Bones.​Frank Bonanno, who was named a semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur in this year's James Beard Foundation Awards, didn't make the cut when the finalists were announced Monday. But he's already won a string of honors, including Best N ... More >>

Frank Bonanno will open a French-American comfort food restaurant

Lori MidsonFrank Bonanno will open his fifth Denver restaurant this summer​Back in late March, we reported that Frank Bonanno was in the market for a new restaurant. The chef/restaurateur, who already operates four Denver restaurants -- Bones, Osteria Marco, Mizuna and Luca D'Italia -- said ... More >>

Guess where you're eating? At a DINR restaurant, if you're the Real Joe

​Cafe Society served up four Guess Where I'm Eating/Drinking contests last week, featuring everything from World Cup drinks at the Irish Snug to some very fresh mozzarella. For correctly tracing that cheese to Luca D'Italia, the Real Joe pegging wins a DINR deck. Real Joe, send your contact i ... More >>

Masterpiece Delicatessen chef Justin Brunson on opening a new restaurant and his fetish for foie gras and lamb testicles

Lori MidsonJustin Brunson​ Justin Brunson Masterpiece Delicatessen 1575 Central Street 303-561-3354 www.masterpiecedeli.com This is part one of Lori Midson's Q&A with Masterpiece Delicatessen chef/owner Justin Brunson. You can read part two of this interview right back here tomorrow. It's ... More >>

James Rugile is leaving his exec-chef post at Venue to work with Frank Bonanno

Lori Midson​James Rugile, executive chef at Venue, which opened in 2008 at 3609 West 32nd Avenue, is vacating that kitchen at the end of the month to join Frank Bonanno's kingdom of restaurants -- specifically, the kitchens of Luca D'Italia and Mizuna, the two Bonanno restaurants, along with B ... More >>

The week in Cafe Society bloggery: James Rugile joins Frank Bonanno, octopus lovers unite and Alex Seidel cuts the cheese (and comes out smelling like roses in Zagat's America's Top Restaurants guide)

​Our favorite table scraps of the week from the Cafe Society blog:

East Seventh Avenue's restaurant row could get some Cold Comfort

​Four business partners have applied for a liquor license for a former carpet warehouse located behind Colorado Lace at 200 East Seventh Avenue. Aside from the cleaners, the large building is currently gutted inside. The location is just a block from East Seventh Avenue's restaurant row -- a ... More >>

Cold Comfort Tavern seeks neighborhood support for craft beer bar and restaurant

​The owners of the proposed Cold Comfort Tavern will host the powerful Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods on Thursday to talk about plans for their Seventh Avenue craft beer bar and restaurant. Cold Comfort would be located inside the mostly vacant Colorado Lace building at 200 East Seventh Av ... More >>

Frank Bonanno opens Lou's Food Bar -- and we've got the first look

Lori Midson​"Yeah, it's been stressful, and there was a point where I felt like I was going to throw up," confesses Frank Bonanno, who's clinging to a glass of red wine while sitting at the bar of Lou's Food Bar, his newest restaurant that opened last night at 1851 West 38th Avenue. "But now - ... More >>

Drink of the Week: Groundhog at Luca D'Italia

​ They say that Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog, did not see his shadow in Pennsylvania this morning, which means it will be an early spring. For those of us who've suffered through Denver's sub-zero temperatures these last few days, that's hopeful news -- but we also know from years past tha ... 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 >>

Reader: Fresh noodles put me pasta point of no return

​ After Laura Shunk received an e-mail from a national food pub working on a list of the best pastas around the country, she posted a piece spilling some of her own favorites, and asked readers for their own. And out poured some saucy suggestions -- Luca D'Italia, Rioja, Mizuna (fair warning: ... 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 >>

The Lancer Lounge gets up to code -- and even gets a new window

Jenny AnLancer Lounge is getting an overhaul.​One of Denver's last classic dive bars is in the process of a remodel. What started as a project to bring the Lancer Lounge, and particularly its bathrooms, up to code turned into a much bigger beautification project, says owner Rebecca Conda. Th ... 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 >>

Frank Bonanno continues to heat up Larimer Square with the addition of Russell's Smokehouse

Lori Midson​Close to a year ago, chef and restaurateur Frank Bonanno, whose colony of collections already included Mizuna, Osteria Marco, Luca D'Italia and Bones, inked a lease on a mammoth, 6,000-square-foot down-reaching space in Larimer Square that soon became the dwelling pads to Wednesda ... More >>

Foodography: Wooden Table opens today in Greenwood Village with Brett Shaheen, former exec chef of Osteria Marco, behind the burners

Lori Midson​"I'm making things that I want to eat, food that's fun for us to make -- and not pretentious -- and food that we're proud to serve," says Brett Shaheen, the executive chef of the Wooden Table, a new Italian restaurant that opens today at 2500 East Orchard Road in Greenwood Village ... More >>

Estiatorio AXIOS, a Greek restaurant, will open Thursday in the former Brasserie Felix space

Lori Midson​When news dropped that Brasserie Felix, the French restaurant at 3901 Tennyson Street, had gone dark, Francophiles sobbed in their snails while restaurateurs all over town ogled the space, which resides on a stretch of pavement with a robust restaurant scene. But Telly Topakas too ... More >>

Bones was the first of the hip noodle bars -- and the last one still stirring

Bones got it right from the start.​In late 2008, there was a race to see which restaurateur would open the first hip noodle bar in the area. Dave Query's Big Red F group was planning to open Happy at 835 Walnut Street in Boulder, and the folks behind the Jet Hotel were going to put XO in an ad ... More >>

Reader: Larimer Square could soon be Bonanno Square

​Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno opened Russell's Smokehouse on Friday in a subterranean space in Larimer Square; the barbecue joint shares an entry (Wednesday's Pie) with Green Russell, as well the speakeasy's emphasis on contemporary cocktails. But the meaty menu -- including lamb's neck and tr ... More >>

Mike Peshek, exec chef of Lou's Food Bar, muses on social-review sites, roadkill and customers who toss out skewering threats

Lori Midson​ Mike Peshek Lou's Food Bar 1851 West 38th Avenue 303-458-0336 www.lousfoodbar This is part one of my interview with Mike Peshek, exec chef of Lou's Food Bar. Check back here on Friday for part two of my chat with Peshek. "See the spaghetti and meatballs?" asks Mike Peshek, poi ... More >>

Round two with Mike Peshek, exec chef of Lou's Food Bar

Lori Midson​ Mike Peshek Lou's Food Bar 1851 West 38th Avenue 303-458-0336 www.lousfoodbar This is part two of my interview with Mike Peshek, exec chef of Lou's Food Bar. Part one of my chat with Peshek ran earlier this week. Favorite restaurant in America: Pizzeria Regina in Boston. The ser ... More >>

Amos Watts, exec chef of Jax-Denver, on Casa Bonita, English peas and cheese

Lori Midson​ Amos Watts Jax Fish House Denver 1539 17th Street 303-292-5767 www.jaxfishhousedenver.com This is part one of my interview with Amos Watts, exec chef of Jax Fish House-Denver. You can read part two of that interview tomorrow on the Cafe Society blog. The French Laundry, Thomas ... More >>