Matt Selby

Industry Denver's Kentucky Derby supper a winner for Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry

No matter what horse won the Kentucky Derby, everyone who attended Industry Denver's benefit for Colorado Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry campaign on Saturday came out a winner. The event included a three-course, Kentucky-style supper and paired cocktails, prepared by Matt Selby of Corner House, ... More >>

Five @ Five, Earth Day and more on the calendar this week

It's the sixth anniversary of the Denver Five -- a collaborative dining project from some of Denver's most reputable chefs. And the crew is celebrating tonight with a Five @ Five dinner featuring five paired courses from Matt Selby, Sean Yontz, Ian Kleinman, Kevin Morrison and Jorel Pierce. The loca ... More >>

The new crew of FIVE chefs hosts their first dinner at El Diablo on Monday

Matt Selby (Corner House), Kevin Morrison (Pinche Taqueria), Jorel Pierce (Euclid Hall) and Ian Kleinman (The Inventing Room) will congregate in the kitchen of Sean Yontz, exec chef of El Diablo, on Monday, April 22, for the first FIVE dinner showcasing the new crop of chefs that comprise Leigh Sull ... More >>

In memoriam: Curtis Caldwell, sous chef at Vesta Dipping Grill, passes away

Beloved Curtis Caldwell - my belief is that your radiant soul is making its journey to the next life and when you get there it will be the most vibrant place with more colors than you can ever imagine even exist. And of course, hundreds and hundreds of hoola hoops in all shapes and colors. I have lo ... More >>

Trends without end: Dining insiders offer predictions for 2013

Photos: Park House a true neighborhood tavern on East Colfax

The old house at 1515 Madison Street has gone through several incarnations since it was the elegant Normandy, a French restaurant run by Pierre Wolfe. Among other ventures, it housed both PS 1515 and the Pink Elephant -- where cops busted burlesque dancers. Recently, there were plans to open a place ... More >>

Beau Simmons, exec chef of Jonesy's, to Matt Selby: "Chef, you need a dishwasher?"

Beau Simmons Jonesy's EatBar 400 East 20th Avenue 303-863-7473 www.jeatbar.com Part one of my interview with Beau Simmons, exec chef of Jonesy's EatBar, ran yesterday; below is part two of our chat. Favorite restaurant in America: Longman & Eagle in Chicago, whose motto is "Eat, Sleep, Whiskey." T ... More >>

Vesta Dipping Grill owner Josh Wolkon reflects on fifteen years of success

His long, lanky body clad in a T-shirt, knee-length shorts and Converse tennis shoes, Josh Wolkon slips into a booth at Steuben's, orders a Pimms cocktail and stretches his arms. The last few months have been a whirlwind for the owner of Steuben's, which he unleashed in Uptown in 2007. Next month, h ... More >>

Big names on the menu for tonight's Hot Rocks Griller Challenge at Elway's

The fourth annual Hot Rocks Griller Challenge heats up this evening at Elway's Cherry Creek, 2500 East First Avenue. The party, which runs from 6 to 9 p.m., pits fifteen of Denver's top chefs against each other in a friendly competition benefiting the Denver Health Foundation.

Denver Restaurant Week, cheese classes in this week's culinary calendar

​Denver Restaurant Week began this past Saturday (prompting some words of wisdom from Matt Selby, chef of Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben's) and continues through Friday, March 9. Participating restaurants are offering prix-fixe meals for $52.80 per couple or $26.40 per individual. Visit the w ... More >>

Six kick-ass Denver chefs, a stellar mixologist and one meaty sausage slinger: Foodography from the James Beard House dinner in New York

Lori MidsonTop from left to right: Tyler Wiard, Matt Selby, Bryan Dayton and Paul Reilly. Bottom from left to right: Mark DeNittis, Brandon Biederman, Jamey Fader and Enrique Socarras​When six Denver chefs, one bartender and, for good measure, a muscled and tatted sausage emperor all trotted ... More >>

Steuben's and Vesta Dipping Grill owners will build a new restaurant and ping pong hall in the old Storz Garage space

The future home of the next concept from the people behind Steuben's and Vesta.​Fifteen years ago, Josh Wolkon and his wife, Jen, opened Vesta Dipping Grill in a cavernous space in LoDo, and they've packed in crowds ever since. Those crowds followed them and Matt Selby over to Steuben's, the g ... More >>

Tonight: El Diablo hosts Hacienda de Chihuahua dinner with guest chefs Matt Selby and Brandon Biederman and cocktail kings Randy and Ryan Layman

Lori Midson​If you're looking to have a devilishly good time tonight, make plans to attend the Sotol Hacienda de Chihuahua dinner at El Diablo, the rollicking Mexican cantina in the Baker 'hood, whose kitchen extols the virtues of exec chef Sean Yontz. Tonight though, Yontz is sharing his k ... More >>

Culinary calendar for the week ahead: Wine dinners, beer and yoga, and more

​In addition to a number of restaurant openings, this week is packed with wine dinners, anniversary celebrations and much more; here's a taste of what's on the culinary menu.

Eli Odell, exec chef of Highland Tap and Burger, on what he learned from Matt Selby, and what might happen if you wear chile-pepper pants in his kitchen

Lori Midson​Eli Odell Highland Tap and Burger 2219 West 32nd Avenue 720-287-4493 www.highlandtapdenver.com This is part one of Lori Midson's interview with Eli Odell, executive chef of Highland Tap and Burger. Read part two of that interview, in which Odell dishes on hammering eighty pounds o ... More >>

Deck the shelves with boughs of cookbooks: Local chefs sound off on their favorite culinary reads

Lori Midson​Ah, Christmas: The season of giving, receiving, in-law spats, road range, parking lot clusterfucks, check-out line massacres and cookbooks and food books -- the ones that you hope will end up wrapped under the tree, right alongside the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Over the course of the ... More >>

Food porn from last night's Celebrity Chef Tour powwow at Osteria Marco

Lori Midson​"Believe it or not, it's been pretty calm today," said Frank Bonanno, standing in the kitchen of Osteria Marco, the turf for last night's Celebrity Chef Tour dinner, a gathering of five Denver chefs -- Bonanno, Alex Seidel (Fruition and Frution Farms), Eric Skokan (Black Cat and Bl ... More >>

Tonight: Celebrity Chef Tour at Osteria Marco

​Tonight Osteria Marco, 1453 Larimer Street, will host the Celebrity Chef Tour, a benefit for the James Beard Foundation that features a dinner prepared by Michael Ginor from Hudson Valley Foie Gras and Denver heavyweight chefs Frank Bonanno, Matt Selby, Alex Seidel and Eric Skokan (read Eric ... More >>

Tickets go on sale today for the Denver Celebrity Chef Tour -- and the lineup is stellar

Lori Midson​Tickets go on sale today for the Denver Celebrity Chef Tour, a star-studded squad of kitchen sorcerers, including Matt Selby (Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben's); Alex Seidel (Fruition and Fruition Farms); Eric Skokan (Black Cat, Boulder); and Michael Ginor, the co-founder and chef ... More >>

Tonight: An Evening of Decadent Delights at Lola

A Flickr photo​Some of Denver's top chefs are participating in tonight's aptly named Evening of Decadent Delights at Lola, 1575 Boulder Street. Alex Seidel (Fruition) will create the passed hors d'ouevre; Sean Yontz (El Diablo) is tapped for the appetizer course; Goose Sorensen (Solera) will w ... More >>

Brandon Foster tapped as new executive chef of Vesta Dipping Grill

Lori Midson Brandon Foster, tapped as the new executive chef at Vesta Dipping Grill​Late last month, Wade Kirwan, an eleven-year veteran of Vesta Dipping Grill, 1822 Blake Street, made the difficult decision to pull himself off the line. Kirwan, who had spent the last five years as the executi ... More >>

The Denver Five are passing the torch to five new chefs

From left to right: Matt Selby, Tyler Wiard, Troy Guard, Jamey Fader and Brian Laird​In 2003, Leigh Sullivan was questioning what a lot of us in Denver ponder when discussing the Denver dining climate. Why, she wondered, is everyone focusing on the restaurants and chefs in San Francisco, Chica ... More >>

Oysters, rabbit baloney, gazpacho and duck confit ravioli: Porn from last night's Share Our Strength food orgy

Lori Midson The team from TAG​More than 400 people ate and drank themselves into oblivion last night at Mile High Station, the venue for Denver's annual Share Our Strength benefit, which raises funds to wipe out childhood hunger both locally and across the country. "It was a really great ni ... More >>

Sunday's Taste of the Nation event at Mile High Station hottest ticket in town

Lori Midson ​If you attend only one food-centric soiree this summer, make it Sunday's Share Our Strength Taste of the Nation event, where 30 of Denver's top restaurants, including Vesta Dipping Grill, TAG, Argyll, Black Pearl, Elway's Cherry Creek, Duo, Solera, Table 6, Venue, Opus and Marco' ... More >>

Food Ink: "Luxurious MoFo" and Project Angel Heart chef Jon Emanuel shows off his sodium atom body of art

Lori Midson Jon Emanuel is tatted, hairy and proud​As part of an upcoming photo essay project spotlighting Denver restaurant pros whose tatts are as prevalent as their dissections, burns, blisters, knife slashes and stabs, we promised that we'd post some of the best ink on the Cafe Society bl ... More >>

Crazy-good food under a tequila haze: Denver FIVE dinner at Lola

Lori Midson The tequila runneth over last night at Lola​At last night's Denver FIVE dinner at Lola, 1575 Boulder Street, Jamey Fader, culinary director of Big Red F Restaurant Group, the empire that oversees Lola, had this to say about his partners in cooking: "There are great things going on ... More >>

Food Ink: Patrick Horvat from Marczyk Fine Foods salutes French food king Escoffier

Lori Midson Salute to Escoffier​ As part of an upcoming photo essay project spotlighting Denver restaurant pros whose tatts are as prevalent as their dissections, burns, blisters, knife slashes and stabs, we promised that we'd post some of the best ink on the Cafe Society blog.

TAG, Elway's and the Denver FIVE, or, thanks to a tenacious PR type, just FIVE™

From left to right: Matt Selby, Tyler Wiard, Troy Guard, Jamey Fader and Brian Laird ​Earlier this week, Tyler Wiard (Elway's Cherry Creek), Jamey Fader (culinary director of Big Red F Restaurant Group), Matt Selby (Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben's) and Brian Laird (Barolo Grill) all convene ... More >>

Tonight: Lola hosts a blowout benefit for Dos Casas

​Lola, 1575 Boulder Street, has pulled out all the stops for tonight's Dos Casas fundraising event, which offers three options: a five-course dinner at 6:30 p.m., paired with wine, for $75; the dinner plus exclusive patio seating and a chef meet-and-greet for $125; or an after-hours party star ... More >>

Cafe Society: Week in review

Lori Midson Mussels from Argyll Gastropub​What you may have missed this week on Cafe Society while bickering over whether Argyll, Colt & Gray, Olivea or TAG should have walked away with the Best New Restaurant award in this year's Best of Denver 2010 (Argyll, if you didn't already know, won th ... More >>

The Benefits of Fine Dining

Let the Games Begin

Behind the Bar with Leigh Jones of Jonesy's EatBar

Nancy LevineLeigh Jones, behind the bar at Jonesy's EatBar.​Leigh Jones, the woman behind Jonesy's EatBar and the Horseshoe Lounge (with partner Margaret Moore), was also the co-owner and designer of the Dish, B-52 Billiards, Brasserie Rouge, Atomic Cowboy and Buffalo Billiards in Nashville an ... More >>

Tonight: The Denver Five dish it out at D Bar Desserts

​ The Denver Five, a platoon of five local chefs who cooked together earlier this year at the James Beard House in New York City, and then decided that they'd like to cook with one another -- yet again -- in each other's hometown restaurant kitchens, gathered at Lola two weeks ago for the firs ... More >>

Still alive after the first Denver Five

Nancy LevineJimmy Zanon's watermelon/chile margarita​ Last night I attended the first of a quintet of dinners coming from the Denver Five, the merry band of chefs who've represented Denver so ably by cooking at the renowned James Beard House in New York City the last two years. The group consists ... More >>

Tonight at Lola: The Denver Five roll out the first of five dinners

Denver Five chefs​ Keegan Gerhard (D Bar Desserts), Troy Guard (TAG), Tyler Wiard (Elway's in Cherry Creek) and Matt Selby (Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben's) will join host chef Jamey Fader at Lola, 1575 Boulder Street, tonight at 6 p.m., when all five chefs will convene in Fader's home kitc ... 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 >>

Jonesy's EatBar staff bears their cleavage for a good cause

See more of Lori Midson's photos at westword.com/slideshow. While I didn't buy the shirt straight off the bartender's back at last night's feel-good Share Our Strength-Taste of the Nation fundraiser at Jonesy's EatBar, the rowdy (in all the good ways) gastropub at 400 East 20th Avenue, I did purch ... More >>

Dos Casas at Lola tonight

Tonight's Dos Casas, a benefit for Brent's Place, will bring seven of the town's best chefs - Jamey Fader of Big Red F, Sheila Lucero of Jax Fish House Denver, Matt Selby of Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben's, Tyler Wiard of Elway's in Cherry Creek, Goose Sorenson of Solera, Sean Yontz of Mezcal and ... More >>

Chefs go up front today for Operation Frontline

Chefs Up Front, a benefit for Share Our Strength's Operation Frontline, brings twenty top chefs to the Colorado Convention Center at 5:30 p.m. today, March 15. The participating restaurant/chef combos include Andrew Lubatty of Avenue Grill, Pete List of Beatrice & Woodsley, Sean Huggard of Black Pea ... More >>

Casa, Sweet Casa

Lola's Jamey Fader gets creative with dining.

Next!

Sushi Den is a big fish in the Denver pond.

Food for Thought

Road food brakes for the Denver Public Library.

Road Warriors

The owners of Steuben's have region to believe.

Vesta Dipping Grill

What a concept!

Food, Glorious Food

Denver chefs take a bite of the Big Apple.

Best Dinner Destination for a Third Date

Vesta Dipping Grill

Twelve-Stepping

Here's my prescription for starting the year in fine style.

It's My Party

And I'll dine if I want to.

Bite Me

Full of Beans