Olav Peterson

Denver's five best patios to celebrate the arrival of spring (despite the snow)

The crew at Crimson & Gold, a bar near the University of Denver, apparently didn't venture outside yesterday, because while Denver's finest meteorologists had it all wrong when they predicted that the city would be snowballed by Snowzilla-Snowmageddon-Snowpocalypse, it was definitely not "patio weat ... More >>

Adelitas Cocina taking over former home of Bistro One and 3 Monkeys

The space at 1294 South Broadway that had been Bistro One, then 3 Monkeys Cantina, is about to be transformed again, this time into Adelitas Cocina y Cantina, which will specialize in traditional Mexican fare from the state of Michoacan. See also: - 3 Monkeys Cantina closes on South Broadway - 3 Mo ... More >>

Cookbooks that first inspired local chefs -- and what they turn to today

The ramen dishes at Uncle, which I review this week, are so good that it's worth braving the wait to get a seat at Tommy Lee's restaurant in Highland. But Lee's first foray into noodles wasn't Japanese, but Italian. "The first cookbook I got into was Mario Batali's," shares Lee, who says he didn't h ... More >>

Reader: I hope the Bittersweet deal brings a lot of business -- the restaurant deserves it

Olav Peterson is introducing a new deal at Bittersweet tonight: a three-course, prix-fixe dinner, paired with wines, for $40 -- and only available on non-holiday Thursdays. "As our way of thanking our supporters, we want to focus on giving back to our guests, and one way to do that is by launching a ... More >>

Bittersweet introduces $40 tasting menu, paired with wines

Beginning tomorrow night, Bittersweet, Olav Peterson's garden-to-table restaurant in Washington Park, will offer a swell deal to guests who want a big bang for their buck: Peterson is offering a three-course, prix-fixe dinner, paired with wines, for a mere $40. See also: - The only thing bitterswe ... More >>

Ten restaurants that will bowl you over with New Orleans fare on Super Bowl weekend

Super Bowl Sunday is this weekend, which means everyone will be turning their attention to New Orleans, where the annual championship game will be played. If you weren't able to make it to the Big Easy, it's still easy to get your Cajun food fix right here in Denver at one of these traditional (and ... More >>

Bittersweet celebrates its birthday with sweet deals this month

Bittersweet, 500 East Alameda Avenue, opened at the very end of 2010. And now owners Olav Peterson and Melissa Severson are celebrating two years in business by offering patrons a 20 percent discount on select menu items until January 10. Sweet! See also: -Reader: Bitter over Bittersweet's exclusio ... More >>

3 Monkeys Cantina closes on South Broadway

Four years ago, Alex Waters opened Bistro One with a lot of promises and Olav Peterson in the kitchen. But Peterson left two years ago to open his own restaurant, Bittersweet, and this spring Waters finally closed Bistro One. Then he quickly resurrected the space in May as 3 Monkeys Cantina -- a cas ... More >>

A culinary guide to the Taste of Colorado

Hungry? This weekend the 29th annual Taste of Colorado will fill Civic Center Park with over sixty vendors serving up eats, as well as daily chef demonstrations, food-eating contests and cooking competitions. It's one big taste of Denver's culinary scene. Here's a breakdown of the menu:

Cafe|Bar fills a comforting niche, with some surprises

Kelly Whitaker tends an urban garden at Pizzeria Basta

Pizzeria BastaThe garden at Pizzeria Basta, early in the season.​Kelly Whitaker, chef-owner of Boulder's Pizzeria Basta, spent every summer of his childhood on a farm -- and he hated it. "My grandfather was a farmer, and I spent every single summer on his farm, but I hated vegetables, and my f ... More >>

The Den Farm provides local produce to the Kizaki brothers' trio of Japanese restaurants

Adam LarkeyYasu Kizaki on the Den Farm.​Toshi and Yasu Kizaki have built a Japanese empire on South Pearl Street, expanding the success of Sushi Den into Izakaya Den and, last year, Ototo Food and Wine Bar. Because of the nature of sushi, they import a lot of their fish from Japan. But because ... More >>

Eric Skokan's seventy-acre Black Cat Farm began as a backyard garden

Kirsten BoyerEric Skokan in his root cellar.​Six years ago, while his Black Cat restaurant was under construction in Boulder, Eric Skokan and his wife, Jill, planted a garden in their back yard.

Foodography: Cafébar opens in Washington Park

Lori Midson​"It was just time for a change," insists Eric Rivera, the executive chef of Cafébar, a new modern American restaurant, owned by Dane Huguley, that unlocked its doors last week in Washington Park at 295 South Pennsylvania Street. Rivera, who was the opening chef of Lala's Wine Bar ... More >>

Bistro One's patio opens just in time to say so long to summer

​When it opened three years ago under chef Olav Peterson, Bistro One had more highbrow aspirations -- but under chef-owner Alex Waters and his wife, Diane, it's evolved into a neighborhood joint with a menu of French comfort food and a crowd of regulars who like to spend lazy evenings in the b ... More >>

Shhh! Secret menu items at Denver restaurants revealed: Bittersweet's gravlax

Lori Midson​Last week, we embarked on a mission to expose secret dishes that Denver restaurants don't divulge on their menus -- dishes that you have to specifically ask for if you want to be privy to the secret stash.

Bistro One to break ground on a hanging garden patio

Bistro One​After I ate at Bittersweet for this week's review, I stopped by chef-owner Olav Peterson's old stomping grounds, Bistro One, where owner Alex Waters has turned his three-year-old restaurant into a solid neighborhood joint with a menu full of Southern comfort food. And Bistro One is ... More >>

Bistro One has evolved into a better restaurant for its neighborhood

Food porn: Bittersweet

Mark MangerOlav Peterson plates halibut.​This week I review Bittersweet, Olav and Melissa Peterson's six-month-old restaurant that features a menu of artisanal, old world cuisine with a modern twist. I spent a particularly pleasant evening on the eatery's patio recently, surrounded by a kitche ... More >>

Review preview: Bittersweet

Mark Manger​I started to review Bittersweet three months ago. After dinner at the then-three-month-old restaurant, I learned from chef-owner Olav Peterson, who's hyper-focused on seasonality and fresh local ingredients, that he was about to change the menu. And not just make a few tweaks -- Pe ... More >>

Bittersweet rolls out its summer menu -- blooming with produce from its garden

Lori MidsonChef Olav Peterson rolls out a summer menu at Bittersweet.​Before Olav Peterson and his wife, Melissa, opened Bittersweet in an old remodeled gas station at the very end of December, they flanked the patios with massive planters. The plan was to grow their own produce and herbs. An ... More >>

Food lust from last night's Chefs Up Front Denver dinner

Lori MidsonLobster, enoki mushroom and tenderloin carpaccio hand roll from Jonesy's Eat Bar​Last night, Denver's who's who of chefs congregated at the Colorado Convention Center for Chef's Up Front Denver, a fundraiser that benefited Cooking Matters, a nonprofit that fights childhood hunger a ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes: New England clam chowder from Bitterweet

Lori Midson​ No. 72: New England clam chowder from Bittersweet Housed in a former auto body garage, Bittersweet, now a stone-stacked, high-ceilinged, two-room, garden-to-table food temple, is the blood, sweat and tears of chef/owner Olav Peterson, who opened in January after spending the pa ... More >>

Bittersweet opens just in time to beat the 2011 ball drop

Lori Midson​Bittersweet, Olav Peterson's new garden-to-table restaurant at 500 East Alameda Avenue, opened on New Year's Eve, after a series of unexpected construction delays that turned the dining room into an igloo, thanks to gale-force winds whipping through a light socket.

Despite construction obstructions, Bittersweet hopes to open by the end of the year

Lori Midson​ Considering the woes of the past week, Olav Peterson is in a much better mood than you might expect. The chef/owner of Bittersweet, which, after a series of soft openings, was originally slated to open last Saturday night (it didn't), and again tomorrow night (it won't), is frust ... More >>

Sneak peak food porn from Olav Peterson's Bittersweet, opening on Saturday

Lori Midson​Last night, a posse of local food scribes got a sneak peak of Bittersweet, Olav Peterson's new restaurant at 500 East Alameda Avenue, which will open to the public for dinner on Saturday. The garden-to-table, artisanal food temple, which Peterson oversees with his wife, Melissa ... More >>

Olav Peterson's new restaurant contest: We have a winner (and the address!)

Lori MidsonThe future site of Bittersweet, Olav Peterson's new restaurant​That was easy. Yesterday, we asked Cafe Society readers to guess the location of Olav Peterson's new restaurant, scheduled to open in early December, and the only clue we gave was in the form of a black-and-white photo ... More >>

Contest alert, round two: Win seats to the soft opening of Olav Peterson's new restaurant

​On Monday, we asked Cafe Society readers to guess the name of Olav Peterson's new restaurant, which is called Bittersweet. Reader Evan didn't waste much time coming up with the correct answer, and his prize is two seats to the Bittersweet soft opening dinner in December. Evan will be joined ... More >>

Contest alert: Win two seats to the soft opening of Olav Peterson's new restaurant

Olav Peterson​Last month, we reported that Olav Peterson, the ex-executive chef of Bistro One, 1294 South Broadway, had vacated his gig there to open a new restaurant, which we now know will be unmasked in early December. But before Peterson's new restaurant is unleashed to the public, he's ... More >>

Olav Peterson leaves Bistro One behind to start his own garden-to-table restaurant

Former Bistro One executive chef Olav Peterson will open his own restaurant later this year​After two years behind the burners of Bistro One, the French-American food temple at 1294 South Broadway, Olav Peterson is striking out on his own, retiring his whites from that kitchen to make way for ... More >>

Part two: Chef and Tell with Olav Peterson from Bistro One

​ This is part two of my interview with Olav Peterson, exec chef of Bistro One. To read part one, click here. Culinary inspirations: Whenever I go to Paris, I always come away with so many influences, whether it's from the art in the city or eating an iconic banana Nutella crepe off the stre ... More >>

Chef and Tell with Olav Peterson from Bistro One

​"I was fourteen, working at a French bakery in Castle Rock as a dishwasher, and near my dish station, there was a picture of a chef's kitchen in France...and there was something about that picture that always intrigued me and made me feel like it was my destiny to have my own professional kit ... More >>

Ask the Critic: The perils of blind e-mails

​I get a lot of e-mails from marketing people. A lot. Amid all the tales of bad service offered by people who demand that I tell their stories to the world and ads for discount Vicodin through the mail are pitches from boutique marketers blindly pimping their clients -- many of which are ba ... More >>

Bistro One to discontinue lunch...for now

Olav Peterson in the kitchen at Bistro OneThis just in from Olav Peterson at Bistro One (1294 South Broadway). Come May 15, Peterson and his crew at the award-winning neighborhood bistro will stop serving lunch. According to Peterson, this is just a temporary thing, something he's doing for the ... More >>

The List: On Broadway

Driving down Broadway to Bistro One (right), where chef Olav Peterson is whipping his kitchen into shape, I got to thinking about all the other good places that have popped up on this storied strip. Some of the best: 1) GB Fish and Chips, 1311 South Broadway.  Bikers and bums and Brits, oh my.& ... More >>

From Bistro One to Katie Mullen's, restaurants keep opening. And closing.

Getting in on the conversation at Bistro One

Mark Manger "Talk to me about your fish.""The monkfish?""Yeah..."I'm writing about Bistro One this week -- and this review's a little different.  For a change, it's all about the food.  More to the point, it's all about chef Olav Peterson and his menu and the things that go right and wron ... More >>

231 Milwaukee back on the market

When Bar Luxe opened three years ago, it was a sleek Cherry Creek bar, soon to be joined by Euro, a hip Cherry Creek restaurant helmed by Olav Peterson, formerly of Restaurant 1515. But Euro was gone by the end of 2007 (Peterson is now at Bistro One), and Bar Luxe finally gave up the ghost last year ... More >>

Goin' South

Duy Pham has a new restaurant -- in Pueblo, of all places.

On Broadway

June restaurants are busting out all over.

Hey, Rube!

Visit to a culinary tourist trap.

Holiday Rush

Restaurants unwrap a few surprises.

The Year That Was

From a goose chase to a great chase, 2006 was one wild ride.

Santa Baby...

Some culinary wishes and dishes for the new year.

1515 Restaurant

Tangs a lot

Shark Bite

From soup to nuts

Best Dinner Destination for Impressing a Date

1515

It's My Party

And I'll dine if I want to.

Man With a Plan

Gene Tang sets the stage for the real star at 1515: the food.

Best Over-the-Top Burger

1515