Subject: Sean Yontz

• Oceanaire A Cool Breeze

  October 8, 2007

• Oceanaire A Cool Breeze

  October 8, 2007

• Mezcal fifth anniversary party, day one

  Mezcal kicked off its fifth anniversary celebration last night, a five-day affair full of five-buck deals through December 20: five-hour happy hours, five tacos for $5, five tamales for $5, tequila shots and coin-style margaritas for five bucks. (BTW, we'd pay five times that for a plate of the barbecued lamb ribs, a delicacy that Sean Yontz perfected at Tambien's Sunday barbecues this summer.) Even without a fifth birthday to celebrate, Mezcal is looking plenty festive, decked

  December 17, 2008

• Business as Usual

  February 3, 2000

• The Bite

  April 19, 2001

• French Twist

  May 31, 2001

• The Bite

  August 2, 2001

• Kitchen Magicians

  August 30, 2001

• The Bite

  March 7, 2002

• Bite Me

  September 19, 2002

• Bite Me

  February 13, 2003

• Bite Me

  March 6, 2003

• Best Tamales

  March 27, 2003

• Bite Me

  April 10, 2003

• Bite Me

  September 25, 2003

• The Answer Man

  August 5, 2004

• Bite Me

  September 23, 2004

• The Dead Pool

  January 6, 2005

• Best Taco

  March 24, 2005

• A quick sketch of Sketch

  I stopped by Sketch last night, the new wine bar in Jesse Morreale's project at the old First Avenue Hotel at First and Broadway. Technically, it doesn't officially debut until March 20 (and from then on, will be open from 4 p.m. - 2 a.m. seven days a week), but as people wandering around this increasingly hot neighborhood happened in the door (directly across the street from Big Lots!), the staffers, led by Charlie Master (formerly of Brix and the Masters family empire), were happy to serve the

  March 17, 2009

• Candy Girls: Amarena Cherries and El Rey Chocolate at Sketch

  Photo by Liz KellermeyerWe'll admit it: Big Lots on Broadway has been a go-to spot for Candy Girl "treasures" in the past, so we have a fondness for that bit of real estate. But we were in for a completely different kind of treat when we were invited to taste test the Amarena cherries and Venezuelan El Rey chocolate at the Sketch wine bar, directly across from the closeout retailer.   Sketch, which opened to the public on March 20th, occupies a sparse but meticulously designed space. T

  April 3, 2009

• White Sangria at Sketch

  April 23, 2009

• It's Time

  The little things will get you every time.

  December 20, 2007

• Gone Fishin'

  Suddenly, Denver’s swimming in seafood restaurants.

  October 11, 2007

• King Kevin

  Kevin Taylor steps into the Limelight.

  September 20, 2007

• Chama

  And the runner-up is…

  April 5, 2007

• The Year That Was

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

  December 28, 2006

• Booty Call

  Late at night, Sketch looks awfully good.

  August 24, 2006

• Let's Do Some Crimes

  Repo men on the slowest chase since O.J.

  June 29, 2006

• It's a Mall World

  Denver's strip-mall restaurants explore new territories.

  May 25, 2006

• Dirty Love

  With Chama, Sean Yontz comes out on top.

  March 30, 2006

• Mex and Match

  Will the real Lola please stand up?

  November 24, 2005

• Bite Me

  Bake Off

  August 25, 2005

• Bite Me

  Final Answers

  May 27, 2004

• Season's Eatings

  Cooking up the perfect holiday party to cap off the year.

  December 25, 2003

• A Room of One's Own

  At Vega, Sean Yontz is finally The Man. He's up to the job.

  April 10, 2003

• Things Are Looking Up

  Tamayo takes diners on a first-class mouth-of-the-border tour.

  August 30, 2001

• Partake in tonight's Plates for the Peak at Vesta Dipping Grill

  One of the best food events of the year, Plates for the Peak, a small plates fundraiser and silent auction to benefit Urban Peak, a non-profit that saves kids from the jaws of homelessness, returns for a sixth year to Vesta Dipping Grill, 1822 Blake Street, tonight from 6 to 10 p.m. The star-studded cast includes some of Denver's best chefs, including Vesta exec Matt Selby, Jamey Fader (Lola); Tyler Wiard (Elway's); James Rugile (Venue); Keegan Gerhard (D Bar Desserts); Goose Sorensen (Sole

  June 15, 2009

• Simple things at Sketch Food and Wine

  Sean Yontz will be pleased to meat you at SketchI was several whiskeys to the good on a recent school night when I found myself propped up against Sketch's salumi bar, canting sharply like a ship taking on water.  I asked for the menu, gave it a cursory glance, then pushed it back across the dark, polished wood, slapped a palm on top and pronounced, "I'll take everything."If only every meal could start that way. If only every meal could be constructed of nothing more than the best parts of

  June 30, 2009

• Sketch has a simple premise that leaves no room for mistakes

  July 2, 2009

• Taste of the Nation is hottest ticket in town

  Photo by Lori MidsonSean Yontz and Matt Selby One of Denver's best annual culinary celebrations comes down on Sunday, July 19, at Mile High Station (2027 West Lower Colfax Avenue), this site of this year's Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation, a fantastic food-centric event that raises funds to eradicate childhood hunger in Denver and across America. Denver's top cookers -- Matt Selby (Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben's), Mark Dym (Marco's Coal-Fired Pizzeria), Sean Yontz (Mezcal), Keegan

  July 17, 2009

• Last weekend for rockabilly, brews and Mexican barbecue at Tambien

  ​For proof that summer's scorch is coming to a screeching halt, all you have to do is look to Tambien, the Cherry Creek Mex in the city at 250 Steele Street that's been turning out rockabilly and ribs to the faithful every Sunday since April 26. This was one of our favorite Sunday excuses to lap up the sunshine and pound Tecates on the patio, dance our booties off to some terrific fifties rockabilly and stuff ourselves like sumo wrestlers on chipotle barbecue spare ribs, barbacoa, carne

  September 11, 2009

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

  Sean Yontz​"Hey, get up, I have something to show you," instructs Sean Yontz as he strides into Sketch, one of the five venues he oversees with business partner Jesse Morreale. And their mini-empire will soon expand to a half-dozen, because Yontz, it turns out, is booting me off my stool to show me his newest restaurant space, a 350-seater (give or take) at the corner of First and Broadway, right around the corner from Sketch. "I like doing the whole neighborhood thing, and I want to do

  October 7, 2009

• No Big Lots skewer for Sketch

  ​Sketch has a limited menu, but as Jason Sheehan noted in his review, what Jesse Morreale and Sean Yontz (the subject of this week's Chef and Tell) are serving there is choice. Still, when the place opened in March, we couldn't resist suggesting that -- in addition to the exotic cheeses, meats, nuts and Amarena cherries and El Rey Chocolate -- Sketch offer a skewer of the day, featuring random food items on sale at the Big Lots right across First Avenue. Sadly, the Big Lots Skewer suggest

  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

• Cafe Society: Week in review

  ​What you might have missed this week on Cafe Society while checking out Jason Sheehan's top ten places on 17th Avenue to swell your belly. Lori Midson got a sneak peak of Sean Yontz's new restaurant space during a sit-down with the Sketch, Mezcal and Tambien executive chef, who's also the subject of this week's Chef and Tell interview. We discussed bars, bars and more bars, including ten TV bars where we'd like to hang with friends and get drunk, drunker and drunkest and dive bars, sp

  October 9, 2009

• Special dinner at Mezcal featuring food, booze, cameras -- and me in the kitchen

  ​ It has been a long time since I stood a shift in any kitchen. By my own (admittedly poor) accounting, it has been 2,650 days since I last picked up a knife, pulled on my whites or stood before a stove in any sort of professional capacity. I've missed it, sure. I loved the time I spent cooking and still consider the nights I spent with a knife in my hand to be some of the best of my life. But I never missed it quite enough to ever consider, you know... going back. Until now, that is. O

  October 14, 2009

• TV or not TV? Sheehan helps cook up a tequila dinner at Mezcal

  ​ Last week, I told you about my impending attempt at doing TV and speculated about the potential disasters inherent in anyone allowing me to set foot in their kitchen again after years spent behind a desk. What's more, I mentioned that anyone who was interested was welcome to come down to Mezcal on the night of the filming (October 23) to watch me crash and burn with their own eyes -- because that's just the kind of inclusive and self-deprecating motherfucker I am. And contrary to what a

  October 19, 2009

• My dinner at Mezcal: the aftermath

  ​ Those of you watching the Cafewestword twitter feed over the weekend already know that I survived my night "cooking" at Mezcal without any serious difficulties. Nothing got burned down, no one got punched and, by the time we were done, we'd managed to serve several turns of the dining room plus a thirty-odd (some very odd) cover Herradura tequila dinner with no serious upsets. And by "we," of course, I mean everyone else at Mezcal but me. I was there. I had a knife in my hand for at le

  October 26, 2009

• Plan ahead: Holiday mezcal dinner at Tambien

  Holiday mezcal menu at Tambien​"Instead of doing a mezcal-tequila tasting like we normally do, we came up with some killer cocktails to pair with each course," says Sean Yontz, executive chef of Tambien (250 Steele Street), the gathering quarters for tomorrow night's multi-course holiday mezcal dinner. The fact that Yontz is serving mole de caderas -- roasted goat -- is reason enough to cancel whatever plans you already have in place. Seriously, when Yontz does mole - mole with goat, for

  November 19, 2009