By the end of December, some 50,000 people will have descended on the Denver Performing Arts Complex to watch the Colorado Ballet’s Sugar Plum Fairy do her stuff. Even if you’re not one of them, there’s a good chance you’ll be drawn to the center this holiday season for one…
These days, it’s rare when a restaurant doesn’t source locally. But at the Squeaky Bean, which I recently reviewed, sourcing locally means more than knowing the farmer: it means being the farmer. And soon, it will mean paying the lessons forward, as the restaurant partners with Warren Tech Career and…
The Squeaky Bean 1500 Wynkoop Street 303-623-2665 If The Squeaky Bean were a person, it would be the kid making wisecracks in the back of the class, smart enough to ace the test without cracking open a book. It knows the rules but chooses to break them — first in…
Denver’s in the midst of a dining boom, but when it comes to choosing a restaurant for out-of-town parents or older guests, you might want to look past your new faves. That’s because trendy spots in RiNo, Union Station and the Source will likely elicit the same reaction that your…
Nothing riles up people like kids in restaurants. Even though I’m a parent, I’m sympathetic: I don’t want a nice meal ruined by a whiny child, either. But the solution isn’t to confine preschoolers to McDonald’s, then move on to pizza and burger joints when they age out of Happy…
Chop Shop Casual Urban Eatery 4990 East Colfax Avenue 720-550-7665 Meats are sizzling, tofu’s frying, pots are clanging: It’s game time, and the reality of a roomful of diners has hit Chop Shop hard. The chef has a word with someone on the line; she moves stations and the tempo…
Not long ago it almost seemed like chefs should wear lab coats, as science held sway in the kitchen. One particularly popular technique was sous vide, a process of cooking vacuum-sealed foods in controlled-temperature water baths. Clint Wangsnes became a fan, and when he left Zengo to open Chop Shop…
Happy hour takes the edge off, helping us unwind after a long day. But for people in the restaurant biz, happy hour isn’t so happy: It marks the beginning of a long shift to come. That’s why Cart-Driver, which I review this week, stays open late, with food and drink…
Cart-Driver 2500 Larimer Street 303-292-3553 The midterm elections may be a blip in the rearview mirror, but Denver remains a battleground. Only instead of politicians vying for voters, restaurateurs are fighting for guests. This is especially true in the pizza business, where the campaign remains as heated as the thousand-degree…
At dinner recently I was handed a sushi-style menu, with a list of items to check off by the piece. The restaurant wasn’t Japanese; it had simply adapted the format for its charcuterie and cheeses. We glanced at the long list and set it aside, not in the mood for…
It doesn’t take a late-night raid of leftover Halloween candy to make you feel like a kid again. At the District, which I review this week, you can relive your lunchbox days with a better peanut-butter-and-jelly than Mom ever packed. This Uptown eatery serves the sandwich beer-battered and fried, with…
The District 1320 East 17th Avenue 303-813-6688 I don’t live in the district that is home to The District, the historic area in Uptown that inspired the restaurant’s name. But I drive by often, so it’s been easy to keep tabs on the place. At the start of summer, I…
I’ve always thought that Cart-Driver, with its blistered Neapolitan-style pizzas and lightning-fast kitchen, would be a great lunch spot. Problem was, it wasn’t open for lunch. Starting today, however, that will change. At noon, the doors of this trendy little restaurant sandwiched into the shipping container next to Work &…
When people talk about eating seasonally, they’re usually referring to the harvest: butternut squash in the fall, asparagus in the spring, and so on. But at Stoic & Genuine,the hot new seafood restaurant in Union Station, seasonality refers to something different, something measured not in frost-free days but spawning, catch…
Stoic & Genuine 1701 Wynkoop Street Aside from the name, everything about Stoic & Genuine shouts seafood. In the raw bar, oysters and crab legs glisten on ice. Emerald-glass floats, salvaged from fishing nets, fill a case by the hostess stand. Light bounces off mirrored panels like moonlight on silvery…
Menus are changing faster than the leaves, as chefs update their offerings to reflect the season. But at Panzano, executive chef Elise Wiggins approaches her menu with more than just fall produce in mind. She’s also aware of the way autumn makes us feel. See also: Fall Has Arrived at…
This year, just as I’ve done for as long as my kids can remember, I joined a local farm share. Flush with produce for nearly five months, I made zucchini bread, seared green beans, melon aguas frescas, panzanella, turnip puree and fennel-and-orange salads, cooking my way from early summer to…
Kobe An Shabu Shabu 3400 Osage Street 303-284-6342 Somewhere along the line, cooking became a chore. For reasons best left to food historians and sociologists, the art of feeding ourselves has tumbled in popularity and now hovers just above taking out the trash on the list of most despised household…
Changes are afoot — er, make that afish — at Kobe An. This past weekend, the long-running Japanese restaurant served its last meal in Lakewood, shutting down prior to an upcoming move to Cherry Creek North early this winter. It’s taking over the former home of Cherry (and Bar Luxe,…
Food is every bit as trendy as the clothes we wear. In the ’80s, sundried tomatoes were fashionable. These days, menus are accented with guanciale, kombucha and pickled everything, from onions to chard stems. One ingredient that’s stayed away from the spotlight? Cornstarch. But that could change. See also: Behind…
The Noshery 4994 Lowell Boulevard 720-524-3893 Walking into The Noshery, a bakery and cafe that opened across the street from Regis University this summer, you’d never guess that owner Andrea Knight wanted to be a ski racer when she was a kid. Walls are the shade of blue associated with…
When I moved here ten years ago, I had a hard time finding a bakery-cafe like the one I used to spend weekends at back in New York. My husband and I would show up at our favorite spot on the Upper West Side and order baguettes with jam and…
