Judging from the look of his restaurant, you’d never guess what line of work Christian Saber was in before he became a chef. Rincon Argentino, a fast-casual joint that he opened in Boulder a year ago, is an unpretentious little spot, with postcards and pictures that he and his wife…
It was the mountains that first lured Christian Saber, chef-owner of Boulder’s Rincon Argentino, to Colorado from his home in Buenos Aires. But after two seasons working on the slopes and in restaurants in Breckenridge, he realized that he’d fallen in love with more than Colorado powder. His future wife,…
Vesper Lounge, which I review this week, reminds me of that AT&T commercial with the little girl competing for cutest kid. It’s not that the bar Bonanno Concepts put in the former home of the divey Lancer Lounge is competing to be cutest bar (far from it). But as the…
When people find out what I do for a living, they get nervous about inviting me over for dinner. I do my best to reassure them; after all, it’s not like I’m going to take notes and send out a critique of their chicken. If they still don’t believe me,…
Last fall, the Lancer Lounge suddenly stopped pouring when it was seized by the State of Colorado. In Monopoly terms, this rundown dive bar on East Seventh Avenue was no Boardwalk, but to Frank Bonanno, it was as valuable as one of those highly-frequented reds (Illinois Avenue, perhaps?), given its…
twelve, which I review this week, will be celebrating its fifth anniversary next week with a major bash. I reached out to several of the chefs who will be contributing to the six-course feast to ask for their thoughts on what Jeff Osaka, chef/owner of twelve, means to the culinary…
In marriage, the fifth anniversary isn’t insignificant — every year together is cause for celebration — but it doesn’t have the ring of the twenty-fifth or fiftieth, which are such admirable achievements that they call for gifts of silver and gold, not the pizzazz-less wood traditionally swapped half a decade…
Twelve, Jeff Osaka’s intimate eatery with a menu that changes twelve times a year (hence the name), almost didn’t happen. The Los Angeles native had been looking at spaces for a Denver restaurant for years when 2233 Larimer Street became available, and he wasn’t the only party to show interest…
I wasn’t expecting to find one of the year’s most memorable dishes when I walked into Harman’s eat & drink. My mind was on the location’s earlier misfires, thinking about how this summer, the restaurant had morphed in the blink of an eye from Mark Fischer’s misunderstood Phat Thai to…
When Mark Fischer’s Phat Thai closed this summer and opened a few weeks later as Harman’s eat & drink, people wondered whether the identity change would be enough, given the location of the restaurant. Cherry Creek isn’t Highland, after all, or even South Pearl Street. But executive chef John Little,…
Wonder how a nice Southern boy like Brian Crow ended up in Denver at the evil-sounding Devil’s Food Bakery & Cookery? “We needed to spread our wings,” explains Crow, who moved here from Asheville, North Carolina, two years ago with his fiancée, Megan. “We looked at Chicago and Portland as…
Last winter, when it was dark by 5 p.m. and I really missed summer, I longed for two things: panzanella, which I make every Sunday during tomato season with red, yellow and green tomatoes from the farmers’ market, and the gloriously simple burrata-peach bruschetta from the Kitchen Denver. Both epitomize…
The sixth of seven children, Brian Crow says his mom spent a lot of time in the kitchen, and he spent a lot of time in there with her. “I was just real curious about my mom’s cooking at an early age,” he says, laughing as he recounts the time…
Mock meat, the kind stir-fried with carrots and green peppers at Sunny Gardens, which I review this week, doesn’t just come from Taiwan. Whole Foods sells a chicken look-alike from Beyond Meat, both packaged and in the vegan hot bar. Curious, I took a look at the package of lightly…
Colin Mallet, executive chef at Sassafras American Eatery, thinks Sunny Gardens is Denver’s most underrated restaurant. It’s so underrated that I’d never even heard of it. I Googled the name, found a Sunny Gardens — then checked to see if I’d read Mallet’s Chef and Tell answer wrong, because this…
Sunny Gardens, tucked away in a strip mall on East Yale Avenue, looks like a typical neighborhood Chinese restaurant — until you open up the menu. Because there, tucked between the usual listings for fried rice, egg foo young and lo mein, is a lengthy vegetarian section, offering dishes made…
Ian Clark, founder of BRU handbuilt ales & eats, is one smart man. Not because he’s been successful in a business where it’s notoriously hard to succeed, but because he knows how to get brownie points where they matter most: with the in-laws. See also: Review of BRU handbuilt ales…
Ian Clark is a man of many hobbies. But what sets him apart from the rest of us is his ability to turn his hobbies into a career, not just a drain on discretionary income. A veteran chef (hobby #1), Clark turned an interest in home brewing (hobby #2) into…
Some people sit on the beach and drink beer. Others sit on the beach, drink beer and make life plans that will leave no time for beaches — but plenty of time for beer. Ian Clark is definitely the latter kind of guy. “I had a goal of, by thirty,…
Dan Landes, owner of WaterCourse Foods (which I review this week) has brewed his share of beer over the years — so to him, beer and vegetarian food have always gone together. But he’s excited to see that the craft-brewing industry is starting to agree. “Maybe when I started, a…
I knew the day would come when my dining companions would balk at the food set before them, food I’d asked them to order so that I could kick the kitchen’s tires and peer under the hood. I just didn’t expect it to happen this particular day. Not with an…
When Dan Landes opened WaterCourse Foods in 1998, people assumed vegetarian cooking revolved around two ingredients: tofu and portobello mushrooms. Thankfully, options have broadened significantly since then, not simply at WaterCourse, where the menu is today is not just vegetarian but often gluten-free or vegan, but in general. See also:…
