When he was younger, Joshua Bitz hung out in the local music scene and even played a few gigs at the Meadowlark. I never heard him perform, so I don’t know if his punk bands were “pretty crappy,” as he says, or if he’s just being modest. But I’ve eaten…
The name Fractured Prune tells us two things. First, inside jokes don’t travel well. Because as many times as the company tells its tale about Prunella Shriek, the athlete who had a knack for injuring herself playing “men’s” sports, it still sounds more like a joke than anything else. Second,…
Like the rest of town, Cherry Creek is in the midst of a growth spurt, as steel supports etch the sky, giving structure to the mid-rises that are changing this part of the skyline. After a multi-year lull in which attention turned elsewhere, restaurateurs are once again moving into the…
I enjoy talking to servers. Not because I like chitchat, but because you can tell a lot about a place by how well its staff is trained. Are servers well-informed and confident, able to answer questions with ease, or do they need to run back and forth to the kitchen?…
The last time a man looked at me and said the word “destiny,” it was part of a bad pickup line. My server at Block & Larder used the word to much better effect. Noticing my furrowed brow as I pondered pages of whiskeys, tequilas and beers at this four-month-old…
When I go on vacation, I’m as much of a food tourist as I am a sightseer. So before a recent trip to Scandinavia, I scoured everything I could get my hands on for traditional Swedish, Norwegian and Danish dishes, and mapped out bakeries and restaurants where I could find…
So there I was, sharing a meal with my husband that shouldn’t have been romantic, given how packed and loud it was at D Bar Denver, an updated version of D Bar Desserts that opened in a new Uptown location this fall after an eight-month closure. But the place was…
You never know where you’re going to find good food these days. It could be in a food truck. It could be in a converted shipping container, or a train station, or a strip mall. So I didn’t bat an eyelash when I pulled up in front of Will Call,…
The Best New Restaurant is an award that recognizes achievement, but it’s also a title that carries expectations and responsibilities. So we do not take choosing the winner lightly, especially in a year that saw more than 300 new bars and restaurants, any number of which could’ve nabbed the top…
It’s almost time to open the proverbial envelopes. With our annual Best of Denver issue just a few days away, we’re pausing to remember past Best New Restaurant winners. These are the places that have shaped Denver’s food scene over the past decade, places that did what restaurants set out…
As we count down to next week’s release of our annual Best of Denver issue — our 32nd edition! — we thought it would be fun to dip into the archives to see what’s become of past winners in one of our most prestigious categories: Best New Restaurant. After all,…
It had been years since I’d had a full meal at Table 6. I’d met family there for appetizers, had even popped in for a glass of wine and tater tots on my way home from work, using the low-key communal bar to ease the transition from a solitary day…
In hindsight, evolution is a cool thing. In real time, however, it’s more awkward than cool. A recent video at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science captured this gangly side, showing whales morphing from land animals to sea creatures. Just imagine how that early whale felt as its strong…
There’s a certain glamor in living your dream. But that wears off quickly when your dream is owning a restaurant and you’re starting up on a shoestring. Just ask Dave Kilroy, owner of Kitchen Table Café. “My January and February were just horrific,” he says, thinking back to a year…
Yelp is a tool that users love, business owners hate, and the rest of us tolerate. I generally ignore Yelp; as a professional critic, I need to concentrate on my own opinions. But that changed last month, when Yelp released its list of the Top 100 Places to Eat in…
Next time you open a bottle of wine, you might want to hold onto that cork. According to Brian Laird, chef/co-owner of Sarto’s, the new restaurant in Jefferson Park that I review this week, the little plug that most of us unceremoniously throw out holds the key to tender octopus…
Brian Laird spent so many years running a high-end Italian kitchen, he got good at explaining why spaghetti and meatballs wasn’t on the menu. Today Laird co-owns Sarto’s, an Italian eatery that he opened with Taylor and Kajsa Swallow in Jefferson Park last fall, and he now finds himself explaining…
Many years ago, with the gusto of the newly-converted and a copy of Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in hand, I decided to follow the 100-mile diet. I joined a winter farm share, stopped buying oranges and bananas, and tried to build meals out of the fruits and vegetables we’d…
Success can sometimes be a stumbling block. It sounds paradoxical, but you see it on the basketball court all the time. A team fights to get ahead, then slows down its game to protect the lead. Fear creeps in, and instead of playing to win, the team starts playing to…
Other than the inevitable wait for a table, there’s a lot to love at The Post Brewing Company, which I review this week. The chicken, both fried and rotisserie, is terrific. Sides and desserts are no slouch either, and beer, crafted by nationally-recognized brewer Bryan Selders, is a draw in…
I’m not the cursing type, but when the hostess at The Post Brewing Company told us it would be 45 minutes before two seats opened up, even at one of the four long community counters, a bleep-worthy word raced through…
Not all steaks need sauce. But some do: Filets, for example, often benefit from the added flavor. And even if a steak doesn’t need a pick-me-up, sometimes you want one anyway — just because. That’s why Butcher’s Bistro, which I just reviewed, took a step in the right direction when…
