In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been missing from both these virtual pages and the actual dead-tree pages of Westword for the past couple of weeks. And while I’m sure that some of you out there in Hotcakesland have rejoiced in thinking that finally someone over here came to his…

Chile cannot kill you. I have been assured of that. No matter how much your dumb, careless, looking-in-the-other-direction ass might’ve accidentally ingested, it can not do you any severe or lasting harm. Oh, it can make you want to die — from embarrassment first, as you dance around the living…

While talking with Tom Ryan, the man behind Smashburger, I heard how the original Smashburger service model — in which customers wrote down exactly what they wanted on their burgers by checking boxes on a sushi bar-style paper menu — was abandoned rather quickly once the company realized that a)…

For days, I’d eaten nothing but crap and tourist fodder and overpriced lunches and dinners in the mountains while trying to pretend I was relaxing amid the spectacular views, German tourists and stands of regal, if dying, pine. I needed a great burger the way some people need oxygen while…

So I was cruising around the web’s nethers this morning, and what should I stumble across but the BEST CHEF’S ACCESSORY EVER. Or at least the best accessory ever until I find something even cooler. This meat tenderizer ring made the front page over at Eat Me Daily (which, if…

No, that’s exactly what it looks like. It’s a pumpkin-carving kit. And I can’t even begin to explain why I kept this at my desk…

I believe that a great cheeseburger can change your life. Depending on the circumstances, depending on the time, the place, the company or lack thereof, your age and, most important, depending on the cheeseburger itself, a truly great one can alter your fate, leave you feeling elated and in a…

Smashburger has long been a point of contention in Denver’s highly competitive cheeseburger scene.  There are those out there who love the place all out of proportion — swearing up and down that it is our answer to In-N-Out, that it is the long-awaited Chipotle for the American food enthusiast. …

Even though green chile is not a traditional Mexican dish, it’s a traditional dish at Mexican restaurants north of the border. It changes as it travels, thickening and becoming more hearty as it travels up towards the Canadian border. The Colorado version is thick and gooey, stuffed with pork chunks…

That’s what we’ll be doing on Wednesday, September 2nd at Content Studio, 3033 Blake Street — chatting about Denver’s food, its bars and its music, in front of a crowd that will (hopefully) be all liquored up and rowdy. Think of it like the old-fashioned Jerry Springer show with an…

So here’s a question for all you hardcore gastronauts out there: We all know that Denver is a good food town. There are seasons when it can almost feel like one of the great ones. We have fine dining and we have innovation, we have French, we have Italian, we…

Another day, another weird item from my desk. Although really, the only weird thing about it is that there was anything left in that bottle at all when I took the picture. I don’t like cleaning, you see (as should be painfully obvious to anyone who saw the picture of…

The headline pretty much says it all: In celebration of fifteen years of barbecue-slingin’, Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que is offering free ‘cue for anyone named Dave. If your first name is Dave, you get one entree free (maximum value $15). Middle name Dave? Then you’re only half as lucky, and get…

Pho is the most recognizable example of the Vietnamese canon, a street food lifted whole from the avenues of Saigon and Bien Hoa and brought to the United States by waves of immigrants who came here following the war and the reconstruction. Many of those immigrants washed up in Denver,…

Later today, we’ll post my list of the town’s best spots for pho, which includes Pho 95, a wonderful place I review this week, and several other pho shops along Federal Boulevard. My all-time favorite spot for pho was in Aurora. Sadly, Pho 2000 closed years ago, but it stucks…

Worst. Product. Idea. Ever. I get a lot of dumb and worthless shit sent to me — worthless shit being essentially any sample product that doesn’t come in a nice glass bottle with “Product of Ireland” written somewhere on it. But in the history of dumb and worthless shit, this…

Yesterday, I posted a picture of the alien head that had maintained a position of honor on top of my monitor for a couple of years before our office remodel relegated him to a cardboard box. In that picture, said alien head was wearing a baseball hat with a virtually…

There was a time when the pho shop at 1036 South Federal Boulevard was one of my favorites. I would go out of my way to have lunch there, skip out on meetings and blow off interviews just for an early dinner among the friends and neighbors who gathered in…

We all watched as the little girl with the blue leotard and blonde hair staggered on the mats. We all watched as she stood there, staring blindly out into the crowd, glancing up at the uneven bars, furrowing her small brows. Everyone in the place was watching. The room was…