The List at Lola was long and dignified. Long, because my name was about twentieth from the top — at 6 p.m. on a Saturday night on South Pearl Street. Dignified, because it seemed like every man, woman and child in the city of Denver who was cooler, richer, hipper…
According to Gorizont (Horizon), a popular Russian-language newspaper published in Colorado, this state’s population of ex-pat Russians is now 70,000 strong, with more coming every day. About two-thirds of this group live in the Denver area — and since these people all have to eat, several authentic, honest-to-Lenin Russian restaurants…
When most Americans think of Russian food, they think of frozen gray latitudes, trudging babushkas clutching bags of turnips and beet roots, and giant cauldrons whose sour-colored contents are glopped out onto chipped plates in cramped, dark apartments. They picture borscht — that most recognizable of old Soviet cuisine –…
“Cooking is like love,” wrote Harriet van Horne. “It should be entered into with abandon, or not at all.” ‘Tis the season that most cooks dream about and restaurant owners dread. With Christmas, New Year’s and now Valentine’s Day passed, we’re on that long, slow slide toward spring, when people…
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. — Henry Hill, GoodFellas And as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to find the perfect Italian restaurant: the kind of place where goodfellas would go for linguini and clams, some sausage and…
One sweet deal: Open since Halloween at 1 Broadway, a space that has scared away several restaurants (and swallowed up a few more), Sweet Bob’s Bar-b-que is now running a special to lure people in the door. A five-spot gets you a Little Bob sandwich with your choice of meat…
So here’s Laura and me, handling the logistics of dinner: I call; the phone rings; she picks it up. Me: “Okay, sweets. How’s dinner tomorrow at Tante Louise?” She: “On a Friday night?” Me: “Yeah, tomorrow. Nice romantic dinner on a Friday night.” She: “French food….” She sounds…unenthused. Me: “Denver’s…
The two Ted’s Montana Grill eateries that recently opened (at 1401 Larimer Street and 7301 South Santa Fe Drive in Littleton) serve beer and wine only. Why, you may ask? I was wondering the same thing, so I called the Larimer Square location with what I thought was a very…
Never draw to an inside straight. Never pet a burning dog. Never use margarine if there’s butter in the house. And never, ever call your restaurant a New York deli unless: a) It’s actually within the boundaries of New York City; or b) You’re from New York City yourself, as…
January 23 marked another small victory for the forces of clean air and intrusive legislative fanaticism, as Denver’s Board of Environmental Health voted 4-0 in favor of a resolution recommending amendments to a circa-1986 city smoking ordinance that would drastically increase limitations on smoking. (Chairman Leo Goto recused himself because…
Two things you should know about Opal right from the start. One, it’s expensive. Not quite once-in-a-lifetime, mortgage-the-condo expensive, but to do it right — to really kick out the jams with appetizers, flights of sushi, wine, entrees and dessert — it’s gonna cost you. And two, it’s worth every…
Everyone is going Hollywood these days. First, Chipotle — that home-grown chain of burrito joints that’s slowly taking over the world with a little help from now-majority-owner McDonald’s Corporation — got a massive pop-culture bump on a recent episode of MTV’s The Osbournes. Ozzy, everyone’s favorite stumbling, stuttering, shuffling dad,…
Lunch at Roy’s Cherry Creek was fantastic — comfortable, cheery, leisurely, and deeply, profoundly satisfying. Over my long history of long lunches, rarely have I had a better one. It helped that Roy’s space, just to the right of the valet stand at Cherry Creek Shopping Center, was made for…
Over the holidays, I received this charming missive from Julie: “I read your December 5 ‘Smoke Free or Die’ with interest, and I agree that legislating a smoke-free policy is terrible for Denver businesses as well as the unfortunate patrons who just want a place to eat, drink and have…
Just go ahead and sit anywhere, guys. We’ll find you.” Happy hour at the Stout Pub. Cheap drafts and well drinks at recession-friendly prices, soggy blue corn nachos and an appetizer lineup borrowing heavily from the Midwestern “Everybody loves fried cheese!” school of menu design. Behind the bar, bottles lined…
Another one bites the dust: Okay, so I gave the guy a break when he did it at Dandelion, but now uber-chef Kevin Taylor has gone and closed the doors on Nicois (815 17th Street) without any warning to his staff, dropping the hammer just after the big ball dropped…
One of the best reasons to eat at an ethnic restaurant is to sample another culture relatively risk-free, without the expense, hassle and occasional danger associated with actually traveling to far-flung corners of the globe in search of pigeon pie or the perfect shark taco. You don’t have to pack…
Yes, it’s that time of year again, and I’ve been sitting here at Bite Me World HQ trying to think of ways to improve this column in 2003. For starters, I was thinking of moving the entire operation to some tiny island in the South Pacific, where the tropical breezes…
The wine room at Adega Restaurant + Wine Bar is made of glass and green light. It’s a powerful presence, beautiful in the way that cubist art can be, or a ’50s-era Hugo Gernsback-inspired Greyhound bus station. There’s an undeniably weird majesty in the geometric arrangement of its towering shelves,…
All through the run-up to this holiday season, people were asking what I’d be doing for dinner: on Christmas Eve, on Christmas Day, on New Year’s Eve and the day after. They asked expectantly, assuming that I’d be doing something fabulous. Maybe they thought that, as a restaurant critic, I…
I’m still receiving heated responses — both pro and con — regarding the December 5 “Smoke Free or Die” Bite Me. Among the messages was this, from reader Matt Roper: “Unfortunately, I read your article a day after the public meeting on the 5th. I read somewhere that even if…
Brunch is almost always a bad idea. For consumers, it spans the dullest, most grinding hours of the day — that weird, timeless space between a leisurely late breakfast and the early start of happy hour — and brings to the table nothing but the worst of two meals that…
