Many restaurateurs have promised to open new places by the end of the year (and before the post-holiday lull), and at least a few are going to make it. Last Friday, Larry Herz opened his new spot, Indigo, in the former home of Papillon Cafe, at 250 Josephine Street. The…
Kim’s is not the kind of place where anyone goes on purpose the first time. It’s the kind of place you almost always find by accident. A happy accident, as it turns out. Maybe you discovered it through that annoying vegetarian ex-girlfriend, who always seemed to have a takeout box…
Bistro Adde Brewster (see review, page 71) is no longer on the front lines of the smoking war. Owner Adde Bjorklund’s attempt to take his subterranean Cherry Creek digs non-smoking was just a recon mission, a bold foray into enemy territory to check the disposition of the other side’s forces…
On a perfect mild afternoon before the last cold snap, I found myself perched on a stool before the small, half-moon bar at Bistro Adde Brewster, contemplating a late-day snack. I’d been poking around Cherry Creek looking for something interesting to do in the neighborhood, with a vague notion of…
I know what you’re thinking: Cook’s Fresh Market (see page 69) sounds like a pretty interesting place, but you’d rather have gum surgery than drive to the Denver Tech Center during rush hour (which runs from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. on every day ending with a Y). Fortunately, Denver…
I watched her walk away. I watched her come back again, smudging the glass on the display case with perfectly manicured fingers. I watched her walk away again, high heels clicking on the tiles, her basket empty but for one lonely glass jar of Stonewall Kitchen raspberry-peach champagne jam. For…
“I wanted the perfect meal. I also wanted — to be absolutely frank — Col. Walter E. Kurtz, Lord Jim, Lawrence of Arabia, Kim Philby, the Consul, Fowler, Tony Po, B. Traven, Christopher Walken…I wanted to find — no, I wanted to be — one of those debauched heroes and…
Sean Kelly is no celebrity chef. His hands give him away. They’re big, strong, the wrists thick from handling sauté pans, fingertips mauled, palms rough as untreated leather. Cooks know cooks from the feel of each others’ hands, and they can gauge how long someone’s been in the business from…
Keeping it in the family: When you taste Anthony Sarlo’s cooking (see review, page 67), you get a taste of the family he grew up in. But Vita Bella isn’t the only restaurant in the area flavored by this Colorado restaurant clan. Anthony’s Aunt Elisa and her husband, Troy Heitman,…
There are moments in a chef’s life that forever define him. The first taste of foie gras; the oily reek of anchovies; the crisp, celery-stalk snap of a rabbit’s neck being broken; the explosion on the back of the tongue set off by the full, huge, deep-brown flavor of a…
2575 West Main Street
In its continuing attempt to make the world a better place through the distribution of caffeine to the masses, Allegro Coffee Company has started a partnership program that brings foreign coffee growers to the United States for an exchange of ideas on traditional handcrafted methods of growing, roasting and brewing…
It was Saturday night in Littleton, and the wife and I were arguing. She was upset because she couldn’t find her favorite pair of black strappy heels, so she’d fallen back on the black Doc Martens that dated from her days as a Philly punk-rock girl, and one of our…
What’s a word worth these days? Pick a good one like “organic” and you could be talking billions and billions of dollars. On Monday, October 21, the National Organic Standards and Labels program went into effect, ending over a decade of wrangling in Washington, D.C. The program guarantees that all…
The name is not Cue-ba Cue-ba. It’s sexier than that, smoother. Say Koo-ba Koo-ba, and the words should slide off your tongue like you’re sucking on silk. The sound should make you feel like putting on a white Panama hat and growing a pencil-thin moustache. That goes for you ladies,…
Adega Restaurant & Wine Bar (1700 Wynkoop Street), whose May opening was the talk of the town, just got a big boost to its reputation as the defining restaurant in Denver’s up-and-coming food scene with its inclusion in Esquire’s 21st-annual “Best New Restaurants” survey. Food and travel writer John Mariani…
Chefs love fire. Food may be their medium, but fire is their element. In the pan, fire is magic — binding, breaking and bringing out the hidden life in everything it touches. Emulsion, reduction, a blanc and a point — when you learn how to play with fire, you have…
Blurry, at best: That’s how I remember my one-night stagger through the Great American Beer Festival, the 21st incarnation of this beer-sodden extravaganza. But it was my first encounter with the GABF, and being the responsible young reporter that I am, I felt it my duty to taste and record…
Stepping off the crowded Pearl Street Mall and into Triana is like burying your face in a flamenco dancer’s best dress or jumping into a pile of autumn leaves. Fiery reds and oranges explode in this small space. The ceiling is painted black, a dark sky but for the exposed…
The restaurant space at 250 Josephine Street, former home of Papillon Cafe, has been the focus of much speculation lately. Since Radek Cerny suddenly closed Papillon’s doors a few months ago, there have been hunches on top of rumors frosted with out-and-out lies about what was going to happen to…
The strip mall looked half-dead. There was a scruffy guy dressed Unabomber style in a hooded sweatshirt and cheap, wraparound mirrored sunglasses loitering outside the liquor store, and a bunch of contractors in hard hats standing at the squat little complex’s far corner, as if sizing up the place for…
After a little snooping, I found a few places besides Ocean City Restaurant (see review, page 69) where the adventurous chow hound can go for an authentic taste of China. Pavilion (3333 South Tamarac Drive) has a secret, second menu that features Chinese vegetables, squid, pork butt and all those…
