You really, really don’t want to have the reputation of being the worst Halloween candy-giving house on the block. So don’t hand out Tootsie Rolls, candy corn or those nefarious orange-and-black-wrapped chewy things. And don’t even think about gifting trick-or-treaters with shwag like toothbrushes or anything homemade — unless you…

Every autumn brings an interesting array of pumpkin, pumpkin spice and pumpkin pie-flavored eats and drinks — some of which are far more palatable than others. Because every autumn, we can always count on a marketing menu of strange, unusual and even intolerable pumpkin items that somebody, somewhere thought up,…

There is no haute cuisine at 7-Eleven. Unless, of course, you count hard-boiled eggs swimming in misty liquid packs, gigantic “beef” and bean burritos, and those somewhat unethical “nachos,” for which you take the chips out of the plastic tray, fill the tray with free chili sauce, then try to…

Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar is coming to Cherry Creek, moving into the former home of Tony P’s, at 240 Milwaukee Street. Tony Pasquini had originally opened his restaurant there in early 2012 as Pasquini’s, then changed the name because of a family dispute. This summer he closed the Cherry Creek…

It had been a few years since I’d cheated on Taco Bell with Del Taco — and even then, I’d smuggled in Taco Bell sauce packets to use on my Del Taco food. It’s not that I thought Del Taco was that inferior to the Bell; I’d just somehow fallen…

Guido Barilla dipped his noodle in boiling water this week when he told an Italian radio show that the Barilla pasta company “likes the traditional family,” which means we won’t see any gays in Barilla’s advertising — and if they don’t like it, he said, “they can always go eat…

If I had one wish, first I would go standard and ask for more wishes — but then I would ask that all the fall-themed, pumpkin-flavored foods and drinks continue year- round. I would do this because I am absolutely, admittedly one of the lamestreamers who not only overindulges in…

McDonald’s new Mighty Wings — bone-in, breaded chicken wings — have finally made it to Denver area stores, along with some fall-themed goodies. So I made a beeline to the nearest golden arches at 1444 South Havana Street in Aurora, to see if the buzz over the wings is deserved…

For years, Trader Joe’s- deprived Coloradans wondered when this retail shopping mecca would bless our state. This week we learned that we would soon have an embarrassment of riches: The metro area will soon have not three but four stores, all slated to open some time in 2014. That still…

Denver’s two embattled Steak ‘n Shake locations — at 3502 River Point Parkway in Sheridan and 8271 South Quebec Street in Centennial — were both shuttered on Friday after a bond filed by the chain in federal court activated an injunction forcing the locally-owned franchise restaurants to cease using the…

A lone Captain D’s Seafood Kitchen somehow stays afloat in metro Denver — at 605 South Havana Street in Aurora. But while there are four more Captains in Colorado Springs and one in Pueblo, Long John Silver’s has fourteen locations in Denver alone. Why all the local love for Long…

Today is McRibmas — one of the most important holidays on the calendar. That’s because the infamous, sauce-slathered, probably-mostly-pork sammie is now back on the McDonald’s menu — for a limited time, of course. The McRib enjoys a crazy cult following not at all unlike the devotion shown to some…

When I walked into the Steak ‘n Shake at 8271 South Quebec Street — the first Steak ‘n Shake to open in Colorado — I was greeted by a host stand holding a dirty tray with trash on it, with no host in sight. And my visit only got worse…

In yet another demographic-alienating screw-up, an employee at a Tennessee Chick-Fil-A approached a woman who was breastfeeding in the store’s play area and asked her to cover up. The woman said didn’t want to throw a towel over her child because the hungry tot would just push it away –…

Twisters Burgers and Burritos, a New Mexico-to-Colorado transplant, offers red- and green-chile enthusiasts a chance to get their spicy sauce fixes, with red-draped enchiladas and green-smothered cheeseburgers. But as I dug into a burger and a double-smothered burrito at the Aurora location, it quickly became clear that this Twisters, at…

When last year it was revealed that Trader Joe’s had finally decided to open two stores in Colorado, the clouds parted, cherubs started playing shiny little harps, citizens long-deprived of TJ’s inexpensive branded products began rejoicing — and marked their calendars for those fateful days in late 2013 when the…

Denver is definitely in need of more good barbecue, so I was eager to visit Southern Hospitality BBQ, the upscale barbecue restaurant that opened last October in the very renovated old St. Elmo Hotel building. This joint came with a smoking back-story: The original was opened in Manhattan in 2007…

McDonald’s recent posting of a hypothetical household budget for its minimum- wage employees has birthed an Occupy-style French fry revolution. Frustrated, vastly underpaid fast-food workers across the country are now asking their employers to raise their earnings from the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour to $15 per hour,…