Brunch hunch: A co-worker recently asked me to recommend a good place to take his mother, who was celebrating a birthday, for Sunday brunch. The group would include children, so it was important that the place be kid-friendly and reasonably priced. After recalling (and not fondly, either) many of the…
Few caterpillars crawl as much as Radek Cerny has on his way to the butterfly stage. After the Communist government took away his family’s farm in Czechoslovakia, Cerny (pronounced “chair-nee”) had to fight hard for his culinary training in Prague. He ultimately escaped the country by slipping away from a…
Subsisting: Finally, downtown Denver has a sub shop worth raving about–Mangia Subs, which opened a few weeks ago at 1730 Glenarm Place. In addition to the fact that owner Dave Cavalaro uses only nitrate-free meats, all the sandwich ingredients are top-drawer in the flavor department. I had a sausage sub…
You can’t make all the people happy all of the time–especially if you’re a restaurant. A few years ago, trendy dining establishments tried to offer something for everyone: a few beef and chicken dishes, some fish for the pretend vegetarians, a selection of pastas and maybe some pseudo-ethnic dishes. But…
California, here I come: After Barbara Lane, Westword’s first food writer and then-restaurant critic at its partner paper in San Francisco, the SF Weekly, visited Denver this past summer, she returned home to tell her readers that it takes a trip to another city (and a truly bad meal at…
Judged by its cover, the Fourth Story is looking good. This restaurant has what might be my favorite dining room in Denver. There’s an endless supply of books to pull down and peruse, and in this library, eating and drinking are not only allowed, they’re very much encouraged. All the…
Soon after trying Denver’s version of Napa (see Cafe, previous page), I visited the original for the first time. The weather was beautiful, but my California dreams of a leisurely vacation strolling through vineyards sipping vintage wines went down the crusher with the grapes. Since it was the busy season,…
It started with wine dinners at a handful of restaurants, monthly culinary happenings where cellared vino was uncorked and paired with complementary dishes. Next thing you knew, everyone but McDonald’s was doing wine dinners. Then came the boutique wine sellers, a handful of small, focused stores that catered to the…
Brew snub: At this past weekend’s Great American Beer Festival XIV, Colorado got skunked. Denied. The state’s 27 microbreweries, 33 brewpubs, two major breweries and two minor breweries produced more than 400 types of beer last year–but only twelve won awards. I can accept that. What I’m having a tough…
Facing the unappetizing prospect of unemployment when their company laid off a third of its workforce last year, two couples decided to ensure that they’d always have food on the table–by opening a restaurant. But they didn’t stop there. To guarantee that they’d always have plenty with which to drown…
To market, to market: Back in 1989, Alfalfa’s Market, the granddaddy of Denver’s organic groceries, introduced hot-and-cold food lines at its original Boulder store. Since then, the array of offerings has expanded considerably. On a recent visit to the Littleton store, at 5910 S. University, I tried a sushi sampler…
Once upon a time, Daddy made the money and Mommy made the dinner, and Junior and Buffy would come home from school and do their homework while Lawrence Welk bubbles floated through the living room and the dog helped set the table. Daddy would ask what was for dinner, and…
Hello and goodbye: Development in LoDo took an ugly turn recently when owners of the Ice House forced the Bluepoint restaurant (and everyone else) out so the building can be turned into lofts or offices, they’re not sure which. Half the staff at Westword is in mourning–Bluepoint was the spot…
Just for fun, try making Hamburger Helper for dinner every night. Make it the same way, with the same ingredients and the same side dishes. After two weeks, you’ll be sick to death of making Hamburger Helper. That’s what it’s like cooking in a restaurant. Many chefs circumvent kitchen tedium…
Barrel of pork: The owner of House of Bunbuster, whose name I never was able to procure, phoned to say he was disgruntled over the category of “Best Pig’s Ears” in the 1995 Best of Denver. “I just think no one in Denver really cares about pig’s ears,” he said…
With all the action just a few blocks away, the 16th Street Mall is starting to feel like it’s off the beaten path. Most of the restaurants along this stretch rely on lunch crowds to help them make it through the night, and some have redecorated or changed menus to…
The test of Colorado: A number of people have called to complain about the twelfth annual Taste of Colorado, held at Civic Center Park over the Labor Day weekend. Some think the group that sponsors the event, the Downtown Denver Partnership, was greedy in selling nine food tickets for $5–which…
Longing to feel unwanted? Tryn walking into most restaurants with your kid in tow. Faster than you can say “high chair,” the place will put out the unwelcome mat. Assuming you stick around, you’ll be alternately ignored and stared at. When the waitpeople aren’t busy sighing by the side of…
The popularity of all types of Asian food has prompted some restaurants to offer more than one country’s cooking. Several of these “JVC” (Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese) combo spots have opened here, particularly in the suburbs. One of the best I’ve found is Oriental Star, at 12203 East Iliff in…
This city’s mortality rate for Vietnamese restaurants is high, and any eatery that serves cheap, sloppily executed Vietnamese food has a better chance of stopping traffic on Federal Boulevard with a chopstick than it does of surviving. As soon as one restaurant closes, though, another seems to spring up faster…
Spare changes: Denver continues to open more restaurants than it closes, and the chains are spreading faster than an infectious disease. The competition for customers–and ink–is fierce, particularly downtown, which is why it’s nice to find a success story like that of Bayou Bob’s. At the end of September the…
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. When Kevin Taylor, chef and owner of one of the city’s few nationally known restaurants, Zenith American Grill, decided to open a second, more downscale eatery, he thought it would be a surefire hit to import the unique flavors of…
