Noah Stephens Vert Kitchen 704 South Pearl Street 303-997-5941 www.vertkitchen.com This is part one of my interview with Noah Stephens, exec chef/owner of Vert Kitchen. Part two of my chat with Stephens will run tomorrow. It’s the Friday before a long Fourth of July weekend, and Noah Stephens, Vert Kitchen’s…

El Cuscatleco was always a bit odd. The Salvadoran joint, plunked down on a corner in a dilapidated small mall on South Federal, turned out some interesting dishes, but in the multiple years that it stood, the dining room always felt incomplete and sterile, and the staff — when you…

A sign of the times that’s certainly more clever than “No shoes, no shirt, no service.” Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I drinking/eating posts is entered into a pool — and every Monday, we select…

Last Thursday, a staggering number of employees who work at TAG, Troy Guard’s restaurant on Larimer Square, walked off the floor (and line), or handed in their two-week notices after news broke that Guard and Leigh Sullivan, his wife (soon to be ex-wife) and business partner had split up. Sullivan,…

There’s nothing like blaring rock music to wake you up on on Monday morning — and that’s exactly what I got when I clicked on the website of Rock Wood-Fired Pizza & Spirits, a Pacific Northwest chain with a music-theme roster of wood-fired pizzas, most of them titled after classic…

Aside from the fact that the floor was so sticky that it stuck to my shoes like glue, this deli turns out a decent sandwich, and the fries, when hot, are good, too. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the…

Right, so we do have other big news to report today, namely the announcement of a superhero champion in our Justice League of Street Food contest, the winner (and a guest) of which gets to eat and drink for free at the Justice League soiree on Saturday night. There were…

A scoop of basil ice cream and a second scoop of berry ice cream, paired with a split of prosecco, was the finale to dinner earlier this week. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I drinking/eating…

The Justice League of Street Food, the convoy of food trucks and carts that gave a whole new meaning to pavement cuisine when it became a superpower of street food last summer, is gearing up for its second party of the season — and we’re giving one Cafe Society reader…

It was a Las Vegas, tunnel-of-love, drive-thru wedding. Leigh Sullivan and Troy Guard, the chef/owner of TAG and TAG| RAW BAR, met just three months before they took off for Las Vegas and tied the knot in 2004 in the back seat of a cab at Sin City’s Little White…

I love unexpected surprises, and here, at this convivial cafe that’s certainly better known for its sandwiches and soups than its international dishes, I found — and promptly inhaled — an Indian chicken curry. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to…

Theo Adley The Pinyon 1710 Pearl Street, Boulder 720-306-8248 www.thepinyon.com This is part two of my interview with Theo Adley, executive chef/owner of the Pinyon in Boulder. Part one of my chat with Adley ran yesterday. Favorite restaurant in America: I’m just gonna say that I think tons of people…

There are words, cliches and phrases that we, as food writers, use far too often, and while we’re all probably guilty of making your nostrils flare when we use some of the very same vocabulary that we’re now going to criticize, it’s when other food writers use these annoying and…

Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market’s choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast. Ge used to…

Breakfast is served all day, every day, until 5 p.m. at this neighborhood java joint with a palpable hippie vibe. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I drinking/eating posts is entered into a pool — and…

Theo Adley The Pinyon 1710 Pearl Street, Boulder 720-306-8248 www.thepinyon.com This is part one of my interview with Theo Adley, executive chef/owner of the Pinyon in Boulder. Part two of my chat with Adley will run in this space tomorrow. Theo Adley failed algebra three times in high school. As…

You could, we suppose, say that the writing was on the wall. The Comfort Cafe, a donation-based, non-profit community kitchen and restaurant in Berkeley Park, whose philosophy is pay-what-you-can-afford, recently posted a note on its Facebook wall, pleading for volunteers:…

A long time ago, Basil Doc’s pushed a fantastic white clam pizza (it now sucks). Several other pie palaces also toss white clam pizzas, none of which are great, but this one — save for the deluge of flour beneath the crust — is good. Can you guess where I’m…

I spent Saturday morning meandering around the Cherry Creek Fresh Market — a market, frankly, that I’ve never been terribly fond of, mainly because much of the produce is unseasonal and trucked in from outside state lines, plus I was tired of seeing vendors pimping acres of dried pasta, soaps…

In January of 2010, Virgilio Urbano, the pizza slinger — and owner — of his namesake pie palace, issued a humongous challenge: In two hours or less, stuff your gullet with eleven pounds of pizza without puking, taking a bathroom break or falling over dead, and your success (or stupidity,…

Talk about a mouthful: A single bagel from this shrine to ringed dough with a hole already stretches your jaw, but the sandwiches, towered with everything form salmon to roast beef, are comedic skyscrapers. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to…