Anh Nguyen may be the only person alive who was bitten by dead shark. And, no, this isn’t a fish tale. Nguyen, who opened the Crawling Crab, a Cajun seafood joint, last week in a South Federal Boulevard small mall, was hanging the beast from the ceiling, when his wrist…

No. 60: New Mexico Benedict from DJ’s Berkeley Cafe…

While this diminutive cafe is justifiably celebrated for its sandwiches, the soups, including a vibrant gazpacho bobbing with fresh berries, are equally as delicious. 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…

Valentino Ujkic Trattoria Stella 3201 East Colfax Avenue 303-320-8635 http://trattoriastella.squarespace.com This is part two of my interview with Valentino Ujkic , executive chef of Trattoria Stella. Part one of that interview ran yesterday. Favorite restaurant in America: Kabob Cafe in Astoria, Queens. There’s no menu, no front-of-the-house staff and no…

Several of the restaurants on Colorado Boulevard, across the street from the former University of Colorado Hospital, the land of which was recently purchased by a Florida developer, are suddenly becoming vacant. In the last month alone, a Spicy Pickle outpost, a Smiling Moose Deli plot and a Cava Greens…

I never tire of the lusty, spice-bombed food turned out at this addictive restaurant that always elevates my mood, and now that it’s increased its beer selection, showcasing more than a dozen brews that mirror its cuisine, I’m even more enamored. Guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives…

Valentino Ujkic Trattoria Stella 3201 East Colfax Avenue 303-320-8635 http://trattoriastella.squarespace.com This is part one of my interview with Valentino Ujkic, the executive chef of Trattoria Stella on East Colfax. Part two of our interview will run in this space tomorrow. Valentino Ujkic emerges from his open kitchen at Trattoria Stella…

“I had nothing to do with it, other than drinking at the bar last Tuesday night,” claims Jamey Fader, the culinary director of Big Red F, the Dave Query restaurant group that operates numerous dining dens in Denver and Boulder, including West End Tavern, Lola, Zolo Grill, Happy, Centro and…

Last month, when I interviewed Robin Baron, executive chef of Udi’s Pizza Bar and Udi’s Bread Cafe, of which there are four locations scattered across the Front Range, she let on that the Baron family, spearheaded by her father, Udi, a confirmed bread head, were unleashing a quick-casual Middle Eastern…

Last night was you-get-a-burger night for the preteen, who scored this one an eight out of ten. The service, however, definitely gets a ten — and then some — since I’d forgotten my wallet and didn’t have $7.76 in spare coinage in my car. Instead of denying the kid the…

I’m geographically challenged. How else to explain that I was on Federal Boulevard and 72nd Avenue yesterday, when I spotted what I (wrongly) believed was the shuttered address of Teleras Deli Mexicana, a tortas joint that I’ve eaten at several times and written about more than once — a joint…

In today’s hilarious food news of the world report, David Harding, a man from South London, admits that he has a fetish — a major fetish — for sausages. It’s become so troublesome, he told The Daily Mirror, that he’s banging through thirteen sausages a day, a porkerrific compulsion that’s…

Years ago, when I was reviewing restaurants for another publication, I called Carbondale, a hamlet that’s down valley from Aspen, a “lowdown trucker town,” a comment that set the mountain town into a tailspin. At the time, however, Carbondale’s restaurant landscape was completely overshadowed — justly — by the glitter-gulch…

In this week’s Chef and Tell interview, Mark Monette, the executive chef/partner of the Flagstaff House, sounds off on sharing kitchen space with Thomas Keller, turning fifty and doing double duty at two top drawer restaurants, which keeps him firmly entrenched in the kitchen. He took some away from the…

It’s fig season, and that means that restaurant menus all over the city are pimping the sweet, fleshy fruit. Here, where the above snap was flashed, the figs are enlivened with Gorgonzola and sheeted in prosciutto. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct…

Nearly three years ago, in July of 2008, the original Chinook Tavern, one of Denver’s only German restaurants, shuttered in Cherry Creek, and while the family who owns Chinook — manager Clemens Georg, executive chef Markus Georg, patriarch Manfred Georg, and matriarch Lieselotte Georg — had secured a new parcel…

I’m definitely a bread head, but for the love of loaves, there’s absolutely no reason to suffocate an otherwise decent breakfast sandwich with enough bread to wallpaper the walls. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I…

Mark Monette Flagstaff House 1138 Flagstaff Drive, Boulder 303-442-4640 www.flagstaffhouse.com This is part two of my interview with Mark Monette, executive chef of the Flagstaff House. Part one of that interview, in which Monette talks about cooking with Thomas Keller and his disdain for duck tongues, ran yesterday. Culinary inspirations:…

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. Yesterday was the…

I love a plate of fresh waffles to start the day, and now that the joint that makes them has added eggs, bacon and a side of fruit to make it a square meal, it’s more than enough fuel to sustain me throughout the entire day. Can you guess where…