Welcome to V2 Sports Bar & Restaurant, a behemoth sweep in the Far East Center, big enough to swallow the entire country of Vietnam. The “V” stands for “Viet’s,” the excellent Vietnamese restaurant directly next door, owned by Hiep Thia, who last December added a No. 2 to his repertoire…

“We’re finally close,” reports Jean-Phillipe Failyau. Close, that is, to unleashing Park Burger No. 3 in the Highland neighborhood, which, says Failyau, will open, construction permitting, on Sunday, February 20 in the former An’s Lemongrass Grille space at 2643 West 32nd Avenue. “The reason I chose the Highlands location,” explains…

We love a great sandwich here at Cafe Society headquarters, and the deli that assembled the skyscraping Italian beast in the above snap, is one of our favorite go-to emporiums to indulge our fetish. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to…

Antonio Gorjoux Cherry Cricket 2641 East Second Avenue 303-322-7666 www.cherrycricket.com This is part one of my Chef and Tell interview with Antonio Gorjoux, kitchen manager of the Cherry Cricket. Part two of that interview will run in this space tomorrow. “Chef is a big word,” insists Antonio Gorjoux, “and I…

Exactly thirteen minutes after Guy Fieri ended his animated commentary of Steuben’s, spotlighted last night on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, the phone at Steuben’s rang. It was a caller who had just watched exec chef Brandon Biederman unload lobster rolls, spaghetti and meatballs, herb-roasted chicken, catfish, ribs…

No. 72: New England clam chowder from Bittersweet Housed in a former auto body garage, Bittersweet, now a stone-stacked, high-ceilinged, two-room, garden-to-table food temple, is the blood, sweat and tears of chef/owner Olav Peterson, who opened in January after spending the past several years as the exec chef of Bistro…

Denver is up to its eyebrows in burgers at the moment, some of which are entirely forgettable, while others, like the buffalo burger dripping with cheese and grilled onions in the above pic, are worthy of your undivided attention. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives…

Late last week, we held a little contest, one that would bestow love on one Cafe Society reader, who, in fourteen words or less, could convince those of us jaded by all that mushy love stuff that he or she deserved to win a complimentary Valentine’s dinner for two at…

Five of the half-dozen enterprises commanded by prolific restaurateur/chef Frank Bonanno are participating in Denver Restaurant Week, which gets under way on February 26 and continues through March 11, offering two weeks of multi-course dinners, priced at $52.80 per couple or $26.40 for one, excluding tax and gratuity. Bonanno’s restaurants…

If you read this blog on a regular basis, then you know I have a slight obsession with salsa bars, including this recent discovery that, if my math adds up, hustles eight different concoctions, plus pickled onions, carrots and jalapenos and lemon wedges. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special…

It wasn’t that long ago that Edgewater was a restaurant wasteland, but over the past few years, the west side neighborhood, which borders Sloan’s Lake, has become far more palatable, in part, because of restaurants like The Edge, a breakfast and lunch joint, overlooking the lake, that opened ten days…

No. 73: Gumbo from Bistro One I was about to get fried chicken — the best in Denver, ballyhooed the bartender at Bistro One — but somehow, the subject switched to gumbo, and since the guy sitting next to me at the bar, who happened to be the owner of…

Earlier this week, Pete Marczyk, who co-owns Marczyk Fine Foods with his wife, Barb, shot me an e-mail asking which Jewish deli in Denver was the best. If I had to pick just one, I told Pete, it would be Deli Tech, a persuasively authentic fortress of pastrami, corned beef,…

There are very, very few restaurant menus in the Mile High City that lay claim to clam strips, which is why we were pleasantly shocked to find these. 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…

A quick jaunt through Open Table confirms what we already know: If you haven’t already made a reservation for Valentine’s Day, good luck snagging one. Valentine’s Day is one of the most popular nights of the year for dining out, and more often than not, it’s an expensive proposition, but…

The number of restaurants that have left their doors locked (or shuttered early) over the past few days because of Denver’s chillathon is, frankly, a little unnerving, but the takeaway sushi in the above snap came from a restaurant that, despite the bitter cold, was busy till the bitter end…

No. 74: South African ruff from TAG Troy Guard, chef/owner of TAG (and soon, TAG Raw Bar), has roots in Hawaii, which may explain, at least in part, why his board at TAG swims with shellfish and fish, including things like Maine diver scallops puddled in a parsnip vanilla puree…

Marco Ramirez The Palm 1672 Lawrence Street 303-825-7256 www.thepalm.com This is part two of my interview with Marco Ramirez, executive chef of The Palm. In part one of that interview, Ramirez talks about life in a crazy-busy kitchen, the flood that almost drowned it, and how hard work and determination…

Six months ago, Mark Dym, the owner of Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza, 2129 Larimer Street, was interviewing potential chefs to oversee a new temple of gastronomy at Vallagio at Inverness, an urbanized, retail, restaurant and residence development spearheaded by Peter Kudla, the COO of Metropolitan Homes. The Vallagio, which already showcases…

Marco Ramirez The Palm 1672 Lawrence Street 303-825-7256 www.thepalm.com This is part one of my interview with Marco Ramirez, executive chef of The Palm. Part two of that interview will run in this space tomorrow. Marco Ramirez, a self-described “child of a poor farmer family” in El Salvador, was shooed…