At this Chinese restaurant, which may or may not be located in Denver, the menu parades a pedestrian lineup of predictable Americanized Chinese food, including the Szechuan beef in the above snap, but the last page of the menu is directed toward vegetarians, who swear by the mock chicken and…
On Saturday, Il Mondo Vecchio’s Mark DeNittis, Denver’s high priest of salumi (and the newest member of FIVE), ushered a half dozen meat-heads into his laboratory, as part of a whole hog hoedown that exposed voyeurs to a 190-pound, Blue Butt beast that sacrificed himself in order to feed us…
Ah, Twitter, where rumors spark rumors. Last Friday, @GuruDenver posted a tweet hinting that Colt & Gray, one of our favorite local dining dens and watering holes for pig trotters, charcuterie, cheeseburgers — which won a coveted Best of Denver award — and clever cocktails, might be shuttering. And on…
“I’m done. Finito. I’m out.” That was Enrique Guerrero, chef/owner of Mangiamo Pronto!, describing his departure from the downtown Italian cafe that he opened in 2009, a year after he introduced Santa Feans to the same restaurant — a properly restorative food temple that turns out fantastic housemade pastas, one…
Earlier this week, I was in San Francisco, eating, drinking (and subsequently, drunk tweeting) and awkwardly, dazedly navigating my way — along with 17,000 other foodniks — through the bazillions of aisles at the 2011 Winter Fancy Food Show, the largest specialty food and beverage trade show in North America…
While Rachel Kesley, the subject of this week’s Chef and Tell interview, isn’t a vegetarian, WaterCourse Foods, the restaurant whose kitchen she presides over, is strictly vegetarian. The menu, a mash-up of vegetables, grains, tofu, seitan, tempeh, cheeses, pastas and Mexican dishes, has a legion of devoted followers, many of…
Despite atrocious directions from Mapquest and my car’s worthless GPS navigation system, which sent me stalking the streets by the stockyards — nowhere near my destination — I wanted my last dinner before heading off to the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco to be anything but fancy, so I…
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. This week at…
Rachel Kesley WaterCourse Foods 837 East 17th Avenue 303-832-7313 www.watercoursefoods.com This is part two of Lori Midson’s interview with Rachel Kesley, executive chef of WaterCourse Foods. In part one of that interview, which ran in this space yesterday, Kesley dishes on produce-driven menus, vegetarianism and her fascination with figs. Rules…
“Denver chose us,” claims Cameron Mitchell, the president and founder of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, which includes Ocean Prime, the two-tiered steak and seafood supper club that opens Thursday on Larimer Square, in the former Z Gallery space at 1465 Larimer Street. “We want to build two to three restaurants each…
No. 80: Larb nua from Taste of Thailand. Taste of Thailand chef/owner Noy Farrell, who has been turning out Thai food since 1994 from the kitchen confines of her faithfully crowded restaurant across the street from Swedish Hospital, grows vegetables, berries, herbs and various varieties of garlic from her own…
Rachel Kesley WaterCourse Foods 837 East 17th Avenue 303-832-7313 www.watercoursefoods.com This is part one of Lori Midson’s interview with Rachel Kesley, executive chef of WaterCourse Foods. In part two of that interview, Kesley dishes on umeboshi vinegar, the traveling food cart and eating a buzz button. The best advice from…
Years ago, when I lived in San Diego and Los Angeles, I’d end my drunken nights of debauchery holed up at a taqueria, where Cali-style burritos were slung 24/7. My favorite taqueria in the world is in Santa Barbara, but my second favorite is right here in the heart of…
No. 81: Sichuan braised beef noodle soup from Zoe Ma Ma Zoe Ma Ma is a weird little place, slightly ratty and tatty, definitely earthy, often chaotic and occasionally quiet, with the only audible hums coming from the kitchen of Anna Zoe, the slight, grandmotherly matriarch who presides over the…
Anyone who’s ever been to San Francisco — which is where I am right now — and slurped oysters should know exactly where the above photo was snapped. Can you guess where I’m eating…in San Francisco? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am…
Devil’s Food Bakery, the sadistically addictive breakfast nook in Washington Park that’s long been worshiped for its unassailable eggs Benedict, which just keep getting better and better, started up dinner service in the spring of last year, turning out a short, seasonal board of diabolically good eats three nights a…
Earlier this week, we announced the bumper crop of super-talented local culinarians who were tapped to become the next ring of FIVE — namely Paul Reilly (Encore), Brandon Biederman (Steuben’s), Enrique Socarras (Cuba Cuba) and Bryan Dayton (Oak at Fourteenth). That, of course, is only four, but a fifth member…
Haven’t made your New Year’s resolutions yet? That makes two of us. But instead of focusing on ourselves, we prodded more than two dozen Denver/Boulder chefs to find out what they resolve to do in 2011. Their answers ranged from the obvious (get in shape) to the romantic (spoiling a…
No. 82: Chicken potpie from Devil’s Food I have the good fortune to live in Washington Park, a neighborhood strewn with willowy trees, neighbors that sell fresh eggs from their country farm and gorgeous old houses that have closets the size of pin cushions, but pretty cool interior woodwork. The…
Michel Wahaltere’s head is hanging out the window of his paddy wagon parked in an abandoned lot on East Colfax, between York and Josephine, when he suddenly looks up, thrusts open the doors, grabs my hand and drags me around back. “See this?” he asks, panting and pointing to the…
I’d come in to try the gumbo, which I’d been told — wrongly, as it turned out — was the be-all and end-all of gumbos, so I pushed it aside, and instead got my hands and mouth messy with Cajun shrimp — heads intact. Can you guess where I’m eating?…
This is part two of Lori Midson’s interview with Robert Bogart, executive chef of Elway’s Downtown. In part one of that interview, which ran yesterday, Bogart raps on strange guest requests, one roof and how he wishes that cooks would get the respect they deserve. Rules of conduct in your…
