There are very few Italian restaurants in Denver that make their ravioli in house, so I was nothing short of shocked when I walked into this pizza joint to grab a slice, only to glance at the menu and find that all of the pastas, including the ravioli, are made…

Derek Dietz Bocadillo 4044 Tejon Street 720-242-6417 derekdietz.wix.com/bocadillo This is part one of my interview with Derek Dietz, chef-owner of Bocadillo; part two of our conversation will run tomorrow. I’ve always had an eating problem,” jokes Derek Dietz. “When I was a kid, I was always the one who was…

My Christmas wish list, not surprisingly, lends itself to all things culinary — including cookbooks, of which I already have hundreds. But there were a few cookbooks that I treated myself to early: Pok Pok, by Andy Ricker, which is one of the most detailed (some might say daunting) explorations…

In 2011, when former Westword restaurant critic Laura Shunk reviewed Ondo’s Spanish Tapas Bar, a subterranean space in Cherry Creek that never had the benefit of the foot traffic on busier blocks with higher profiles, she raved about the joint, pointing out that Ondo’s “stays true to its Spanish inspiration.”…

Suffice it to say that I eat out more than the general population, unless, of course, the general population can catalogue more than 450 restaurant meals in a year — which is about the number of breakfasts, lunches and dinners that I stomached in 2012. Pathetic, isn’t it? But all…

You can order kung pao chicken from the menu at this Asian restaurant, which is exactly what my parents did, but the kitchen’s strengths reside in the more unfamiliar dishes like the Malaysian curry laksa, a flavor-bombed noodle-and-shrimp stew that benefits from the rich river of yolk that oozes from…

At the end of October, Samir Mohammad quietly departed the kitchen at Lala’s Wine Bar + Pizzeria, a bustling open galley of pizza, pastas and Americanized Italian food that he’d spent the past year commanding. “I left because there was a difference in views between me and the owners –…

It was my kid’s birthday over the weekend, and when you’re fourteen, spending time with your parents is about as much fun as taking final exams, so we shooed him and a friend off to their own table, while we — the embarrassing parents — squatted at the bar and…

Cafe Society dished up four Guess Where contests last week, ranging from a better-than-expected bowl of hot and sour soup from Red Coral to a potent whiskey-based cocktail, aptly named the “drunken sailor,” from Ace to a breakfast burrito packaged in (gasp!) Styrofoam from a takeout Mexican joint…

Considering the Golden Age diners that occupied every table but mine, the absence of chile sauce on the table and a multi-page menu that reads like every other pedestrian Chinese menu, I didn’t have high hopes for the hot and sour soup I ordered at this long-standing Chinese restaurant, but…

In late October, Marc Dak, along with his wife Stacy, a St. Louis native, opened Arch Pizza in Park Hill, a joint that’s modeled after Imo’s, a celebrated, family-owned, St. Louis-based pizza chain that dispenses cracker-thin crusted pies, cut in squares and paved with Provel cheese, a blend of processed…

Here is where I confess what many would consider a sin: Up until a few weeks ago, I’d never stepped foot inside Voodoo Doughnut. I have never shoved a cock-and-balls doughnut down my throat. Old-fashioned doughnuts, sure, Glazed doughnuts. Check. Doughnuts glistened with chocolate. Of course. But not a cock-and-ball…

Whiskey, beer, gin, vodka, wine and beer: It all flowed freely at a holiday party last night (thanks to all the awesome bartenders!), which made it all too easy to get wobbly from a whiskey cocktail, the name of which has “drunken” in its name for good reason. Can you…

Darren Pusateri Gallo Di Nero 1135 Bannock Street 303-825-1995 gallodinero.com This is part two of my interview with Darren Pusateri, exec chef of Gallo Di Nero; part one of our chat ran yesterday. What specific requests would you ask of Denver diners? I’d ask Denver diners to eat out, eat…

I celebrated a birthday yesterday, not at a fancy restaurant with Champagne and shavings of foie (or nibbling on scones and crumpets at the Brown Palace), but at a Mexican restaurant, a deliberate choice just to keep the “Midson is obsessed with Mexican food” sentiment going strong. The joint was…

This fall, when I chatted with Amerigo chef-owner Iain Chisholm for my weekly Chef and Tell interview, he described Amerigo, a craft-Italian restaurant on Upper Larimer, as “my stepping stone to set up the prototype for other concepts in the same vein — small, neighborhood restaurants that I can build…

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 a spacious kitchen. They often bring some of their market’s best ingredients home with them and cook up a feast, and when they’re not…

Months ago, I had the pleasure of spending the day butchering a pig with Kate Kavanaugh and her fiance, Josh Curtiss, the two of whom have spent the last few years conceptualizing, cultivating and building Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe, a new-school, artisanal chop shop of saws, hatchets and butcher blocks,…

Darren Pusateri Gallo Di Nero 1135 Bannock Street 303-825-1995 gallodinero.com This is part one of my interview with Darren Pusateri, exec chef of Gallo Di Nero; part two of our chat will run tomorrow. Darren Pusateri, clad in a heavy coat with an ebony scarf swaddled around his neck, shakes…

Memo to Mother Nature: Don’t think, even for a minute, that just because you’re trying to give us all frostbite with your insanely cold temperatures, that I’m going to stay holed up inside with a blow dryer shooting hot air on my face. In fact, I walked a whole block…

Earlier today, in the kitchen of Lower 48, the all-male squadron of cooks and chefs were prepping for tonight’s blast of bodies that will undoubtedly want a first glimpse — and taste — of one of the most anticipated restaurant openings of year. And considering it’s the crew’s first night…

Cafe Society dished up four Guess Where contests last week, ranging from a pumpkin beer poured behind the bar of Udi’s at City Set to a Thai green curry from Wild Ginger to a plate of crisp-fried pickles from a quirky restaurant in Highland…