Head to the hills of Frisco this weekend for the mountain town’s annual two-day Barbecue Challenge, a heated event that brings together competitive grillers from across the country. The riotous pig races are always a big draw, as is the pancake breakfast, live music and parade of barbecue grills, barrels…

Today marks the beginning of the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, a three-day food orgy and wine romp that lures all sorts of grape stompers and rock-star chefs — you know, big names like Mario Batali, Jacques and Claudine Pépin, Ming Tsai, Nancy Silverton, José Andrés, Bobby Flay, Michel…

Devil’s Food Bakery, the bake shop and java joint at 1020 South Gaylord Street, is welcoming Denver-based food stylist and cookbook designer Erica McNeish from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. tonight for a down-home dinner featuring barbecue, sandwiches, grilled sweet corn, Southern-style salads (many of which are vegetarian), cobblers and…

Panzano, 909 17th Street, already lays claim to one of the best happy hours in town — especially from a foodnik’s point of view — and now comes word that exec chef Elise Wiggins has raised the bar even higher by introducing some terrific weekly specials. On Sunday nights, the…

For reasons that are now unclear to me, I thought that attending the anniversary bash of Black Pearl, the classy Platt Park restaurant at 1529 South Pearl Street that celebrates its fourth birthday this month, would be a night off from the typical debauchery that follows me just about everywhere…

As reported here a few weeks ago, Colore Pizzeria Moderna, a new pizza and pasta joint at 2700 South Broadway, was supposed to open today, but I just talked with co-owner Caroline Momo-Torres, who says that it’s not going to happen. “It’s like the last month of pregnancy, you know?…

Tonight, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Black Pearl, 1529 South Pearl Street, the restaurant owned by Sean Huggard and Steve Whited, who also run Encore at 2550 East Colfax, celebrates four years of survival in the restaurant-soaked Platt Park ‘hood with a big time party featuring complimentary passed appetizers…

Starting today and continuing through Tuesday, September 29, Civic Center Park will be the site for the Civic Center Outdoor Market & Cafe, an urbanized farmers’ market that kicks off the summer season today at 11 a.m. with live music and numerous vendors peddling everything from organic fruits and vegetables…

“Thank you for calling Pizzicato Gourmet Pizza in Capitol Hill, Denver. Due to the economic times, we have decided to close this location.”That’s the message I got when I called the only Colorado outpost of the Oregon-based pizzeria earlier this afternoon to check on a rumor that the joint was…

This summer, Cook Street School of Fine Cooking, 1937 Market Street, celebrates ten years of teaching idiots, pretenders, professionals, iconoclasts and everyone in between the tricks and tools of the cooking trade. To mark the anniversary, it’s holding a series of events, including a recipe contest (in conjunction with the…

A new barbecue joint named Johnie’s has opened at 5280 West 25th Avenue in Edgewater, in the space that recently held the short-lived Tiki Torch and, before that, the Okoboji Inn, where the broasted chicken was a bird that flew right.But Johnie’s joins a busy little block of feed bags…

One of the best food events of the year, Plates for the Peak, a small plates fundraiser and silent auction to benefit Urban Peak, a non-profit that saves kids from the jaws of homelessness, returns for a sixth year to Vesta Dipping Grill, 1822 Blake Street, tonight from 6 to…

When Colt & Gray, the new gastropub taking shape at 1553 Platte Street, opens next month, owner and executive chef Nelson Perkins says he’ll be ready. “This restaurant has honestly been in the works for more than two years, and I think we’ve achieved what we set out to do,…

Spent this past week chasing down the restaurants and watering holes that will join Whole Foods Market at the new Streets of SouthGlenn (Arapahoe Road and University Boulevard), which will hold its grand opening Thursday, August 27 through Sunday, August 30. The majority of restaurants are familiar chains, some homegrown,…

Public House, the former Michigan State-friendly bar at 1920 Blake Street that gave up last year, has finally been taken over by the folks who run the Giggling Grizzly, close by at 1320 20th Street. They plan to turn the space into Lizard’s Bar & Grill sometime in July. And…

The Denver Botanic Gardens, 1005 York Street, is kicking off its inaugural Garden Grapes & Hops party tonight at 5:30 p.m. with a flower pot auction, live music from Chris Daniels & the Kings and all-you-can-eat food and drink from 15 local restaurants, including Steuben’s, Wynkoop Brewing Company, Bombay Clay…

All the rain in Spain couldn’t have dampened the spirits at last night’s Hot Rocks Griller Challenge at Elway’s Cherry Creek (2500 East First Avenue), a benefit for the Denver Heath Foundation that brought together eleven Denver chefs, chaperoned by Denver Bronco cheerleaders, who coerced and sweet-talked patrons into “voting”…

Hey, meatheads! Beginning today and continuing through Sunday, June 14, Steven Raichlen — grilling and barbecue big shot, cookbook author (28 and counting), former Food Network host and current PBS television mouthpiece — brings his big-man-on-campus barbecue prowess to the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs for BBQ University, a fired-up,…

All you civilians are going to have to wait until Monday, June 15, to witness the unveiling of the state’s newest Whole Foods Market, the nineteenth in the Rocky Mountain region, and one of the first tenants in a wave of retailers, bars and restaurants that’s setting up digs in…

Just got off the phone with Anthony, who couldn’t have been any more polite — or any less forthcoming — about the story behind Simms Landing, the iconic Lakewood restaurant at 11911 West Sixth Avenue, a perch from which it has overlooked downtown Denver for more than thirty years, moving…

Real food. Sharp utensils. Big fire. A good cause. And Denver’s top chefs. That’s what’s on tap tonight, from 6 to 9 p.m., at Elway’s Cherry Creek, 2500 East First Avenue, when eleven of the town’s top cookers – Tyler Wiard (Elway’s, Cherry Creek); Sean Yontz (Mezcal, Tambien and Sketch);…