Justin Cucci’s Edible Beats restaurant group includes runaway successes Root Down and Linger in Lower Highland as well as the Root Down that opened at Denver International Airport in 2013. In the coming months, Cucci will double the size of his restaurant empire with three new concepts in various stages of development,…
No. 45: Tuna Mousse at Cart-Driver 2500 Larimer St. 303-292-3553 Cart-Driver owner and chef Kelly Whitaker started out calling this dish tuna panna cotta at his first restaurant, Basta, in Boulder, but it’s now on the daily menu at the popular Five Points market and pizzeria, Cart-Driver, labeled simply as…
Denver International Airport turns twenty years old on Saturday and with it many of the food concessions and restaurants that have been serving up coffee, sandwiches and cocktails to travelers since 1995. In recent years, some of Denver’s top eateries have expanded into DIA, earning the airport national recognition as…
India’s Restaurant has been around the block a few times in South Denver. Krishan Kappor’s house of curries and kabobs started out as a barely noticeable eatery at the back of Tamarac Square (which has since been demolished) more than 25 years ago. Just over five years ago, India’s hopped…
No. 46: Sesame Pockets at Golden Plate II 9880 West Girton Avenue, Lakewood 303-763-9028 Golden Plate II (no relation to the former Golden Plate Chinese restaurant that once graced East Hampden Avenue), occupies a nearly invisible space in a nondescript strip mall which had, up until January, featured the hair-metal…
Laurent Mechin Jill’s Restaurant/St. Julien Hotel 900 Walnu t Street, Boulder 720-406-7399 Laurent Mechin moved to Boulder six years ago to take a job as executive chef and culinary director at Jill’s Restaurant, which also serves as the kitchen for the St Julien Hotel. Mechin’s French upbringing and training are…
You’ve got the first two meals of the day covered: breakfast is a cup of Greek yogurt and a coffee and lunch is being catered by your office. But between the bad weather, the overtime you’ve been working and all of the kids’ school activities, dinner somehow got lost in…
The menu at the new Zoe Ma Ma, which opened last month right by Union Station, features some of the most comforting home-style Chinese food in Denver, with warming bowls of housemade noodles buried in braised beef and savory sauce, Chinese chicken-and-rice soup, and dumplings, bao buns and meatballs made…
The snowstorm that swept through Denver over the weekend didn’t quite live up to the dire predictions that had residents clearing grocery-store shelves in advance of the weather, but more cold temperatures and snow are in the forecast for the next several days, making the tease of mild, sunny days…
Girl Scout cookie season is upon us, threatening our will power and our waistlines. If you’ve already maxed out on Thin Mints, Samoas and other annual favorites but are still craving sweets, Grimaldi’s Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria in the Denver Pavilions has just what you need: the pizza kitchen’s creamy cheesecakes…
At most restaurants, chicken skin either stays on the chicken or ends up in the trash along with potato peels, cilantro stems and carrot tops. But leave it to enterprising and creative kitchens to figure out a way to make a few extra bucks from a food product that has…
Our restaurant critic Gretchen Kurtz reviewed Kings BBQ last July, noting that its off-the-beaten-path location in Lakewood was a good sign. Of the smokehouse’s brisket, she professed true affection: ” That dish was love spelled m-e-a-t, with the chewy black edges called bark, the telltale pink smoke ring, and chunks…
Henry Batiste opened his first eatery in New Orleans in 1985, but has been out of the restaurant game for many years. For the past decade he’s been a liquor rep for Beverage Distributors in Denver, but he recently got the itch to jump back in. After months of scouting…
No. 47: Pupusas Revueltas at Pupuseria San Salvador 4385 South Federal Boulevard, Sheridan 720-327-8146 The Salvadoran hand-formed corn masa pockets known as pupusas at Pupuseria San Salvador are, like the restaurant itself, small and tidy. Unlike the big, sloppy rounds found at many other pupusa joints in town, these are…
Joseph Pitruzzelli and Tyler Wilson have been in the sausage business for the past six years, serving a wide variety of classic, gourmet and exotic sausages in a modern take on a German beer hall. With locations in downtown Los Angeles and Venice Beach, the business partners are expanding their…
As Denver’s food scene continued to boil over, the city’s chefs and eateries are getting more and more attention from national media and recognition from groups dedicated to celebrating the country’s best restaurants. The biggest news, which came out today, is that five Denver and Boulder chefs and restaurants have…
Denver Restaurant Week kicks off ten days of dining deals this Friday at some of the city’s best restaurants. Many have been booked for weeks, so if you haven’t made a reservation at your favorite spot, you may be out of luck scoring a seat for a $30 dinner. But…
Growth has put the spotlight on many previously depressed Denver neighborhoods, but La Alma-Lincoln Park, tucked into a stretch south of the Auraria campus, still rates little attention from those who live outside the area. Restaurant lovers are familiar with the Buckhorn Exchange and Japanese favorite Domo, of course, but…
Mapo tofu, a tongue-searing blend of chiles, ground pork, cubes of tofu and, hopefully, numbing Sichuan peppercorns, has become an iconic dish in many Chinese and Japanese restaurants. It’s an odd combination for Western palates, since we generally associate tofu with lackluster vegetarian dishes. Mapo tofu, though, combines the swagger…
Adrian Miller’s first book, Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time, published in 2013 and winner of a James Beard Award last year, covers the history and evolution of African-American cooking from its African roots to its modern incarnations in professional urban kitchens…
Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) is just a couple of days away, so the time is definitely right to order dishes that represent good fortune and longevity. Whole fish and long, green vegetables fit that description, and both items are easy to find on the encyclopedic menus at…
Nathan Stern began selling coffee from his Gathering Grounds coffee truck in 2011 with the ultimate goal of opening a brick-and-mortar cafe that would not only sell coffee and snacks but would be a community center for fans of strategic board games. After more than three years, he opened Gathering…
