The Inventing Room’s Ian Kleinman is equal parts chef and scientist, serving up wild and wonderful treats at his Ballpark neighborhood dessert bar. You can stop in and enjoy liquid-nitrogen ice cream, exploding whipped cream and housemade cotton candy in unusual flavors just for the pure pleasure of it —…

Civic Center Eats, the food-truck convergence on the main plaza at Civic Center Park that’s now in its eleventh season, kicked off earlier this month to better weather than last year, when May saw rain on all but one day of the month. This year, the rally has added a…

Brazilian fast casual from Missoula, Montana, with a name that sounds like a Central City roulette strategy? That’s Five on Black, which opened its first Colorado location in Boulder in late April and is set to debut in Denver at 1617 California Street (in the former Planet Sub location) this summer…

Everybody’s favorite fried-chicken-joint-slash-petting-zoo, White Fence Farm, is making urban inroads. After Craig Caldwell and Tom Piercy bought the Lakewood family restaurant from founder Charlie Wilson in 2014, they’ve had as a goal growing the business with several quick-service outposts. The first opened in Green Valley Ranch at the end of last…

Chef Pino Saverino opened Pino’s Neighborhood Pizzeria & Wine Bar in Cherry Hills Village in 2011 and the little eatery has served as a neighborhood gathering spot at 1400 East Hampden Avenue, with wine, pizza and housemade pasta drawing customers and Saverino’s old-world hospitality keeping them coming back. Now the…

At the corner of West 32nd Avenue and Pecos Street in Lower Highland there’s an eatery built from a repurposed, semi-industrial building with a spacious outdoor patio, great views of downtown and a dozen beers on tap. Oh, and it has its own parking lot, so no, it’s not Avanti…

You’ve mastered single-malt and bested craft beer; you’ve even solved the mysteries of mezcal and speak reasonable rum. But what of that clear — and clearly baffling — Japanese rice beverage called sake? Most of us vaguely remember blurry nights filled with dragon rolls and rounds of hot sake, sometimes…

Highland Tap & Burger at 2219 West 32nd Avenue is known for, you guessed it, beer and burgers. But Juan Padro, who owns the lively bar with his wife, Katie O’Shea Padro, grew up eating his family’s Puerto Rican cooking and visits the Caribbean island regularly, so it’s his prerogative as…

When Avanti Food & Beverage opened last summer in Lower Highland, the concept was to use the seven shipping-containers-turned-kitchens inside as incubators for chefs and entrepreneurs, where they could test restaurant ideas and new menus in a cheaper alternative to a full brick-and-mortar build. The initial leases were short-term, with…

The Uptown neighborhood said goodbye this week to two restaurants, both on 17th Avenue, that will be remembered fondly. Restaurateur Robert Thompson closed Argyll Whisky Beer after two years, and Mary Nguyen will do the same with her decade-old P17 just down the street. Both are shuttering their chef-driven eateries…

The sun is finally out and the weekend weather forecast looks stable (although we know how that goes in Colorado), so Denverites will be out en masse to enjoy bites and booze on the city’s many restaurant patios. You could pick one spot to while away the hours with drink…

Soul food restaurants have a way of seeming timeless, or out of time, with service, decor and humble plates that could hold up in any decade over the last half-century. CoraFaye’s Cafe at 2861 Colorado Boulevard is no exception; the quaint dining room feels lived-in and historical, even if the restaurant…

At 4 p.m. tomorrow,  May 20, chef/restaurateur Troy Guard will open the doors to his new Lucky Cat Chinese restaurant, which takes the place of Bubu at 7559 East Academy Boulevard in Lowry. The eatery is Guard’s homage to the Chinese takeout joints of his childhood, with a little Asian culinary…

Chef/restaurateur Kevin Taylor has been helping shape Denver’s dining scene for decades, opening Zenith American Grill downtown in 1987 at the age of 25. He continued with a string of culinary hits from the still-running Palettes in the Denver Art Museum and Kevin Taylor’s at the Opera House to the…

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been an invasion of Texas taco slingers in the metro area. Torchy’s hit big when it landed at 1085 Broadway earlier this year, and new outposts will open soon in Englewood and Northfield. Before that, Forth Worth transplant Fuzzy’s Tacos was already packing the house…

Restaurateur Robert Thompson has been expanding his Punch Bowl Social family of gastro-tainment spots nationwide over the past few years, garnering attention as an astute businessman in the process. Earlier this month he was named by Ernst & Young as a mountain-desert regional finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year for…

Four Friends Kitchen in Stapleton recently brought on chef Scott Parker to head the kitchen at the lively breakfast and lunch eatery. When the restaurant opened just over a year ago, the kitchen at Four Friends was under the guidance of executive chef Larry Shore, who’s moved on to a…

Giles Flanagin and Jeff Smokevitch opened Blue Pan Pizza at 3930 West 32nd Avenue last summer to nearly instant acclaim, thanks to a roster of regional pizzas highlighted by a thick, crusty, Detroit-style pie that has won over West Highland hearts and bellies. This was Smokevitch’s second pizza joint, after…

Caribbean cuisine is a rarity in Denver, probably with good reason. After all, moving to a city where frostbite is even a remote possibility couldn’t have much appeal for anyone who grew up on a tropical island. Still, a few folks from the Caribbean have found their way to our…

The day is finally here; after thirteen months of remodeling and repairs after storm damage last spring, Don and Dora D’Andrea are welcoming guests back to their Littleton Taco House at 1390 West Littleton Boulevard. The doors opened at 11 a.m. for lunch and will be open from 11 a.m…