A grand tax lien for Grand Lux Cafe

  The Grand Lux Cafe at 8401 Park Meadows Drive is big — big concept, big menu, big space. And now, according to a court filing, it has a big bill due at the state: Colorado has hit the restaurant in Arapahoe County with a $16,014 tax lien for failure to…

Wake-Up Call: Hold your horses!

One of the last vestiges of Fred Kummer’s reign as a Denver hotelier disappeared yesterday. The two mammoth horse sculptures that had reared their ugly heads in the lobby of the former Adam’s Mark Hotel for years were hauled out of the building (and not easily — they each weigh…

Bruce’s Bar is back, and so are the Rocky Mountain oysters

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, I headed up I-25 to Fort Collins and then turned east for Severance, the town “where the geese fly and the bulls cry,” to give thanks for a tradition restored. Bruce’s Bar has been serving Rocky Mountain oysters since the mid-’50s, almost without interruption — unlike…

It takes balls to be the World Testicle Cooking Champion

Back when this city was so concerned with being lean and green, I wondered what that health-conscious program would do to the proper preparation of Rocky Mountain oysters, Colorado’s unofficial state food (as seen on the Let’s Talk Colorado tourism page, which I took to task for its general incoherence in…

Guilty verdict in Ha Noi Pho Case

Yesterday, a Denver jury convicted Phuong Van Dang of attempted first-degree assault on a peace officer, attempted aggravated robbery and a whole one-from-column-A, one-from-column-B menu of other charges connected to an incident last fall at Ha Noi Pho, at 1036 South Federal Boulevard. Dang was armed with a shotgun and wearing a mask…

Robert Thompson is headed back to Denver

When last we saw Robert Thompson, he’d closed Brasserie Rouge, was out of Atomic Cowboy, and was selling B-52 Billiards (which would become the Real World: Denver House, then Theorie). He moved on to Chicago, where he’s now co-owner of Seasoned Development — a restaurant company that just leased 5,500 space at 1433…

Wake-Up Call: Andrew Hudson is suddenly very popular

Andrew Hudson is busier than a business reporter tracking the latest layoffs. That’s because he’s become the first person people call when they’re laid-off, or think they could be laid-off. Hudson has made it his job to let people know where the jobs are. And since he specializes in communications,…

SAME Cafe makes the Washington Times

The idea — letting people pay what they can (or want to) for a meal — sounded crazy from the start, but SAME Cafe just keeps going. And growing, having recently expanded into the storefront next to its original home at 2023 East Colfax. And the restaurant just rated a story in…

The List: Best burgers

Every Monday through the end of March 2009 (when we unveil the Best of Denver 2009) we’ll be posting a list of some of our favorite Denver dishes/restaurants on Cafe Society. Have a request? A comment? Post it here. Jason Sheehan’s recent review of The Counter (shown here) got us thinking about…

Wake-Up Call: All aboard the Phil Anschutz express

Seconds after Scripps-Howard suddenly announced that the Rocky Mountain News was for sale last Thursday, hopeful eyes were turning to Phil Anschutz, the local billionaire who’s already saved another local institution — the Ski Train that has taken generations of skiers from Union Station to Winter Park, the city-owned resort. And unlike other…

Now open: Mangia Bevi at Palazzo Verdi

People have been raving about Palazzo Verdi since the office building housing the Madden Museum of Art as well as the Atrium event space debuted last month. And now Mangia Bevi is giving them more reason to applaud. The European-style cafe, created by Larry DiPasquale and run by his Epicurean Catering  (which also…

But wait! There are restaurants in actual ski lodges in Colorado!

Echo Mountain, the ski area closest to Denver, just kicked off its third full season of operation on Friday, and while the mountain is relatively no-frills, it does have a restaurant: the Echo Cafe, located in Echo’s Garage. Fresh soups, sandwiches and pizzas have been added to the menu at this indoor/outdoor dining…

New York restaurants snowed by ski-lodge style

  Ski lodge-style restaurants are all the rage in New York City, the New York Times reports in “Antlers and S’mores,” a piece in the paper’s December 7 edition. There’s the Pinetree lodge, “a maze of comfy rooms with so many trophy heads mounted on the walls that you’d think they’d snagged…

Wake-Up Call: Let it snow, let it snow…

Cocktail party conversation isn’t easy this holiday season — if anyone’s holding cocktail parties, that is. Two safe topics: the Broncos (since the team’s still winning) and the weather — which is as Colorado-wacky as ever. A beautiful weekend, then snow today; record highs last Tuesday, record lows on Thursday…

Steuben’s toasts the end of Prohibition — 75 years ago

  How to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the repeal of the 18th Amendment? At Steuben’s, the two-year-old restaurant/watering hole at 531 East 17th Avenue that celebrates regional cuisines and quirks, they marked the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933 — which effectively ended Prohibition…

Happy anniversary to Big Hoss

  Big Hoss BBQ has been big since almost the minute opened the joint opened two years ago at 3961 Tennyson Street. And on Saturday, December 6,, Big Hoss will celebrate its second anniversary in a big way: with $9.99 night (that’s the price for all single ribs, BBQ plates,…

Five cents a beer at the Fainting Goat!

Tonight, and tonight only, starting at 9:30 p.m. all Smithwick’s pours at the Fainting Goat, the new bar at 846 Broadway, will be just a nickel. Until the joint runs out of the Irish ale, that is, and we’ve been assured they have at least sixty pints. Cheers!…

What Denver restaurants would you recommend to Food & Wine?

Mayor John Hickenlooper, in New York City for an appearance on Good Morning America earlier today, isn’t taking off the rest of the day. He’ll be pitching the city’s restaurant scene to Food & Wine travel editor Jen Murphy. Murphy’s most recent Denver reference was in the September issue, which…

Denver on Good Morning America

Denver’s spent decades trying to convince the rest of the country that everyone in this town doesn’t walk around singing the tunes created by John Denver, a man who a) wasn’t born in Denver (he hailed from Indiana) and b) wasn’t born John Denver (his birth name was Henry Deutschendorf)…

Wake-Up Call: A pressing engagement

Jinx. Last month, the two dailies stopped arriving at my house. The last time I’d reupped my subscription, I hadn’t been able to commit beyond six months — I simply didn’t think that both papers would be around that long. And in November, the end of one seemed so inevitable…