Meet the 2014 MasterMinds: Adam Stone, performance arts

Westword has always covered the local arts scene. But ten years ago, we recognized that if the arts were really going to grow in those town, they could use some some fertilizer in the form of cold, hard cash. And so we created the MasterMind Awards, which every year gives…

Reader: I’m in no rush to go back to Native Foods

Yesterday we posted Veggie Girl Amber Taufen’s list of the Five Best Vegetarian Restaurants in Denver, and the result has been a red-blooded, very meaty food fight over the benefits/drawbacks of several restaurants on the list — particularly City, O’ City and Native Foods. See also: Five best vegetarian restaurants…

Take Ten: Meet the latest class of MasterMinds

In the early 2000s, Denver was all about the creative class. Author/big thinker Richard Florida had labeled the metro area one of the top creative spots in the country, an honor that John Hickenlooper used to promote the city that had just elected him mayor. Fifteen years before, he’d been…

Reader: Why didn’t Natural Grocers open sooner in Capitol Hill?

Vitamin Cottage opened its first store fifty years ago in Lakewood. Today the natural-foods enterprise has morphed into Natural Grocers, with locations in a dozen states — including a brand-new store that opened this week in Capitol Hill, at 1433 Washington Street. But while the store was definitely welcomed by…

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives scout hits Mexico City Lounge

Its menu boasts that Mexico City Lounge has been family-owned for over forty years — and every year shows in the depth of flavor this modest kitchen gives its green chile (offered hot or mild), its fried tacos, its steak and breakfast burritos, even that squeeze bottle of salsa. Although…

Sonoda’s will leave LoDo at the end of service tomorrow

After almost twenty years in lower downtown, longtime restaurateur Kenny Sonoda is calling it quits, and at the end of service tomorrow, the Sonoda’s at 1620 Market Street will go dark. When Sonoda opened this second location of Sonoda’s — in the former home of the Manhattan Cafe, a pioneer…

Reader: You guys forgot Best Mexican Restaurant!

Over the thirty years of the Best of Denver, we’ve made a few changes: We now do our Readers’ Poll in two rounds, for example, and the first round of voting ends tonight; a second round with just the five finalists in each category will start late next week. And…

Reader: I was tricked into thinking Tincup was a Colorado-made product

When Tincup American Whiskey hit liquor-store shelves, it came with plenty of Colorado trappings. The bottle makes multiple references to the state, as does the leaflet attached to the neck. Its website is plastered with whiskey bottles positioned picturesquely in Colorado mountain backdrops, and the company boasts of its connection…

Long may Colorado’s creatives wave!

State representative Bob Rankin has waved the white flag. Last week, HB 1071, his proposal to take the new state brand to a vote of the people, failed to get out of committee, clearing the way for Governor John Hickenlooper’s Making Colorado campaign to continue rebranding this state. Just the…