Gluten-Free Cupcakes: We have a winner!

When local author Elana Amsterdam released her latest cookbook, Gluten-Free Cupcakes, last month, her publisher kindly promised a copy of the book to the person who left the best gluten-free or high-altitude baking tip as a comment on our blog post. And for her extensive answer, Holly Heiman is our…

Reader: Does food that’s good for you have to look so bad?

Does food that’s so good for you have to look so bad? That’s the question Skipper poses after Veggie Girl Amber Taufen’s recent piece on the venerable Mercury Cafe. Every single dish looks appalling. Who is responsible for these nightmarish piles of veggies, chips, cheese, and noodles? Just because you…

Tonight: Wine tasting at Marczyk Fine Foods

It may be Friday the 13th, but we know you’ll have good luck at Marczyk Fine Foods, which hosts a wine tasting every Friday. Tonight you can taste the featured wines of May and take advantage of sales — as well as the Friday burger specials. For more information, call…

Denver’s five best happy hours

We’re fans of happy hour, when we hurry to this city’s watering holes to blow off steam and eat and drink for cheap. You’ll frequently find us at Root Down, winner of our 2011 Best Happy Hour. But Denver has many more good happy hours, and here are four more…

Guess where I’m eating?

I sloshed through the rain yesterday, dodging through buildings and banks on my way to a warmer climate — a bar (of course) — that was colder than it should have been, and when my Reuben arrived, plated with sweet-potato fries, I had high hopes of chasing off the chill,…

Sugar Bakeshop will open next Tuesday

The Sugar Bakeshop got its start a few years ago at farmers’ markets, where Natalie Slevin would hawk cupcakes and other pastries to weekend shoppers. From those humble beginnings, she grew her enterprise into a made-to-order bakery that made treats from “bread to wedding cakes, and everything in between,” Slevin…

Round two with Sushi Sasa’s Wayne Conwell

Wayne Conwell Sushi Sasa 2401 Fifteenth Street 303-433-7272 www.sushisasadenver.com This is part two of my interview with Wayne Conwell, executive chef/owner of Sushi Sasa. In part one of that interview with Conwell, he dishes on working for Iron Chef Morimoto, the genius of Jeff Osaka and sushi “edibles.” Best recent…

Tonight: Wine, Women and Chocolate at Dove House

What goes better with wine and chocolate than women? It’s the perfect trilogy. And from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. tonight, Dove House, 1055 South Public Road in Lafayette, will offer Wine, Women and Chocolate, featuring chocolate, wine and cheese samplings. Tickets are $30; attendees are encouraged to donate gently used…

Tonight: Mixology Showdown at the Denver Central Library

Tonight the Denver Central Library, 10 West 14th Avenue Parkway, will host a Mixology Showdown: Whiskey and the Wild West. Seven restaurants are going to duel to be named the Best in the West; each restaurant will bring a signature whiskey cocktail and happy-hour appetizer. The fun runs from 5:30…

Second Helping: Bones

I haven’t totally fallen for Lou’s Food Bar, which I review this week, and my initial lust for Green Russell has ebbed, at least temporarily. But from my initial meal at Bones, which Frank Bonanno opened in December 2008, it was love at first bite, and my fondness for the…

Is Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan a beer nerd?

Last week, we wrote that Wu-Tang Clan member and solo rapper Ghostface Killah made a sort-of surprising move by okaying the use of his name on a beer made by Boulder-based Twisted Pine Brewing. Ghost just asked that Twisted Pine sent him a few cases of the incredibly spicy beer,…