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…
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…
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…
Batch 19, the Coors lager that comes from a pre-Prohibition recipe reportedly unearthed in an old log book in 2004, will go tap this week at three hand-picked bars in Denver. Stoney’s Bar & Grill, the Wazee Supper Club and Star Bar were selected in part because they are all…
Driving to the mountains, I’d passed Kermitts Roadhouse, located on exit 244 off I-70, hundreds of times. But I’d never stopped off there — and then, after a fire broke out in the bar on New Year’s Eve and shut down the place, I thought I might have missed my…
The Four Seasons is all set to give Denver a new rooftop bar, inviting the public up to Level 3, its swanky poolside digs every Thursday night this summer for cocktails and appetizers. The vibe, according to the hotel’s general manager Thierry Kennel, will channel Miami. And it was all…
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,…
Some like it hot! The festivities at this past weekend’s Cinco de Mayo festival in Civic Center Park included the fourth annual green chile contest. And the winners are: Judges’ awards: First place: El Taco de Mexico Second place: La Noria Carniceria Third place: Benny’s Restaurant y Cantina People’s choice…
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…
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…
Brewing beer is physical work. Every day, the guys in rubber waders who do it for a living hump (not that kind of “hump”; c’mon, people) dozens and dozens of fifty-pound sacks of malted barley, rip them open and pour them into a mill. They carry heavy bags, buckets and…
In this week’s Chef and Tell interview, Lori Midson talks with Wayne Conwell, owner/chef of Sushi Sasa, which opened in the summer of 2005 just off Platte Street, a pioneer in what would soon grow into one of the town’s biggest restaurant neighborhoods. But while Sushi Sasa specializes in raw…
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 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…
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…
Just got off the horn with Nelson Perkins, the executive chef/owner of Colt & Gray, who wanted to let us know that the kitchen is turning out something extra special tonight: Duck balls! And just in case you were wondering, these aren’t your every day duck balls dropped from the…
Last weekend’s back-to-back Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby party shenanigans left us feeling more than a little ready to lay off the sauce for a minute. Yet by noon on Sunday, there we were, staring down the wine list at brunch, feeling that familiar urge. That’s when it hit…
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,…
Marilyn Megenity has done such a fantastic job turning the Mercury Cafe, 2199 California Street, into a creative community outlet — offering dancing, live music, poetry slams, solstice celebrations, eco-friendly festivals and much more — that it’s easy to forget that the Merc is also, well, a cafe. With coffee…
Bryan Dayton is gearing up to rewrite the vodka martini-heavy drink list at Madison Street, and we can’t wait to see what the bartender has in store. In the meantime, there’s at least one cocktail already on the roster that we hope he considers keeping (and if he is going…
American Craft Beer Week is a beer drinker’s paradise, a week that celebrates small (and a few not-so-small) independent brewers around the country. There are a huge number of events going on this year in the Denver/Boulder area — not to mention the rest of the state — so not…
Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market’s choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast. Rhubarb season is…
