Five best bargains at the Friday Store

Since the Friday Store’s inventory is always changing, the most entertaining — and also most efficient — way to shop there is to just go with whatever bargains are best that day, then plan your meals around those items, checking off the rest of the ingredients on your grocery list…

Review preview: Silla

When the weather starts getting warmer, I develop an insatiable craving for bibim naeng myun, a tangy cold noodle dish imbued with the heat of chiles. So a few weeks ago, on one of the first really warm days of the year, I made my annual journey out to Silla,…

Pardon us! Hunger protest outside Tony’s Market

Aubrey Shomo is staging a one-week hunger protest right outside Tony’s Market at 950 Broadway — but she doesn’t have a beef with Tony’s. Rather, she wants to get the attention of Mark Noel, clemency director for the State of Colorado, whose office is right above Tony’s. Since she has…

Masterpiece Delicatessen looks to land a liquor license

Masterpiece Delicatessen hardly needs another reason to give crowds a reason to stop by: The breakfast and lunch eatery has been packing hordes of patrons into its tiny space and downtown-facing patio since it opened three years ago. But Steve Allee and Justin Brunson are about to make the neighborhood…

Get ready to run for these five winning rosés

We knew something was up when we noticed Denver-area wine shops stocking up and tasting customers on the 2010 rosés a good four weeks ago. And by “something,” we mean the notion that maybe — just maybe — dry rosés have finally kicked that monkey of pink wine-prejudice off its…

Now open: Hash

When Heather Haupman took over La Crema Cafeteria, a bare-bones coffee shop on 44th and Zuni, she was convinced the Sunnyside neighborhood needed a more upscale coffee and breakfast joint. So she remodeled the space, gave it a sunnier feel, and created Hash, which, in addition to Novo coffee and…

The Great Food Truck Race rolls into Denver this weekend

Pray to the weather gods that Denver is blessed with balmy breezes this weekend, because the food trucks competing in season two of The Great Food Truck Race, the primetime Food Network series hosted by star chef Tyler Florence, are motoring into town on Saturday and possibly Sunday (along with…

Guess where I’m eating?

African restaurants are (very) few and far between in Denver, but they do exist, including this one, where plantains, goat meat and rice take center stage. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I drinking/eating posts is…

Reader: Steve Ells goes for soul over cheese

Steve Ells, founder of the homegrown Chipotle chain, will have a starring role as the University of Colorado commencement speaker on Friday — just five days after he wrapped up his gig on America’s Next Great Restaurant. In the last episode of that series, Ells and his fellow judges chose…

Spicy noodles are enough to keep you coming back to Silla

I love Asian noodles: ramen, pho, Vietnamese bun bo Hue, Nepalese thupka, Taiwanese beef noodle soup. In the winter, I slurp bowl after bowl of hot broth, noodles and chunks of meat, ideally with some animal collagen to make the mix thick, velvety and rib-stickingly hearty. In spring, as the…

Sae Jong Kwan doesn’t look promising, but packs the heat

For the past few years, when the first whispers of warm weather stirred my annual craving for bibim naeng myun, I inevitably made a beeline straight for Silla, which served what I thought might be the best version of the cold buckwheat noodle dish in the area. But this spring…

What will Steve Ells invest in next? Soul Daddy

Amid making plans for ShopHouse, a new fast-casual Asian concept, and running the ever-expanding Denver-based Chipotle empire, Steve Ells has also been busy picking another restaurant concept in which to invest, working alongside Bobby Flay, Curtis Stone and Lorena Garcia to grant a would-be restaurateur the opportunity to run America’s…

Photos: The 1Up Arcade & Bar grand opening, 4/30/11

Back in March, we warned you that 1Up Arcade & Bar had planned to score big in LoDo. And that seems to be the case for the subterranean arcade/bar/restaurant on Blake Street (See photos from a recent Saturday night at 1Up), which is packing in the crowds. On Saturday night,…

Now open: Chef Vue

Nearly five years after native Laotian Ma Vue graced Edgewater residents with US Thai Cafe — which offers up some of the best curry in the city — he’s added a second restaurant in Denver: Chef Vue opened in the Town Center in Aurora two weeks ago…