Food & Drink

With Denver’s first IKEA opening in Centennial in the fall, it’s pretty much guaranteed that for the first few months the place will be crammed like a herring barrel with gawking newbies and affordable Swedish furniture fanatics, everyone newly converted from “WTF is IKEA?” to “Holy Jesus! Have you been…

Cafe Society served up six Guess where contests last week, ranging from a still-unidentified Italian breakfast (the photo above is another clue) to a breakfast burrito at La Fuente to a plate of crab legs. For correctly those kickers as coming from Shanahan’s, Simoney wins an EatDenver deck…

Last week, we gave two EatDenver decks to the diners who had the best/worst Denver Restaurant Week stoies. Now, as thanks to all the hard-working restaurant employees who had to slog through two weeks of the promotion, we’re giving an EatDenver deck to one of their own: Brian Melton of…

The news that Jason Sheehan is leaving the Pacific Northwest to return to the East Coast and a job at Philadelphia Magazine inspired numerous comments that indicated Sheehan may be long-gone as the Westword food critic, but will never be forgotten. And there was no love lost on either Philadelphia…

…But no, he’s not returning to Denver. In early 2010, after almost eight years as Westword’s Cafe critic (and six months after his memoir, Cooking Dirty, was published), Jason Sheehan moved to our partner paper in Seattle, the Seattle Weekly. But now he sends us this update: I swore for…

If you’re not completely liquored-out after yesterday’s St. Paddy’s Day festivities, it’s shaping up to be a beautiful weekend for a beer tasting. And while Upslope’s already got a pleasant spot for brew touring — the taproom frequently puts out lawn games to entertain imbibers — it’s offering more incentive…

This fall Denver will get its first IKEA, when the massive showroom that hawks value Swedish furniture is slated to finally open its doors in Centennial. And the store seems to be on schedule, because it just started hiring its staff. And because shopping at IKEA is frequently an all-day…

It’s never been easier to go vegetarian or vegan, and the annual Great American Meatout (which happens every year on or around March 20) is a fantastic reminder of what we can do for our bodies and for the planet by simply changing our eating habits. Keep reading for a…

Rare is the breakfast barn that bakes a really good biscuit, but the one in the above snap, scented with sage, and topped with scrambled eggs, cheddar and ham, is a biscuit that busts our chops. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct…

Restaurants owned and managed by smart people know that diners are interested in the main attraction: the steaks, the chickens, the fish, the enchiladas, even the sandwiches. But although customers don’t necessarily get up and do the hustle when they think about what sides come with their meals, they are…

Welcome to In the Weeds. Kyle will be right with you — most likely to complain about something. Usually he is pleasant, but this is his place to blow off some steam. Don’t take it personally; he just needs to vent because he’s been doing this for about thirteen years…

Today is the last day for servers to serve up their Denver Restaurant Week survival stories and win an EatDenver deck (earlier this week, we gave decks to diners with the two best/worst DRW stories). The deadline is 5 p.m., but we already have a contender: Brian Melton of TAG,…

I actually had to think for a few minutes to remember last night’s Quickfire Challenge on Top Chef, perhaps because it was as much, or more, about plating than food. The chefs, who are still in the Bahamas, had to split into two teams of two and create a hundred…

Six years ago, Ryan Hardy took the reins as executive chef at the Little Nell in Aspen, a position he won after stints at San Francisco’s Rubicon and another Aspen restaurant, Rustique. During his tenure there, he garnered awards and James Beard nominations for his menu of seasonal Colorado cuisine,…

Hail to the king — crab, that is. When I was growing up, my dad used to take me our for crab legs every Sunday, but then, one day, I I wearied of cracking the shells and dribbling butter down my chin. So I quit. Just like that. Recently, though,…