When I reviewed the Squeaky Bean nine months ago, I was amused and delighted by what Max MacKissock was dreaming up in his tiny kitchen, playing with classic American dishes and making them into something new and unexpected. A reimagined shepherd’s pie, light enough for a summer evening. Sweetbreads made…
“Restaurant Week brings out the worst in people,” lamented one chef this week, after a woman lambasted his menu for offering three courses rather than four. “What the fuck is this?” she shouted at her server, who was so stunned she broke into tears. The restaurant — one of Denver’s…
The Southern Sun pub in Boulder will tap a firkin of its FYIPA today, the first of what brewer Brian Hutchinson hopes will lead to many more in the near future. In fact, the Southern Sun and Denver’s Vine Street Pub, which are both owned by the Mountain Sun Pub…
If you’ve ever been to the Valverde Country Club, a somewhat unsavory bar at 1319 West Alameda Avenue, then you know that the country club moniker is a little like comparing Fritos to foie gras. Still, the beers are ultra-cheap, the clientele, animated (to say the least), and now that…
Robert McCarthy Rialto Cafe 934 16th Street 303-893-2233 www.rialtocafe.com This is part two of my interview with Robert McCarthy, executive chef of Rialto Cafe. Part one of that interview ran in this space yesterday. Favorite restaurant in America: Lupa, Mario Batali’s restaurant in New York. It’s really simple, straightforward food…
Without exception, during every visit I made to Thai Flavor for this week’s review — and during the lunch I ate at US Thai Cafe for this week’s Second Helping — I overheard at least one table ask for chopsticks. I’d venture a guess that those diners thought they were…
Comments have been pouring out over the news that Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora (one of our “Top ten places to drink like a pirate”) has to change the name of its acclaimed Seven Seas Double IPA after getting a “nasty” letter from a lawyer representing 7 Seas Brewing Company…
This weekend, everyone should like green eggs and ham. The breakfast dish from Dr. Seuss’s book of the same name is central to a festive, philanthropic effort at the four locations of the Delectable Egg around Denver. The restaurants will be serving Sam I Am’s favorite dish today through March…
St. Patrick’s Day isn’t the only game in town. In honor of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament playoffs now at the Pepsi Center, Dixons Downtown Grill has introduced the March Meat Madness Platter: blackened chicken, sliced strip steak, jalapeno cheddar bratwurst, hot links and Polish sausage, served with sides and…
Of the three dozen or so Thai restaurants scattered around the metro area, I can think of only one that rises to the curry occasion as triumphantly as Thai Flavor, and that’s U.S. Thai Cafe in Edgewater. Ma Vue, a Laotian, opened the eatery in 2006, with native Thai chef…
Guinness, Jameson, car bombs, bag pipes, corned beef, Harp and an awful hangover: Those are just some of the things that come to mind when the average person thinks of St. Patrick’s Day. And the list is the same for bartenders at Irish pubs — with the notable additions of…
Sarah Amorese fell in love with chocolate when she lived in Amsterdam. “My boss used to bring Belgian chocolates back to the office,” she says. “And my husband — boyfriend at the time — and I did a lot of business trips through Europe. We used to visit every pastry…
Whenever I’m desperate for a breakfast burrito fix, I normally make the trek to the Taco Wagon in Lafayette, but that could soon change, because I recently discovered a taqueria closer to home that satiates my yearnings. Bonus: Excellent tamales and green chile, too. Can you guess where I’m eating?…
It’s not hard to see why Sputnik is so popular. At 8 p.m. on a Tuesday night — a time when most restaurants would see guests trickling out the door — the Baker-neighborhood joint is still packed, with every table occupied and almost every seat at the bar hosting a…
Last fall, the folks behind Organic Pizza Co., a nascent local chain, threw an introductory party in the top-floor party room of the spiffy Spire, where they demonstrated their commitment to top-notch ingredients and innovative pies. But there were delays in the build-out of the spot planned for the ground…
Green beer, St. Paddy’s Day, blah, blah, blah. Why not try something besides Guinness or Coors Light dyed green this year? FreshCraft will be pouring $4 Irish Divides (a name it made up), which are similar to black and tans and consist of Great Divide Hoss and O’Hara’s Irish Stout…
The Wash Park ‘hood, especially the stretch of Alameda, between Logan and Downing, is turning into a bona fide restaurant row, thanks to new restaurants like Bittersweet, Pho Pasta, and soon, a fifth outpost of Larkburger, joining stalwarts like Pete’s Central One, Lucile’s Creole Cafe, Fontana Sushi, Thai Basil and…
Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora will change the name of its acclaimed Seven Seas Double IPA sometime in the next few weeks after getting a “nasty” letter from a lawyer representing 7 Seas Brewing Company in Gig Harbor, Washington. “I was disappointed I didn’t get a phone call,” says Dry…
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. Pete and Barb…
Robert McCarthy Rialto Cafe 934 16th Street 303-893-2233 www.rialtocafe.com This is part one of my interview with Robert McCarthy, exec chef of Rialto Cafe. Part two of our interview will run in this space tomorrow. Robert McCarthy shakes his head in aggravation and rolls his eyes. “The hoods went down…
It was sixty years ago that Jerry Feld, then a student at the University of Denver, decided to get into the bar business and bought a watering hole at 404 Broadway from a man who’d opened it on the day Prohibition ended. At the time, Jerry was too young to…
Denver Restaurant Week ended at the close of service on March 11, with a record number of restaurants participating: 303. “Talk about a Denver number,” says Rich Grant, the spokesman for Visit Denver, the convention and visitors bureau that organizes the seven-year-old event. Even more impressive was the number of…
