Food & Drink

In 2003, Leigh Sullivan was questioning what a lot of us in Denver ponder when discussing the Denver dining climate. Why, she wondered, is everyone focusing on the restaurants and chefs in San Francisco, Chicago and New York, when, in fact, Denver has its own vibrant culinary landscape? A landscape,…

There’s bad food, and then there’s airline food, barely edible foil-wrapped meals that command a category of terrible taste all to themselves. Unsurprisingly, a couple of airlines out there are realizing that if they improve the quality of their meals a bit, especially in first class, they’ll have a competitive…

A month after closing Gelman’s at 2911 West 38th Avenue, owner Michelle Gelman just reopened the space as Boston Fish Shack, a New England-inspired grubbery that’s doling out classic seafood shack plates like fish and chips, cioppino, Maryland crab cakes, lobster rolls and New England seafood chowder. “With the progression…

As usual, I’m lovin’ the pig, and the pork on the above plate, served with watercress, pecans and something mustardy, which I won’t reveal, because, then, it would make this little guessing game far too easy, more than satisfied my enslavement to swine. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special…

When this week’s edition of Civic Center Eats kicks off in a couple of hours, it should be one big, happy family of vendors. That’s because Colorado Fresh Markets, which runs three of the town’s biggest markets and has its vendors sign a non-compete agreement that technically prohibits them from…

Thai Patton is serious about espresso. He’s a smooth operator behind the bar at The Cup Espresso Café, 1521 Pearl Street in Boulder, pulling shots using a rhythmic routine, creating perfect foam, shouting out morning orders over the din of an ever-present crowd. There’s more to making a latte than…

Michael Long had news, but he wasn’t going to share it with me over the phone. “Let’s meet for lunch,” he insisted, “and I’ll tell you all about it.” Over xiao long bao, seaweed salad and beef noodle soup at Lao Wang Noodle House, Long detailed the plans for a…

The headline may be a stretch, but after watching wieners being destroyed in the spirit of competitive eating — dousing buns with water, shoving the franks in one’s mouth as fast as possible and eventually wearing a meat goatee — you may think twice before ordering a hot dog at…

Going out to the ballgame? Maybe you want to eat elsewhere first. ESPN culled information from health inspection reports from every major stadium across the country and found that a majority had at least a handful of operating vendors with critical health code violations. Colorado was no exception. In fact,…

It was supposed to be a tapas joint, but the deal fell through, so instead, the Marmalade Bar & Cafe at 2796 South Broadway morphed into Bites, a sweet breakfast and lunch spot from Jim Smith, who also owns Blueberry’s Bakery and Cafe in Littleton and the Cheesecake Connection, with…

I wholeheartedly believe in the free press, so I was initially scornful when I heard via The Guardian that Fay Maschler, a seasoned UK restaurant critic, was starting Page One, a website of reviews that would require readers to pay £100 a year for access. Isn’t it the job of…

I love the molcajetes served at the restaurant where the above pic was snapped. The smoking mortar, stocked with shrimp, chorizo, beef and chicken, logs of Oaxacan queso, charred nopales and wilted green onions submerged in a swamp of tomatillos laced with green chile, was the ideal Sunday dinner. The…

Even as Snooze plans to put its fourth store in the Streets at Southglenn, Cantina Laredo opened its doors there last week. It’s part of a chain with locations in a dozen states (and the United Arab Emirates!), with two in Colorado — the new one at 6851 South Gaylord…

Snooze brought breakfast food to Denver in a big way when it opened its first location, at 2262 Larimer Street, in April 2006, proffering sassy takes on eggs Benedict and pancakes in flavors like pumpkin and dreamsicle. Apparently the Front Range is hungry for breakfast. With each Snooze that opens…

Cafe Society served up five Guess where? contests last week, ranging from a hamburger at Black Pearl that inspired a discussion of both the French fries and when to use a tilde with the word “jalapeno” (my rule: not when I’m typing on a tiny netbook keyboard) to these still-mysterious…