Sketch Wine Bar adds java, breakfast and lunch to its lineup

Sketch, the sultry wine bar at 101 Broadway, already has one of the best late-night menus in Denver, and now, owners Jesse Morreale and Sean Yontz, have added breakfast and lunch dishes to the syllabus, along with a full-service coffee and espresso bar. “The breakfast thing has been in the…

Waffle Brothers opening in April in the Daphne’s Deli space

Rod Dupen and John Power aren’t waffling around when it comes to their next move. The owners of the Waffle Brothers, the 16th Street Mall concession stand at 16th and Arapahoe, have snapped up the Daphne’s Deli space at 393 Corona Street, where they’ll continue to dish out deli sandwiches…

Oceanaire continues Denver Restaurant Week deal through Friday

Denver Restaurant Week went so swimmingly at Oceanaire, the seafood restaurant at 1400 Arapahoe Street, that the deal’s been extended through Friday. For $52.80, you can still get a dinner for two that includes your choice of clam chowder, Caesar salad or a crab cake slider; Icelandic Arctic Char fillet,…

Plenty of food for thought in the District 1 council race

The Colorado Restaurant Association wanted to encourage a restaurateur to run for the District 1 seat on Denver City Council that Rick Garcia’s vacating, and so far it has two, sort of, and a third candidate who’s a leader in the urban farming movement. John Haney, a Denver police detective…

Make a run for the new, improved Border

After Brian Haddad and David Weiss bought The Border, a University of Denver hangout for more than three decades, they didn’t waste any time. They closed the deal on a Friday in late January, brought in a lot of people to clean the joint over the weekend, and had all…

Tonight: Mexican and Italian multi-course meals

Lola, 1575 Boulder Street, knows Mexican food. And they’d like to educate the rest of us with events like tonight’s Oaxaca Dinner, a five-course meal paired with cocktails and tequilas. Then again, if you’ve been craving Italian lately, you might consider heading to Gaetano’s, 3760 Tejon Street, for a four-course…

The more things change, the more they stay the same at Don’s

A great big glass garage door, open for warm weather, facing Sixth Avenue; more booths and tables with stools; a back-patio-length green paint job, aluminum roof and industrial heater; high-def flat-screen televisions and Golden Tee and Silver Strike video games; touch-screen point-of-sale registers; clean bathrooms with space to stretch out,…

A Slow Foods dinner feeds the body, mind and soul

We’re seated at a long table in Arugula, a Boulder restaurant devoted — like most good restaurants these days — to local, fresh and seasonal food. This is a Slow Food Boulder event, and while I haven’t closely followed this branch’s activities, all the chatty, well-dressed, prosperous people in attendance…

Daphne’s Greek Cafe closes, opening some prime lunch-time real estate

You could practically taste the skepticism when Jason Sheehan wrote about the arrival of Daphne’s Greek Cafe (575 Lincoln Street) in 2007: Denver will get its first outpost of Daphne’s Greek Cafe, a California-based fast-casual chain, on March 19. Since most Greek restaurants are pretty quick and casual, how will…

Underage drinking in Denver: Sweet 16 and never been blitzed

The Star Bar, at 2137 Larimer Street, still hasn’t reopened after it was busted for serving underage drinkers; after getting popped for its fourth underage violation in as many years, the Border, a University of Denver institution at 2014 South University, shut down altogether last fall. (It reopened under new…

Help Twisted Pine Brewing name its latest beer

With 1,500 craft breweries across the country making tens of thousands of different beers every year, it’s getting hard to come up with new names. So Twisted Pine Brewing in Boulder is asking for help by running a contest on Twitter and Facebook soliciting the perfect moniker for a vanilla-oaked…

Happy Hour Hunt: Delite

The Place: Delite 32 South Broadway; 303-722-1278. The Hours: Monday through Friday from 3 until 7 p.m. The Deal: Appetizers range from $2 to $4; all beer, well drinks and select red and white wines by the glass are half-price…

Guess where I’m eating?

If you’re infatuated with flavor-bombed curries laced with heat and intensity, keep sniffing, but the chutneys, especially the spicy chutney redolent with mint, are perfect for dunking your peppery papadums. Question is, where was I dipping?…

What’s Cooking: Pete Marczyk bakes Irish soda bread

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. With Saint Patrick’s…

Chef and Tell with molecular gastronomist Ian Kleinman

“Anything I can possibly dream up is now doable, because I’m able to really play around with food,” says Ian Kleinman, Denver’s answer to Alton Brown, the wacky culinary scientist (and only food personality worth watching) on the Food Network. Kleinman, too, is a culinary chemist — a molecular gastronomist…

Old Spaghetti Factory gets a new lease on life

After forty years, the Old Spaghetti Factory at 1215 18th Street has gotten a facelift. “Coming soon in Denver our new look!,” promises the website of the chain that got its start in 1969, and today numbers forty restaurants across this country. “We will be remodeling this location. Please excuse…

Weight for it: Study says drinking can make you thin!

Spring is almost here, which means that thoughts will soon turn from warming plates of spaghetti to spaghetti straps. And ladies, here’s the best news yet for those of you who want to get rid of the winter wear around your midsection: Dr. Lu Wang, a preventive health expert at…

Tonight: Cabernet tasting at Verso Cellars

Verso Cellars is a Colorado treasure: a vineyard in East Orchard Mesa that grows six kinds of cabernet grapes, which are blended to create unique wine. Tonight you can visit Verso’s Denver outlet, 4640 Pecos Street, Unit G, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. for a happy hour and wine-tasting featuring…

Craft brewers saw record sales in 2009

If you tipped a microbrew in 2009, then you did your part for the craft brewing industry. If you tipped more than one – and you know who you are – then you helped contribute to a record year that saw both production and sales figures grow. Craft brewers sold…