While the year draws to a close, you can find something special at just about every one of your favorite foodie spots, plus sign up for charity events that will help kick 2010 off to a great start. Here’s a taste of what’s ahead: Monday, December 28: Wynkoop Brewing Company,…
As a countdown to the Best of Denver 2010, coming April 1, Cafe Society is serving up a hundred of our favorite dishes in Denver. Send your own nominations to cafe@westword.com…
Non-traditional weddings are the new black. The bride wears whatever she wants, the wedding party jams to Kanye as they bebop down the aisle and beaches, backyards, and city parks have replaced chapels and churches. But a couple in Japan recently took the cake (or the sashimi, more appropriately) for…
To continue to spread holiday cheer, we present the most memorable quips, words of wisdom, epiphanies, jabs, wisecracks and digs of the year culled from the last five months of Chef and Tell interviews. Chef and Tell with Goose Sorensen, exec chef of Solera What’s never in your kitchen: Chefs…
Not long ago, I wrote an ode to the joys of the baklava at Ali Baba Grill in Golden. Soon after, we had another piece — a Sugar High report — concerning the baklava at Jerusalem. And then I got this note from Jeff, the baklava maker at Phoenician Kabob…
The Wynkoop Brewing Company, 1634 18th Street, is gearing up for the second round of the “Will Drink Beer for Food” charity benefit. Today through January 3, for every draft beer, six-beer sampler tray or Railyard Ale to-go six-pack you buy, the Wynkoop will donate $1 to Volunteers of America;…
We’re taking a mini vacation from the Cafe Society blog today and tomorrow — so all may eat, drink and sleep — but your regularly scheduled bloggery will be right back here on Monday. Enjoy the break…
This is part two of my interview with Goose Sorensen, executive chef of Solera. To read part one of this interview, click here. Culinary inspirations: Many of the chefs in Denver — Jamey Fader, Tyler Wiard, Matty Selby, Sean Yontz, Brian Laird, Alex Seidel and Scotty Parker — inspire me…
Come on, Jay. Let’s just eat.” Laura and I had been arguing the whole way, skidding through icy streets under a gray sky bruised with clouds — a low-intensity border skirmish in the running insurgency of our marriage. We were running late in the sluggish traffic; I’d already called the…
The sign on the Rackhouse Pub promises “Whiskey Beer Food.” It’s been a tough year, so I’m looking for signs. Life has gotten so complex that a sign, just a sign, can help chart my direction — even if it’s only for the course of a night. Whiskey, Beer and…
When I make a sandwich, it is an admittedly pathetic (though oddly comforting) thing: two slices of white bread laid with two slices of individually wrapped American cheese, thrown in the nuker and microwaved for ten seconds. That’s it. I call it my white-trash grilled cheese. When Noah Stephens or…
There’s nothing like a properly muddled Old Fashioned and enough Christmas decorations to light-bright Clark Griswold’s house ten times over to get me in the holiday spirit. Can you guess in what winter wonderland I was drinking? Special bonus: Every Friday, anyone who gave the first correct answer to any…
This week, William Breathes reviews the Ganja Gourmet at 1810 South Broadway, the city’s first — and likely last — restaurant specializing in dishes containing medical marijuana: “The Ganja Gourmet,” he writes, “is not so much a restaurant as a dispensary where you can hang out, smoke pot and eat…
First off, thanks to everyone for their suggestions on where I should eat my last review dinner in Denver. The comments have been excellent, the suggestions helpful, and the current leader seems to be Casa Bonita — which I assume is rising fast because so many of you just want…
For the most part, Christmas is a time full of really good stuff to eat — from the fancy (Christmas dinner with all the trimmings) to the simple (cookies). But there are some foods and drinks that just don’t make sense anymore — they belong to a different time, in…
She is the culinary genius behind Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Along with friend and chef Jeremiah Tower, she pioneered California Cuisine and has had a heavy influence in promoting sustainable, locally grown food sources for restaurants. Her Chez Panisse Foundation introduced the Edible Schoolyard, a program that provides funding and…
Italians know how to do a lot of things right. They make sexy cars, damn good wine and great cheeses. Most important, they know how to celebrate Christmas Eve. On the night referred to as “the vigil” or La Vigilia, Italian-American families gorge themselves on seven-course seafood feasts. It’s typically…
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.. This week, they…
In 1992, Goose Sorensen, then 23, was living in Casper, a fine Wyoming town with bars and brawls and women, but there was something missing, something that Sorensen was longing to have but didn’t. That something was — wait for it — Bennigan’s. “I totally wanted to cook at Bennigan’s,…
Every day that passes reminds me of another thing I’m going to miss about this town when I finally take my leave in just a few short weeks. Today, while running through a list of every restaurant I’d reviewed in 2009, I found my March 18 love letter to Bones–Frank…
It’s about damn time this year ended. But before it does, we’re taking a look back at your favorite stories of 2009. Here, the ten most-read stories from the Cafe Society blog…
If you’re one of those who celebrates Festivus, the holiday for the rest of us, head to Squeaky Bean, at 3301 Tejon Street, today. From open to close (7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.), the Bean will feature such Festivus festivities as feats of strength and airings of grievances, plus food…
