Food & Drink

Hiramasa, flash-seared on a hot flattop, served with yuzu, jalapeno and pop rocks. Braised pork cheek with a hard-fried quail egg balanced on top. Sushi rolls cut and plated with machine precision, filled with Maine lobster, with kobe beef, with avocado and unagi and pickled gobo root. Beef short ribs…

My eyes kept wandering back to the Stranahan’s cocktail with carrot juice, an ingredient that, on the surface, sounded absolutely horrible as a cocktail component. And the fact that I’m not a big (or even small) proponent of the carrot, period, only solidified my resolve to stay as far away…

There are two types of people in this world: those who are totally psyched to receive kitchen appliances as gifts, and those whose first instinct is to send the giver straight to the basement with an air mattress and a sleeping bag. (Gentlemen, it is extremely important to determine which…

There’s been a lot of discussion around here lately about all things vegan, vegetarian, cruel-free, meat-free and humane. Last week, for example, Sarah, a former vegetarian, went back to eating meat, which, of course, led to a full-tilt party for all the crazies out there in wackadoodle land . (One…

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…

Apparently, there really is such a thing as a free lunch. Today, from noon to 2 p.m. Croc’s, the Mexican bar and grill at 1630 Market Street, is offering just that — and the catch is that there really is no catch. Okay, so you’ve got to keep your spending…

My recent review of Red Trolley — the Highland neighborhood ice cream shop turned hot dog parlor, breakfast bar and coffee shop — was a strange one. The ice cream (the stuff the shop was founded on) is excellent almost across the board, and while I wasn’t crazy about all…

Ali Baba Grill,109 North Rubey Drive in Golden, already serves the best hummus and most addictive baklava in the area, and owner Fiyahd Aoutabachi has already shared the wealth beyond Golden, expanding his Lebanese and Mediterranean offerings out to Highlands Ranch with a second location at 8800 South Colorado Boulevard…

The first VFW post in the country was founded in Denver in 1899, in a building in the Golden Triangle. A century later, VFW Post #1 moved around the corner to 955 Bannock Street — and attempted to recall its glory days by calling the bar Stewart’s 1899 Saloon. It…

Just got off the horn with Jeffrey Musat, general manager of Encore (2550 East Colfax Avenue) and Black Pearl, the New American restaurant at 1529 South Pearl Street whose (now) former chef, Micah Watkins, wrapped up his last day on the line yesterday. Stepping into his shoes, Musat tells me,…

Partners Michael Brockhoff and Sam Roots have plans of longevity for the vacant quarters at 5280 West 25th Avenue, the cursed building that most recently held the extremely short-lived Johnie’s Bar-B-Que (and prior to that, Tiki Torch and Okoboji Inn). The two have completely gutted the space, which will soon…

As an ongoing public service, we would like to draw your attention to another FDA food recall. (As we reported here last week, the FDA recently recalled nearly 111,000 pounds of frozen beef steak fritter.) Why? Because any opportunity to explore the many euphemisms for spending hours in the bathroom…

Now that the venerable Wellshire Inn (3333 South Colorado Boulevard), long the go-to spot for special occasion dining on the Big Three restaurant holidays, has closed down its regular restaurant service and gone event-only, a reader wants suggestions for Christmas dinner/ I generally spend my Christmases at home, surrounded by…

It’s not often that I’ll spend $17 on a burger and fries — even if the burger is a double and the fries are the grabby shoestring variety that have been responsible for an undetermined number of my butt pounds. But while both the “classic” burger and judiciously salted skinny…