Roll Call for August

RESTAURANTS OPENING IN AUGUST Doghouse Tavern, 3100 South Sheridan Boulevard Colt & Gray, 1553 Platte Street Cheba Hut, 1531 Champa Street Hutch & Spoon, 3090 Larimer Street Larimer Hot House, 2810 Larimer Street The Living Room, 1055 Broadway Blue Moo’d Lounge, 5950 South Platte Canyon Drive, Littleton Mellow Mushroom, the…

Green Chile Smackdown, Round 2: Elway’s vs. My Big Fat Greek Cafe

Even though green chile is not a traditional Mexican dish, it’s a traditional dish at Mexican restaurants north of the border. It changes as it travels, thickening and becoming more hearty as it travels up towards the Canadian border. The Colorado version is thick and gooey, stuffed with pork chunks…

Ask the Critic: What is Denver’s food scene missing?

So here’s a question for all you hardcore gastronauts out there: We all know that Denver is a good food town. There are seasons when it can almost feel like one of the great ones. We have fine dining and we have innovation, we have French, we have Italian, we…

Guess where I’m eating?

See that blasphemous sandwich above? It’s meant to be a French dip — a French dip stacked with sliced prime rib. But if you look closely, you’ll notice that there’s nothing sliced, shaved or otherwise sheared about it. Instead, some idiot in the kitchen who was obviously still on a…

India’s reopens in Tiffany Plaza

After twenty years of slinging naan against the tandoori oven at 3333 South Tamarac Drive, Krishan Kapoor, the owner of India’s, spent the majority of his summer schlepping that oven and pretty much everything else from the restaurant’s former digs to his new space at 7400 East Hampden Avenue, in…

Mellow Mushroom opens today

The first Mellow Mushroom opened back in 1974 in Georgia. More than a hundred locations and 35 years later, the “bohemian-chic” pizza chain has finally landed in metro Denver, where today a Mellow Mushroom will open at the Streets at Southglenn. Morris and Sharon Purcel, their son Shane and their…

Mysteries of Sheehan’s Desk: Day 14

Another day, another weird item from my desk. Although really, the only weird thing about it is that there was anything left in that bottle at all when I took the picture. I don’t like cleaning, you see (as should be painfully obvious to anyone who saw the picture of…

Milking It: Corn Flakes Touch of Honey/Toque de Miel

Corn Flakes Touch of Honey/Toque de Miel Kellogg’s Rating: Two spoons out of four Cereal description: Yes, they’re flakes made of corn. But unlike other flakes made of corn — or corn flakes, if you insist — they give off a glossy bronze glow, as if they’ve been spending most…

Tonight: It’s all about wine and chocolate

Tonight at 6:30 p.m., self-described chocoholic and local book author Julie Pech, who penned The Chocolate Therapist: A User’s Guide to the Extraordinary Health Benefits of Chocolate, is the featured guest at the International Chocolate & Wine Pairing seminar at Arapahoe Community College, 5900 South Santa Fe Drive in Littleton…

Free BBQ for Daves at Famous Dave’s

The headline pretty much says it all: In celebration of fifteen years of barbecue-slingin’, Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que is offering free ‘cue for anyone named Dave. If your first name is Dave, you get one entree free (maximum value $15). Middle name Dave? Then you’re only half as lucky, and get…

Cafe Society: Week in review

What you might have missed this week while chowing on some Nut Poppers…Green chile mania!  Jason ranked the top ten green chile joints in Denver, and even got some input on the best vegetarian versions.  We pitted El Taco de Mexico’s chile against Santiago’s and found a surprise victor.We took…

The pizza battle continues between Belmar and Virgilio’s

If you’ve been following the pizza war between Virgilio’s and Belmar, a turf battle over Belmar’s upcoming Festival Italiano and its refusal to allow Virgilio’s to participate, then you know there’s a heated debate in the comments section (seventy and counting, last time I looked). One of those comments is…

The List: Denver’s top ten pho spots

Pho is the most recognizable example of the Vietnamese canon, a street food lifted whole from the avenues of Saigon and Bien Hoa and brought to the United States by waves of immigrants who came here following the war and the reconstruction. Many of those immigrants washed up in Denver,…

Jack-n-Grill makes a move up the hill to Littleton

Just got word from Jack Martinez, the patriarch behind Jack-n-Grill, the New Mexican joint at 2524 Federal Boulevard, that he’s opening a second outpost of his chile shrine at 2630 West Belleview Avenue. That’s the vacated space bordering the banks of the Platte River that the Santa Fe Tequila Company…

There’s always room for one mo’ pho

Later today, we’ll post my list of the town’s best spots for pho, which includes Pho 95, a wonderful place I review this week, and several other pho shops along Federal Boulevard. My all-time favorite spot for pho was in Aurora. Sadly, Pho 2000 closed years ago, but it stucks…

Mysteries of Sheehan’s Desk: Day 13

Worst. Product. Idea. Ever. I get a lot of dumb and worthless shit sent to me — worthless shit being essentially any sample product that doesn’t come in a nice glass bottle with “Product of Ireland” written somewhere on it. But in the history of dumb and worthless shit, this…

Get your junk food fix at the Colorado State Fair

The Colorado State Fair kicks off today in Pueblo with rodeos, carnival rides and parades, but the real reason to hit it up? The frosty lemonades, ice-cold beer, meatball sandwiches, tacos, nachos, menudo, green chile, pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, roasted corn, pork chops-on-a-stick, Thai food, blooming onions, funnel cakes, ice…

What’s Cooking? Pete Marczyk’s Spaghetti alla Carbonara

First there was candied bacon, then there was corn chowder with salt pork, and now Pete Marczyk has gotten us all in a tizzy over his spaghetti alla carbonara with guanciale. “This pasta dish is considered Roman,” Pete says. “It’s said to have gained popularity in Italy after World War…

Candy Girls: Twilight Sweethearts, Forbidden Fruits

Okay, so we’ve never read or seen anything from the Twilight series.  Clearly the success of the books-turned-movie has not suffered the loss of two candy-obsessed ladies, but we are always willing to entertain a new themed confection that comes with the promise of “secrets” and “forbidden fruits.”The box is…

What’s Cooking? Getting corny in the kitchen with Pete Marczyk

Because there’s no such thing as too much bacon, and because Pete Marcyzk’s Bacon Candy was snapped up and chewed down in record speed, we’ve also got a great corn chowder (corn takes the place of clams) and bacon recipe that’s perfect for the chilly nights ahead. “Let’s face it,”…

Up Close: Pho 95

In this week’s restaurant review, Jason Sheehan is bowled over by Pho 95. See photos by Mark Manger at westword.com/slideshow…