Civic Center Eats: Forte Farms

Native peaches belong on a short list of the best things about Colorado. The Forte Farms stand has other things as well — plums and tomatoes — but the peaches are the real draw. In the five or ten minutes I was standing there at last Tuesday’s Civic Center Eats,…

3014 opens in the former Senger’s

Senger’s on the Fax closed very quietly — and quickly — last month, with a sign on the door at 3014 East Colfax Avenue noting that it had been seized for nonpayment of taxes. But now the space is open again as 3014, under the ownership of Nick O’Sullivan, one…

231 Milwaukee back on the market…again

The space at 231 Milwaukee Street that most recently held Bar Luxe and Euro is empty again — except for all the ghosts. Over the last thirty years, this address has been home to everything from the Kiva (great green chile recipe) to the Bay Wolf to Vartan’s Jazz to…

Tonight: The Denver Five dish it out at D Bar Desserts

The Denver Five, a platoon of five local chefs who cooked together earlier this year at the James Beard House in New York City, and then decided that they’d like to cook with one another — yet again — in each other’s hometown restaurant kitchens, gathered at Lola two weeks…

Ask the Critic: Where to hit happy hour?

This week’s Ask the Critic question came in via the Cafe Society twitter feed from LizKeg: “Trying to decide where to go for happy hour.  Any good suggestions for a downtown spot?”It ain’t exactly downtown, but I am a big fan of the happy hour at the Fainting Goat because,…

Bra[n]don’s Pub set to reopen

All the necessary information is contained in that one picture above.  Yes, Brandon’s is reopening (finally) at 955 Lincoln Street after a delay of several weeks.  Yes, it is “for real.”  Yes, it will be doing so on Friday, August 14 at 3 p.m. And yes, it appears that the…

Ten years of Colorado Proud

In 1999, the Colorado Department of Agriculture introduced the Colorado Proud Program, an initiative focused on furthering local products. It’s rare that a government program is way ahead of the curve (especially when it applies to food), but that’s exactly what this program was. Colorado Proud had three goals when…

Tonight: Frasca chef recreates Top Chef Masters menu

Lachlan Mackinnon Patterson, the exec chef at Frasca Food & Wine, the restaurant at 1738 Pearl Street that’s the best in Boulder (and possibly Colorado), was rather unmercifully booted from Bravo TV’s Top Chef Masters back in mid-July after he failed to seduce the judges with his deep-fried, speck-wrapped pineapple…

Biker Jim’s, Rioja and Table 6 all on the national radar

While y’all already know that Westword’s Cafe Society blog is far and away the best place to digest all your local food and restaurant news, it just so happens that three of our favorite food places — Rioja, Table 6 and Biker Jim’s — got some well-deserved love and ink…

Lola gets back to the barrio tonight

Lola, at 1575 Boulder Street, rolled out its new brunch menu yesterday. The chicken and waffles plate is gone, but the award-winning chicken-fried steak is back, alongside peaches and cream pancakes, buffalo chimichanga, a lamb torta and sweet corn grits. And the weekend brunch menu isn’t the only change. Tonight…

Milking It: Cinnamon Chex

Cinnamon Chex General Mills Rating: Three-and-a-quarter spoons out of four Cereal description: The familiar Chex shape — puffy, square grids, like graph paper made for chewing — is present and accounted for, as are the base ingredients of rice and corn flour. Some of the pieces are a light brown…

Red meat, wine and a cookbook signing tonight at Morton’s Tech Center

Morton’s the Steakhouse just launched Morton’s the Cookbook: 100 Recipes for Every Kitchen, and tonight, Morton’s Denver Tech Center, 8480 East Belleview Avenue, is hosting Klaus Fritsch, the author of that cookbook and co-founder of the Morton’s steakhouse chain. The signing, which is $59 per person, goes from 6 to…

Arf, arf! It’s Panzano’s Pooch Power Hour

From 2:30 to 6 p.m. today, Pooch Power Hour (or hours, as the case may be), a dog-friendly powwow where you can fatten your pup with complimentary housemade peanut butter pupcakes (and other doggone good snacks), premieres on the patio at Panzano, the Italian restaurant at 909 17th Street, in…

The List: Denver’s most fantastic fusion

Denver hasn’t done fusion very well, historically speaking. Matter of fact, Denver has done fusion fantastically poorly, and has seen more fusion restaurants close in shame than flourish in these skeptical latitudes. Nine out of ten times, a fusion restaurant is doomed to suck before it even opens its doors…

Colfax, South Pearl host street festivals today

At 11 a.m. today, the first Local Flavor Fest kicks off on Colfax Avenue, right by the Lowenstein Complex that houses the Tattered Cover, Twist & Shout and Encore restaurant. The festival, which will run until 4 p.m., celebrates local businesses, and features a raffle, food booths, vendors, book-signings and…

Cafe Society: Week in review

Things you might have missed this week while using the PopTart setting on your toaster… July restaurant closings and openings.Seeing Jason Sheehan in person: Check out this video of a chat he had at the Denver Press Club.Jason asking where the best Rocky Mountain oysters can be found.Sketch losing Charlie…

Doghouse Tavern opens in Bear Valley

The Little Pub Company just got bigger, with the opening of the Doghouse Tavern in the Bear Valley Shopping Center (in the space at the intersection of West Hampden Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard that was formerly Bear Valley Inn). “My brother lives in the Sheridan neighborhood and has been after…

Lunch at Larkburger

I did not have the greatest food luck in the mountains. I found a good spot for breakfast and lunch (read about it next week), and the pizza from the Blue Moose was at least decent (and better by a long stretch than anything else we ordered). But everything else?…

Elway’s/Matsuhisa shochu dinner so good

I hated the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. For a year the PR hype machine had told me how great it was going to be, and then everyone I know who saw it told me how great it was and how much I’d love it. So by the time I…

Guess where I’m drinking?

Party! party! You don’t need a special occasion to enjoy a mojito here, but it doesn’t hurt.Guess where I’m drinking, and there will be a mojito with your name on it at the bar…