The Best of Denver 2009 will be released today, and as I’ve done over the past couple of days (with discussions of the city’s best bread and places to go on a first date), I’m talking yet again about the process by which Denver’s best restaurants are chosen. The category…
What? After twenty years of offering the most dependable happy hour in the city, with a terrific cheeseburger among the other $1.95 specials, McCormick’s has changed its hours? Just walked into the bar at the corner of the Oxford Hotel and found out that corporate had dictated a cutback several…
Common Grounds will soon leave its longtime LoDo home at 17th and Wazee streets and move over to the SugarBeat space — across the street at 444 17th Street, in the Millennium Building. But the coffeehouse/winebar lost its liquor license when its lease ran out (there’s a story there), so…
A few days ago, I saw grown men cry. But no one’s feelings were hurt, and we weren’t even watching The Notebook. No, we were suffering the wrath of the hot wings from Skinny Jay’s, located at 800 28th Street, in the Outlook Hotel in Boulder. These are crispy little…
The eighteenth annual Colorado Mountain Winefest doesn’t start until September 17, but the Colorado Association for Viticulture and Enology just uncorked the winner of its WineFest art contest. “Labor of Love,” by Grand Junction artist Mary Ellen Andrews, will be featured on all promotional materials for the four-day Winefest, and…
Most people go to Super Star Asian for the dim sum. But we’ll let you in on a secret: This modest storefront in what remains of Alameda Square, at 2200 West Alameda Avenue, has an amazing lunch deal: Just $5.95 buys you hot tea, a big bowl of hot-and-sour soup,…
As reported by Lori Midson, Larkburger opened its doors last Friday at 2525 Arapahoe Street and immediately started bestowing big burgers and truffled fries on Boulder. Back in August, I’d moved just a few blocks from the spot where Larkburger was to roost, and I’d eagerly awaited the day the…
Baking isn’t easy a mile above sea level, but you should be able to rise to the occasion after taking “Baking Fundamentals,” a six-week series whose first session runs from 6:30 to 9 p.m. tonight at the Kitchen Table Cooking School in the Landmark project in Greenwood Village. Tuition is…
As with yesterday’s post about the sudden shortage of rice-flour baguette in Denver, this is another explanation of how I came to choose a certain award in this year’s Best of Denver issue. This time around, it’s about the best restaurant for a first date. Award in question: Best First…
Jean Phillippe Failyau, Frank Bonanno’s right-hand man (and my former chef at Osteria Marco), is busy tying up the loose ends at Park Burger, which he says is about a month away from opening.As Jason Sheehan reported in December, although Failyau is working with Bonanno on this burger joint at…
I’ve long been a proponent of Steuben’s house-cut, judiciously salted, pencil-thin fries, which arrive in a wax paper-lined crab tin. Now comes news that the retro American diner at 523 East 17th Avenue will be handing out free orders of fries with every take-out purchase during the month of April…
With any luck, the addition of Bernie’s Hot Dog Co., an independent joint located at 1601 Mayberry in the Highlands Ranch Town Center, will convince all those Land Rover-owning suburbanites who reside within the chain-ganged sprawl to stop spending their bonuses at Chili’s and Outback Steakhouse. I saw glimmers of…
Stimulus and/or recession- themed dinners are springing up around town, pulling valueconomy eaters from their homes into seats at local restaurants. L’Atelier has a four-course recession dinner; Parisi offers deals every week.Mojitos Cuban Bistro, at 1120 East Sixth Avenue (the former home of Mel’s, and Piscos, and Chives, and Dudley’s) …
At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24, El Camino, 3628 West 32nd Avenue (that’s the address of the former swimclub 32), will host a happy hour to celebrate buckfifty.org, the great web site that celebrates Denver, with $1.50 specials. For more info on the venue, go to www.elcaminotavern.com. Marczyk Fine…
My review of Bones — Frank Bonanno’s new restaurant at 701 Grant Street — was a love letter, a total crush note from one shameless omnivore to another, to the kind of guy who would put bone marrow, ice cream, escargot and udon all on the same menu, from the kind of…
It was a rough year for Colorado chefs (and writers) in this year’s James Beard awards. The finalists were announced this morning — and our white jackets just got spanked. A handful of Coloradans had made the semi-finalists list. Frank Bonanno (above) got tapped for Best Restaurateur. Yasmin Lozada-Hissom from…
While I was waiting in the parking lot of a strip mall off Alameda and Sheridan — Westside! — this weekend, I spotted the most awesome pizza-shop logo I’ve ever seen, for a place called Pizza Patron.The type font looks like Pizza Hut lettering, but the sign has a Latino…
Want a quick course in Slow Food, the anti-fast-food movement started in Italy years ago by Carlo Petrini? Attend an informational open house from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. tonight at the home of a member in central Denver. According to Slow Food Denver president Krista Roberts, the discussion will…
The 25th annual Best of Denver issue officially hits the streets (and this site) on March 26, and now that the hundred-plus food awards have been decided, I’m revisiting some of my favorite tales from this year’s always-weird awards process. Kinda like encounter therapy, and cheaper than going to a…
Cap’n Crunch’s Peanut Butter Crunch Quaker Oats Rating: Three-and-a-half spoons out of four Cereal description: An amalgam of corn, oat and rice flour baked into roughly shaped orbs whose surface is a symphony in brown: specs and swirls of varying intensity, pocked with the occasional dark blobs. The look doesn’t…
Alba Osteria, the upscale Italian restaurant at 2480 Canyon Boulevard in Boulder, will host a wine dinner on March 25. At first glance, the menu looks like a run-of-the-mill prix fixe dinner, one that happens to focus on the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. But since this region is arguably the…
Nate Appleman, author of the A16: Food + Wine cookbook and chef at San Francisco’s A16 and SPQR restaurants, will be cooking tonight and tomorrow night at Frasca, 1738 Pearl Street in Boulder; Frasca co-owner and wine director Bobby Stuckey will pair the wines. Tickets are $140, and hard to…
