After my disastrous meals at Beaucoup Burrito, I thought it might be helpful to list for its owners, employees and customers six local fast-casual concepts that actually work. They are, in no particular order: Chipotle: Founder Steve Ells gets credit for inventing the entire fast-casual concept at his now-ubiquitous burrito…
Another Irish bar bites the dust. The Squealing Pig has shut its doors at 2700 East Third Avenue, and its phone number is disconnected. While the Pig wasn’t a classic Irish bar, as described by Jason Sheehan in How to Create a Great Irish Bar, and didn’t even come as…
“Here. Try this.” I handed over the small, green Jagermeister bottle and grinned. Because he’s a good sport (and, like me, completely susceptible to even the weakest sort of peer pressure), my comrade-in-arms Jonathan Shikes screwed off the top without question and made a move to drink the mystery fluid…
Radek Cerny, the celebrated chef of L’Atelier (located at 1739 Pearl Street in Boulder), plans to open his second Boulder restaurant within the month, recession be damned.Full Belly, which is going into 2779 Iris Avenue, will be a bistro-style place, Cerny says, and cheaper than L’Atelier, with dinner entrees averaging…
You know your Sunday will be filled with copious amounts of chips, dip, beer and maybe even a snack food stadium (if you’re so lucky), so why not start training for the big event now? A great place to start would be The Spicy Pickle at 1298 South Broadway. In…
What’s not to love about a Reese’s peanut butter cup product? Even when the effort is lazy, the end result is still delicious. Something about the saltiness of the peanut butter melting with the sweetness of the milk chocolate…home run every time. Even though we know it’s hard to improve…
(Read Jason Sheehan’s SPAM confession here.) All hail the SPAM king, ruler of all that is pink and meaty and rectangular. This year, the king is from Colorado Springs. Ron Pearman — 48-year-old Lockheed Martin engineer, father of four (soon to be five) and Colorado State Fair cook-off champ –…
Once again, SPAM — everyone’s favorite potted meat product — is in the news. And this time, there’s a Colorado hook: Ron Pearman of Colorado Springs won the grand prize in the Great American SPAM Championship. (Read Melanie Asmar’s interview with the champ here.) The contest, held at state and…
Word just came down that Dave Query — right in the middle getting his new noodle house project, Happy Noodle House, up and running in Boulder — has brought some new blood into the kitchen at Zolo Grill, his least press-pimped address, at 2525 Arapahoe Avenue in The Republic. Actually,…
It’s been a busy week in the world of burritos. Jason Sheehan reviewed the shaky Beaucoup Burrito, and spoke a little more about it here. In desperate need of an uplifting burrito story to erase the bad taste left by Sheehan’s description of the Beaucoup seafood burrito, I went out…
The Sandwich: The Emerson What’s on it: Ham and Swiss on focaccia bread, with choice of veggies. Where to get it: Earl’s Sandwich Parlor (1431 Ogden Street, 303-832-7411) How much: $6.85 This is the kind of place you’re thankful for if you live in the neighborhood, and never visit if…
The Southern Sun, a brewpub located at 627 South Broadway in Boulder, was on fire last week — and I don’t mean that in the “my-God-they’re-on-a-roll” way, or the “five-alarm-epic-battle-with-nature” way, either. Apparently, something (possibly a cigarette butt) caught fire in the recycling bins outside the restaurant — and since…
Fresh, salty chips, burning hot salsa and maybe the best vegetarian red chile in Denver — these are just a few of the reasons that I frequent Taqueria Patzcuaro at 2616 West 32nd Avenue. An even bigger draw, though, is the chile relleno burrito, an absolute genius invention that starts…
Today is the first full day of the gold-laced foodie function that is the Bon Appétit Culinary and Wine Focus. Hosted again by Beaver Creek, the event draws throngs of celebrities, chefs and celebrity chefs. Although you missed last night’s ‘Wine Dinner benefiting The Bright Future Foundation,” there are still loads…
Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery, at 1535 Pearl Street in Boulder, and its newer Denver sibling, Vine Street Pub, 1700 Vine Street, are celebrating Stout Month starting on February 1. “Ten of Mountain Sun’s taps will fade to black with local, regional and national versions of the rich, thick and…
Good food starts with good ingredients, followed by good ideas, finished by good execution. And greatness follows only in the laborious improvement of all three. This, as I discuss in my review of Beaucoup Burrito, is about as close as you’re going to come to the core of kitchen wisdom…
I have missed many things in favor of a meal. I’ve cut classes for sushi or cheeseburgers or just a shitty cup of diner coffee, skipped work for tacos, flown halfway across the country for a fish dinner, and abandoned like dead weight friends who weren’t interested in dim sum…
Roscoe likes me. I can tell by the way he stands dutifully next to my bar stool and follows me into the men’s room, where he attempts to lap up my piss before it splashes against the back of the urinal (despite my best attempts to balance on one leg…
I don’t know what it is with me. I can love a restaurant — seriously, get all twelve-year-old girl about it, just luuurve it to death — and write about it endlessly for a week, two weeks, whatever, and then not go back for two years. But when I hate…
Brio Tuscan Grille will be taking the spot vacated by Macaroni Grill at 2500 East First Avenue in Cherry Creek. The national chain, which already has an outpost at 8441 Park Meadows Center Drive, is completely renovating the location; it’s slated to open this fall in the Cherry Creek Shopping Center.As…
GoodBelly is growing like the beneficial bacteria — or probiotic — that makes your belly feel good. The pet of NextFoods, a Boulder-based health-food company, GoodBelly was recently included in the Los Angeles Examiner’s “Top Ten Best Food Product Introductions for 2008.” The product was created by Steve Demos, the…
The Macaroni Grill located at 2500 East First Avenue will be closing after tonight’s service. Leasing problems seem to be the issue here — although it could also be some demented breath of fresh air leading to the right places closing due to the bad economy. An employee I talked…
