I last talked with chef Chris Cina back in August 2006, after I stumbled across a corporate website that listed him as chief of Roundstone Restaurants LLC. Here’s part of what I wrote after that conversation: “Chef Chris Cina (ex of Tuscany, the Fourth Story, Beckett’s Table and the kitchens…
What’s with cash-only establishments and their insincere apologies? “We don’t take credit cards,” read the signs. “Sorry for any inconvenience.” But is anyone on the other end of the cash register or profit-and-loss statement really sorry? If these places were more honest, wouldn’t their signs read: “Welcome to (Name), where…
Most restaurants in town serve both lunch and dinner. And while at most of those places, the difference between the two meals is minor (the lunch menu missing only the most high-end steaks and chops, the most complicated entrees, the dinner menu slightly less cluttered with salads and sandwiches), at…
SAME Café at 2023 East Colfax Avenue is closed through May 9 for spring-cleaning – and the installation of some new kitchen equipment. When SAME reopens on May 10, co-owner (with wife Libby) Brad Birky will be devoting all his time to the restaurant, which allows diners to pay what…
Here is how you make a proper Peking duck. First, invent a time machine, go back to the mid-nineteenth century, grab yourself a plot of land in one of the booming cities of mainland China and enlist the help of a bricklayer to build you an oven. Then practice. For…
Try the tea-infused duck at Solera. Photo by Matthew Staver. Dining in the dark and tea-infused dishes are two recent trends in restaurants; on Monday, May 5, I got to experience both at Solera Restaurant and Wine Bar (5410 East Colfax Avenue, 303-388-8429, www.solerarestaurant.com). Chef Christian “Goose” Sorensen created a…
While researching Georgetown weirdness, I learned that one of the places I wrote about in my April 24 Bite Me column — the Silver Queen bar and restaurant—once had none other than Roseanne Barr on staff in the kitchen, either as a prep cook or a sous chef. To quote…
“Pickles! Pickles! Hey, man, you want one of these pickles? One dollar.” I open my mouth to speak. “Uhhh . . .” I had just walked out of the cramped convenience store on the northeast corner of East Bruce Randolph Avenue and York Street, an intersection that I call the…
Chocolate Chex General Mills Rating: Three spoons out of four Cereal description: The typical Chex construction: square grids with a puff in the middle, like a pillow that would leave a tic-tac-toe pattern on your cheek. Approximately half the cereal, which represents a fusion of rice, corn meal and (the…
Earlier this week, Jason Sheehan rhapsodized about his dinner at Le Bernardin. His musings did not escape attention on the East Coast, where New York magazine’s food blog weighed in with this. All in all, quite a tasty read. But for the record: The paper is Westword. And Sheehan’s piece…
When the stretch Hummer limo emblazoned with a Hornitos sign — commandeered by a tequila-loving pal — pulled up in front of my house, I knew I was in for an unusual evening, one that would take a few twists and turns, not unlike that limo trying to maneuver the…
What are you doing tomorrow? If the answer to that question is “nothing” and you happen to love cooking challenge shows like I do, then you should check out tomorrow’s taping of The Next Great Chef. The show will be taped for the Food Network between 10 a.m. and 4:30…
Barbie Multi-grain Cereal with Marshmallows Kellogg’s Rating: Two-and-a-half spoons out of four Cereal description: The cereal pieces consist of hearts evenly split between red and purple – the latter apparently a tribute to men and women of the Armed Services who’ve been wounded in combat. There are also five different…
I’ve quit a lot of things in my life. Sometimes it seems as though my entire adult life has been just one long bout of giving things up. Often, I feel like I can split my life cleanly down the middle: on one side of the division, the years I…
Welcome to the inaugural edition of Milking It: Cereal Killers & Thrillers, a blog dedicated to that most beloved culinary delight, breakfast cereal. And not just any cereal. These pages will review a specific sort – the sugary kind, typically featuring a cartoony character on the box. The stuff that…
I’m supposed to be anonymous in this job, and while I don’t always perform with perfect super-spy cool and élan in the dining rooms and back alleys of this city (my own private Berlin, the secret agent’s Valhalla), I do recognize a few hard and fast rules. First, never do…
At Grand Lux Cafe, the kitchen tries to cook a little bit of everything — the menu runs to over a hundred plates — and does almost nothing well. I don’t blame the cooks for this sorry state of affairs. I mean, how could I? You walk into an Italian…
I wanted to love PS Lounge (3416 East Colfax Avenue). Really, I did. I wanted to love the cash-only policy for its antediluvian charm. But when I returned from trekking down Colfax for cash and the bartendress wouldn’t keep a simple drink tally for me (even though I was nice…
Meg is a childhood friend, and some days I believe that I learned everything important from her. She has been a force in my life since we met at West Middle School. We’ve experienced a lot together — everything from dating and dieting to divorce and death. One of my…
Keen readers may have noticed we didn’t give an award for Best Coffee Shop in this year’s Best of Denver issue. There’s a reason. Coffee shop awards are the third rail of best-of editions. Most people rabidly adore their favorite java joint with the same passion usually reserved for a…
Plan on eating out — a lot — on Thursday, May 1, when Dining Out For Life returns to Denver. Hundreds of restaurants will be donating 25 percent of their proceeds this day to Project Angel Heart, which delivers meals to people living with AIDS/HIV. Last year’s event raised $380,000,…
I felt I had to set down my initial impressions of the place before I lost them — before they were blown clean out of my head with shotgun severity by the next outrage. So there I was, hunched up against the wall, frantically scribbling on the back of an…
