It’s horrifying to admit, but the signs are all there: We are growing up. On my birthday, I’d denied the usual urge to overindulge in food and booze simply because it didn’t fit with my diet. JP just put down “earnest money” on a house, meaning that he earnestly wants…
The dim-sum experience varies from restaurant to restaurant, but I know I can usually count on the tea. Always green, almost always served in squat white pots with loose leaves steeping in hot water, inevitably accompanied by small, plain-white cups nicked and tinted the color of bone by long use…
Sean Yontz is a survivor, a success story in an industry that does not take kindly to failure. He worked in the shadow of Richard Sandoval at Tamayo when modern Mexican and Nuevo Latino were all the rage, then set off on his own and wound up taking some serious…
In my original Best of Denver 2006 list, Chama (see review) was up for something like 74 awards. Why? Because the place is just flat-out fantastic. And while the haters out there can say what they like — scream bias because I know owner Sean Yontz, refire the rumors of…
I was in New Orleans a couple of years ago for Jazzfest. On that trip, beer with breakfast was not only acceptable, but encouraged. One day while we were walking, cocktails in hand, along the packed sidewalks of the French Quarter, we happened upon a ragtag band singing in the…
If you’re still not convinced that men and women are totally incompatible, then you haven’t been out in the world for way too long. At least 30 percent of the GNP is dedicated to mitigating the constant conflict. How else to explain Dr. Phil and daytime TV and in general?…
Five years ago, chef/owner Richard Sandoval’s Tamayo was on the cutting edge of the Nuevo Latino culinary movement, with critics in Denver and beyond raving about the pipian de puerco (tamarind-marinated pork tenderloin in a pumpkin-seed sauce), the ceviche (mahi mahi in a spicy tomato broth) and the crepas de…
Empty restaurants make me nervous, skittish, worried that everyone knows something I don’t. I always get the feeling that I missed the ambulances or the SWAT team by a few minutes — that some weird action cleared the place out just prior to my arrival. Empty movie theaters affect me…
Next week’s Best of Denver 2006 will mark the end of several solid months of eating and note-taking, list-making and writing — but mostly eating. I have no idea how many dollars and how many hours I’ve spent scrambling around the city in a desperate fever to find the best…
Is Kokopelli a fertility deity — or just a dick? When I stepped inside Kokopelli’s (formerly Manny’s Smokehouse), I instantly loved the look and feel of the place, right down to the wonderful oxblood banquettes and the fabulous blues singer playing on a tiny stage draped with red curtains. But…
If not for all the evidence that I’ve had heterosexual intercourse, I’m pretty sure I could be a priest. As all you Catholics and everyone who makes fun of us know, we’re in the midst of Lent, when we get back to the “Judeo” part of our Judeo-Christian heritage and…
Saturday nights at Duo are loud and boisterous, a cacophony of sensualism that washes like crazy rogue waves back and forth across the floor and bar. The front door never stops swinging, releasing a blast of piano jazz out into the evening every time it opens, and the bar is…
I think I may know why chef John Broening was smiling at the end of my last meal at Duo (see review): I’d just been busted. Generally, I’m a pretty stealthy guy. This whole “anonymous critic” thing — with all the fake names and bogus identification and secretive phone calls…
I’ve always loved the drinking aspect of sports. I think that half the reason I took up golf is that it’s officially the only “sport” that has cocktail waitresses (aka cart girls). My second favorite drinking sport is skiing. There’s nothing that compares to that first sip of a cocktail…
I had high hopes for the “Sex and So Much More Show” at the Colorado Convention Center two weeks ago. Since it was billed as a venue for the free exchange of ideas on healthy adult relationships and their sometimes frightening variations, we figured there would be lots of people…
I was so close to walking out of the new Udi’s in Stapleton last week. Seriously, like thirty seconds away. I’d strolled into the casual, dimly lit bistro on a half-full night intending to order some takeout, had been handed a couple of fairly impressive menus at the counter, and…
Is this your first time here?” our server asked as he stood over our table — the last one available early on a Saturday night in the small dining room at Parallel Seventeen. And we nodded, meekly, acknowledging that yes, in fact, this was our first time. I hate doing…
While the rest of the country stupidly worries about Arabs guarding our ports, I’ve uncovered the surreptitious Hawaiian invasion of the American West. While Hawaiians are a large people not known for their stealth, they are actually quite cunning and capable of a subtlety rivaled only by the Belgians –…
I’m suddenly totally into Brazilians — the country’s cocktails, not the new/old fad of hairless pubic areas. Last week at Rodizio Grill, I discovered the Caipirinha (pronounced kie-purr-REEN-yah, $7.50), consisting of muddled lime, fine sugar and Boca Loca Cachaça, a Brazilian alcohol that’s the third-most-consumed liquor in the world. Made…
I’m considering having the health department launch an investigation into the margaritas at Señor Rita’s (5007 East Colfax Avenue). Recently, all of the Institute of Drinking Studies’ researchers plus several groupies descended on this new bar, which was brought to us by our heroes at the Elm next door, as…
There’s one thing that Mary Nguyen and her crew at Parallel Seventeen (see review) don’t do too well, and that’s make a decent cup of Vietnamese coffee. They have all the correct materials — Café du Monde coffee, sweetened condensed milk, a tin-drip filter, tall glasses filled with ice –…
Andouille gumbo and tortilla soup, fried mushrooms with truffled dipping sauce, enchiladas con queso and steak frites, crabcakes with chipotle coulis, pierogi, Asian pot stickers with ginger sauce, chicken piccata, cheeseburgers served with a bottle of Chimay Red, miso soup and Hawaiian tuna salad. And sushi (on request) from the…
