It’s Labor Day weekend, and no faction of the local workforce is more worthy of salute than the hardworking (and generally underpaid) men and women who staff the area’s eateries. But save your sympathy: Phill Corbin thinks he has the best restaurant gig in town; he leads the cliff-diving crew…
Ready for some monkey business? Follow the brightly painted arrows on Colfax past Kitty’s and right into Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey, Denver’s newest jazz venue. This no-frills dark den fills up nightly with the town’s hipper cats, who lounge on comfortable couches and listen to live jazz; Colfax regulars, who make…
The interior of Shead’s Fish and BBQ Heaven is not hip or slick or fabulous. Nor does it have that bogus clutter aesthetic or the faux-rustique feel so popular at some of the carefully sculpted eateries I’ve been skulking around these days. I can guarantee you that not a single…
Things are stirring at the moribund Dick’s Hickory Dock (26220 Highway 74, Kittredge), which was sold a few years ago by its original owners (who’d opened the barbecue joint in the 1970s) and recently sold again after the next owners couldn’t open because of unspecified financial troubles. After being closed…
Rocky Balboa’s glass full of raw eggs won’t prepare you for the Knockout, the signature martini at Sullivan’s, a swank LoDo steakhouse named for legendary pugilist John L. Sullivan, the “Boston Strong Boy.” This killer cocktail is made with fresh Hawaiian pineapple slices that have been marinated for seven to…
Chefs acquire weight over time. I’m not talking about pounds packed on the beltline from nights spent surrounded by food, but rather a kind of metaphoric weight — a density of celebrity that increases incrementally with each mention of their names by critics and chowhounds, a slow accretion of notoriety…
More news from Mr. Radek’s neighborhood: As we all know by now, Papillon Cafe (250 Josephine Street), Radek Cerny’s premier Denver address, has closed its doors for good. This came as quite a surprise to everyone in the biz (including some of Papillon’s employees who, allegedly, weren’t even told the…
Ten years ago, Steve Berge set out to make a better barbecue sauce. In the process, he made a better life for himself. This month Berge celebrates his first decade as an independent sauce boss. “I make a whole lot less money than I used to,” says Berge. “But I’m…
“Wasted away again in Margaritaville…” You can practically picture Jimmy Buffett, who made it fashionable to fritter away sunny days, spending an idle August afternoon in Lakewood, belly-up to Gordo’s bar, while Sixth Avenue traffic speeds past in the distance. Gordo’s, which roughly translates as “Fatso’s” in Spanish, was founded…
When I first sat down at Maruti Narayan’s, the table was a blank canvas, holding only white plates and white napkins set against a white tablecloth. By the end of the meal, it was chaos, a full-color topographical portrait of the Indian subcontinent done entirely in shades of food. There…
Food for thought: I’ve been on this job for a month now — thirty days that have been a cyclone blur of restaurants and reservations, a juggling act with me trying to keep a fork, a keyboard and my appetite all up in the air at the same time, and…
Karen Beeman is tending her WeeBee Farms stand at the Boulder Farmers’ Market on a Saturday morning. A band with alternating dried flowers and garlic heads adorns her hat. It’s around 11 a.m.; she’s already been here three hours, having gotten up at 5:45 to load up her boxes. “These…
As Russell Crowe strutted around the Colosseum — a scantily clad warrior seeking revenge — he should have challenged his opponents to the Gladiator drop-shot at the Foundry Cafe and Billiards Club: It would have brought them to their knees. To deliver this knockout, the Foundry fills a pint glass…
Market watch: If you don’t get your fill of the Far East at T-Wa Inn (see review, page 63), head across the street to Lucky Market (506 South Federal Boulevard), where you’ll find all those weird, freaky, Jesus-why-would-anyone-eat-that? ingredients you’ve been looking for. Need some pork pâté? Jackfruit chips? Frozen…
iker culture and beer are as inseparable as a Harley-riding man and the female passenger wrapped around his back. “Bikers do consume mass quantities of beer at their functions,” notes Roger Unrein. And if he has his way, the beer they’ll be drinking is Hardtail Ale. “Being a biker and…
Cucina Colore 3041 East Third Avenue 303-393-6917 Columbus proved that the Earth isn’t flat — but you could be flat on your back after one too many drinks honoring Italy’s most famous explorer. Cucina Colore’s refreshing New World Sangria — the creation of owner Venanzio Momo — is a fruit-filled…
In prison, they say the quickest way to gain respect among the general population is to pick the biggest, meanest, ugliest guy in your block and, on your first day inside, beat him to death with a chair. Sure, you’ll spend a few months in the hole, but this establishes…
The Oldsmobile Toronado is a monster of a car. Seventeen feet long and grossing nearly two tons, it’s an old-school blacktop heavyweight and, in its day, was one king-hell luxury ride. Although it never had the power of a Corvette or the raw muscle of those classic Mustangs, pound-for-pound, the…
Repent, foodies, for the end draweth nigh: The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story this month full of doomsday prognostication and dire warnings for the future of the indie restaurant biz. According to Technomic Inc., a food-consulting firm out of Chicago, last year the Big Evil Empire of chain…
It’s cool and damp inside the harvesting room of Hazel Dell Mushrooms, where sprayers create a fine, pervasive mist. On row after row of shelves sit plastic bags filled with sawdust; inside the bags, fungal spawn of various kinds dream their strange dreams. Is there any foodstuff stranger than the…
Denver may be totally landlocked, but even so, a tropical storm blew into town this winter when Gumbo’s opened in LoDo and began serving its potent Hurricane. According to legend, the bright-red cocktail was created during World War II when brown liquors, such as whiskey, were in short supply; in…
It’s been almost two years since I’ve had decent Italian food. I’ve just recently come north from the culinary hinterlands of New Mexico, where a good red sauce is as hard to find as a cloudy day, a competent driver or a virgin bride. There were nights when I would…
