Life’s a bowl of cherries: A couple of things occurred to me while I was judging food at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival over the Fourth of July weekend: The event is as professionally run and well organized as any I’ve experienced, and there’s a lot of overpriced crap out…
The questions started coming up as soon as we sat down in Transalpin. First, there were the peculiar classifications on the menu–items were labeled both by style, such as “classics,” and by geography. And then there were the incredibly low prices listed beside those items. When a restaurant has really…
The BOD squad: Giving birth–which I am supposed to do in about a month–can’t be more strenous than trying to choose between the thousands of food and drink possibilities for Westword’s annual Best of Denver issue, which hit the streets last week. At the very least, it can’t involve as…
This is a fish tale with a happy ending–for Denver, if not for the fish. It begins in the cool Pacific waters off the northwest coast, where Mr. Swordfish finds himself the victim of a nasty sting operation–he’s wanted in fifty states for possession of cholesterol-lowering omega-3 fatty acids, and…
Pasta point of no return: The readers’ choice of the Olive Garden as “best Italian restaurant” in the Rocky Mountain News last week left me concerned for the state of this city’s palate. C’mon, people, the Olive Garden? I helped to open one in Florida several years ago (it was…
Judging from the way his hamburgers always look, Jughead’s criteria for the ultimate burger is a half-moon top bun, a meat pattie as thick as both bun halves put together and exactly the same width, two layers of frilly lettuce, a square of cheese hanging over the sides like a…
Make a pig of yourself: The invitation was to come eat some sowbelly and meet a few miners. How could I pass that up? Not surprisingly, the miners wound up being the better part of the deal at the June 4 Sowbelly Dinner in Idaho Springs. Held at the Idaho…
The party of eight at the next table barely noticed their food. “If we close”…”net profits”…”by next Tuesday”…”budget crunch”…The phrases floated over us like corporate Muzak. I watched as plate after plate was set down before the three women (all of whom were wearing red) and five men (all of…
Get ’em while they’re hot: Brunch at Hot Cakes, a breakfast/lunch cafe at 1400 East 18th Avenue, is sure to get you going–especially if you ask for wiseass waitperson Tracy Porter. Noticing that I am rather pregnant, Porter proceeded to turn my husband’s face twenty shades of red by asking…
Italian restaurants are popping up like wild oregano, making them a serious contender in the oversaturation competition now led by Mexican and Chinese. Most of these are red-sauce joints doing the old spaghetti/Chianti routine; few feature the kind of cooking that makes Italy a true gastronomic destination. Or, as Joe…
Graze anatomy: I stopped by Cliff Young’s on a recent Monday to sample its popular, free happy-hour fare only to find that the restaurant has eliminated any late-afternoon grazing offerings until the end of the summer. “It’s just not cost-effective,” says bar manager Shelley Sale. “With so many places that…
In Wall Street, the characters played by Charlie Sheen and Darryl Hannah spend at least four minutes of screen time making an elaborate meal of sushi and pasta and a bunch of other things requiring expensive kitchen appliances that I’m sure they didn’t have to clean. (In real time, the…
French toast: What a difference a week (and a change of scenery) makes. Brunch at Le Central, 112 East Eighth Avenue, was a world away from the previous Sunday’s meal at Firefly Cafe. I ordered the same dish–eggs Benedict–and paid 45 cents less ($4.95) than at Firefly, but this time…
When a man sets off to build an empire, he usually travels through uncharted territory, conquering exotic foreign lands. But Johnny Hsu stuck with the tried and true, never straying from familiar fare when he opened a mammoth near-copy of his Imperial restaurant ten miles to the southeast. “I wanted…
Fly trap: Sunday brunch at the Firefly Cafe, 5410 East Colfax, left me baffled as to why the place always looks so jammed–as indeed it was during our Mother’s Day visit. I expect crowds on that day, but a place that’s been in business for over a decade should be…
Denver’s spring weather has me on a dietary seesaw: One day I’m outside firing up the grill, and the next I’m craving whatever requires enough oven time to heat up the house. It was during the recent cold wave that we got a hankering for the quintessential belly comforter: a…
It won’t fly: While waiting for a noteworthy chicken-fried steak at the Cherokee Bar and Grill last week, I had the good fortune to eavesdrop on some particularly interesting conversations. On one side of the room sat a large group from the Denver Aviation Commission discussing, among millions of other…
A restaurant claiming to serve Mediterranean food is in a good position–the menu possibilities are endless when you stake out a territory including such culinary strongholds as France, Italy, North Africa, Spain, Greece and Turkey. Then again, sometimes it’s better to stick with what you know best, which could explain…
A recent trip to Boulder provided plenty of food for thought. At Two Bitts Bistro on Baseline Road, we became concerned that the kitchen was baking brownies just for us, so slow was service on two desserts well after the lunch rush had ended. Were they worth the wait? You…
During the Vietnam War, one of the best-known roads in Saigon was Pasteur Street, a bustling avenue of commerce that housed a restaurant fairly famous in its own right–Pho Pasteur, a place frequented by locals who were not averse to visits from American soldiers, my father included, who’d fill up…
Calling all restaurateur wannabes: Thornton is looking for a few good eateries to serve its rapidly expanding population. “In 1990 we had around 55,000 residents in Thornton,” says Dave Bata, the city’s economic-development specialist. “Now we’re at well over 60,000.” An even more impressive Bata statistic: The average annual income…
In one of the most ramshackle dining rooms in one of the most rundown buildings in one of the worst neighborhoods in town, you’ll find the heart and soul of Denver’s restaurant scene. But Ethel Allen–Miss Ethel to those who’ve already discovered Ethel’s House of Soul–doesn’t mind the Five Points…
