As a restaurant critic, I’m often considering minutiae. Was the steak overcooked? Was the server informed? How were the scallops plated? These details aren’t insignificant; taken together, they determine which restaurants are worthy of our most precious commodities — i.e., time and money. But I often wish I could judge…
Our restaurant critic, Gretchen Kurtz, took much of 2016 off — but she returned in August revitalized after her sabbatical. And a good thing, too, because restaurants continue to open at an unprecedented pace in metro Denver. Her mission remains the same: to visit a restaurant anonymously — and more…
As the year comes to an end, we’ve started looking back at the best of what Denver chefs and restaurateurs brought to the table in 2016. Gretchen Kurtz chalked up her final restaurant review of the year — and it was a good one. Read what impressed our critic about…
As in the days of the Denver oil boom, steakhouses are a big part of Denver’s current restaurant renaissance. While old meat palaces are being revived under new leadership, others are stampeding into town from respected restaurant groups. Here are five eateries specializing in the art of grilled beef, from…
What will be the best restaurant to open in Denver in 2016? We just rolled out our list of the best restaurants that debuted before December, and several more contenders have opened in the last few weeks. But some readers already have favorites. Robert is a fan of Matsuhisa, and…
No. 32: Flavorsome Ramen at Sera’s Ramen Enclave Sera Nguyen opened this laidback West Highland noodle joint in the former Bang! spot (3472 West 32nd Avenue) in May, and has been making fans ever since. All it takes is one bowl of Nguyen’s comforting ramen to seal the deal, and a…
If you’re celebrating Christmas this year, there’s one more chance to hang out with people who aren’t your family and drink and eat delicious things that someone else made. Christmas Eve dinners at these six restaurants are especially festive and tasty, but hurry to make your reservations before they sell…
We’ve all been faced with the “Where should we go?” question. Sometimes the answer is obvious, but other times we need help. Whether it’s finding the perfect place to celebrate the right occasion, determining what kitchen can accommodate an unusual dietary restriction, or maybe just discovering a new place to…
The Bull & Bush Pub and Brewery, affectionately called “The Bull” by regulars, has definitely attained status as a Denver institution. The English-style pub has been a bar far longer than a brewery, but even the beer-making setup has been turning out suds since 1997, before nearly everyone and their…
No. 33: Bagna Cauda Broccoli Rabe at Dio Mio Handmade Pasta Broccoli rabe isn’t exactly sexy; the bitter vegetable more often than not looks like nothing more than limp weeds on a plate. But the cooks at Dio Mio Handmade Pasta at 3264 Larimer Street turn broccoli’s skinny cousin into…
Maybe you thought Denver couldn’t possibly hold another craft brewery. Or maybe you thought the boom was slowing down. I know I did. If so, then we were both wrong. Denver’s thirst for new breweries continued unabated in 2016 as eight new taprooms with Denver addresses (Brewability Lab, Bruz Beers,…
Chef/restaurateur Jeff Osaka just opened 12@Madison after a two-year period spent building Osaka Ramen, Sushi-Rama and the Denver Central Market, but he says there’s one person on his team who has made the growth of a restaurant mini-empire much easier, someone who takes care of business behind the scenes without…
Oskar Blues never stops. Just when you think the company will rest and take a break, it launches a new concept, location, passion project or major initiative. The latest is the announcement of plans for a new restaurant and beer bar in downtown Colorado Springs. Located in the historic DeGraff…
It’s the most wonderful time of the year — especially if you’re helping others and having fun at the same time. And that’s what folks were doing Monday night at Retrograde, the bar tucked behind Frozen Matter that ranks as one of our ten best new bars of 2016. A…
At the end of this year, Andrea Frizzi will shutter his Il Posto on East 17th Avenue and start anew in a fresh space in RiNo, just around the corner from Vero, the Milano pizzeria he recently launched in Denver Central Market. Il Posto’s new digs are dazzling, a sleek…
Palenque Mezcaleria became Denver’s first bar specializing specifically in mezcal, tequila’s smoky sibling, when it opened in April. After a few months of experimenting with mezcal drink recipes, bar manager Chris Wingate has released Palenque’s first cocktail menu, which offers a small collection of his staff’s creations. While Wingate and…
Though the primary function of Scissors & Scotch (7600 Landmark Way, Greenwood Village) is to provide hair care for men, a peek into the Greenwood Village shop reveals a setup that looks more like a sleek saloon than a salon. In fact, on a recent visit the bar was half full…
Is Avelina where the pendulum begins to swing in the other direction? At some point in the future, maybe in three years, maybe in five, will we look back on the opening of this quiet downtown restaurant and trace the return of the soft-spoken, the sophisticated, the beautiful to the…
Corporate buyouts, gentrification, urban infill: These are the forces that get vilified when time-honored corners of our city are lost to change. But sometimes something as simple yet inevitable as growing old can close a popular business. Such was the case when Ron Cito and Kim DeLancey retired and closed…
The Original Chubby’s on West 38th Avenue just opened a brand new dining room and kitchen over the weekend that replaces the tiny, takeout-only joint operated first by Stella Cordova and then by her grandson, Danny, over the past fifty years. But another grandson, Julian, has opened and closed a…
Seinfeld has been off the air for nearly twenty years, but gags from the show still live on. The fifth annual Denver Beer Festivus, held on Saturday, December 17, celebrated the alternative holiday observance created by character George Costanza’s dad, who wanted “a Festivus for the rest of us” to…
The Original Chubby’s never had to call itself “the original” until other Chubby’s locations began popping up around town, some which even called themselves the Original Chubby’s. But there’s only one original, and that’s the Chubby’s at 1231 West 38th Avenue, purchased and run by Stella Cordova in 1967 and…
