This week saw a number of openings and closings haunted by the spirits of Denver restaurant history. Spruce Tap House closed without notice after only seven months on Blake Street, the victim of a redevelopment project that will result in new condos. The space had seen a fair amount of…
Everyone who is anyone in the Colorado cannabis industry was at the VIP grand opening of NATIV Hotel — Denver’s first pot-friendly hotel — in LoDo last night. Guests were welcomed with music from DJ Norman Doray, champagne spiced up with jalapeno or strawberry simple syrup, CBD-infused coffee and an…
When Erika Thomas and Chad Stutz opened High Point Creamery (winner of our Best Ice Cream/Gelato Shop award this year) in the Hilltop neighborhood a year ago, the plan was to follow up with a second ice cream shop in River North this summer. Those plans are still in the…
Yesterday was Ryan Fletter’s birthday. It was also the day he finally got to tell his mother that he’d bought Barolo Grill, after six months of working out the details of a deal that Barolo’s founder, Blair Taylor, had suggested to his longtime employee. Yesterday, Fletter and Taylor also share…
At any given hour, Denver’s Union Station is buzzing with all sorts of visitors: travelers just passing through, regulars stopping in for lunch or coffee, and nervous-looking social media users looking for their Tinder dates. It’s a place where you can find just about anything your palate desires. Seafood, craft…
The best thing about street food is that the only utensils you normally need are your hands. Modern food trucks rallying at well-planned setups like Civic Center Eats, where shaded tables and chairs are provided, can serve messier fare that requires a knife, fork or spoon, but if you want…
All aboard for destination eating at Union Station. When the development partners started planning what to put inside the renovated station, they envisioned a place frequented not just by visitors, but by locals. And they succeeded: Union Station has become a go-to spot for Denver diners, and we named it…
As we prepare to say goodbye to May and welcome June, the culinary schedule starts heating up. This weekend features the first Final Friday event of the season, the annual Burning Can festival, and a major program showing that Meat Matters. Keep reading to find out how to have a…
If you’re a fan of Kelly Whitaker’s wood-fired cookery at Boulder’s Basta, take note: The restaurant will be closed for minor improvements from Sunday, May 31, through Wednesday, June 3. Whitaker says Basta will reopen on June 4 with a few changes to the bar and chef’s counter as well…
As we reported last week, the historic El Rancho restaurant and conference center, which closed in 2012, is set to reopen later this year under new ownership as a brewpub; the iconic log-cabin building, which sits just off of I-70 at the exit for Evergreen, has a storied history. The original…
Los Chingones is a restaurant made for happy hour: A big, beautiful rooftop patio, a location amidst the creative agencies and cultural hot spots around Ballpark and RiNo, and enough tequila to knock out a boutique ad shop for days. And as a Troy Guard venture, the food has proven…
First Watch, a breakfast-and-lunch chain that got its start in California in 1983, opened its first Colorado restaurant this week at 120th Avenue and I-25 in Northglenn. The company plans to add seven more First Watch locations over the next five years along the Front Range, from Fort Collins to…
Mark Antonation has been eating at Denver soul-food restaurants all through May for his latest round of Ethniche. His most recent stop was at Cora Faye’s Cafe, a decade-old spot on Colorado Boulevard that earned a visit from Guy Fieri. Owner Priscilla Smith is almost as much a draw as the…
I’m not the first to fall under the spell of tonkotsu ramen, with its mysteriously alluring pork broth that hides a world of flavor in every white, cloudy spoonful. Jeff Osaka, chef-owner of the month-old Osaka Ramen, the latest entrant in Denver’s ramen war, has spent years thinking about the…
The rain put a damper on the start of Civic Center Eats, but now the regular gathering of food trucks at Civic Center Park from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday is really rolling. In fact, when they were recently in town to film scenes for Wheel…
When the Breckenridge Brewery announced three years ago that it would be building a massive new campus on twelve acres in Littleton, complete with a new restaurant and tap house, an opening date seemed a long way off. But while the brewery itself is still a few weeks away from…
It’s time to say so long to Sullivan’s Steakhouse. When this eatery, which is owned by the Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group, opened at 1745 Wazee Street back in 1999, the Westword office was right across 18th Street, and we frequently found ourselves at one of the high-tops in the boxing-themed…
Aurora’s Havana Street is awash with some of the most diverse ethnic cuisine in the Denver metro area; the cultural landscape is primed with every kind experience, from fine-ish dining to lovable dives to mom and pop eateries from almost every nationality and culture: Ethiopian, Vietnamese pho, dollar-a-scoop Chinese, Mexican…
Cora Faye’s Cafe, Denver’s most well-known — and arguably best — soul-food eatery, is the last stop in a month of soul food for May’s Ethniche series. Cora Faye’s opened in 2006 on a run-down stretch of shops on Colorado Boulevard just north of City Park, but the decor and…
Denver Beer Co wants you to get outside. When the brewery began canning last year, it kicked off an unusual program in which a variety of GPS coordinates were printed on its cans. The coordinates corresponded to locations throughout the state. Whoever found them, took pictures there and then turned…
El Rancho is making another comeback — this time as a brewpub. The iconic restaurant in the foothills got its start as a log cabin eatery in 1947; new owners took it over in the ’50s, and expanded it into a major restaurant and conference center. In the ’60s, it…
I’ve been planning food vacations for decades, a strategy that has led to many memorable meals, from a hearty onion tart in Strasbourg, France, to a cinnamon-dusted, pigeon-filled b’stilla in Marrakech. A year and a half ago, I added another globe-trotting dish to the list: tonkotsu ramen at a hole-in-the-wall…
