Happy Hour at the BSide: Hot and Cold

The Star Bar in Ballpark proudly serves no food whatsoever, paying more attention to compiling a robust list of local brews and spirits — and a pile of regulars. It’s been successful enough that it seems like a decades-old juice joint despite its relative youth, perhaps because that’s exactly what…

100 Favorite Dishes: Diavola Pizza at Pizzeria Locale

No. 58: Diavola Pizza at Pizzeria Locale 3484 West 32nd Avenue, 303-302-2451 550 Broadway, 720-508-8828 Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson and Bobby Stuckey, owners of Frasca and the original Pizzeria Locale in Boulder, didn’t skimp when they decided to open a fast-casual version of their traditional Neapolitan pizza place on Broadway almost two…

Five Food and Drink Items From the ’90s We’d Like to Have Back

There are plenty of trendy eats and drinks from the entire decade of the 1990s that we either don’t miss or that just won’t die so we can miss them — like spinach-artichoke dip, weirdo fruity martinis, molten chocolate cake, chicken Caesar salads and sun-dried tomatoes on everything. But there…

Ink Coffee Moves Roaster to New RiNo Cafe

The red and black colors of a new Ink Coffee cafe adorn the former Cash From Clutter building at 2851 Larimer Street, across the street from the neighborhood’s five-year veteran, Crema Coffee House. At first, the addition made me wince: on a street that has small, local businesses popping up…

Video: Tamales by La Casita Are a Christmas Tradition

The Sandoval family has been making Christmas a little tastier at Tamales by La Casita since 1975. What seems like a simple corn wrapper filled with a little corn masa and pork actually requires a team of cooks to make enough tamales to keep north Denverites happy. Videographer Andrew Bateman…

Top Ten Places to Eat (and Drink) on Christmas Eve

By now the family is all here and the cooking for tomorrow has began — which means that tonight is a perfect time to go out, sit back and let someone else do the cooking for you. Restaurants and bars across town will be serving up special holiday menus and…

The Top Ten Dishes in Denver for 2014

I ate hundreds of restaurant meals this past year, comprising thousands of dishes. Narrowing those down to the ten best dishes I ate in 2014 wasn’t easy — especially when you consider the energy coming out of the 300-plus bars and restaurants that opened over the past twelve months and…

Dreaming of a Green Christmas at La Fuente

On the northwest corner of 44th Avenue and Federal Boulevard, there’s a liquor store, a Heads of State and La Fuente Mexican restaurant. La Fuente is barely noticeable but for a few banners and signs advertising breakfast and tamales. The restaurant looks like it’s been there forever, slowly accumulating those…

Four More Denver Restaurant Transformations in 2014

In a year jam-packed with bar and restaurant openings, it was sometimes a relief to find comfort in familiar favorites. But even a few of these took advantage of the favorable economic climate to improve on already successful formulas. Two of them closed and remodeled; reopening as larger versions of…

Copper Kettle Pours 2 Turtle Doves Today

Copper Kettle Brewing is counting down the days until Christmas with its 12 Firkins of Christmas — twelve unique casks themed around the holiday carol, “12 Days of Christmas.” And it’s down to the penultimate brew today. See also: Five of the Best — and Worst — Specialty Holiday Foods…

Dunbar Kitchen and Tap House Opens in Former Five Points Barber Shop

If you were ever doubtful that a Welton Street renaissance would arrive in Five Points, Dunbar Kitchen and Tap House will relieve those worries. The new restaurant with classic cocktails, shelves of local liquor, a brick-and-wood décor and Southern-tinged menu is a surprise in the mainly quiet Welton Street strip…

The Royal Now Serving Burgers on Tennyson Street

Josh Epps and Christina Smith, owners of the two Jelly Cafes in Denver (the original on Colfax Avenue and Jelly U near the University of Denver), live in the Berkeley neighborhood and wanted a family-friendly restaurant to take their kids for a reasonably priced dinner. The solution? They decided to…