Earlier this afternoon around 2:30 p.m. when I walked into Luca D’Italia for a meeting, the room was dark, and so, too, were the the dining rooms at Bones and Vesper Lounge, all of which are Frank Bonanno’s restaurants. Just a few minutes earlier, I learned, the electricity had gone…
After over fifteen years, Bacaro Venetian Taverna will close its doors for good late tonight. But the restaurant is going out with a bang: After a month-long farewell February celebration, the establishment is throwing a final Mardi Gras bash tonight. See also: Bacaro closing on March 4 following a farewell…
It’s been almost two years since Steve and Linda Ballas first decided to try to put a second Steve’s Snappin’ Dogs at Denver International Airport, just over a year since they got the go-ahead from DIA to work with Keith Montoya, the local partner with LS Travel Retail, on a…
Keegan Gerhard and Lisa Bailey, the married couple who own D Bar, the diminutive storefront in Uptown that’s renowned for both its desserts and savory dishes, is closing its original shop and relocating to what the couple describes as a “new location [that] will stay true to the core of…
Grand Lake Brewing, which closed its taproom last October amidst declining business in the mountain town and after dispute with several employees, announced on its Facebook recently that it will reopen in Olde Town Arvada, just a block from the Arvada Brewing Company. The new location is at 5610 Yukon…
Chef Duy Pham, whose impressive cooking career in Colorado started at the long-gone Le Petit Gourmet Catering and journeyed through the kitchens of Tante Louise, Opal, the Luna Hotel, Sushi Den, Fifteen Twentyone in Pueblo and, most recently, Epernay and Restaurant Kevin Taylor, is looking forward to the month of…
There’s always room for more pho on Federal, no? That’s the hope of Chinh Nguyen, his fiancée Quynh Nguyen and Thuy Le (owner of Chez Thuy in Boulder), who just opened Pho Market in the original Pho 95 strip-mall space at 1002 South Federal Boulevard. And you’ll never recognize the…
Bocadillo has never felt like a copycat. When the restaurant opened in early 2012 on a quiet street in Sunnyside, owner Derek Dietz opted not to put out trendy, refined fare. “We’re not competing with Rioja and Squeaky Bean,” he explains. “We’re like a diner that has really good food.”…
When I was growing up, surf and turf was a luxury that was always saved for special occasions, and up until last night, I hadn’t eaten a lobster tail and a steak on the same plate in more than a decade. Next time, I won’t wait that long. Can you…
Clay Carlton is on a roll. The Denver native who opened his first barbershop in Winter Park 38 years ago today is a master cigar-roller and proprietor not just of Palma Cigars but of Bar Las Palmas Wine Bar, the most unique shop in the Ballpark neighborhood, offering cigars, wine,…
We’ve been fans of Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs since Jim Pittenger’s cart first popped up on the 16th Street Mall. And we’re not the only ones: Yelper love recently landed Biker Jim’s on Yelp’s list of the 100 “best” restaurants in the country — right alongside a tiki snack bar…
Today Mardi Gras is a celebration of overindulgence, cheap plastic beads — and the obligatory flashing that comes along with them. But Fat Tuesday was not always such a morally bankrupt holiday. Its roots lie in eating lots of rich and fatty foods that were prohibited during Lent, which begins…
The restaurant program at Denver International Airport is smokin’, with Root Down and Elway’s both opening outposts there last year, and Steve’s Snappin’ Dogs opening a spot at DIA this week. And today the Aviator’s Club, a full-service barbecue joint, opened on the mezzanine level of the B Concourse. We…
Firehouse Subs, a Florida-based fast-casual chain specializing in hot subs, just opened a second store in Aurora today. Like all the other stores opened by former firefighting brothers Robin and Chris Sorensen, this Firehouse Subs location has a custom, hand-painted mural inside the dining room that pays tribute to local…
UPDATE: We have a winner of our DSTILL Showcase contest, in which we asked Cafe Society readers to answer this question: What were the first five distilleries to open in Colorado that continue to operate today? Congratulations to Lee5324, who correctly guessed all five: Stranahan’s, Peach Street, Peak Spirits, Mystic…
Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday (and National Pancake Day), and although we may not be in New Orleans, Denver definitely knows how to celebrate. Fat Tuesday originally got its name from the practice of eating lots of rich and fatty foods before the ritual fasting for Lent, which starts Wednesday. Over…
This bar, like many bars, offers a bartender’s choice, a throw-caution-to-the-wind cocktail that’s custom created by someone who you hope will wow you with their mixology magic. The cocktail in the above snap was unlike any I’ve ever had, a marriage of lemon, sugar and sparkling rosé dominated by bitters…
Cafe Society served up four Guess Where? contest posts last week, ranging from a textbook-perfect daiquiri from the Capital Grille to a terrific thin-crust pizza (that beat out the more popular deep-dish pizza) at Denver Deep Dish, which resides inside Bar Car, to a plate of chilaquiles that made everyone…
Billed as “Denver’s largest gathering of local food producers, manufacturers, growers, retailers and restaurateurs,” the 2014 Local Food Summit, hosted by the Mile High Business Alliance, in partnership with the City of Denver, kicks off this morning at 10 a.m. at the McNichols Civic Center Building with a full day…
After months of renovation work and delays, Gozo quietly opened this past weekend for friends, family members and a few lucky neighbors — and just as quietly closed again for a few last-minute touches before it reopens for good on Friday, March 7. See also: Gozo will open on South…
Chefs are shifting all over town, and now baRed and CY Steak, which share a kitchen (and father-and-son owner/managers Cliff and Zach Young), are looking for a new chef de cuisine, after the departure of Doug Mace. But a new chef isn’t the only change baRed should make, according to…
Don’t head to Wafflich for breakfast this morning — or lunch, for that matter. The sandwich shop that Benny Kaplan opened at 4166 Tennyson Street after closing his much more ambitious Shazz (now the home of Scratch Burrito) never returned from its winter break. Instead, when the doors of this…
