Food & Drink

The Denver Burger Battle opened to a wet — very wet — start last night, when rain threatened to turn all that beef into a massive river of particles floating down Speer Boulevard. But while the first thirty minutes of the annual ode to burgers — which took place at…

The Stapleton Tap House opened earlier this month in the Shops at Northfield, offering shoppers and Stapleton residents an easy way to try out unusual beers from smaller breweries across Colorado. The 1,500-square-foot spot, located near Harkins Theatre, has thirty taps and a saying that “the easier it is for…

The “special” curry, billed as “spicy” on the menu, wasn’t particularly spicy at all, although the flavors were deep, but the service? That’s a whole different story. In between waiting fifteen minutes for a beer, even longer for water and a hurried server who managed to spill a bowl of…

Frank and Dina Berta stunned regulars when they announced that they’d sold Frank’s Kitchen, the neighborhood joint they’d opened two years earlier in the Whittier neighborhood. But they gave their customers a definite consolation prize: Joe Van Dyke, aka “Jammin’ Joe,” a blues guitarist and restaurateur from Virginia who found…

When last year it was revealed that Trader Joe’s had finally decided to open two stores in Colorado, the clouds parted, cherubs started playing shiny little harps, citizens long-deprived of TJ’s inexpensive branded products began rejoicing — and marked their calendars for those fateful days in late 2013 when the…

Jamba Juice just opened its second location at Denver International Airport, on the C Concourse, and is slated to open a third in the Jeppesen Terminal this fall. “Jamba Juice has proven itself to be popular with our passengers on the B Concourse, so we are delighted to see the…

The menu at Beast + Bottle, the ever-packed restaurant launched this spring by brother-and-sister duo Paul and Aileen Reilly, is surprising in many ways. For starters, the menu features an abundance of unfamiliar ingredients and cooking terms, as I note in this week’s review. Then there’s the fact that the…

Andrew Knowlton, the appointed “Foodest” at Bon Appetit magazine — and the guy who named Boulder America’s Foodiest Town in 2010 — has just released his listacle of the country’s fifty Best New Restaurant nominees, and two Denver restaurants — their names won’t surprise you — made the cut. See…

It wasn’t exactly cold yesterday, but it was chilly enough that I gravitated toward of bowl of chili smacked with chipotle peppers — and it was a damn good rendition, especially given the fact that the menu favors frankfurters. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives…

Denver is definitely in need of more good barbecue, so I was eager to visit Southern Hospitality BBQ, the upscale barbecue restaurant that opened last October in the very renovated old St. Elmo Hotel building. This joint came with a smoking back-story: The original was opened in Manhattan in 2007…

UPDATE: We have a winner of our Ballpark Plates contest, in which we asked Cafe Society readers to answer this question: How many “bites” of gazpacho did Trillium sell during last year’s Ballpark Plates? Congrats to Sinnney85, who guessed 284; the actual number is 299. Skinney85, we’ll send you an…

Colin Mallet Sassafras American Eatery 2637 West 26h Avenue 303-433-0080 sassafrasamericaneatery.com This is part two of my interview with Colin Mallet, chef of Sassafras; part one of our chat ran yesterday.. Describe the biggest challenges facing Denver chefs: The amount of competition is enormous. There are so many new restaurants…

News broke this week that a professor at Maastricht University in the Netherlands had created the world’s first test-tube burger. Tasters gave the burger — which was mixed with salt, egg powder, bread crumbs, beetroot juice and saffron for taste and visual enhancement — a big “meh, it’s okay.” But…

Jonah Munson, the exec chef of the two locations of the Walnut Room, has a lot on his plate. Including dealing with naysayers who wonder why a pizza place — even a pizza place with two addresses — has an exec chef in the first place. See also: – Justin…

Like many writers, I’m an introvert — drawn to written rather than spoken words. My hunch is that Paul and Aileen Reilly, the brother-sister duo behind Beast + Bottle, have the opposite temperament. I say this based on admittedly circumstantial evidence: Paul’s ease and openness with me, a stranger, over…

Booze-heavy patios aren’t the only outdoor alternatives. Consider Steam Espresso Bar, a near-perfect coffee shop with a sprawling, inviting patio as well as a “back yard” that feels more like a scene out of The Secret Garden than a place to step out and take phone calls. See also: -…

Update: Read the winner below. “Are giant bears walking through downtown Colorado Springs?” asked a nitwitted FoxNews anchor last week, after video of the dumpster-diving bruin outside of the Edelweiss German Restaurant in Colorado Springs aired for the umpteenth time on the network. And Fox wasn’t alone; the schnitzel-hunting bear…

I slept for more than twelve hours after draining these beers (and quite a few more), lulled to slumber by the sounds of Simon and Garfunkel and John Denver — the same mellow artists that this taproom chose to play on a lazy afternoon. Can you guess where I’m drinking?…