The Best of Denver 2013 is out, with more than a hundred categories in our Food & Drink section. One of the most hotly contested categories is always Best Green Chile. This year, the readers voted for El Taco de Mexico, a many-time winner. Cafe Society’s pick for Best Green…
The Fancy Plants Vegan Prom takes place tomorrow night at the Mercury Cafe, 2199 California Street. Marilyn Megenity’s club that was awarded our Best Free Entertainment award in the Best of Denver 2013. The prom, which starts at 8 p.m., isn’t free, but it will raise funds for Peaceful Prairie…
There are time-honored traditions that define a good whiskey, from the type of grain used in the mix to the type of barrel in which it’s aged. But Lenny Eckstein, owner and head distiller of Deerhammer Distilling Company in Buena Vista, is not afraid to mix tradition with new practices…
Just over a month ago, Jeff Bauman and his brother Marc shuttered Pig & Block Charcuterie, their butcher shop at 3326 Tejon Street, in LoHi. “We were given a really decent offer to sell, and while things had been going very, very well for us — we were even preparing…
Earlier this week, three Colorado chefs — Elise Wiggins (Panzano), Daniel Asher (Root Down and Linger) and Riley Romanin (Hooked in Beaver Creek) — convened in the kitchen of Metropolitan State University Hospitality Learning Center to vie for an opportunity to cook at the Taste of Derby competition at the…
I had low expectations for the margarita at this new Mexican restaurant. But while it didn’t make me howl with glee, it was far from the worst marg I’ve had. With any luck, this restaurant will stick around longer than the space’s last tenant — and I’ll be able to…
Paul Schutt, former chef at Work Options for Women, just opened Tin Star Smokehouse in the space vacated by Chia’s Breakfast & Lunch Counter at 16400 South Golden Road in Golden. Not coincidentally, Paul’s brother, Andrew Schutt, owns Tin Star Cafe & Donut House in Evergreen — another barbecue joint…
I have yet to find my go-to Chinese restaurant, chain or otherwise, in Denver. And that’s not from lack of trying. I have favorite Japanese/sushi, Vietnamese and Thai spots all over town, but the best I have scrounged up for moderately priced, decent Chinese is effin’ Panda Express. And, yes,…
Grand Lux Cafe closed in Park Meadows last week. According to the Park Meadows website, the mall (inside or out) still has Brio Tuscan Grille, California Pizza Kitchen, Champps, Cru – a Wine Bar, Earl’s, La Sandia, P.F. Chang’s, Red Robin, Thai Basil, White Chocolate Grill and two restaurant/pubs in…
TAG|RAW Bar, 1430 Larimer Street, was awarded Best Chef’s Counter in our 2013 Best of Denver, which hit the streets yesterday, and tonight is a perfect opportunity to see for yourself why it won. Every last Thursday of the month, this underground restaurant in Larimer Square offers a special four-course…
Announcement: We have a winner of our Jax Fish House High West Oyster Fest contest. Congrats to kayodo, who guessed 10,887 oysters. The correct number is 11,932. (Sorry, CRGWKM, but as I said, if you don’t leave an e-mail address, you can’t win.) Kayodo, we’ll send you can e-mail about…
The Best of Denver 2013 has hit the streets, and once again, LoHi is our Best Restaurant Neighborhood. At the end of 2012, the LoHi Merchant Group did a count of all the eateries in the area and came up with over fifty — more than double the count from…
Craft beers are not Colorado’s only liquid assets. This state’s craft-spirit industry is booming, too. Two years ago, when the Colorado Bartenders Guild, the Colorado Distillers Guild, Westword and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver banded together on the Colorado Cocktail Project, the Distillers Guild had fewer than twenty members…
We’ve spent a lot of time in bars since the first Best of Denver issue made its debut in 1984, and sometimes we even remembered to give awards to those bars. One of our most popular categories? Best New Bar, snagged this year by Ace. Some years we didn’t make…
In just a few short hours, the Best of Denver 2013 will start hitting the street — and the web. This year’s edition is packed with more than 400 winners (we’re still counting). One of the most anticipated categories in our Food & Drink section is also one of the…
In case you haven’t heard, Westword’s Best of Denver issue hits the streets later this afternoon, and somewhere within the confines of the newsprint is a big shout-out to the chef whose lamb chops are depicted in the above photo. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who…
Colorado’s craft brewers are constantly coming up with new beers, so many that it can be hard to keep up. Some are permanent additions to their lineups, while others are seasonal specialties that arrive for just a few weeks or months each year. Still more are small-batch releases that come…
In A Federal Case, I’ll be eating my way up Federal Boulevard – south to north – within Denver city limits. I’ll be skipping the national chains and per-scoop Chinese joints, but otherwise I’ll report from every vinyl booth, walk-up window and bar stool where food is served. Here’s the…
In advance of the Best of Denver 2013, which will hit the streets (and the web) later today, we took a look back at the winners of the Best New Restaurant award over the past decade. Most of those winners are still going strong; a few have lost the chefs…
It’s National Paella Day! And Ondo’s Spanish Tapas Bar, 250 Steele Street, is celebrating with a deal on made-to-order versions of the traditional Spanish dish. See also: – Reader: Before you judge a dish like paella, see if it tastes good – Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Paella -…
Central Bistro & Bar will start serving lunch tomorrow, eight months after Isiah Salazar opened his restaurant on the very edge of LoHi, almost three months after opening exec chef Lance Barto abruptly left the kitchen. That kitchen is now in the hands of Gerard Strong, who’d come from Z…
The snow is melting, which means just one thing: Time for a beach drink! Although this hot spot — once a popular watering hole with garbage haulers — was about the last place I expected to find punch, I was thrilled with this cocktail. And that’s not trash talk. Can…
