Last Thursday night at Infinity Park Event Center, the Rocky Mountain French-American Chamber of Commerce celebrated the arrival of the 2012 Beaujolais Nouveau by inviting local chefs to create French-inspired dishes and pair them with the grapey, fruity French wine as part of the annual event’s culinary competition. The battle,…
Years before the seedy side of downtown was officially named the Lower Downtown Historic District, artists and other hipsters recognized that it was the creative heart of Denver. And at its heart? City Spirit. Although the cafe closed fifteen years ago, it’s spirit lives on — and was much in…
Punch Bowl – Social Food & Drink is now open — and judging from the crowd at Friday night’s debut party, a benefit for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado, the place should be on a roll. Keep reading for a look at Punch Bowl. See also: – Slide show:…
Those of you who have had this cheeseburger will know exactly where I ate it. As for the rest of you, shame! Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Guess Where posts is entered into a pool — and…
Last week, I posted a letter from Christian Spinello, a guy who lives in Lyons and cures his own salumi at home. His missive, which is lengthy, inquisitive and pointed, was directed at Mark DeNittis, an owner of Il Mondo Vecchio, the artisan salumeria and manufacturing plant that he started…
If you needed (more) proof that Denverites are madly, wildly obsessed with craft beers, all you had to do was eyeball the packed Oriental Theater last Thursday night, the stage for the city’s first annual Chef & Brew event, which was sold out to the tune of 500 revelers downing…
Thick, rich and chocolately? Light, dry and roasty? Spicy, sweet…or just plain eccentric? Stout Month returns to the Mountain Sun, Southern Sun and the Vine Street Pub in February, and the company that owns all three is gearing up with its annual Stout Month homebrewing competition, in which the winner…
First thing’s first: Patxi’s is pronounced “pah-cheese” (‘t’ before ‘x’), and its name, which is Basque, also happens to be the first name of co-owner Patxi Azpiroz, who opens his namesake restaurant — a shrine to pizza — late this afternoon at Cherry Hills at Kent Place, a new mixed-use…
So far, much of the talk about the Pasquini’s Pizzeria that opened on East 17th Avenue in early November has focused on the new paint-job outside. Today, the discussion will move indoors, when Pasquini’s applies to the city for a cabaret license, which would allow the venue to offer live…
On Friday, Il Mondo Vecchio sold its final sausages. Since opening in 2009, the salumeria has garnered all kinds of praise for its cured meats, but in August the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it had a beef with the business’s salmonella testing procedures and issued an ultimatum that co-founder…
Cafe Society served four Guess Where? contests last week, ranging from a Russian Imperial Stout, aged in whiskey barrels, from Dry Dock Brewery, to pails of peanuts from Texas Roadhouse (yee-haw!), to a cup of tom kha talay, a Thai seafood soup that arrived mostly absent of seafood…
Yes, you can make a vegan pumpkin pie — but this spice bread is a lot lower in fat and calories, it’s just as tasty and it contains chocolate. Adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking for altitude, this is what we’ll be using for our vegan Thanksgiving dessert this…
Since Peyton Manning doesn’t work fulltime as a Papa John’s spokesman, CEO John Schnatter doesn’t have to cover the quarterback’s health insurance (which has to be hefty). And he’d like to make sure that as many Papa John’s employees as possible work under thirty hours a week, so that the…
The holidays are upon us — and there are always plenty of culinary gifts at this time of year, which we all can be thankful for. Here’s a taste of what’s on the menu for this week…
Lotus Concepts is raising the roof — literally — on the Victorian building at 2015 Market Street that for decades held Mori Japanese Restaurant. But Mori closed abruptly four years ago, and club king Francois Safieddine bought the spot from the Nisei Veterans Heritage Foundation for a reported $900,000 in…
The dining room (and bar) was a circus, peanuts (and off-key staff renditions of “Happy Birthday”) included. Only things missing were the elephants and Cracker Jacks. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Guess Where posts is entered into…
Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter has been outspoken about cutting employee hours to less than thirty hours per week so that he doesn’t have to pay their health insurance costs — as mandated Affordable Health Care Act — or Obamacare; he has cited concerns over the estimated $5 to 8…
Earlier this month, I broke the news that Il Mondo Vecchio, Mark DeNittis’s artisan sausage plant, would cease production at the end of November. And within minutes of the announcement, you could hear the collective sighs of despair all over the state — and beyond. When I interviewed DeNittis, he…
When it comes to beer, Colorado ski and snowboard destinations have long been known for pouring cheap megabeers into plastic cups — repeatedly. But that’s starting to change as the resorts look to team up with craft brewers around the state to attract shredders, powderhounds and even gapers with a…
Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market’s choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast. “I found this…
Vail’s Sweet Basil restaurant produces some beautiful dishes, like their signature cauliflower and black truffle bisque, crispy veal sweetbreads and Greek yogurt cheesecake with honey-poached blueberries. And on November 20, owners Kevin Clair and Matt Morgan, with executive chef Paul Anders, will spill their sweet, savory and spicy secrets in…
Zest Cafe opened last month at 2740 South Wadsworth Boulevard, and owner Andrew Krull and his crew have been serving up organic, locally-sourced cafe fare to an appreciative crowds ever since. “We make everything from scratch, including the bread,” Krull says, “and we have an amazing baker with thirty years…
