Food & Drink

Planning the menu for a new restaurant is only one of the challenges. you have to design the proper setting for that food, a setting that will draw people in — and keep them there, as Chris Utterback reported in his piece on Semple Brown Design’s work with restaurants. “Part…

The 29th annual Taste of Colorado gets under way at Civic Center Park this Friday and runs through September 3. The end-of-summer festival is known for celebrating unusual foods — rattlesnake brats, wild-boar sandwiches, curried goat, beet burgers and chocolate-covered bacon, for instance — but the fair also features dozens…

Earlier this year, when I interviewed James Van Dyk, the executive chef of Lucky’s Cafe, a breakfast and lunch joint in Boulder, he mentioned that in the year he’d been cooking at the long-standing cafe, an extension of Lucky’s Market, he’d significantly changed the menu, “transforming it,” he said, into…

Last year L’Asie Fusion Bistro changed its name — to Odyssey Asian Bistro + Sushi. Now it’s changed names again, as well as management and menu. The Sixth Avenue spot is now called Odyssey Italian Restaurant, and the focus is on Italian fare…

The crowning burger at Wednesday night’s Denver Burger Battle, at least according to the restaurant industry judges — Hosea Rosenberg, Jenna Johansen, Daniel Asher and Max MacKissock — was the meat candy from Larkburger, Thomas Salamunovich’s fast-casual empire of artisan burger joints that got its start in Edwards, just a…

In March, we gave a Best of Denver award to Liks at the Bookery Nook, calling it the “Best Save of an Independent Bookstore.” But as it turns out, adding Liks ice cream to the offerings at the Bookery Nook wasn’t enough to save the shop. After three years, the…

The Denver Burger Battle smoked up Sports Authority Field at Mile High on Wednesday night, and while Boulder-based Mateo, one of the participating combatants in the friendly feud, didn’t saunter off with a winning trophy, the French-inspired burger received very good word of mouth — and one of you, along…

I was tempted to post the “before” photo, which shows absolutely nothing but lettuce, but then you’d think I was eating in a jungle. Actually, even with all that superfluous greenery dispersed across the plate, it still looks like a jungle. But the tacos — wholly average tacos — are…

We Americans waste food — and lots of it. A recent report by the Natural Resources Defense Council’s food and agriculture program determined that Americans discard 40 percent of the food supply every year, and the average American family of four annually throws away an equivalent of up to $2,275…

Charlie Palmer, the celebrated New York-based chef and restaurateur who owns and operates dozens of restaurants across the country, will close Charlie Palmer’s District Tavern and Wazee Wood-Fire Pizza at the end of dinner service — less than a year after he first rolled into Denver. Did he misjudge the…

Talk about a movable feast! The second annual Truck It! rolls into Boulder today for a party that will run from 4 to 9 p.m. at Gateway Park Center, 4800 28th Street…

The Denver Burger Battle amounted to a cook-off of epic proportions at Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium last night, as chefs from restaurants in Boulder and Denver competed in a fierce competition to raise money for the Kossler Foundation, which distributes funds to local nonprofits. I was there…

When Kenneth Monfort and Mitch Harber took over the space at 2200 Market Street and opened i-Fish Japanese Grill & Sushi Bar, they planned on using about 2,000 square feet of the spot for private, Japanese-style dining. But after a year in business, the partners decided to scratch that idea…

McDonald’s has long had a bad rap for offering low-paying, entry-level work, spawning the pejorative term “McJob.” But Cody Teets recently authored a book, Golden Opportunity: Remarkable Careers That Began at McDonald’s, about her jobs under the Golden Arches, where she started as a cashier in 1982 and is now…

Elway’s Downtown dedicated its new outdoor patio yesterday, and guess who showed up for the celebration? Yep, that’s right: John Elway himself. The “outdoor expansion” is on the wide sidewalk in front of the Ritz-Carlton, with the bridge across Curtis Street providing handy cover from both sun and rain. In…

Charlie Palmer, the celebrated New York-based chef and restaurateur who owns and operates dozens of restaurants across the country, said his final goodbyes to Denver last night, just hours before announcing that Charlie Palmer’s District Tavern and Wazee Wood-Fire Pizza, the two restaurants he opened in LoDo in late 2011,…