Tonight: Farm-to-table improv at Bacaro

Bacaro Venetian Taverna, 921 Pearl Street in Boulder, is hosting the first in a series of farm-to-table dinners this evening — spearheaded by the restaurant’s new chef, Aaron Bennett; who will improvise the menu based on patrons’ tastes…

Coloradans are partial to Santiago’s mean green

There are certain things Coloradans know that others don’t — like how Lookout Mountain turns a sixer of Fat Tire into enough beer for six people, how to walk in heels in downtown Denver in three feet of snow and not break your effin’ ankle, and, most important, which restaurants…

Cafe Max will open on East Colfax

Balance, a former hair salon at 2412 East Colfax Avenue, has fallen by the wayside, but the space, the interior of which is bright purple and psychedelic green (at least for now), has been snapped by Maxwell Hopewell-Arizmendi and Yukihiko Koyama, who plan to open Cafe Max…

Guess where I’m eating a Greek salad fit for a sultan?

In my endless search for a notable Greek salad, I may have found what I was looking for, here, at this iconic grub house that serves everything from burgers and salads to trout and Mexican skillets. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct…

Santiago’s Mexican Restaurant — green light on the chile sauce

Santiago’s Mexican Restaurants, a homegrown chain, got its start in 1990 at a single store in Brighton, with a very special ingredient — owner Carmen Morales used her mother Rachel’s recipe for Santiago’s now-famous “Authentic Green Chile Sauce with Pork.” From one store grew many, and today there are twenty…

Reader: You’re getting a way better deal at Chipotle

Initially, Jenn Wohletz thought that Taco Bell’s new Cantina Bell menu might give Chipotle a run for its money. But when a reader wondered how the same dishes might taste when made by a stoned teenager, she ordered the new bowls at an actual Taco Bell outlet — and she…

Here’s the dish on Dish!

Mark your calendar for Thursday, September 6. That’s the date for Dish, Westword’s eighteenth annual event dedicated to eating and imbibing. We’re staying outside this year, but moving the festivities to a new venue: the Sculpture Park outside of the Denver Performing Arts Complex, where attendees can enjoy the great…

Taco Bell’s Cantina Bell menu needs Lorena Garcia in the kitchen

I was as surprised as everyone else when Taco Bell announced that it was going fast-cazh with the new Cantina Bell menu — a blatant rip-off of Chipotle’s signature healthy, fresh Mexican-inspired burritos and bowls, albeit at slightly slower prices. I even attended a Taco Bell rollout dinner, hosted by…

Photos: A first look at the space at Ace

On July 28, Josh and Jen Wolkon, the owners of Vesta Dipping Grill, Steuben’s and the Steuben’s Food Truck, will introduce special-invite Denverites to Ace, a behemoth ping-pong palace and Asian restaurant that’s been in the works for months — and opens to the public next Wednesday. And while Josh…

Guess where I’m eating an antipasti plate?

Meats and cheeses, olives and beets, peppadew peppers and roasted garlic. There’s no better way to kick off a marathon meal of meatballs the size of a baseball, pastas and pizzas than with a good antipasti plate. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first…

Yak and Yeti’s veggie fare takes us higher than Everest

The upstairs dining room of the Arvada Yak and Yeti is like an eccentric grandmother’s attic, with its slanting ceilings and a shelf of books with such archaic titles as Communications in the Future (written in 1982). There are also enough cultural artifacts adorning the walls and shelves to stock…