LoDo restaurants in the limelight at annual awards

Two decades ago, when the first LoDo Limelight Awards were handed out, restaurants were few and far between in lower downtown. But today the restaurant and hospitality industries are the heart of LoDo, and businesses ranging from the venerable Oxford Hotel to the brand-new ChoLon Modern Asian Bistro were honored…

Reader: Beware the cheesy, “foodie” people of Boulder

The news that Boulder, the “foodiest town” in the country, will finally get a specialty cheese shop when Cured opens next month was greeted enthusiastically by most readers — and with some skepticism from Dave M: There was a great specialty cheese shop in Boulder a couple years ago. The…

Tonight: Celebrity Chili Cook Off at Denver Press Club

Westword’s own Beer Man, Jonathan Shikes, will defend his title at the annual Celebrity Chili Cook Off at the Denver Press Club, 1330 Glenarm Place, from 6 to 8 p.m.; admission is $15 to $20, and proceeds benefit the Women’s Bean Project. For more details, go to www.womensbeanproject.com. For information…

Guess where I’m eating?

Way too often, I’m steered in the wrong direction by leaving my food fate in the hands of a server (or counter person), mostly because I can’t make up my mind, which is no one’s fault but my own. Still, it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth when…

Top Chef All-Stars: Life’s a beach!

Something weird and vampiric is happening to Mike Isabella and Richard Blais on Top Chef: Mike is getting chubbier and cockier by the week, while Richard shrinks visibly, becoming ever thinner and more irritable, muttering that he hates, hates, hates everything he cooks — and this after receiving praise from…

Free food: Starbucks and Glacier Ice Cream

It’s a glorious, sunny day outside and because we know you’re already looking for an excuse to ditch your office or cubicle for at least a few minutes and stroll through magical rays of sunshine, here’s a little more incentive: free food…

Cured will finally give Boulder a specialty cheese shop

When Boulder was named America’s foodiest town by Bon Appetit last year, it won the honor despite the fact that Boulder has no specialty cheese shop. For the last few years, anyone looking for a unique cheese in this town would generally look for it at Whole Foods. And while…

Round two with Will Cisa, exec chef of the Corner Office

Will Cisa The Corner Office 1401 Curtis Street 303-825-6500 www.thecornerofficedenver.com/food/dinner This is part two of my interview with Will Cisa, executive chef of the Corner Office Restaurant + Martini Bar. In part one of that interview, Cisa dished on monumental cooking disasters, Euclid Hall’s boudin noir and the impossible thirty-minute…

Noonan’s Tavern set to open next week at Heather Ridge

Last year the B.U.F.F. Brothers Group sold four of their bars — the College Inn, Dirk’s, Gibby’s and Pifler’s — to the Little Pub Company. B.U.F.F. Brothers co-owner Rob Lanphier says the sale basically came down to money: The Little Pub Company, which now owns nineteen saloons in the area,…

When Ototo closed for repairs, our review took a break, too

My review of Ototo Food and Wine Bar was originally slated to run on Thursday, March 3. I’d eaten three meals at the place, written the review and signed off on what I thought was the final version — and then on Saturday, February 26, two days before that issue…

Reader: When visiting the Vine Street Pub, carry cash

The Vine Street Pub & (Brewery) does not take credit cards — a policy that’s led to a lively discussion following our update on construction at the pub that will finally let the place brew its own beer. As readers point out, Vine Street does have an ATM — which…

Today: Sustainable Kitchen class at Denver Botanic Gardens

The Denver Botanic Gardens, 1007 York Street, presents “Sustainable Kitchen: Learning to Use Local Ingredients & Concepts In Your Lifestyle,” a class where you can learn about sustainable practices that you can use in your own kitchen. It runs from 6 to 8:30 p.m. and costs $49 to $56; pre-registration…

Heavenly foie gras and oysters served at Ototo on South Pearl

As we were finishing dinner at Ototo Food and Wine Bar, a waiter who’d had my table twice before stopped by to say hello. A true, lifelong professional who’d never planned on having any career other than this one, he’d passionately delivered information about food and wine along with my…

Bring out your best for the Best of Denver 2011

Cafe Society writers are hard at work on the Best of Denver 2011, which will include more than a hundred food and drink categories, many of which are included on the Best of Denver Readers’ Poll. Paper ballots are due at the office by Friday — but you can vote…

VG Burgers’ food is both very good and vegan-friendly

Denver’s veggie food scene is decent, but nowhere except the People’s Republic of Boulder would you find a restaurant quite like VG Burgers. Its all-organic, all-vegan menu is an anomaly in the quick-casual industry — as is the fact that the facility is entirely wind-powered, and there isn’t a wastebasket,…

Guess where I’m eating?

The pudgy, misshapen flying saucers in the above snap, draped with a potent tahini sauce and sided with rods of blushing turnip pickles, are some of Denver’s best falafel — scratch-made, herby and greaseless. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to…

Fire breaks out at Boulder’s Oak at Fourteenth

Part of the Pearl Street Mall has been evacuated after fire broke out this morning at Oak at Fourteenth, the recently opened restaurant owned by bartender Bryan Dayton, chef Steve Redzikowski and general manager Annie Polk. Flames burst out in the attic, a space between the ceiling of the restaurant…