Bitter Bar’s James Lee places fourth

Hosea Rosenberg may have won last season’s Top Chef, but his luck didn’t hold for Big Red F colleague James Lee, the Boulder mixologist who placed fourth at this weekend’s Iron Bar Chef contest at the annual Santé Restaurant Symposium in New York. Which means Lee didn’t get the $1,000…

Under Fire: A quick reminder

Dear Tyler,This is just a quick note from the alternate you, the one who didn’t drop out of school and who didn’t sign away his future to the restaurant life. First off, it feels fantastic not having a burn on your hand that ballooned up like a certain memorable floating object this…

Tonight: Visions of Venice at Pizza Republica

Wish you were in Italy? The next best thing could be “Visions of Venice,” a wine dinner at Pizza Republica, 5375 Landmark Place, tonight at 6:30 p.m. The four courses, which cost $50, will tour you through the foods and wines of the great Italian regions — and none of…

Breaking: Deluxe/Delite on fire. Really, ON FIRE

Actually, I guess it’s probably not on fire any more. But Deluxe and Delite, Dylan Moore’s two excellent, side-by-side operations at 30 and 32 South Broadway, respectively, were on fire an hour or so ago. Both places took a hit. By the time I got there, the flames were gone…

Randolph’s new fall menu chosen by the people

If you want people to eat at your restaurant, why not have them pick the menu? That was the idea behind the new fall menu debuting tonight at Randolph’s Restaurant and Bar at the Warwick Denver Hotel. “We thought the people who came to select the menu would also be…

Off-duty cop working door at Hai Bar over the weekend

A uniformed off-duty cop was working the door at Hai Bar, at 3600 West 32nd Avenue, on Saturday night. It wasn’t entirely surprising, considering the altercation that occured at the 3,000-square-foot lounge below Sushi Hai two weeks ago, when a fight allegedly broke out and spilled out to the street,…

Cook’s Shelf: Farm City

Novella Carpenter is a badass. No, seriously. Bad. Ass. And her book, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, is basically a chronicle of her bad-assery. What is it that makes her so tough? What is it that makes me heart her big time? Simple. She became a farmer…

Ask the Critic: The nasty bits

We’re dealing here with the nasty bits: the offal, the often-maligned parts of cows, pigs and other critters that get thrown aside by more easily grossed-out foodies who think that only the best, most pricey parts of animals are worth sinking their teeth into. Late last week, I heard from…

Free coffee and tea this week at Red Trolley

You know what would make this week infinitely better? Free access to caffeine. And it turns out that Red Trolley, the ritzy ice cream joint at 2639 West 32nd Avenue, agrees. Sign up for Red Trolley’s monthly newsletter on its blog and you’ll get a coupon good for free coffee…

Ted’s Montana Grill goes nutty for apple crisp

You know it’s fall when the Nutty Apple Crisp returns to the Ted’s Montana Grill menu — and this year, corporate chef Chris Raucci is sharing the secrets of the dessert. “Our guests can’t wait for Nutty Apple Crisp to return each year,” he says. “We receive letters and emails…

What are Denver’s most haunted restaurant locations?

Peter Boyles is holding his annual haunted house event at Yak and Yeti, the Nepalese restaurant that took over the former home of the Cheshire Cat Brewpub and Restaurant, at 7803 Ralston Road in Arvada. (There’s a second Yak and Yeti at 8665 Sheridan in Westminster.) The ghosts on Ralston…

Guess where I’m eating?

The Mexican hamburgers at this joint are legendary — as are the chiles relleno, and the green chile that smothers everything in sight. In a town crazy for Mexican food, that’s no tiny achievement. Guess where I’m eating?…

TV or not TV? Sheehan helps cook up a tequila dinner at Mezcal

Last week, I told you about my impending attempt at doing TV and speculated about the potential disasters inherent in anyone allowing me to set foot in their kitchen again after years spent behind a desk. What’s more, I mentioned that anyone who was interested was welcome to come down…

Under Fire: The Dance

Our former Cafe Society intern just decided to chuck college in favor of a real education: as a sous chef. In Under Fire, he chronicles his daily trials and tribulations in the kitchen.In the industry, It’s called “the dance” — the natural reaction that comes from working with the same group of…

Cafe Society: Week in review

What you might have missed this week on Cafe Society while you were carefully crafting your kick-ass crush letter telling us all about your favorite Denver dive-bar: Lobby American Grille general manager Cory Sylvester got more than be bargained for on Tuesday night when a couple of thugs roaming the…

Don’t worry. Be Happy

What’s in a name? Apparently, not that much. Because while Big Red F honcho Dave Query has dropped the “Noodle House” portion of his Happy Noodle House restaurant’s name, the menu hasn’t changed a bit. Okay, maybe it’s changed a bit since I was there last. But then, it’d already…

Cook’s Shelf: Eating Animals

Reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma fucked me up good. It changed the way I looked at food forever and seriously altered the way I actually ate. Considering that eating is my vocation, this was no small thing. I have never looked at an ear of corn the same way…

On Havana Street: an international mission

International Restaurant Week will be celebrated in my ‘hood starting tomorrow, the party banging up and down the most interesting mainline it contains: Havana Street. This is the week when everyone is encouraged to get out and get weird, to try something they’ve never tried before, to (occasionally) overpay at…

Help David Sax save the dying deli

For the past several years, deli-obsessed Canadian journalist David Sax has been penning a blog that’s dedicated to preserving the Jewish deli, a “hallowed temple of salted and cured meats” that, Sax kvetches, is “endangered and in need of our support.” To that end, Sax has now written a book…