Ben Ali, co-founder and namesake of Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, D.C., died Wednesday night at the age 82. Thursday morning, his joint — the one that he has run for 51 years with his wife, Virginia, and their extended family, the one that has fed everyone from politicians, actors…
Steve Abo — you know, the guy behind eighteen Abo’s Pizza stores throughout Colorado — is using some of the dough he’s pocketed from tossing millions of pies to open a new restaurant that won’t have anything at all to do with pizza. Abo plans to open Circle, a “Continental…
The inn at Gold Hill, ten miles up from Boulder, has been around about as long as Colorado has been a state. Poet Eugene Field stayed there, and described his visits in “Casey’s Table d’Hote,” the first poem in his 1889 book A Little Book of Western Verse. Oh, them…
When Olivea opened in May at 719 East 17th Avenue, it immediately earned a spot among the top ten restaurants on 17th Avenue, which has become a real restaurant row. Below, nine more places to brake for food along 17th…
It’s Friday morning. Where are your pancakes? If you can pinpoint the exact location of the pancake in the above pic — which on further examination, looks like a distorted Halloween mask, what with those freaky butter eyes (not intentional, by the way) and rivers of syrup that somehow managed…
Colorado Bartenders Guild (COBG) is looking for bartenders with noggins full of gin ideas for the Hendrick’s Gin Cocktail Competition. To enter, a bartender needs to concoct a cocktail that includes the base spirit of Hendrick’s Gin (at least 1.5 ounces), with a maximum of seven ingredients (one can be…
Dylan Moore already runs a couple of this city’s most engaging restaurants: Deluxe at 30 South Broadway, one of the (very) few examples of intelligently designed, historical California cuisine done right in Denver, and right next door at 32 South Broadway, Delite, which offers a kind of Deluxe-lite menu (a…
There are places to meet friends for drinks … and then there are bars, my friends. Places where the drink is the thing, and the goal is drunk. That in mind, there are some TV bars where you just wouldn’t want to be, like Rosie’s from M.A.S.H. (bad booze near…
Just got news from the Rocky Mountain BBQ Association that Mike McCrea of Big Mike’s BBQ, at 8751 Pearl Street in Thornton, died on Tuesday night. McCrea had been injured in a flash-over from a propane tank in late September and spent that Friday night in an ER in Grand…
It’s not easy baking at 8,000 feet, but this pastry chef seems to have hit the jackpot. Want to be rolling in dough? Then guess where I’m eating…
I went out last night to try the new fall cocktails at a place I love, but don’t get to nearly as often as I’d like. After I’d tasted a number of delicious drinks (including a yummy red sangria with an orange twist, pictured above), the proprietor handed me a…
Coffee’s on at Aviano Coffee — and so is the heat. Owner Doug Naiman, who opened his spot in the beleaguered Beauvallon back in 2006, never anticipated the building being obscured by scaffolding and swathed in plastic. “When this scaffolding goes up over my business, what’s it going to look…
A few days back, we talked about Kevin Taylor getting his catering operation up and running out of Palettes at the Denver Art Museum. Inside that blog, there were some questions about what had gone wrong with the launch of what was supposed to be his newest full-scale restaurant, Kevin…
Illegal Pete’s, home of the fat fish burrito, has just opened its sixth location at 1744 East Evans Avenue, a textbook’s toss from the University of Denver campus. Like its other outposts, the fast-casual coastal Mexican, whose beer-battered fish filets (and counter staff that mixes up your burrito ingredients) have…
A new venture by Jon Edwards and Patrick Mangold-White, a take-out pizza joint called Kaos, was expected to open in May at 1439 South Pearl Street, but their little slice of pizza pie was derailed by issues with the one piece of equipment they really needed: a pizza oven. Up…
Tavern Congress Park, a new bar and restaurant planned for the former Neighborhood Flix Cinema & Cafe inside the Lowenstein complex (2510 East Colfax), will be the next in a series of outlets run by Denver’s Tavern Hospitality Group — which also owns the Soiled Dove, the Cowboy Lounge and…
Despite 450 years in the grape-stomping business, Mexican wines aren’t exactly flying off the shelves, but the Mexican Cultural Center and Consulate General of Mexico, along with Strings, will attempt to silence your inner cynic tonight, when Strings, 1700 Humboldt Street, hosts a Mexican wine dinner. The fiesta kicks off…
This is part two of Lori Midson’s interview with Sean Yontz, executive chef of Mezcal, Tambien and Sketch. You can read part one here. Culinary inspirations: Ferran Adrià, the chef at El Bulli, because of the way he’s completely changed people’s perception of Spanish food; Thomas Keller, because of his…
What’s your favorite dive bar in Denver? Drew Bixby, our Drunk of the Week columnist, features nearly a hundred great lounges, taverns and saloons in his book Denver’s Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the Mile-High City, due out November 3. But while Bixby includes a list of the…
Last year I added another day to my list of favorite unofficial holidays. Before 2008, my list was as follows: Opening day of the Rockies, St. Patrick’s Day, July 4th, New Orleans Jazz Fest, Halloween, Stock Show, Talk Like a Pirate Day, the first day of skiing and New Year’s…
Where have all your favorite Wynkoop beers of the year gone? The specialty and seasonal brews? They’ve all been drunk — all except for a few kegs that Brewmaster Andy Brown has been holding back for tonight’s Beer Dinner of the Year. Sample six of Brown’s favorite brews, paired with…
Jesus…,” I said to no one in particular, dopey smile aimed down 17th Avenue, waddling a little as I cleared the doors of Olivea. “He is just so fucking good.” “So you liked dinner?” Laura asked, squeezing my hand. John Broening has had a dodgy run. Good times and bad,…
