One night in Beaver Creek

On our first night in town, Laura, the kid and I had only one overwhelming concern: where to get a little dinner.  And rather than drive down into Avon, we decided to take our chances in the minor utopia that is Beaver Creek Village. It was beautiful (as was only…

Guess where I’m eating?

Whereas a weekly hamburger fix is the norm for some of you, at my house, it’s the street taco or the hot dog — the latter because my kid is extremely picky about where he’ll eat a burger (Old School Burgers is about the only place that doesn’t make him…

Cheba Hut gets ready to smoke

Cheba Hut, the pot-themed sub-shop chain, could open its first Denver location as early as Monday, August 10, says franchisee and store co-owner Matt Clark-Johnson, who’s at the store at 1531 Champa Street making some final preparations this morning. Although Clark-Johnson, who also owns a Cheba Hut in Boulder, had…

Geek in the Galley: The toaster of tomorrow

See that picture above? Yeah, that’s exactly what you think it is: a toaster with a pre-determined Pop Tart setting. And that is just about the coolest thing in the world. Or in the world of toasters, at least. The toaster pictured is the one that came with my room…

This weekend: Chocolate, Colorado wines and craft beers

Many restaurants will be offering specials tonight to coincide with First Friday, and the Infinite Monkey Theorem winery, at the edge of the Santa Fe Arts District at Fifth and Santa Fe, is even hosting a wine-tasting at 5 p.m. with light bites from Masterpiece Delicatessen. For info, call 970-260-0710…

Giant Dale’s Pale Ale can attacks Longmont!

A gigantic painting of a can of Dale’s Pale Ale is nearing completion on a silo outside of the Oskar Blues Homemade Liquids & Solids, the brewery which makes Dale’s. This is what the can, which we wrote about here, looked like as of about 4 p.m. on Thursday, August…

Candy Girls: Fluffy Peanut Brittle

In our families, grandma usually does all the holiday candy-making to create our yearly dose of buttery toffee, peanut clusters and peanut brittle. But grandma never made peanut brittle like this. The Fluffy Gourmet Peanut Brittle made locally by “Grampa” Michael Apodaca at Grampas Candy is “injected with air to…

Liquor at An’s Lemongrass Grille

Starting next week, you can enjoy some alcohol with your meal at An’s Lemongrass Grille — at least the downtown location at 1617 California Street. It was recently awarded a liquor license, and the plan is to start serving beer and wine, and maybe some sake as well. The local…

Grapes and grilling tonight at Strings

If you didn’t snag a ticket to tonight’s shochu-tasting dinner at Elway’s, don’t weep in your Wheaties. You have other other culinary options this evening, including a grape-stomping and -grilling dinner at Strings (1700 Humboldt Street) that sounds like a perfect prelude to the weekend. The Strings dinner, prepared by…

Guess where I’m drinking?

During a recent happy hour, I became incredibly fascinated with what I’m going to call the “tip-o-matic” (okay, so I ripped off the term from a fellow happy-hour comrade), a wheel-and-chain dispenser of a certain alcoholic liquid that’s stored in what used to be an army water bottle. The apparatus…

Martini Ranch and Hiccups III dry up

The Arizona-based Martini Ranch USA, which owns Martini Ranch clubs in Scottsdale and San Diego, abruptly closed its Denver space at 1317 14th Street at the end of July. “Right now it’s in negotiations with the chain ownership and a remodel,” Jason Witkes, the venue’s marketing coordinator, told Jon Solomon,…

And the new, New York Times restaurant critic is…

For weeks, ever since Frank Bruni announced that he was going to be packing it in and leaving his gig as restaurant critic for the New York Times, speculation has been running high as to who Dining section editor Pete Wells and the NYT brain trust would name to succeed…

Hed:Smashburger continues its march for world hamburger domination.

It’s been a smashing week for Smashburger. The Denver-based chain of fast-casual burger restaurants has suddenly exploded, with plenty of ink documenting how it’s gone big-time. First, Nation’s Restaurant News tapped the operation as one of its “Hot Concepts” for 2009 — a very big deal in the highly competitive…

Karma tempts fate with its fusion menu but triumphs.

I have no use for fusion cuisine, for the deliberate fuckery that comes of trying to jam two or three or five culinary traditions together on one plate, for the dumb manhandling of food — torturing it and forcing it into unnatural configurations of time or flavor or place. Of…

Before there was Karma, there was Wokano

Restaurants carry a lot of history. Some of it is the centuries-old history of the culinary traditions that inspired that restaurant. And some of the history is much more recent. This week I review Karma, Peter Hsing’s Asian fusion restaurant built on a solid foundation of well-prepared and interestingly executed…

Interview with Matt Selby

Every week in Chef and Tell, Lori Midson features a Denver chef. During the Taste of the Nation, the July 19 charity event that Matt Selby chef-chaired, he turned to me and uttered one word: “Wow.” He was awestruck by the size of the crowd, but also by something else:…

The new Snooze is no snoozer

Today is National Waffle Day, so I did what any self-respecting waffler would do: I ate pancakes. Not just any pancakes, mind you, but a trifecta of flapjacks at the new Snooze, which opened its second location last Friday at 700 Colorado Boulevard. The new space, just like the original,…

Our Weekly Bread: Duffeyroll Cafe

The sandwich: Hummus Florentine What’s on it: Scrambled eggs, spinach, homemade hummus, cheddar cheese, tomato on rosemary ciabatta Where to get it: Duffeyroll Café (1290 South Pearl Street, 303-753-9177) How much: $5.95 I dare you to tell me not to eat a breakfast sandwich at 2 p.m. Seriously. I dare…