Up Close: Organixx

This week at westword.com/restaurants, Jason Sheehan discovers Organixx — despite his aversion to “green” restaurants. See photos of the restaurant, by Mark Manger, at westword.com/slideshow…

Candy Girls: Indulge Gourmet Soft Caramels

This is serious caramel.  If all you’ve ever known is Caramello and Brachs, then Indulge Caramels will blow your mind.  It’s only related to that store-bought stuff in the most broad connection of similar ingredients.  But this fresh, melt-in-your-mouth candy is both easy on your teeth and not achingly sweet.According…

Behind the Bar: Ann Whitley of the Rio Grande

On Saturday, August 15, the Rio Grande will celebrate ten years of pouring on the fun — and pouring out the booze — in LoDo. This homegrown chain is a margarita powerhouse; with only six restaurants, the Rio Grande restaurant group claims to be the largest seller of Jose Cuervo…

Mysteries of Sheehan’s Desk: Day 1

As promised, this is the first in a series of items uncovered when I was cleaning my desk. It wasn’t the first thing I found, wasn’t the weirdest by a long shot. But still, this cat has its charms. You can’t tell by looking at this picture, but if you…

Tonight: Wines from California vines at Opus

Littleton’s Opus restaurant, 2575 West Main Street, is hosting a wine dinner at 6:30 p.m. this evening with grape guru Lisa Rein, the associate winemaker for Row Eleven Wine Company, a producer based in San Rafael, California. The four-course menu, prepared by owner/exec chef Michael Long, includes vanilla rum shrimp,…

It’s not easy going green

I have to admit that Organixx came as a surprise. Given how much trade it was doing amid the fierce competition of Blake Street, I knew it would probably be good — but what surprised me was how the inherent goodness of its prep, presentation and cuisine so fully overshadowed…

Organixx may be green, but that’s not what makes it great

Sustainable, eco-friendly, reusable, recyclable, fair trade, natural, energy efficient, organic, local, green, low-impact, fresh. These are words that inspire us at Organixx. From the building materials that surround you in our dining room, to our food product choices, culinary procedures and sanitation practices, we strive to have those words define…

A conversation with John Broening, of Duo and Olivea

“We’ll have head cheese at Olivéa on Friday — I expect to see you there,” summoned the e-mail. The note, short and to the point, was from John Broening, the executive chef at Duo and Olivéa — the former a restaurant in Highland with a field-to-plate, seasonal approach to food,…

Drinking up history at The Vault

I don’t believe in ghosts. When my wife tells me about presences she’s seen and felt in the middle of the night, I tell her she was dreaming. When she tells me we can’t buy an attractive house in Five Points because a woman who committed suicide there decades ago…

Avon Bakery makes heavenly pastries

Bakers have a great terror of trying to bake at altitude. Books have been written about the complications, volumes of secret lore passed down through generations of bakers and patissiers, all dealing with adjustments in measure, in time, in how to make the magic of flour, water, butter and eggs…

Guess where I’m drinking?

Along with several bottles of the ice-cold Singha calling your name (mine, too, actually) in the above pic, I shared pad Thai, chicken panang curry and a big bowl of steaming poh tak bobbing with shrimp, mussels, scallops and cuttlefish with three friends who would have drunk the joint dry…

Biker Jim Update: Bad news for the southern suburbs

A few weeks back, I gleefully reported that my favorite hot-dog man, Biker Jim Pittenger, had finally taken the plunge and was going to open a brick-and-mortar location in the Southlands development. He had a great location, he had some partners in the Waffle Brothers (with whom he’s been working…

Guess where I’m eating?

Last night a very good friend of mine, who happens to be pregnant, was looking at all the snaps in my camera, most of which are food shots, and commenting about how she could never eat this, or that, or that other thing, because oh my god, that’s so gross!…

Chef and Tell: John Broening

“We’ll have head cheese at Olivéa on Friday — I expect to see you there,” summoned the e-mail. The note, short and to the point, was from John Broening, executive chef at Duo and Olivéa — the former a restaurant in Highland with a field-to-plate, seasonal approach to food, the…

A bucket of fun at Oceanaire Friday

The Denver Post has a story today about how to have a clambake in your back yard. Even easier: head to Oceanaire, in downtown’s back yard at 1400 Arapahoe Street, on Friday, August 14, when the restaurant will host “A Taste of Nantucket — in a Bucket!” The traditional New…

Going green at Organixx

“Sustainable, eco-friendly, reusable, recyclable, fair trade, natural, energy efficient, organic, local, green, low-impact, fresh. These are words that inspire us at Organixx. From the building materials that surround you in our dining room, to our food product choices, culinary procedures and sanitation practices, we strive to have those words define…

The mysteries of Sheehan’s desk

That picture above? That’s my desk as it existed this morning, shortly after I was told that I was going to have to move that glorious collection of crap, box it all up and put it in storage while the Westword offices are remodeled. I love my desk. Seven years…

It’s a city of chaos at Kaos

Jon Edwards, co-owner of Gaia Bistro, isn’t particularly happy with the City and County of Denver.  Edwards, along with his business partner, Patrick Mangold-White, had hoped to open Kaos, a little pizza operation in the small wedge of space at 1439 South Pearl Street that formerly held Nosh, by the…