Nation’s Restaurant News, the bible of the food-industry world, has just named Smashburger, a homegrown burger joint that rated our Best Local Chain in the Best of Denver 2008, a 2009 Hot Concept. “We are both honored and humbled to receive this prestigious award from Nation’s Restaurant News,” Tom Ryan,…
Apple Jacks Gliders Kellogg’s Rating: Three spoons out of four Cereal description: Corn, wheat and oat flour provides the foundation for this crunchy treat, but the colors of the pieces, which include “limited edition” gliders (a.k.a. puffy triangles with a whole in the middle) along with the familiar bespeckled doughnuts,…
Keegan Gerhard (D Bar Desserts), Troy Guard (TAG), Tyler Wiard (Elway’s in Cherry Creek) and Matt Selby (Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben’s) will join host chef Jamey Fader at Lola, 1575 Boulder Street, tonight at 6 p.m., when all five chefs will convene in Fader’s home kitchen to prepare a…
What you might have missed this week while you were high on sugar in Littleton…The critic wanted to know: where’s the best late-night non-diner food in the city?Sober and not-so-sober observations from the Taste of the Nation.The Cherry Cricket grew by one patio and diners can’t get enough.We said goodbye…
Seven Denver restaurants – Squeaky Bean, Izakaya Den, Root Down, Opus, Encore, Campo de Fiori and Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza – are fighting for the Caesar salad crown in this year’s Greatest Caesar Salad Competition, a no-holds-barred smackdown that gets tossing at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 26 at the Magnolia…
Friday, July 31st at 9 a.m.–that’s the opening that Snooze owner Jon Schlegel is promising for the second location of his two-unit breakfast empire. “I don’t know if you’ve peeked inside,” Schlegel said to me this morning (I have), “but it’s so close.” And man, it better be. Because while the public…
As mentioned briefly in this week’s review of Mel’s in Greenwood Village, the original Mel’s (the one in Cherry Creek that closed last year) was one of Denver’s premier training houses — a place where it sometimes seems an entire generation of local chefs did their time before moving on…
When it comes to sugar, downtown Littleton is on a high. On Main street alone, there’s the relatively new Lola’s Sugar Rush (2490 West Main Street), which would make Augustus Gloop go bat shit. The town’s main drag also houses the Chocolate Therapist (2560 West Main Street), a confectionery run…
Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill, a Centennial fast-casual concept restaurant with four stores, plans to open a fifth location at the Cherry Creek Hotel, 600 South Colorado Boulevard, according to a sign hanging on a fence in front of the hotel, which is being completely renovated. A Panera Bread outlet will also…
Over 22 breweries and 70 different beers are on tap at the Summer Brew Fest, which comes down tonight at Mile High Station, 2027 West Lower Colfax Avenue. The indoor/outdoor event begins at 7 p.m. for general admission ticket holders ($30 in advance; $35 at the door) and at 6…
I don’t believe I’ve ever had a “buffete” before, and I’m definitely not a huge fan of buffets, but when I stopped in at The Front Page, a quirky new joint at 7700 East Colfax Avenue whose name is fashioned, inexplicably, after the front page of a newspaper and whose…
This just kills me… Got an email this morning from Sage Restaurant Group’s Denver-based COO, Peter Karpinski, and now I feel as though I must immediately pack up all my stuff and move to Portland just to be closer to the new Urban Farmer restaurant open inside the Nines hotel there…
Fogo de Chao (pronounced fo-go dee shoun), the Brazilian churrascaria at 1513 Wynkoop Street, just three blocks down the street from Rodizio Grill, Denver’s first Brazilian steakhouse at 1801 Wynkoop Street, opens tonight for dinner, but last night, I got a sneak peek of the meat of the matter and…
This cool-looking candy seemed like just what we needed on a hot day. Distributed by Kid’s Brands, the Icicle Pop does its best to invoke the brand Popsicle without actually using it. The familiar shape and colors in the logo make it clear that this double lollipop is designed to…
Call me weird, but there’s something about the word “pupusa” that makes it sound like a furry animal whose head you want to cuddle in your lap and stroke. In fact, I’ll bet you anything that at least five people reading this post today will have a bunny, dog, cat,…
The first day of the four-day Crested Butte Land Trust Food and Wine Festival uncorks today. And unlike some local food and wine festivals where our homegrown chefs are snubbed, the Crested Butte powwow, which includes wine seminars, wine walks, chef dinners, grand tastings and gourmet picnics, parades four of…
After my review meals at Mel’s Bar and Grill, I called Chad Clevenger to talk about my experiences while under his care. It wasn’t the sweetest conversation I’ve ever had, but it was enlightening. He’ll mark his one-year anniversary as the owner of Mel’s on August 1. He’d been looking…
We’d timed our exit as skillfully as possible, Laura and I. The bill was paid, the plates cleared, and we were sitting at our table at Mel’s Bar and Grill almost silently, our heads down, making just enough uncomfortable small talk to dissuade anyone from coming over and starting a…
Sometimes you wander into a neighborhood joint and find the stools occupied by a gaggle of sleepy, surly, set-in-their-ways regulars all too ready to give your sudden presence the dreaded stink-eye. “Who the fuck are you?” their silence and stares say, “and what the fuck are you doing in here?”…
I’ve been eating a lot of pizza lately. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve made two trips to Brooklyn M.C.’s for both pizzas and calzones, stopped by Famous for a slice, and one night, too lazy to think it through any further, Laura even called in an order to…
Man, it is a tough time to be a celebrity these days. They just seem to be dropping like flies. Michael Jackson? Dead. Walter Kronkite? Gone. Karl Malden? In the dirt. Even Mollie “The mere sight of my pussy drives him mad” Sugden (who played the inimitable Mrs. Slocombe on…
Sean Huggard, the former executive chef at Black Pearl (1529 South Pearl Street) and Encore (2550 East Colfax Avenue), hung up his whites on July 9, got hitched and is currently on his honeymoon. But he’ll return in plenty of time to open his own place, Newport’s, late this…
