Squeaky Bean opens Monday

Johnny Ballen, owner of The Squeaky Bean, which opens Monday morning at 3301 Tejon Street in the former Mondo Cafe space, finds it amusing that everyone seems to think his new spot is a java joint. “I’m having fun with all the guesswork,” he told me yesterday over Squeaky spritzes,…

Our Weekly Bread: Reuben at Black Forest Deli

The sandwich: Our Famous Reuben What’s on it: Corn beef, Swiss cheese, homemade sauerkraut, Dijon mustard and Thousand Island dressing on rye. Potato salad on the side. Where to get it: Black Forest Deli (9535 West 58th Avenue, Arvada, 303-425-0265) How much: $7 Arvada was small once, and the Black…

Get a free h-o-t d-o-g from Oscar Meyer

Four to six weeks from now, I bet you’ll be hungry. And I bet you’ll want a hot dog. After all, it will be the middle of summer — what could be better than a hot dog in the middle of summer?A free hot dog, of course.Here’s how to get…

Zpizza opens today in Greenwood Village

It’s too late to grab the free pizza that Zpizza was handing out last night, but you can buy a pie today, when Zpizza officially opens for business at 4940 South Yosemite in Greenwood Village. Lori Midson got a taste of the chain when she was in California a couple…

Biondi Santi tasting at Parisi tonight

Parisi, at 4401 Tennyson Street, hosts a wine-tasting and seminar on the wines of Biondi Santi, led by winemaker Luca Belingardi, at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 20. The price is $50 per person (and includes imported Tuscan salumi, cheeses and bread), and reservations are definitely required; call 303-561-0234. Cook Street,…

Max Mackissock’s early exit from Primebar

Early last month, I told you that Max Mackissock, the former exec chef at Vita who’d most recently been putting time in at Cafe Options, had just landed the top job at Primebar, the soon-to-be  hot spot at 1515 Arapahoe Street, in the former Palomino space, that’s previewing its menu…

Get a clue: Go to the Q Worldly Barbeque

Barbecue has a history and a long association with blues music and jazz music and roof-shakin’, foot-stompin’, Southern-tinted rock-and-roll music. It has a sweet Sunday morning side — all gospel hymns and stately women in enormous hats — and it has a dark and dirty Saturday night side as well…

A play-by-play of Park Burger’s opening pains

As I reported here last week, Park Burger, this week’s obsession for us Westword food freaks, was skedded to open last Friday, at precisely 5 p.m., but any of you who attached your watch to your eyeballs so that you could be first in line now knows that 5 p.m…

Tonti’s opens a new location on South Broadway

Last Thursday, a pizza and a calzone mysteriously appeared in the office, addressed to me.  Because I wasn’t actually in the office at the time, said grub was immediately devoured by a variety of salespeople, editors and one very hungry music critic — trusting souls that they are — and…

El Camino gets a surprise visit

On Saturday, El Camino could have been Swimclub 32 all over again when a parade in honor of Seamen on Hooker — an annual, nautically themed neighborhood party on the 2900-3100 blocks of Hooker Street — parked in front of the restaurant at 3628 West 32nd Avenue for a refreshing…

Recovery Room offers a sure-fire cure: Cheli’s chili

You can’t get Cheli’s chili in Chicago anymore — the Cheli’s Chili Bar there closed when Chris Chelios was traded to the Detroit Red Wings. You can get it in Michigan, of course; the hockey player has three Cheli’s Chili Bar restaurants around Detroit. And now you can get it…

Denver Pizza Company isn’t ready to rise … yet

Drove by the Denver Pizza Company last night, the pie palace at 309 West 11th Avenue reputedly owned by Mark Huebner, a self-described “pizza entrepreneur” and our homeboy contestant on The Bachelorette, whose season premiere aired last night on ABC. (Huebner will be around for the next prickly rose ceremony,…

Park Burger a pickle short of perfection

Let’s talk burgers. At Westword, we have no problem spending hours deconstructing the mechanics of ground beef, a bun and then who-knows-what-else. Which means we’ll probably be discussing Park Burger for quite some time. I strolled into the neighborhood joint last night with Westword web editor Joe Tone, who fell…

Two wine-tastings uncork tonight

Two very different wine-tastings tonight.The Fort, at 19192 Highway 8 in Morrison, features more than forty wines from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. tonight; admission is $37, and includes the Fort’s appetizers. For reservations, call 303-697-4771.And down in Denver, Lala’s Wine Bar + Pizzeria,…

RSVP fast for Slow Food dinner at Il Posto

At Il Posto tonight, “A Slow Evening” will feature chef/owner Andrea Frizzi preparing a seasonal menu in honor of Slow Food Denver. Dinner is $65 per person (members of Slow Food Denver and/or Denver Independent Network of Restaurants), $75 others, and includes wine, tax and gratuity. For reservations, e-mail rsvp@slowfooddenver.org…

Ask the Critic: Desert Island Top Five

I’m a huge fan of Lost. Have been since episode 1, will be until the day it rolls the final credits.  And like all Lost fans, I am currently going through the first, worst stages of withdrawal now that this season’s final episode has aired and I’m staring at something…

The Market Report, May 16

Considering it is currently 86° outside, the Boulder Farmers’ Market might want to set up a Slip ‘n Slide right along the row of booths, so farmers can throw bags of arugula, chicken thighs, candy stripe beets and everything else they have on hand into my satchel as I gleefully…

First impressions of TAG

Sultry cocktails, social food and a whole gaggle of really sociable Denver chefs, many of them still wired from a recent cooking stint at the James Beard House in New York, made for one helluva fun Sunday preview night at TAG, Troy Guard’s new restaurant at 1441 Larimer Street that…

Breaking news on Tony’s

Got off the phone thirty seconds ago with someone at the original Tony’s Market at 4991 Dry Creek Road in Centennial, and she just told me that the plan — as it stands right now — is to have a soft-open for the new Tony’s at 950 Broadway (right across…

Let the breakfast burrito wars begin!

In this corner — weighing in at seven pounds (if you’re going for the official Big Burrito challenge, as Adam Richman did on a recent episode of Man v. Food), or a more reasonable pound or so, if you just want to grab a breakfast burrito when the place opens…