Ask the Critic: Where should Guy Fieri eat?

Last week, I got a phone call from Amanda, a lovely woman doing research for the Guy Fieri Food Network show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. The company that produces the show was giving Denver a serious look-see — trying to assemble a list of restaurants for Guy to hit –…

Parallel Seventeen bids a happy birthday to Buddha

Zone in on your zen (and blow off tax day) on Wednesday, April 15, when Parallel Seventeen, the modern Vietnamese restaurant at 1600 East 17th Avenue, rolls out a special a la carte menu to celebrate the birthday of Oh, Ye Great Buddhist, Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, who…

Denver’s Leopold Bros. distillery gets mad props

The Leopold Bros. distillery in Denver got a shout-out in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. Columnist Eric Felten, author of the weekly column “How’s Your Drink?”, called its gin the best of the new, craft-distilled American gins trying to give well-established British gins a run for their money. Here’s an excerpt…

Down some Liquid Poetry at the Wynkoop

Does your pale ale go down better with some Poe, your stout with some Silverstein and your lager with some Longfellow? If so, then you and your favorite iambic pentameters might want to try Liquid Poetry, a special beer that goes on tap today at the Wynkoop Brewing Company in…

The Market Report, April 11

Now, this is what I’d been waiting for…for months. Hordes of people talking about the proper time to snip lettuce, kids helping their parents put onions into their (always reusable!) bags, militant environmentalists scolding those not like them…ah, the Boulder Farmers’ Market. At about 11 a.m. on this past, overcast…

Milking It: Froot Loops with Fruity Golden Bars

Froot Loops with Fruity Golden Bars Kellogg’s Rating: Three-and-a-half spoons out of four Cereal description: Wheat, oat and corn flour ovoids colored in assorted bold hues (neon blue, alien green, strep-throat red, Prince’s underwear purple) and speckled with a whitish glaze that looks delectable, and is. Also tossed in for…

Cafe Society: Week in Review

What you might have missed this week in Cafe Society:Spring has sprung — Denver style.  That makes for some snowy farmers’ markets and a chilly Taste of Vail.   The sun is peeking out a bit for the opening weekend of baseball and Rockies fans’ fav stadium bar.   Jason…

Play Ball at the Breckenridge Ballpark Pub

Timely news for opening day: I just heard from the manager at what had been the Breckenridge Brewery & Pub that the name of this establishment at 2220 Blake Street, just up from Coors Field, has been changed to the Breckenridge Ballpark Pub. The change is simply to avoid confusion…

The List: Mexican on my mind

  This week’s review of D’Corazon marks something of a return to reality — to a restaurant where I can dependably guess what my food is going to look and taste like when I order it, a place where I don’t have to worry about anyone trying to sneak pomegranate…

Two more local Starbucks bite the dust

Two more area Starbucks shops will close as a result of the company’s latest round of cutbacks: one at 7777 East Hampden Avenue at Tamarac Square and another at 5350 South Santa Fe Drive in Littleton. The frappucino magnate announced this week that it will be closing nearly 200 U.S…

Morton’s unleashes a double dose of power hours

Okay, so when super-expensive meat palaces like Morton’s jump on the happy-hour bandwagon, you know times are tough. I mean, Morton’s isn’t exactly renowned for its bargain-basement steals, but starting tonight, at promptly 5 p.m., both Morton’s Downtown Denver and Morton’s Tech Center, located at 1710 Wynkoop Street and 8480…

Candy Girls: Big Fat Cupcake

Starting a cupcake shop in Denver raises some obvious concerns: Will an already cupcake-crazed city welcome yet another baker of tiny cakes?  And if so, how do you distinguish yourself from the others?  Kathleen Nevin, owner of Big Fat Cupcake, had a clear vision of creating big cupcakes with superior ingredients,…

Our Weekly Bread: Safeway

The sandwich: Smoke stack Where to get it: Safeway What’s on it: Turkey, ham, fontina, tomato, lettuce and mustard on ciabatta bread How much: $5.49 I didn’t really want to review the sandwiches at Safeway; I’d rather check out a small, or at least medium-sized, business, rather than a giant…

Denver ChopHouse takes off at DIA

For months, the sign on the boarded-up space in Concourse A taunted us: The Denver ChopHouse & Brewery would be opening a branch at the airport. But when?Turns out, sometime last weekend — in the middle of a Westword writer’s trip back East. Sometimedturing his travels, this outpost of the…

Old Town Littleton gets a little sweeter

Rush down to Old Town Littleton this morning for the opening of Lola’s Sugar Rush, a store that stocks old-time and nostalgic candy. Owner Lola Salazar will smash a giant lollipop to open her place at 10 a.m.; it’s located at 2490 West Main Street, where the party will continue…

The Flagstaff House lei-ing it on the line

The folks behind the Flagstaff House are heading west…far west. The Monette brothers, sons of Flagstaff House founder Don Monette and now owners of that restaurant, have established a second beachhead in the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii. They designed two separate concepts for the hotel…

Veggie Girl: Tamales by La Casita

When I was growing up, my dad would make dozens and dozens of pork tamales and big vats of rich, beefy red chile and pork posole for Christmas. We’d feast on these New Mexican staples at our family Christmas party and then continue eating everything while it lasted, sometimes through…

Mayor Hick drives the bung at Stranahan’s

Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey celebrated the corking of its 1,000th barrel on Wednesday, April 8 — which means that the five-year-old micro-distillery has produced 52,800 gallons of whiskey at its facility in the Ballpark neighborhood. And who was on hand to drive home the cork, or “bung,” as it is apparently…

Santiagos XII making a move to Federal Boulevard

While the Chubby’s on Morrison Road is closed, the Original Chubby’s on West 38th Avenue will soon have less competition. I was just at Santiago’s XII at 2925 West 38th Avenue — my favorite place to get the most awesome $2 breakfast burritos on the way to work — and…