It’s an embarrassment, the amount of instant ramen noodle soup in my cupboard right now, from a variety of companies (Nissin, Maruchan, some off-brand called Ninja), in several preparations (both the cup and the brick, as well as a microwavable bowl) and a spread of flavors that all taste exactly…
Before it opened this Monday, I got a sneak preview of Rioja, chef Jennifer Jasinski’s new digs on Larimer Street, courtesy of local PR impresario John Imbergamo, who’s been handling “chef Jen” since her departure from Panzano earlier this year. The space — which co-opted some of its real estate…
I love the irony of a place that’s called La Fiesta Supper Club only being open for weekday lunches — and from just 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at that. My sources tell me that back in the day, La Fiesta was a real supper club (and before that, a…
For nearly half my life, I watched no TV. When I tell people that, a squint of fundamental distrust screws up their faces, and they look at me like I’ve got lobsters crawling out of my ears. They always treat me differently afterward — as though I’ve just admitted to…
t’s a good thing I can get a decent croque monsieur at Devil’s Food Bakery (see review). Not a fantastic croque monsieur, mind you (I’m not crazy about how the kitchen’s bechamel turns the house challah all spongy), but certainly decent, and with a side of excellent pommes frites. It’s…
Walking into Elway’s, I couldn’t help but recall one of my favorite expressions: “There’s only one ŒI’ in Œteam,’ but there are two in Œmartini.'” So I went right to the bar and ordered a Pomegranate Cosmo Martini ($8) made with Absolut Citron, POM Wonderful pomegranate juice and triple sec…
It must be weird when fame pays off, when you’re not just recognized for what you do well, but when that recognition translates into the kind of fast return that usually only comes in movies. There’s that scene of the Beatles in their hotel room, tumbling all over each other…
Like Denver as a food city, Sixth Avenue as a restaurant neighborhood always seems on the edge of becoming the next big thing. Its progression can be tracked the way die-hard fans follow a perpetually losing ball club — watching through the seasons as the roster is brought up and…
“You’ve got to try Fernet-Branca; it’s my new favorite drink,” said Ryan O’Brien, the knowledgeable, solicitous and darling bartender at Barolo Grill. “I’ve heard Sean Penn orders it by the case.” When my medical doctor prescribes drugs, I take them. So when my drink doctor gave his prescription, I drank…
We here at the Institute of Drinking Studies are always looking for new watering holes to grace with our presence, our stunted sense of “humor” and the inevitable sexual advances of certain members whom I would not trust alone in a room with Sister Inviolata of the Painfully Chaste. Since…
I never thought Mirepoix would make it. I didn’t believe that Bryan Moscatello and crew could squeeze Adega’s smart, beautiful cuisine into a JW Marriott corporate template; I kept seeing all that lovely food dying under the domes of room-service trays. And the fact that they were trading on the…
This time last year, there was a lot of talk about the big man, Bryan Moscatello, and the guys from Adega Restaurant + Wine Bar (1700 Wynkoop Street) trying to clone their phenomenal success at, first, Table 6 (in the former home of the Beehive, at 609 Corona Street), and…
Joey Buttafuoco. I can’t get my car serviced without thinking about Joey Buttafuoco, so you can imagine that going to a bar with “Garage” in its name was not high on my to-do list. Happily, a less mechanically inclined drinking companion convinced me to try the new Bannock Street Garage,…
Things just aren’t the same anymore. I think it’s the fault of the Democrats. Or maybe the Republicans, the Catholic Church, the Air Force Academy, carbs, your parents, fraternities and football (but not any members of frats or football teams, much less the coaches, athletic-department heads, regents or university presidents…
Phil Collier, owner and executive chef of A La Tomate Cafe and Tarterie, is a nervous sort of fella. I can see him in the kitchen — a big space for such a small place, full of tall bakery racks, new ovens, antique slicers with exposed motors, bright stainless steel…
Sometimes when I have a bad day, I console myself by thinking about sandwiches. Not about eating them — although I do dearly love a good sammich — but making them. It’s an obsession, something just short of a religion. I think of sandwich-as-spiritual-object the way a Mexican Catholic might…
I don’t know which brilliant person figured out that if you add a full bar to the upper deck at a sports facility and call it “the club level,” you can charge people more money for seats on that level than they would pay to sit right next to the…
Turning thirty is a mother. All of a sudden your body is falling apart before your eyes; if things continue to progress at this pace, you’ll be in a nursing home within five years. For women, gravity gets stronger, and things start to droop. Although science tells us that body…
Wild-mushroom-and-Fontina grilled cheese. Frittatas; toasted-oat pancakes that taste like giant oatmeal raisin cookies laced with wispy vanilla; seared tuna in a soy-ginger glaze. Eggs Benedict made with poached eggs wrapped in smoky Nova lox and topped with crème fraîche, and a breakfast pizza assembled from scrambled eggs, beef tenderloin, sprigged…
It was early in my tenure here — and in Littleton, of all places, while visiting Opus Restaurant, at 2575 West Main Street — that my passions for the true New American cuisine were first revealed (“This Note’s for You,” November 7, 2002). It was one dish that set me…
Yeah, baby, yeah! Maybe it’s because I grew up in a house where there was always some groovy Burt Bacharach hit on the record player, but I love anything from the ’60s. So when I walked into Harry’s Bar at the Magnolia Hotel, I fell instantly in love. This place…
“C’mon, let’s go to Willie’s! It’s Stripper Tuesday!” “Uh, dude, it’s Wednesday.” “Whatever.” Even as the Head of Drinking Regrets and I were having this conversation, other members of the Institute of Drinking Studies were well into their research, having gotten a call earlier from the Head of Sleeper Drunks…
