Each year, a few Best of Denver food finalists are culled from the herd for the simple but crucial reason that the restaurants close before the issue comes out. And this year was no different: Several eateries that had distinguished themselves since last year’s awards shut their doors before they…
Americans make movies about violence and sex, and the Japanese make movies about violence and food. So who do you think makes the better noodles? If you’ve seen the film Tampopo, you know that the noodle house is serious business in Japan. In that movie, a truck driver, Goro, who…
Summertime, and the outdoor eating is easy. But in their heated attempts to offer al fresco dining, some restaurants push the boundaries too darn far. It’s one thing to squeeze seating onto a sidewalk or into a fenced-in area beside an alley, but who wants to eat crammed against a…
What’s in a name? The Latin colloquialism for “talk of the town” was a good fit for La Fabula; long before the restaurant actually opened, the neighborhood was talking about what kind of eatery would be brave — or foolhardy — enough to take on a location with a long,…
All you folks who took alcohol into La Fabula (see review, this issue) at the owners’ urging over the past four months have something in common: You broke the law. Although we aren’t subjected to state-controlled liquor stores here, Colorado’s liquor laws can still be very annoying. For serious wine…
Q: Does anyone in town do a good cioppino? A: The California origins of this Italian-inspired fish stew are murkier than the San Francisco Bay. The late Craig Claiborne of the New York Times suggested the name came from an Italian colloquialism that means “chopped fine”; another explanation involves an…
Even though we’re tasting from the same plate, the lamb shawarma I eat and the lamb shawarma my friend Gerry eats are two different dishes. When Gerry takes a bite of the grilled, marinated lamb, she’s eating a traditional dish created by her Lebanese ancestors, an entree that her grandmother…
One of my favorite Middle Eastern restaurants — past winner of a Best of Denver award — is nine-year-old Damascus, at 2276 South Colorado Boulevard. Unlike Sahara Restaurant (see review this issue), which has a Lebanese focus, Damascus emphasizes Syrian cooking, which translates into more cabbage, more pickled items, some…
Q:I’m just starting out cooking, and I want to make some Asian food, especially Thai. But I can’t find a lot of the ingredients in the grocery stores, not even Wild Oats. What do you think is the best place to get Asian ingredients? A: We’re lucky to have a…
No city is more revered for its culinary prowess than Paris, and certainly, its restaurants boast gastronomic delights without equal. Still, after several visits and many, many meals there — sometimes I ate two dinners in a day just to get to all of the places “they” said I had…
While The Biscuit is doing the Parisian thing, a block away at 837 East 17th Avenue, New York on 17th is, quite obviously, doing the New York thang. And maybe a little too well, since during the lunch rush, employees do a fair imitation of twenty New Yorkers on the…
You don’t have to know a spark plug from a socket wrench to enjoy a cold one at the Squeeze Inn. But it helps. Drop by this tiny northwest Denver nook — the name is perfect — and you find yourself submerged in the glories of car culture. The fender-smashing…
Q: There was a recent column that mentioned pizza bread. Where can it be purchased and, more important, do they sell it retail? We moved here 28 years ago from New Jersey, and in the Berkeley Heights area we could buy pizza bread and make Italian hot dogs, which are…
The first step in dealing with an addiction to Thai food is admitting that you have a problem. The second is accepting that there are no more steps — because who can contemplate a cure that bans curry?Chile peppers can be physically addicting, according to recent medical evidence. The reasons…
I’ve eaten at Le Central many times over the past six years, and I’ve always encountered some kind of problem. Often they’ve been production-oriented glitches, ranging from tardy courses to overcooked seafood (“Waiting for Gateau,” October 17, 1996); sometimes servers have failed to refill water glasses or replace silverwear. Out…
You’d think it was the Second Coming.First, people began calling to ask if I’d heard rumors that LaMar’s Donuts was moving its headquarters to Denver and that we’d be getting our very own LaMar’s Donuts store! Then the ads started. Then the dailies began publishing stories about how bagels are…
Q: I want to take my boyfriend someplace fancy for a romantic dinner, but he hates places that make him feel like he doesn’t know which fork to use. Do you know a place that feels intimate but won’t scare him (or bankrupt me)? A: Mattie’s House of Mirrors (1942…
Ohana. That’s a Hawaiian term that translates as “the family and aloha spirit,” says Alex Fabrigas, the general manager of Roy’s Cherry Creek. But when Fabrigas left a Hawaii Roy’s to bring us this new restaurant in the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, he didn’t just bring ohana with him –…
When Hemingway’s Key West Grille first opened in 1996 — actually, it sort of reopened, since a Hemingway’s (minus the words “Key West Grille”) occupied the same building on Old South Gaylord from 1977 to 1985 — the author must have been rolling over in his grave. I know a…
These days, the most common excuse for lousy restaurant service is the labor shortage — and diners tend to buy it, since many of them work in industries that are also feeling an employee pinch. Even I’ve tended to nod sympathetically as restaurateurs bitched and moaned about how they just…
Q: I’m getting married in June, and because my fiancé’s parents live out of state, they want us to choose the place for the rehearsal dinner. I was wondering if you could suggest some not-so-pricey restaurants that can accommodate about thirty people? A: Keeping the not-so-pricey part in mind, one…
A friend just back from Vietnam has been recounting the mouthwatering food she enjoyed there: dishes that involved dozens of fresh, just-plucked-from-the-ground- or-ocean ingredients; abundant feasts that brought platter after platter of multilayered concoctions; snacks much more inventive and healthier than a bag of potato chips. All things, of course,…
