The 21st annual Pueblo Chile and Frijoles festival hit the streets of Pueblo over the weekend with a celebration of Colorado’s finest chiles. The three-day festival blocked off streets and took over downtown Pueblo with trinket hawkers, political booths, heavy-metal cover bands — and, most important, the intoxicating aroma of…
After two years on the 16th Street Mall, the curbside outpost of Cafe 180 has closed. You could eat at Cafe 180’s bright-green stand at 16th and Arapahoe streets more cheaply than just about anywhere on the mall — or all downtown, for that matter — with salads, wraps and soups…
The Great American Beer Festival is as astronomical in size as it is in character. Every year, the most eclectic group of beer lovers in the world go all out when they attend this fun and outrageous convention. And this past weekend the costumes, along with the entire 2015 event,…
Tom+Chee, a fast-casual concept that takes its name from the tomato soup-and-cheese sandwich combo we all loved as kids, got a big boost when it was featured on Shark Tank in 2013; the chain now has more than forty locations across the country, and just opened its first Colorado spot last…
If you considered yourself a Denver Diner regular, then it feels like forever since the 24-hour greasy spoon suddenly closed its doors after a kitchen fire. In reality, it’s been just under a year since the popular diner at 740 West Colfax Avenue, a classic ’60s-era White Spot that was…
The Great American Beer Festival may be over, but Denver continues to roll out the fun..and the food. Keep reading for a taste of what’s on the culinary calendar this week. Monday, September 28 Frasca Food and Wine welcomes Valter Scarbolo this evening. Monday Night Wine Dinners are $50…
There will be plenty of craft beers consumed at the Great American Beer Festival tonight, but the festivities end at 10 p.m., which means that thousands of buzzed and hungry beer drinkers will spill out onto the streets looking for good eats. Pinche Taqueria has planned ahead: While the the…
The Great American Beer Festival highlights chefs as well as brewers with its Paired pavilion, which matches food and beer from around the country. The pairings are coordinated by Brewers Association executive chef Adam Dulye. This year, six Colorado breweries and twelve Colorado chefs were part of the mix. Each…
I’ve been lucky enough to attend the Great American Beer Festival for the past nine years in a row. Over that time, I’ve watched it grow bigger and I’ve watched the beers get better. I’ve also watched the traditional opening notes from the bagpipe-and-drum corps during most of those years,…
There aren’t many options for a good cup of coffee along the West Colfax Avenue corridor. The Strong, Smart & Bold Beans coffee cart nestled inside the Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales library is changing that. The cart, a social enterprise of Girls Inc. of Metro Denver, is serving up good coffee for…
When Gretchen Kurtz visited Baur’s Restaurant and Listening Lounge, the hostess asked if she planned to stay for the music that night, because the band could get loud. And so could the band’s sound check, Kurtz notes in this week’s review of Baur’s, where she discusses the challenges of trying…
Not so long ago, there was a kiosk at Streets of Southglenn called Yo’Cheese that sold grilled cheese sandwiches and other comfort-food classics. In the winter, there was an outdoor ice-skating rink next to the kiosk where scarved and mittened teenagers made turns around the rink before fueling up on…
The Great American Beer Festival is in full swing and Denver is buzzing with brews this weekend. While suds are spilling all over town, the culinary calendar has some worthwhile non-beer events, too. Keep reading for a taste. Friday, September 25 Chef Troy Guard will be cooking up a four-course…
Colorado is one of the leading craft-beer states. It was also the first state to allow recreational marijuana. So it would only seem natural that the two industries would cross paths at one of the 300-plus breweries here. But so far, we haven’t seen any commercial pot-infused beers — and…
There’s nothing like a first-date dinner. You probably picked a place with dim lighting, something that looked good on Yelp, with food that leans toward the sensual but doesn’t belie any unsavory intentions. You might choose a place like Vesta Dipping Grill, which not coincidentally has been a regular Best…
The organizers of the Great American Beer Festival have released the list of more than 3,000 beers that will be poured at the Colorado Convention Center over the next three days. And while that’s a lot of brews to choose from, there are a few unusual and/or interesting items offered…
Finding funding to open a restaurant used to be a simple matter. Either you’d write up a business plan and account for every penny to be earned and spent and head to the bank hoping for a sympathetic loan officer, or you’d rustle up a few of your richest acquaintances…
Barbecue and beer: Everyone has opinions about those. But while people uniformly praise Colorado craft beers, opinions of this state’s barbecue offerings are much more mixed. Last week we served up our updated list of the Ten Best Barbecue Joints in Denver, which includes Brewshine — a place that happens…
For years, there were hard-and-fast rules about restaurant criticism. Critics shall remain anonymous. Critics shall not accept free food. Critics shall eat more than one meal before forming an opinion, and won’t have said meals until the restaurant has been open long enough to work out the kinks. The Internet…
Earlier this year, Food Network host Guy Fieri rolled into town in his red Camaro convertible and dug into meals at several of our favorite Denver eateries. One of those was Lorena Cantarovici’s Argentinian cafe, Maria Empanada, on South Broadway. The cozy bakery will be featured this Friday, September 25,…
From brunch to breakfast at midnight, beer is seeping into every nook and cranny of Denver, as the Great American Beer Festival pours into town. There will be an astronomical quantity of beer inside the Convention Center today; here’s a taste of two events happening outside the festival. Whether you…
Michigan native Ryan Leinonen had worked the burners in several restaurants in Boulder and Denver — including The Kitchen and Q’s (now Spruce), as well as Colt & Gray and Root Down — when he decided to strike out on his own, drawing knowledge from his experience and inspiration from…
