As if the brewery scene in River North wasn’t hot enough, now Great Divide is getting ready to open its new tap room, the Barrel Bar — probably sometime next week. It’s the first phase of a $38 million new brewery that the company is building on five acres of…
Gene Tang hired Joseph Arena as 1515 Restaurant’s new executive chef in February, a move that reflected his penchant for bringing in young talent that appreciates the restaurant’s combination of classical fine-dining technique with modern culinary sleight of hand. Back in 1997, when Tang opened 1515 in the century-old storefront…
With development wiping out many of the favorite spots around Denver, our nostalgia cup is overflowing. Bree Davies poured out plenty of memories in My Denver, My Dream for How to Keep It Great, and that included shopping at local businesses, such as the two Marczyk Fine Foods stores or Pete’s…
A friend recently returned from Peru extolling the quality of the Andean nation’s cuisine, including alpaca, something I’d never considered as a potential protein source. Hearing this, I wondered if, given the chance, I would order alpaca pot roast or loin of llama. After all, llamas, alpacas and their kin…
With forecasted temperatures well into the 90s today, an ice-cold drink could be your best friend today. Better yet, an ice-cold shake. It just so happens that Smashburger, the homegrown burger chain, is turning eight today, and to celebrate it’s unveiling a limited edition Birthday Cake Golden Oreo Shake and…
The Denver Taco Festival provided an entire weekend of tacos, with a street festival, street food and street fighting — OK, maybe just staged wrestling — on Saturday and Sunday in River North. Hundreds of hungry taco lovers sampled bites from more than thirty food vendors. Oh, and there was…
It took Mother Nature a while to come around, but summer is now in full swing and a few restaurants around town are making up for lost time. Here are a few options to help celebrate the sun and Colorado’s finest summer bounty. In Boulder, Blackbelly Market officially kicked off its…
Session Kitchen opened in late 2013 at 1518 South Pearl Street, after a complicated property swap between the Breckenridge-Wynkoop group and the Kizaki brothers. In that deal, Breck-Wynkoop acquired the building at 1518 South Pearl, built as the original home of Izakaya Den; meanwhile, the Kizakis gained the space at…
On a weekend with so much going on downtown – the Urban Slide, Denver Flea, the Urban Dare Scavenger Hunt, and the general mayhem of a Colorado summer day with no clouds in sight — the goal was a quick brunch to fuel our day somewhere close to the action…
Unlike at the original Boulder location, the Denver outpost of Zoe Ma Ma, a downhome Chinese-food concept that Gretchen Kurtz just reviewed, includes an optional 15 percent “Sustainability Initiative Fee” on all tabs. Owner Edwin Zoe says the fee helps him pay his employees a living wage. But the concept has been fodder…
Denver is gearing up for the Fourth of July weekend — and you can get in practice for the fun and feasts ahead at a series of tasty events this week. Monday, June 29 Frasca Food and Wine welcomes Eric Demuth at its Monday Night Wine Dinner Series. The meal…
This week Gretchen Kurtz reviewed the Union Station outpost of Zoe Ma Ma, the second home-style Taiwanese eatery from Edwin Zoe and his chef/mom Anna. And while she found deep flavors in a bowl of Sichuan braised-beef noodle soup, she also put some deep thought into the idea of service fees…
The hunger paradox has crippled us all from time to time—you’re hungry and don’t want to sacrifice taste or quality, but you’re in a hurry, don’t want to spend a fortune or rapidly approaching stages of hanger that make waiting an hour to get into a restaurant out of the…
You may remember Provisions Chophaus & Drinkery, the downtown restaurant that was open for only eleven days last summer. The space it so briefly occupied — at 1550 Blake Street — seems to carry a curse, having sat vacant for nearly a year in a booming restaurant market after seeing T|ACO…
The Bindery on Blake building in River North will soon be home to a trio of new food and beverage establishments, notably the new location of the Rackhouse Pub (after owner Chris Rippe’s original spot was closed to make way for the expansion of Stranahan’s distillery), and Bierstadt Lagerhaus, a brewery…
You may have noticed the Taja Indian sign above the space that was until recently Bombay Bowl in the shopping center at Broadway and Sixth Avenue. While it may seem odd that one fast-casual Indian restaurant would take the place of another, Taja is under the same ownership as its…
Zoe Ma Ma, which Gretchen Kurtz reviews this week, gets compliments for the setup at its new Denver location, as well as for its downhome Chinese fare. But one thing isn’t drawing raves: a 15 percent sustainability initiative fee that’s added to all tabs unless a customer specifically opts out. Owner…
Summer is festival season, and Denver’s food scene is getting in on the act with eat-and-drink fests along the Front Range, featuring everything from beer to bacon to tacos. Keep reading for all the tasty details. Friday, June 26 Today and tomorrow Leadville will be cooking during the Leadville…
Oskar Blues founder Dale Katechis is no stranger to innovation, having kicked off the craft-beer-in-a-can revolution in 2002. Now he’s launching a similar concept, only with coffee. This week Hotbox Roasters started selling its first batch of fair-trade coffee beans, packaged in the brewery’s “crowlers” — the resealable growler cans…
In just over a year, the Ethniche column has covered more than fifty restaurants and the food of a dozen cultures and regional styles, from the starting point in Hawaii sampling fried Spam and tuna poke to this month’s tour of the city’s Peruvian cuisine. In that time, there have…
Need a little zest in your life? Craving some pep in your step? Want to add a little “zip” to your daily “a-dee-do-dah?” Here’s a hint: Take the parts of your daily routine that bug you and spice them up, Cajun-style. Boring commute? Cajun-style. Unfulfilling relationships with your step-children? Cajun-style…
Cities from Los Angeles to Chicago are hiking the minimum wage. Here in Denver, Edwin Zoe of Zoe Ma Ma, which I review this week, has taken matters into his own hands with what he calls a “sustainability initiative fee.” The 15 percent fee, which is automatically added to the…
