100 Favorite Dishes: Venezuelan Tostadas at Empanada Express Grill

No. 70 Venezuelan Tostadas at Empanada Express Grill 4301 West 44th Avenue 303-955-8362 We’re fans of the namesake Venezuelan savory pastries from Empanada Express Grill; we also have a soft spot in our hearts for the mouthwatering arepas made with griddle-crisped corn flour. But it’s a hybrid dish, not a…

Burgers With a Side of Man Candy for Brunch at Ignite

On a quest to find the perfect post-GABF hangover brunch to cure a serious case of the hangries, we ended up at Ignite Burgers & Lounge, which mostly serves their all-day menu of burgers and salads along with a few egg dishes thrown in for weekend pleasure. Why did we…

Rioja Chef Tim Kuklinski Talks Truffles and Family Traditions

Icelandic chef Viktor Örn Andrésson is making the rounds at Rioja, talking about his seafood and lamb creations for a Taste of Iceland dinner hosted by the restaurant. For Rioja’s chef de cuisine, Tim Kuklinski, the event is almost like Christmas; he gets to see new ingredients and try out…

Reader: The Northside Ruined? Berkeley Is Only Getting Better

Our list of Denver’s top old-school Italian restaurants inspired many memories of classic Northside red-sauce joints that have closed — Pagliacci’s, Little Pepina’s, Carbone’s, Longo’s Subway Tavern — and also a heated discussion of whether the people moving into what’s now generally called Highland (or LoHi) have ruined the neighborhood…

Denver Cat Company to Become Colorado’s First Cat Cafe

In August, we reported that Sana Hamelin, a lawyer by training, was hoping to crowd-source enough funds to open a cat cafe — a place that would combine a coffeehouse, book shop and art gallery with real cats that customers would pay to spend time with. The concept popular is…

Photos: The Booths of the 2014 Great American Beer Festival

If you’ve recovered sufficiently from the weekend’s festivities at the 2014 Great American Beer Festival to relive a few of the most colorful booths — or if you couldn’t score a ticket and just want to live the festival vicariously through photos, photographer Danielle Lirette captured the decorations, the drinkers…

Cucina Colore Looking to Expand into Neighboring Space

Cucina Colore has occupied its quiet corner of Third Avenue in Cherry Creek North for twenty years, making a few changes along the way (like adding a happy hour with Venetian-style cicchetti small plates in 2010). But now there are signs of bigger activity afoot. See also: The Ten Best…

Domo’s Patio Garden Proves Peaceful and Educational

Driving up to Domo Japanese Country Foods, you wouldn’t think much of the restaurant. The restaurant’s huge sign, visible from Colfax Avenue at Osage Street, is tacky. The building is boxy, and when we parked in the restaurant’s north-facing gravel parking lot, I questioned whether Domo would be all it…

Reader: Snooze Is Paradise — Just Don’t Go on Weekends

Can there ever be too much of a good thing? Our comparison of the brunch at the two downtown Snooze locations has led to a major discussion of that homegrown chain — as well as some other local restaurants that readers consider overrated. But now Snooze supporters are fighting back…

Old-School Meets Old World at Cafe Prague in Morrison

I can drive from my house to Morrison in about the same amount of time that it takes me to drive to downtown Denver, but I rarely go. Once a year to a show at Red Rocks, if I’m lucky, but otherwise I’ve probably had dinner in the almost-mountain town…

Two Dinners Tonight Pair Cuisine and Causes

Good food, good cause. Session Kitchen will be the setting tonight for Tails from the Vine, a collaboration with Seafood Solutions that pairs five seafood-inspired dishes with wine. Dinner starts at 6:30 p.m. and costs $95 — and all proceeds will be donated to Children’s Hospital Colorado Cardiac Institute. For…

Colorado’s Brand-New Breweries Bring Home the Bling at GABF

For the past couple of years, industry veterans have expressed concerns about the quality of the beer being made by new craft breweries, especially as the number of new breweries — they are now opening at a rate of 1.5 per day across the country — increases exponentially. But the…

Five of the Best — and Worst — New Halloween Treats for 2014

Halloween season means we get homemade orange-iced cupcakes with too much icing, black ginger ale punch full of sodden gummy worms, and those little rolled fondant ghosts that somebody’s auntie made by hand that everyone compliments but nobody actually eats. The store-bought treats usually end up being a slightly better…