Derek Dietz, the one-man show behind Bocadillo, has a fine-dining background, but you wouldn’t know it from walking into his restaurant. Potted plants, in various stages of dying, sit in front windows where curtains should be. Cookbooks and records spill out of banged-up wooden shelves. Fossils from the collection of…
The menu at Bocadillo, Derek Dietz’s casual restaurant in Sunnyside, is short, with only a dozen or so choices. And while the lineup frequently includes soups, a salad and a few entrees along with the snacks, you never know what form these dishes are going to take, given how often…
Pop-up dinners are popping up all over. Montgomery Knott, who started Monkey Town more than ten years ago in Brooklyn, has brought his film-and-food experience back to Denver for a three-month stand at Exdo Hall; you can find out all about Monkey Town 4 at monkeytown4.com. And now another entry…
Monday through Friday, from 3 to 6 p.m., this restaurant pimps oysters for a mere dollar a shuck. That’s my kind of happy hour. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to a Guess Where post is entered into a pool –…
Two Denver breweries recently announced changes to their beer-making staffs. Denver Beer Company hired Austin Wiley, who had been with Great Divide since 2007, to take over as the lead brewer, heading up recipe development at the Platte Street taproom, managing the operation and overseeing the barrel-aging program. Nick Bruno,…
Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with a spacious kitchen. They often bring some of their market’s best ingredients home with them and cook up a feast, and when they’re not…
Richard Glover Fooducopia 1939 East Kentucky Avenue 303-722-7838 fooducopia.com This is part one of my interview with Richard Glover, exec chef of Fooducopia; part two of our conversation will run tomorrow. Every so often, you’ll hear the lilt in Richard Glover’s voice. Born in South Africa and raised in Botswana,…
In A Federal Case, I’ll be eating my way up Federal Boulevard — south to north — within Denver city limits. I’ll be skipping the national chains and per-scoop Chinese joints, but otherwise I’ll report from every vinyl booth, walk-up window and bar stool where food is served. Here’s the…
A lot has changed since Derek Dietz opened Bocadillo on a quiet street in Sunnyside in early 2012. The little sandwich shop immediately won fans, but then Dietz took a one-year hiatus to deal with a family emergency. And when he reopened Bocadillo last summer, it was with dinner added,…
It’s the end of an era. For decades, Burger King reigned from a prime piece of property at the busy intersection of Sixth Avenue, Broadway and Speer Boulevard. But the fast-food joint has closed, and the property is up for sale. See also: Burger King: Where’s the effin’ beef?…
Earlier this afternoon around 2:30 p.m. when I walked into Luca D’Italia for a meeting, the room was dark, and so, too, were the the dining rooms at Bones and Vesper Lounge, all of which are Frank Bonanno’s restaurants. Just a few minutes earlier, I learned, the electricity had gone…
After over fifteen years, Bacaro Venetian Taverna will close its doors for good late tonight. But the restaurant is going out with a bang: After a month-long farewell February celebration, the establishment is throwing a final Mardi Gras bash tonight. See also: Bacaro closing on March 4 following a farewell…
It’s been almost two years since Steve and Linda Ballas first decided to try to put a second Steve’s Snappin’ Dogs at Denver International Airport, just over a year since they got the go-ahead from DIA to work with Keith Montoya, the local partner with LS Travel Retail, on a…
Keegan Gerhard and Lisa Bailey, the married couple who own D Bar, the diminutive storefront in Uptown that’s renowned for both its desserts and savory dishes, is closing its original shop and relocating to what the couple describes as a “new location [that] will stay true to the core of…
Grand Lake Brewing, which closed its taproom last October amidst declining business in the mountain town and after dispute with several employees, announced on its Facebook recently that it will reopen in Olde Town Arvada, just a block from the Arvada Brewing Company. The new location is at 5610 Yukon…
Chef Duy Pham, whose impressive cooking career in Colorado started at the long-gone Le Petit Gourmet Catering and journeyed through the kitchens of Tante Louise, Opal, the Luna Hotel, Sushi Den, Fifteen Twentyone in Pueblo and, most recently, Epernay and Restaurant Kevin Taylor, is looking forward to the month of…
There’s always room for more pho on Federal, no? That’s the hope of Chinh Nguyen, his fiancée Quynh Nguyen and Thuy Le (owner of Chez Thuy in Boulder), who just opened Pho Market in the original Pho 95 strip-mall space at 1002 South Federal Boulevard. And you’ll never recognize the…
Bocadillo has never felt like a copycat. When the restaurant opened in early 2012 on a quiet street in Sunnyside, owner Derek Dietz opted not to put out trendy, refined fare. “We’re not competing with Rioja and Squeaky Bean,” he explains. “We’re like a diner that has really good food.”…
When I was growing up, surf and turf was a luxury that was always saved for special occasions, and up until last night, I hadn’t eaten a lobster tail and a steak on the same plate in more than a decade. Next time, I won’t wait that long. Can you…
Clay Carlton is on a roll. The Denver native who opened his first barbershop in Winter Park 38 years ago today is a master cigar-roller and proprietor not just of Palma Cigars but of Bar Las Palmas Wine Bar, the most unique shop in the Ballpark neighborhood, offering cigars, wine,…
We’ve been fans of Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs since Jim Pittenger’s cart first popped up on the 16th Street Mall. And we’re not the only ones: Yelper love recently landed Biker Jim’s on Yelp’s list of the 100 “best” restaurants in the country — right alongside a tiki snack bar…
Today Mardi Gras is a celebration of overindulgence, cheap plastic beads — and the obligatory flashing that comes along with them. But Fat Tuesday was not always such a morally bankrupt holiday. Its roots lie in eating lots of rich and fatty foods that were prohibited during Lent, which begins…
