El Diablo and Sketch will remain closed this weekend

Happy hour will not be very happy today at El Diablo and Sketch tonight. The restaurants remain closed, after the city slapped the building in which they’re housed, the First Avenue Hotel, with a notice to vacate very early on Tuesday, July 10. According to the city, the structure is…

Liquid porn: Sean Kenyon showcases his new Squeaky Bean cocktails

Sean Kenyon isn’t the kind of guy to shy away from the spotlight — or the liquor cabinet. The Denver-based cocktail kingpin (or bartender, as he prefers) has been slinging drinks for 26 years, and he’s incredibly good at it, racking up contest titles and accolades around the world, sitting…

Rocky Ford cantaloupe hit King Soopers today

Rocky Ford cantaloupe took a big hit last year, unfairlyfingered by the FDA in the early days of the listeria outbreak in a September 14, 2011 release that warned consumers not to eat Rocky Ford cantaloupes. And never mind that the real culprit, Jensen farms, was more than a hundred…

A parade of pleasures at The Kitchen’s happy hour

Happy Place: The Kitchen, 1530 16th Street, 303-623-3127 The Hours: Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. The Deals: $1.25 oysters; $3-$7 appetizer specials; $4 select beers; $5 wines by the glass and specialty cocktails. Were we happy? Flip the page to find out…

Guess where I’m eating a roast beef sandwich?

After several days of eying everything on my plate with suspicion (food poisoning has a way of making you cynical), I finally got my appetite back, celebrating the return of a hungry belly with a roast beef sandwich…followed by a scoop of ice cream, both of which you can find…

Cinebarre: Turn up, tune in, drop cash

For me, going to the suburbs for anything is like taking a spaceship to a distant planet populated by strange aliens and strip malls. Still, on occasion I’ll haul my shorts out to an outlying town. In this case, it was Thornton, because I’d heard that Cinebarre has movies, booze…

Reader: Here’s why we need a health department…

There’s lots of action on the Denver restaurant scene — the ongoing controversy over Frank Bonanno’s fight with the health department, the upcoming Tavern Platt Park…and today, the opening of a new Bubba Chinos downtown, just steps away from City Hall, which will be serving up free chile cheese fries…

Yard House sells to…owner of Olive Garden?

Former local boy Steele Platt has made very, very good: Darden Restaurants — an Orlando-based company that operates Olive Garden and Red Lobster, among other chains — announced today that it has agreed to buy Yard House USA Inc. for $585 million — cash, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. There…

Fire closes Pho Saigon on Belleview

Until this afternoon, southeast Denver had an abundance of restaurants named Pho Saigon — but that was before Pho Saigon Le at 8101 East Belleview Avenue caught fire. According to Channel 7, a blaze burned through the roof of the restaurant, and neighboring businesses in the strip mall were evacuated…

Bubba Chinos opens downtown tomorrow

Green chile, meet cheeseburger. Downtown Denver, meet Bubba Chinos. The latest location in the chain started by Leonard Cordova, grandson of the late Stella Cordova of the original Chubby’s, will open tomorrow at 1361 Court Place, just steps from City Hall. And first-day customers will receive free chile cheese fries…

Patio season is in full swing with two more opening

New patios are popping up all over town this summer. Star Bar introduced its outdoor “Bar Port” last month, complete with a draft system and a tiki theme. A half-dozen blocks and a world away, Edge at the Four Seazons unveiled its renovated patio in late June. Elway’s Downtown plans…

Ten Colorado beer labels you’ll be seeing soon

You could spend a small fortune keeping up with every Colorado beer release over the course of a year — believe me, I know. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least try a couple of them. In the old days — like, three years ago — beer releases were…

Tavern Platt Park should sprout next spring

All systems are go for Tavern Platt Park, which will transform the former home of India’s Pearl (and Lola, Micole and Greens before that) at 1475 South Pearl Street. Tavern Hospitality Group, which bought the building, had a hearing with the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses on July 2…

Guess where I’m eating a tongue-numbing panang curry?

I’m not sure which is more blistering: the pavement or this panang curry, which packs more heat than a desert sky in July. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Guess Where posts is entered into a pool –…

Five discontinued fast-food items I want back

It never fails: Just when I become emotionally — and occasionally physically — attached to a certain fast-food item, the corporate overlords snatch it away like fiendish villains in a Joss Whedon movie (or one of his TV shows that hasn’t been cancelled prematurely). Okay, so some items don’t sell…

Reader: City attacks local businesses, rather than help them

Two prominent restaurateurs are involved in very public spats with the city. Frank Bonanno, owner of Osteria Marco, among other restaurants, admits he can be a “dick.” Especially when fighting the Denver Department of Environmental Health: posting missives on his blog aimed at Danica Lee, the department’s food program manager…