Five Denver bartenders mix up vodka cocktails you can make at home

Vodka has been the most popular spirit in America since the 1970s, and there’s no sign of it slowing down. As outlined in “Clear Thinking,” this week’s cover story about Spring44, vodka’s popularity keeps growing year after year, expanding into a market now worth billions of dollars. Part of that…

Bistro One’s patio opens just in time to say so long to summer

When it opened three years ago under chef Olav Peterson, Bistro One had more highbrow aspirations — but under chef-owner Alex Waters and his wife, Diane, it’s evolved into a neighborhood joint with a menu of French comfort food and a crowd of regulars who like to spend lazy evenings…

Round two with Simon Purvis, exec chef of EDGE at the Four Seasons

Simon Purvis EDGE at the Four Seasons 1111 14th Street 303-389-3000 www.fourseasons.com/denver/dining Favorite restaurant in America: I had an exceptional meal in L.A. at José Andrés’s restaurant, Bazaar. It was packed, so the ambience was electric, I bumped into a former colleague, the food was good, the decor was stylish,…

A Saucy Affair at Infinity Park Events Center tonight

The secret’s in the sauce! That will definitely be true tonight at Infinity Park Event Center, 4400 East Kentucky Avenue, the site of the annual Saucy Affair. From 6 to 9 p.m., chefs from the city’s top restaurants will compete in a “Saucy Battle.” Tickets are $65; for more information,…

Vodka: a shaken, but not stirred, history of the spirit on screen

Vodka’s rise to popularity wasn’t just a matter of taste. As outlined in “Clear Thinking,” this week’s cover story, brilliant marketing also had a lot to do with the spirit’s growth. And that marketing included placements in both movies and television shows — sometimes purchased, sometimes just lucky. Here are…

Photos: El Olvido

For this week’s review, I visited El Olvido, a five-month-old restaurant on South Broadway that owner Jorge Pingarron calls “Mexican, but not Mexican.” By that he means not Colorado Mexican, because his place specializes in dishes from regions of Mexico not widely represented in Denver, including Jalisco’s carne en su…

Five ways to freshen up the Great American Beer Festival

What’s that you say? How can you mess with perfection? Easily. The Great American Beer Festival, which takes place September 29 to October 1, is the biggest consumer beerstravaganza in the world. It’s on the life to-do list for beer lovers all over the globe, and it brings more cachet…

Guess where I’m eating?

I ordered the mole enchiladas, only to have the server look at me dubiously before asking if I actually knew what “mole” was. That was strike one. Strike two was when my friend went out to the car to fetch his phone, and the host bid him farewell, only to…

One Dollar Mexican opens on 38th Avenue

We’re always on the look out for ways to stuff ourselves as cheaply as possible, and a spot that just opened on the corner of 38th and Clay, just two doors down from Buchi Cafe Cubano, may take the prize for the least expensive meal in the city — most…

Reader: Fed up with the word “foodie,” but not real Mexican food

First, Denver places thirteenth on Travel + Leisure’s list of the best American cities for foodies, then LivingSocial ranks it as the eleventh-best dining city overall. When you drill down in the results of that survey, which queried 4,000 people in twenty top cities, you find some interesting observations –…

Around the World in 80 Cups at Seven Cups

If oolong, lapsang souchong, green, white and black varieties are just your, um, cup of tea, then you won’t want to miss “Around the World in 80 Cups,” tonight’s free lecture at Seven Cups, 1882 South Pearl Street, Robert Edison will share some of his tea-bag collections, as well as…

El Olvido serves up a delicious carne en su jugo

Carne en su jugo starts with the broth. Traditionally, it’s made by slowly boiling a cow’s head, though that practice is fading even in Jalisco, the original home of the dish — whose name translates literally as “meat in its juices.” Today, cooks in that part of Mexico often use…

Los Farolitos does Denver’s best birria

The fantastic carne en su jugo at El Olvido made me hungry for another stew native to Jalisco: birria. This dish boasts a savory red broth, thick with fat and imbued with the heat and earthiness of dried peppers. Right before serving, the cook plunks hunks of meat — lamb,…