Restaurants

When Zengo and La Güera closed last week, they ended a thirteen-year run in Riverfront Park and vacated some prime restaurant real estate on Little Raven Street. So it’s no surprise that the spaces aren’t going to stay empty for long: Way Back and American Grind partners Chad Michael George, Kade Gianinetti…

Not many restaurateurs reach the ten-year mark. Il Posto did, and chef/restaurant Andrea Frizzi marked the celebration by moving Il Posto to RiNo, where it’s better than ever and now Denver’s Best Italian Restaurant.

A year and a half have passed since the sign went up for Villagran, at 1512 West Alameda Avenue. At the time, it looked like Maria Garcia and Marco Angeles, who’d operated the Villa Real food truck at the same address for years, would open their brick-and-mortar restaurant any day. Finally, Villagran turned on the open sign and welcomed customers on May 1.

It’s Cinco de Mayo weekend, and there are parties around Denver. But do people know what they’re celebrating?

Denver’s restaurateur’s have been stepping up their game when it comes to upscale dining, offering sumptuous dining experiences, even at moderate price points. If a typical table in a crowded dining room isn’t your thing, though, you can always call ahead to these seven new eateries to see if you…

May is heating up with seasonal and local ingredients, great outdoor cooking and plenty of new restaurants to check out. Peas and carrots are at their peak sweetness — making them perfect even in a dessert! And new potatoes and spring lamb are making appearances on menus too. Here are…

Grower’s Organic co-founder Brian Freeman has been working in the organic produce business long enough that he remembers when people would tell him that organic farming was just a fad that wouldn’t last. But that was before Grower’s Organic launched in 2005 as a wholesale company focused on putting quality…

Chef/restaurateur Richard Sandoval opened his first Denver restaurant, Tamayo, on Larimer Square in 2001. He followed that one soon after with Zengo in 2004 on a brand new plaza at 16th and Little Raven streets. Back then, the place was packed nightly even though the Riverfront Park neighborhood was new…

Next Door, founded in Boulder by The Kitchen owners Kimbal Musk and Hugo Matheson as a kind of “Kitchen Light,” just opened in the new Eastbridge Stapleton development. This is the fourth Colorado location for the group, which is also launching the brand in Memphis, Tennessee this spring and will…

Put down your tray…unless you want to bite off a piece of the past at an auction today. The Country Buffet at 7407 East 36th Avenue has closed, and the remaining assets are being offered through Auction Nation, a national online auction company.

Garett Palecek’s love affair with cheese began by happenstance: After a stint working in purchasing and warehouse management for Aramark at Coors Field, he landed a job at Cheese Importers, a Longmont outfit that maintains a shop and supplies specialty grocers and restaurants all over the Front Range. He’d been…

Merlin Verrier, culinary director of the Kitchen’s Next Door eateries, talks about how and why he made the transition from Michelin-starred dining to fast-casual food, detailing a produce-filled California childhood, struggles with addiction, and cooking for President Barack Obama along the way.

It’s a testament to the magnetic pull of Sichuan food on American eaters that Szechuan Tasty House, 1000 west Evans, is yet another new Denver Chinese restaurant named for or specializing in food from a region from which the owners do not hail. The chef at this unassuming eatery is…

Graduation season is here. For most students across Denver, that means final exams, family events and a big sigh of relief once the ceremony is over. But for students enrolled in Ready for American Hospitality, graduation is just the beginning of fulfilling a dream — after surviving the nightmare of…

April in Colorado was a time of uneven transition and rapid change — whether we’re talking about seasonal changes or the Denver restaurant scene. While the number of new bars and eateries slowed from this time a year ago, other happenings made for plenty of ups and downs, for restaurant…

Southern food is big in Denver right now. But with all the local eateries frying up chicken and stirring grits, does this city need outsiders entering the scene? The folks behind Tupelo Honey do; the chain that got its start in Asheville, North Carolina, will open its first location west of the Mississippi right behind Union Station on May 2. But readers have mixed feelings about the fact that it’s landing here.

Chef/restaurateur Lon Symensma is about to embark on a restaurant voyage that will expand his influence over the Denver dining scene considerably in the coming years. With the imminent arrival of Concourse Restaurant Moderne, Symensma will have three restaurants in his stable — after ChoLon and Cho77 — and has…

With food photos this tempting, we know you’ll want to run out and eat these five dishes right now — but you’ll have to wait a few days for all but one. You can eat your fill when three new restaurants open next Tuesday and Wednesday, or you can buy…

Southern food is one of the country’s hottest dining trends right now, as evidenced by the growing number of Denver eateries serving food from south of the Mason-Dixon line. The latest is Tupelo Honey, which brings its brand of New Southern cooking from Asheville, North Carolina, where the company was…

This week’s feature story, “Disappearing Denver: Looking Back at Buildings We’ve Lost,” reminisces about old favorites — from the Tabor Grand Opera House to Celebrity Sport Center — that shaped Denver’s architecture and entertainment scene before giving way to the forces of modernization. Restaurants too, have come and gone, as a…

The Park Tavern & Restaurant at 931 East 11th Avenue has been slowly getting an overhaul both inside and out. After completing as much of the work as possible while keeping at least part of the twenty-year-old restaurant and bar open, owner Louie Belegratis closed the place for most of April…