Oyster bars and raw oyster service have become trendy in Denver restaurants, but Blue Island Oyster Bar, which opens tomorrow in Cherry Creek North, is taking shellfish obsession to a new level. The new seafood house next door to the Cherry Cricket is partnering with the Blue Island Shellfish Farm…
After we served up our summer 2015 edition of the Ten Best Barbecue Joints in Denver, readers quickly weighed in: Where was Golden’s Tin Star? Longmont’s Georgia Boys? Or Jabo’s, which had made the summer 2014 list? And then there’s Robert, who thinks Denver doesn’t have any good ‘cue. Responds Martin: I…
Henry’s Tavern got a jump on its September 22 grand opening when the restaurant on the ground floor of the Denver Pavilions, facing the 16th Street Mall, had a soft opening on Wednesday. The Henry’s chain was founded in Portland, Oregon, in the original powerhouse of the defunct Blitz-Weinhard Brewery…
The Egg Shell, Cherry Creek North’s venerable breakfast spot, moved from its original home on Josephine Street to the former Mel’s Bar & Grill space in 2009. The neighborhood seemed to be in decline as a restaurant destination throughout the early part of this decade, but a flurry of new…
Over the past several years the bar at 1050 West Evans Avenue has changed hands numerous times: It has been the OT Lounge, Ike’s America’s, Greta’s Alibi and, most recently, Cecil’s Cantina, owned by Jody Johnson, who ran the Sedalia Grill for 22 years before coming back to Denver. Cecil’s…
We’re all about tacos this week, telling stories of how the fried taco (with American cheese) might have been invented in Denver and why a family is moving from a truck to a brick-and-mortar restaurant; sharing our list of the ten best street tacos in town; even serving tacos at…
Central Bistro & Bar chef Matt Selby just rolled out the latest iteration of the LoHi eatery’s summer menu, which features three new flatbreads and and three new pasta dishes — including hand-rolled tagliatelle — that add more appetizer and primi options for guests. “More than anything, we simply wanted…
Twenty years ago Craig Conner decided to give up his corporate job at JC Penny, sell his house and use every ounce of credit he could muster up to open Pablo’s Coffee in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. It was 1995 and at the time coffee culture in Denver was…
The Farm House at Breckenridge Brewery is more than a place to drink beer and play corn hole while watching the sun go down. As I write in this week’s review of the Farm House, it’s Exhibit A of a bigger movement afoot, that of brewery-based restaurants that are draws…
Hot fat drips from succulent, slow-roasting pork on a vertical spit, pork that has been marinated, loved and teased into a deep, Heart of Darkness-level frenzy of flavor. The gentleman tending to this meat is clad in a grease-patina’d apron, shorts, flip-flops and a beater T-shirt that reads “Born Lucky.”…
On Sunday, September 20, Westword will host DISH, its 21st annual celebration of the Denver dining and drinking scene. More than forty favorite restaurants of Westword food writers and readers will be sampling delectable dishes at DISH. And this year, we’re introducing something new: Tacolandia, a special area devoted to…
If I look at it just right — squint at it, maybe, late at night and through a sweating bottle of Corona — my entire career as a food writer (such as it is) can be seen as one long search for tacos. Fifteen years, tens of thousands of miles,…
Fermented foods and beverages have become more popular in recent years because of their much-touted health benefits and also interest in old-world food-preservation techniques. Kombucha is one such traditional beverage being buoyed by consumers’ desires to up their intake of probiotics, micronutrients and other funky stuff. But because alcohol is…
On Sunday, September 20, Westword will host DISH, its 21st annual celebration of the Denver dining and drinking scene. More than forty favorite restaurants of Westword food writers and readers will be sampling delectable dishes at DISH. And this year, we’re introducing something new: Tacolandia, a special area devoted to…
Where there’s smoke, there’s ire! We just served up our summer 2015 edition of the Ten Best Barbecue Joints in Denver — a project that involved eating, and eating, and eating lots of good barbecue. But while one reader thinks Denver’s a great food city, he isn’t impressed with the…
Coda Coffee celebrates the grand opening of its new location near Sloan’s Lake this Friday. The shop, which opened last week, is the first retail store for the ten-year-old roaster. “Our wholesale company’s done really well,” said Timmy Thwaite, who runs family-owned Coda with his brother Tom. He’s excited for…
There we were, two restaurant critics drinking coffee and talking shop — quietly, of course, so that no one around us could hear. “What’s big in Denver right now?” she asked, noting that in her home town, fried chicken and bourbon are all the rage. “Beer,” I replied, the answer…
On Sunday, September 20, Westword will host DISH, its 21st annual celebration of the Denver dining and drinking scene. More than forty favorite restaurants of Westword food writers and readers will be sampling delectable dishes at DISH. And Grateful Bread Company, a regular Best of Denver winner, will be handing out…
The restaurant space at 4900 West Colfax Avenue has seen as many ups and downs as the street itself. For decades, Tante Louise was Denver’s nonpareil French restaurant before closing in 2005. The place was purchased by Ed Novak and Jerry Friztler, of the Broker fame, and named the Cork…
In the beginning, there was the taco…and it was good. Very good. So good that a century after the first recipe for tacos appeared in an American cookbook, sixty years after the first Taco Bell rang in California, tacos are still providing plenty of culinary inspiration in this country, for…
Five years ago, when the food-truck movement was just gathering speed in Denver and some of the city’s top talents (Kevin Morrison of Pinche Tacos, for example) were launching mobile kitchens as a way to market a concept before making it concrete, then-Westword-restaurant critic Laura Shunk looked toward an older…
On Sunday, September 20, Westword will host DISH, its 21st annual celebration of the Denver dining and drinking scene. More than forty favorite restaurants of Westword food writers and readers will be sampling delectable dishes at DISH, including Boone’s Tavern. And this is a dish that should really fly: Boone’s,…
