Brazen Neighborhood Eatery 4450 West 38th Avenue 720-638-1242 Given the excitement that chef’s counters can bring to dining rooms, it’s hard to believe they weren’t always a staple of restaurant design. Rather than being separated from the kitchen by solid walls and a swinging door, a chef’s counter lets diners…
In the five years since Edwin Zoe and his mom opened Zoe Ma Ma in a tiny spot just off the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Anne Zoe’s cooking has earned a reputation as some of the best and most traditional home-style Chinese cuisine in the Denver-Boulder area. And today,…
When Hannah Ulbrich decided to go back to work full time after a few years as a stay-at-home mom and adjunct literature professor, she was presented with an opportunity by her friend Sinjin Eberle, then owner of Copper Door Coffee Roasters. When he mentioned one day that he was planning…
The Denver ramen scene has been heating up over the past couple of years, with high-profile noodle-house openings and anticipation over others. But in Aurora, the demand for Japanese noodle bowls has been bubbling beneath the surface, with few options despite the vast array of ethnic eateries in the sprawling…
Based on a month of exploring Denver’s Salvadoran scene, small is good when it comes to pupusas — at least as far as the eatery itself is concerned. Tacos Acapulco on East Colfax is bigger than the Pupusas trailer in Louisville, but not by much. With only four or five…
Bruxie, the fast-casual eatery that turned the standard waffle into the base for a host of playful sweet and savory sandwiches opened less than a year ago and made our list of the ten best new fast-casual restaurants in 2014. But a fun menu full of Belgo-American fare and a…
Odelay Tacos changed hands at the end of the summer, when the new owners — Dave Cleland, John Elliott and Toby Waters — expressed their desire to consolidate the name and image of the bar, which had previously been going under three separate monikers: 3014, Odelay and the Beetle Bar…
Are you ready to tell the world about the best place in Denver to bite into a burrito or knock back a bowl of pho? Now’s your chance: We opened voting for the Best of Denver 2015, our annual celebration of the city, on Wednesday. You can now vote online…
No. 53: Prawns and Pork Belly at Blackbelly Market 1606 Conestoga Street, Boulder 303-247-1000 Shrimp and grits has its origins as a breakfast dish in the Low Country cooking traditions of South Carolina. The popularity and variations of the dish have spread in recent years, popping up on brunch and…
Wine enthusiasts in Denver and Boulder already know that Frasca Food and Wine is one of the top destinations in the country for wine service, thanks to co-owner and Master Sommelier Bobby Stuckey. And Wine Enthusiast magazine agrees, announcing that Stuckey is among the honorees of its annual Wine Star…
What do Pamela Anderson and Bob Marley have in common? Very little, other than that Marley was a vegetarian and Anderson still is. At least that makes them both suited to be the namesakes of two vegetarian tacos at Zi South. Known for a wide selection of tequila, the ballpark…
No. 54: Marrow Bone Brûlée at Mercantile Dining & Provision 1701 Wynkoop Street Denver 720-460-3733 When a server delivers a plate and the predominant feature is a big, split-open femur, it can be a little intimidating. There’s no meat, just a scattering of greens and few dabs of sauce, but…
In discussions of ethnic restaurants, the first question many people ask is, “Is it authentic?” Restaurateur Joseph Kim is aware of this, so at his two Dae Gee locations (I review the one on Colorado Boulevard this week), his cooks “are doing it exactly the way they would in Korea,”…
Neighborhood Chinese restaurants are almost invisible to passersby in the strip malls and shopping centers around the city. Most aren’t destination dining establishments; they get by on take-out orders and a steady trickle of business from local customers. But over time, a place can earn a reputation for solid food…
It started out as the Denver FIVE and then became just FIVE. But this year’s incarnation of Leigh Sullivan’s eighth annual kitchen cabal is being billed as FIVE Colorado, in part because it includes its first chef from a Fort Collins restaurant. Sullivan founded FIVE in 2008 as a way…
From the start, this city knew chef Alex Seidel’s Fruition was something special. When it came time to choose our Best New Restaurant for the 2007 Best of Denver, Fruition was the clear winner — even though it had opened just a few months before, in the former home of…
Natalia Spampinato Bittersweet 303-942-0320 500 East Alameda Avenue “I was pretty burned out on school by the time I got to college,” recalls Natalia Spampinato, Bittersweet’s pastry chef, “and I really missed cooking when I was living in the dorms.” A Denver native, Spampinato had graduated from the International Baccalaureate…
Dae Gee 827 Colorado Boulevard 720-639-9986 The Inuit have more than fifty words for snow, which tells us two things. First, there’s a lot of snow in the Canadian hinterlands. Second, and more important for our purposes, is that the more people know about something — which snow is powdery…
Azucar Bakery, which sells custom-made cakes and other confections for special occasions as well as traditional Peruvian treats from owner Marjorie Silva’s homeland, recently received a notice from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) stating that a religious discrimination complaint had been filed against the bakery. The complaint stems…
Mexican restaurants that start with the letter Z haven’t had much luck of late. Zocalo closed two location in 2014 (on South Broadway and in the Golden Triangle), and now the doors are locked at Zanitas Mexican & Margaritas. Zanitas moved to south Denver in 2013 in a prominent new…
No. 55: 48-Hour Short Ribs at Chop Shop Casual Urban Eatery 4990 East Colfax Avenue 720-550-7665 Chop Shop opened last summer with an upscale menu from chef and co-owner Clint Wangsnes — but in a casual, counter-service setting in a neighborhood clamoring for more dining options. Rather than following the…
Park Burger feels like a Denver institution even though owner Jean-Philippe Failyau opened the first one in Platt Park just under six years ago. Since then, he’s added two more Park Burgers (one in Lower Highland and one in Hilltop), Park & Co. in Uptown, and a pizza place called…
