No. 69 Charred Tahini Cauliflower at Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs2148 Larimer Street 720-746-9355 Jim Pittenger, the “Biker Jim” behind two restaurants, a cart and a food truck, didn’t get to where he is by serving vegetables. He didn’t impress celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain with a salad. He did it with…
Casa Bonita turned forty this year, but time has not stood still in the Lakewood strip mall that holds the world’s weirdest Mexican restaurant. Just as Casa Bonita was marking its fortieth birthday in May, the JCRS shopping center was sold for $8 million. The new owners plan to rename…
Belgium is known for two things in most of the world: chocolate and those miniature cabbages from Brussels. Food does seem to be their thing in the tiny country that’s split geographically and culturally between the Flemish and the Walloons, but an equally tiny Arvada beer and Belgian street-food bar…
Red-sauce joints have been closing all over town, but there are still plenty to celebrate. Still, our list of the ten best old-school Italian restaurants in Denver led to a lengthy discussion of changes in northwest Denver — officially Highland, but known for decades as the Northside, and once the…
Miyabi Jr. Japanese Express, a quick-service hibachi restaurant from PJ Partners and Capital Japan, opened last month in Tiffany Plaza — and no, it’s not in the space recently vacated by Oshima Ramen, an offshoot of another Japanese group that has a chain of ramen noodle shops in that country…
No. 70 Venezuelan Tostadas at Empanada Express Grill 4301 West 44th Avenue 303-955-8362 We’re fans of the namesake Venezuelan savory pastries from Empanada Express Grill; we also have a soft spot in our hearts for the mouthwatering arepas made with griddle-crisped corn flour. But it’s a hybrid dish, not a…
On a quest to find the perfect post-GABF hangover brunch to cure a serious case of the hangries, we ended up at Ignite Burgers & Lounge, which mostly serves their all-day menu of burgers and salads along with a few egg dishes thrown in for weekend pleasure. Why did we…
Icelandic chef Viktor Örn Andrésson is making the rounds at Rioja, talking about his seafood and lamb creations for a Taste of Iceland dinner hosted by the restaurant. For Rioja’s chef de cuisine, Tim Kuklinski, the event is almost like Christmas; he gets to see new ingredients and try out…
Our list of Denver’s top old-school Italian restaurants inspired many memories of classic Northside red-sauce joints that have closed — Pagliacci’s, Little Pepina’s, Carbone’s, Longo’s Subway Tavern — and also a heated discussion of whether the people moving into what’s now generally called Highland (or LoHi) have ruined the neighborhood…
Argyll Whisky Beer 1035 East 17th Avenue 303-847-0850 Whiskey isn’t my drink of choice, but it was the night I walked into Argyll Whisky Beer. Sure, it had been that kind of day. But I was also in that kind of place, with lights resembling gas lanterns, plaid carpeting and…
In August, we reported that Sana Hamelin, a lawyer by training, was hoping to crowd-source enough funds to open a cat cafe — a place that would combine a coffeehouse, book shop and art gallery with real cats that customers would pay to spend time with. The concept popular is…
With fall’s cooler weather, menus are changing around town. But there are other changes at local restaurants, too, including chefs moving on. Here’s a look at recent chef switches at a trio of restaurants I’ve reviewed — including Gozo, one of the most promising new spots this year. See also:…
Driving up to Domo Japanese Country Foods, you wouldn’t think much of the restaurant. The restaurant’s huge sign, visible from Colfax Avenue at Osage Street, is tacky. The building is boxy, and when we parked in the restaurant’s north-facing gravel parking lot, I questioned whether Domo would be all it…
Can there ever be too much of a good thing? Our comparison of the brunch at the two downtown Snooze locations has led to a major discussion of that homegrown chain — as well as some other local restaurants that readers consider overrated. But now Snooze supporters are fighting back…
I can drive from my house to Morrison in about the same amount of time that it takes me to drive to downtown Denver, but I rarely go. Once a year to a show at Red Rocks, if I’m lucky, but otherwise I’ve probably had dinner in the almost-mountain town…
Fans of LoHi SteakBar will need to find an alternative this week; the restaurant is closed until Friday because of an ownership change. Veteran chef and restaurateur Sean Kelly has left the steakhouse and bar; Joe Pettenger and Taylor Drew, no rookies themselves, are taking over in partnership with Larimer…
Butcher’s Bistro opens at 5 p.m. today in the former location of Twelve, which Jeff Osaka closed in August to concentrate on his new venture, Osaka Ramen. Owner Scott Bauer and executive chef Tyson Holzheimer hope to lure customers with a butcher counter and a menu centered on whole-animal butchery,…
Tennyson Street in the Berkeley neighborhood is quickly turning into one of Denver’s top restaurant strips. Already featuring its own fair share of destination eateries — from Hops & Pie on one end to Parisi on the other — the once-sleepy drag is set to get four new places in…
Halloween season means we get homemade orange-iced cupcakes with too much icing, black ginger ale punch full of sodden gummy worms, and those little rolled fondant ghosts that somebody’s auntie made by hand that everyone compliments but nobody actually eats. The store-bought treats usually end up being a slightly better…
Denver has been losing a lot of its red-sauce Italian joints in recent years, but we still had no problem rounding ten favorite old-school Italian joints that are still serving up worthy spaghetti and meatballs (or meatball, in the case of Saucy Noodle). And although readers quibbled with a few…
A Cafe Society reader delivered the sad news, which we confirmed this past weekend: Chef Liu’s Authentic Chinese Cuisine in Aurora has closed. Chef Liu’s was one of only a handful of Chinese restaurants serving traditional Szechuan dishes, but it did more than that: The food coming out of the…
This week in Cafe Society, Gretchen Kurtz reviewed Glaze by Sasa, a new dessert and sushi restaurant that’s the baum. And just in time for the Great American Beer Festival, Mark Antonation talked to Scott Witsoe of Wit’s End Brewing about his old homebrewing days, his love of exotic ingredients…
