baRed welcomes the new year with crowds…and coffee

Veteran restaurateur Cliff Young and his son, Zach Young, encountered many obstacles trying to open baRed, the bar/lounge at 437 West Colfax Avenue. But they finally opened the doors last month, just in time for New Year’s Eve. “With live blues and two crimson floodlights creating columns of light visible…

Reader: I was sick, but Casa Bonita still made me order food

caWhat’s on your culinary bucket list for 2014? Love it or hate it, many people will be visiting Casa Bonita, that Pepto Bismol-pink palace. Says Aloh: “I don’t care what anyone says, it’s an experience you have to have in your life.” For your kid’s sake, if not your own,…

Pizza Republica offers an upper-crust option downtown

Pity the poor Italian restaurant. Through a twist of fate stranger than Miley Cyrus vying against the Pope for Time’s Person of the Year, independently owned trattorias have found themselves walking in Olive Garden’s shadow, as if endless salad bowls and warm breadsticks were the most effective yardstick of a…

Here’s to more, more, more in 2014

Paint this town read! Cafe Society is off for New Year’s Day, and will return early tomorrow. While you recover from last night, resolve to eat more, more, more in 2014 — and share the spots that are on the top of your dining wish list in the comments section…

Guess where I’m drinking a Bangkok Fizz?

What’s with the wimpy tastebuds in Colorado? When a server assures me that something is hot, I’m often disappointed to find it is neither hot nor tasty. So when a waiter tried to explain to me that the Bangkok Fizz, made with Thai chile-infused vodka was really, really hot, I…

Fresh salsa for a quick appetizer on Meatless Monday

Entertaining on New Year’s Eve and not sure what to serve for an appetizer? You can’t go wrong with fresh salsa, which can be modified to suit your spiciness tolerance and taste. Consider this recipe just a jumping-off point; tweak as needed. See also: Homemade guacamole for a flavor-filled spread…

Larimer Street is hot — but Chelo’s has gone cold

Upper Larimer Street was busy Saturday morning — as it is almost every Saturday these days. That wasn’t the case twenty years ago; even as LoDo was starting to boom, this stretch was known as NoDough, and filled with pawn shops, empty storefronts, dive bars and hole-in-the-wall eateries. But today…

First Look: Roosevelt offers a new deal for drinkers

Greg Gallagher knows bars — he owns Gaslamp and the Front Porch — and he knows the part of town on the edge of LoDo, where both of those bars are located. So he knew what he wanted, and what would work, when he decided to open another bar right…

Guess where I’m eating breakfast for lunch?

Potato, sausage and eggs for lunch? Why not? And this traditional breakfast dish would no doubt taste just as good at dinner. A time-honored classic never goes out of style — not even after three decades. Can you guess where I’m eating? Watch for the answers to the last two…

Second Dunkin’ Donuts opens today at DIA — in Concourse A

Denver just got another Dunkin’ Donuts when a second location opened this morning at Denver International Airport — this one inside DIA, at the center of the A Concourse. The original DIA store opened in September in the Final Approach, the new cell-phone waiting area. See also: Dueling Dunkin’ Donuts…

More stirring responses from chefs we interviewed in 2013

Over the past year, Lori Midson asked chefs, cooks and pastry experts across the metro area to spill their secrets in her weekly Chef and Tell feature. Yesterday we shared some of our favorite responses from those fifty interviews; here’s a second helping. See also: Stirring responses from some of…

Reader: Latest Federal Case a great endeavor, great article

Over the past twelve months, Mark Antonation has hit 53 eateries in just under six miles — a distance he could easily cover in less than twenty minutes, depending on traffic and luck. “But in taking a year to travel the distance,” he writes, “I’ve gained an appreciation for the…