Reader: Panning Paxia — are you crazy?

Los Carboncitas is a great Mexican restaurant, and one that actually focuses on the foods of Mexico, rather than Tex Mex or Colorado Mex or Den-Mex, as Gustavo Arellano calls the food at this town’s standard Mexican joints. So Laura Shunk was eager to try Paxia, the upscale sibling of…

Mark Marcheselli takes over the kitchen at Satchel’s on 6th

It’s been a year since Andrew Casalini and his wife, Jen Dactano, opened Satchel’s on 6th, at 1710 East Sixth Avenue — a replacement for Satchel’s Market, the Park Hill market-turned-restaurant that they’d closed in the fall of 2010. Over the past twelve months, Casalini has worked hard to establish…

Russo’s Kitchen + Tavern closes in Peter Kudla’s “Midtown”

Midtown.That’s what Peter Kudla, the COO of Metropolitan Homes and the developer of Vallagio at Inverness, a suburban mini-sprawl of retailers, lofts and restaurants in Englewood, chose to call his development when it came to fruition last year. “It’s a unique dimension down here,” said Kudla, when I asked him…

Guess where I’m eating tofu, veggies and noodles?

Admittedly, a dish of noodles, tofu and vegetables isn’t what’s typically on my plate, but here, at this restaurant, I’ve discovered that the vegetarian dishes are every bit as good as the meat and seafood alternatives. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct…

Photos: Pig roast at Oak at Fourteenth

A snowstorm might not be the best weather for a pig roast, but that didn’t prevent a crowd from descending on Boulder’s Oak at Fourteenth last night for the restaurant’s first quarterly pig roast, a new tradition that was slated to get off the ground the very week the six-month-old…

Michelangelos Wine Bar closes on South Broadway

Michelangelos Wine Bar, a cozy, comfy java hut and wine respite, where lattes, laptaps, live music and lambrusco all co-mingled, has closed at 1 Broadway. The website has gone black, and a hand-scrawled message on the front door thanks customers for their support over the years. No word on what…

StarLite Diner & Lounge now open in Boulder

When Chris Dailey took over the old Ruby’s Diner spot in Boulder’s Twenty-Ninth Street development, he planned to turn the space into his own diner in just a few short months. StarLite Diner & Lounge, he announced last year, would be ready by March 2012. Close: It opened today…

Foodography (cobras and scorpions count as food, right?) from Adrift

Yesterday morning, three Buddhist monks appeared at Adrift to bless the new tiki bar, a ritual for co-owner Jay Dedrick, who has asked Buddhist monks to ceremonially bless all of his Denver restaurants, including his four Swing Thai joints. And last night, during an animated — very animated — friends-and-family…

Reader: South Federal has great variety, from mild to wild

After a month of Street 16 menu madness, the two finalists — South Federal Boulevard and Lower Highland — finally faced off. And when it was all over yesterday morning, South Federal was proclaimed the winner: the best restaurant neighborhood in town, at least according to Cafe Society voters. (Readers…

Chipotle or Qdoba? Either way, burritos legally stand on their own

Next to food trucks, the biggest Mexican-food trend over the past decade has been Denver burritos — not the Mile High City’s indigenous marvels, but the type that originated in San Francisco’s Mission District: gargantuan, foil-wrapped bricks stuffed with beans, rice, meat, cheese, guacamole, salsa, sour cream and seemingly every…

Danny Wang says Lao Wang Noodle House will be open Friday

Earlier today, we posted the result of our Street 16 restaurant neighborhood tournament, and South Federal, which had been pitted against Lower Highland in the final showdown, took the prize…but one reader suggested that South Federal might have lost one of the very restaurants that pushed the South Federal neighborhood…

Buddhist monks bless Adrift

Bless the beasts and the children…and Adrift. Yes, that’s correct: This morning, three Buddhist monks from a monastery in Parker sat side by side on a chartreuse banquette at Adrift, the tiki bar that will open this week on South Broadway, and chanted, blessing the new space and wishing it…

Les Delices de Paris reopens tomorrow after renovations

Les Delices de Paris, the charming bakery at 600 South Holly Street, will reopen at 7 a.m. tomorrow after being closed for remodeling. “We have a big, new pastry case for new pastries,” explains French-born Christelle Donat, who co-owns the spot with her husband, Gerard. “New paint, too. It’s a…