Guess where I’m eating?

The tamales at this strip mall Mexican in the suburbs are good — very good — but it’s the green chile, made with jalapenos and tomatillos (and not much else), that makes the trek worth the time. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first…

Vegan jambalaya for Mardi Gras on Meatless Monday

No one’s saying you have to go meatless just because it’s Monday — but as incentive to join the growing movement, every week we’re offering an animal-free recipe. The best thing about this jambalaya? You don’t have to forgo this recipe during Lent — or on any other day, because…

Benny’s closed for a two-day facelift

We’ve followed Benny Armas since he was cooking up Mexican food in the kitchen of the old Oak Alley (that building is now home to Hanson’s). In the ’80s, he finally opened his own place at 225 East Seventh Avenue (now Mizuna), then moved across the street to a bigger…

Udi’s opens its fourth bread cafe downtown

For every restaurant that closes, another one opens — or multiplies. That’s the case with Udi’s Bread Cafe, which just opened downtown, making it the fourth Udi’s Bread Cafe in the metro area. The high-ceilinging, bright and airy 2,800-square-foot space sits directly behind a substandard Quiznos, which recently saved itself…

My Sweet Bakery closes

Kelly McBride just opened My Sweet Bakery last April, selling her homemade pies, cakes, sticky buns and cookies, as well as coffee, out of a colorful storefront on 44th and Tennyson in the Berkeley neighborhood. The California Culinary Institute alum quickly amassed a following, despite the construction mess that made…

Guess where I’m eating?

This stack of onion rings doesn’t come anywhere close to the pyramid of snow outside my window, but on a day like this, a heap of onions rings, paired with a fat burger and a jug of whiskey, seems like a good way to spend the day. Can you guess…

Top five things food snobs should stop doing

There is nothing wrong with being a food snob. Food snobs offer valuable services to their communities, such as market insight, educated opinions and keeping the restaurant industry honest and on its toes. But still, there are always some culi-nazis pissing in the crab bisque; food snows who take themselves…

Reader: XX marks the spot for ladies’ restrooms

If you were looking for a restaurant restroom and found one labeled “Wags,” would you assume it was a ladies’ room? Would it help you if you knew that the other restroom was named “Ballers”? Those are the bathroom titles at Three Lions, but they’re far from the only odd…

Guess where I’m peeing?

When you’re trying to answer the call of nature at a restaurant, you shouldn’t have to first answer a riddle about the names or symbols that the restaurant has stuck on the restroom doors. Still, when looking for the ladies’ room at a local watering hole last night, I was…

Il Posto marks its five-year milestone

“I think for any business, five years is a big deal,” Andrea Frizzi, chef-owner of Il Posto, says. “For a restaurant, though, five years is a super big deal.” And that’s why today is “a super big deal” for the chef — on this day in 2007, Frizzi, a native…

Guess where I’m eating?

I’ll cop to the fact that vegetarian sushi isn’t my saucer of wasabi, but I’ll also admit that if I were a vegetarian, which will never, ever happen, I’d go back for this mock substitute, mainly because the chef has a very talented hand when it comes to playing with…

Round two with Tom Coohill, exec chef/owner of Coohills

Tom Coohill Coohills 1400 Wewatta Street 303-623-5700 coohills.com This is part two of my interview with Tom Coohill, exec chef/owner of Coohills. Part one of my chat with Coohill appeared in this space yesterday. Favorite restaurant in America: Hangawi in New York City has the most interesting vegetarian food I’ve…