Brandon Foster Vesta Dipping Grill 1822 Blake Street 303-296-1970 www.vestagrill.com This is part one of my interview with Brandon Foster, executive chef of Vesta Dipping Grill. Read part two of my Brandon Foster interview. “Sweat Hog.” Those are the words inscribed on Brandon Foster’s deep-blue mechanic’s shirt. “Oh, no, are…
After a month-long renovation and expansion project, City, O’ City reopened in September to both raves and rants from fans of what had been a casual hipster hangout, and is now twice as big and much more polished. Veggie Girl had loved the original City, so she was a little…
A young woman pressed her face and hands to the window. She was wearing a tattered dress smeared with blood, which also dripped from the corner of her crimson mouth. That mouth contorted with an unheard moan as she scratched at the glass. Zombie or Occupy Denver protester? “Has to…
“The most innovative man in the world of food at the moment is Chipotle founder Steve Ells,” writes Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic at Westword’s sister paper, LA Weekly, in a profile of the CEO that ran in the Wall Street Journal late last week. That’s high praise…
Not surprisingly, the older I get, the more important family is to me. I’m well beyond my rebellious years, and the self-centered, booze-fueled, late-night haze of my twenties is fading fast. These days, my time is more meaningfully spent with loved ones, especially while cooking. Regrettably, my family and I…
He’s talked about it for months — and finally, after an endless hunting spree for the perfect space, salumi czar Mark DeNittis, who owns Il Mondo Vecchio, is opening Il Mondo Vecchio Mercato-Salumeria at 1284 South Pearl Street, in Washington Park…
This is our first official Veggie Girl revisit, but we felt a fresh look at City, O’ City was warranted, since the newly expanded restaurant also has a fresh new menu. While the wine/beer/tea/coffee lists are as impressive as ever, pizza doesn’t seem to be as much of a focus,…
If you like doughnuts — you know who you are — then you’ve undoubtedly popped dozens of these ridiculously addictive doughnut holes in your mouth. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I drinking/eating posts is entered…
Pinche Taqueria, the brick-and-mortar version of the popular Pinche Tacos carts, made its debut on October 31 — the last in a potentially record-breaking roster of thirty-plus restaurants to open in a month. Here’s our restaurant roll call for October:…
In yet another burst of menu non-creativity, McDonald’s is introducing Chicken McBites: popcorn-style chicken micro-nuggets that will differ from Chicken McNuggets in that they are ostensibly made from actual cuts of chicken, rather than the bizarre breaded avian mash that gives McNuggets their superfluously spongy consistency. With this un-daring menu…
Today’s the day you can have a shipment of In-N-Out double-double burgers sent to your home in In-N-Out-deprived Colorado — if you’re willing to pay $50, plus shipping, for two of them. Deal, but no deal, says Devin: I love In-N-Out, but it is like a nice treat when I…
It was a trip to the bank, followed by a jaunt to a burger shack in San Diego, that convinced Terry Sandrin to open his own meat emporium. “I was at our local bank in Littleton last fall, and there was a couple who was grilling burgers outside in the…
Yesterday morning, sixty people huddled over rows of glasses in the new addition at The Mediterranean in Boulder, feverishly writing notes while sniffing and sipping. While they worked, a panel of master sommeliers highlighted comparisons and characteristics of wines from Burgundy, walking the group through tastes that compared village samples…
It may be Halloween, but today also marks the opening (finally!) of Pinche Taqueria, Kevin Morrison’s taco-hustling brick-and-mortar — the follow-up to his taco wagon, which was one of the first mobile street food slingers to hit the streets of Denver…
No one’s saying you have to go meatless just because it’s Monday — but as an incentive to join the growing Meatless Monday movement, we’re featuring an animal-free recipe each week. This vegetable barley soup is beef-broth-free — but the cooking sherry and barley miso add a full-bodied flavor to…
On the same menu stamped with housemade pupusas, empanadas and Salvadorian enchiladas, you’ll find conch soup, creamed spaghetti and meatballs and chop suey, which our server swore was one of the kitchen’s best dishes. Maybe next time. In the meantime, can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who…
Cafe Society served up five Guess where? contests last week, ranging from a meaty Friday night dinner at Frasca to a still-unidentified avocado margarita to clam linguine at a relatively new strip-mall Italian joint. For correctly identifying the dish as coming from La Scala Trattoria , Erinlstilwell wins an EatDenver…
“I was really hoping you’d go on the Jason Sheehan diet: whiskey, cigarettes, and Lucky Charms,” writes Mantonat in response to the second installment of Bar Belle, Laura Shunk’s new series about how a food critic can indeed get fit. In last Monday’s installment, Shunk kicked gluten to the curb,…
Sorry, that headline is cruel. In-N-Out Burger, which now has locations in California, Nevada, Dallas-Fort Worth and Utah, is not opening a store in Denver, but if you don’t want to drive the 350-plus miles to get your double-double burger fix, you can have it delivered straight to your door…
Tyler Baer’s foray into the kitchen started during a year abroad in Germany. “Food is a very important thing for me and it always has been,” he says. “My mom always made things from scratch and organic ingredients, so I was really used to having good food. But during college,…
There’s something so sweet about sweet. The cavemen knew it, and were willing to risk limbs and whatever other body parts weren’t covered in hair in order to grab honey from beehives. Over many, many thousands of years, the preferred form of sweet evolved from honey to all kinds of…
A couple of months ago, we noticed that Mt. Everest Restaurant and Bar, the home of one of our favorite lunch buffets, had shuttered. And while we lamented the loss of goat curry, we were pleased to see that a restaurant was slated to rise quickly in its place…
