New Belgium Spoke opens today at DIA

Last we heard, New Belgium Spoke — a cafe, newsstand and grab-and-go concession that would feature New Belgium beer on Concourse A — was slated to open early this fall, after delays pushed back the date from May. Early fall meant late summer: Laura Coale, spokeswoman for DIA, says the…

Guess where I’m drinking?

There are exactly ten seats in the tiny quarters of this Italian cafe that turns out pastries, breads, paninis and excellent caffeine-jolted cappuccino, the foam finished with fancy swirls. Can you guess where I’m drinking? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I…

Reader: It’s no secret that Cafe Society photos usually suck

Yesterday Lori Midson started spilling some of the secret, off-the-menu items offered at local restaurants, starting with one at D Bar Desserts. But it was the photo accompanying the post that snagged the comment that warmed her heart. It’s no secret that Cafe Society photos have come in for criticism,…

Crave Real Burgers in Castle Rock meats expectations

The first time a plate was set before me at Crave Real Burgers, I nearly choked. I was sitting at the brightly lit bar that faces the open kitchen, surrounded by the din of a busy dinner service and sucking down a mint chocolate chip milkshake. But when I got…

Highland Tap serves bar food that tastes much better than bar food

Over the past few years, the booming burger business has included everything from new joints trying to re-create the classic burger to restaurants so redesigning the burger that it’s sometimes no longer recognizable, as at Crave Real Burgers. And then there are the spots that fall somewhere in the middle,…

Shazz is closed until the end of August…at least

Over the weekend we heard that Shazz was dark, so we stopped by the new American restaurant that Benny Kaplan opened almost three years ago in northwest Denver to get more details. The restaurant was certainly quiet, and the lack of activity will continue for at least a few more…

Shhh! Secret menu items at Denver restaurants revealed

Steuben’s does it; Jensen Cummings, the executive chef at Row 14 Bistro & Wine Bar has plans to do it; and Keegan Gerhard, the chef/pastry king at D Bar Desserts has been quietly doing it for months. What, exactly, is it that we’re talking about?…

Vinue Food and Wine Bar opens in Cherry Creek

For 25 years, Jorge Alonso was a partner in Grupo Anderson’s, the Mexican restaurant conglomerate that owns Señor Frog’s, which, if you didn’t know already, is where tourists who trot off to the resort towns in Mexico go to get drunk, hook up and pass out — usually in that…

Guess where I’m eating?

If it walks like a chicken, and clucks like a chicken, it probably is a chicken — even if it doesn’t taste like chicken. Our server enthusiastically described the Chinese chicken dish in the above photo as “zesty.” At least, she said, that’s how customers have described it. They’re wrong:…

Lou’s Food Bar has a fan at the New York Times

“Denver residents who have been to one of the six restaurants and bars run by Frank Bonnano would most likely agree that the experience means good food and service to match. With Lou’s Food Bar, which opened late last year, the 43-year-old chef has broadened his repertory with an American…

Reader: Cafe Society isn’t picture perfect, either

Restaurants whose websites have too little information. Restaurants whose websites have too much information. Restaurants whose websites don’t exist. Readers have plenty of their own gripes to add to our “Fifteen most annoying restaurant website mistakes.” And Cafe Society isn’t flaw-free, either. GFTW offers this: Good Lord. First of all,…

Shiso Sushi & Oyster Bar — not Nobu — opens in Edgewater

In late June, while cruising down Sheridan Boulevard, we eyed a liquor-license sign announcing that a restaurant named Nobu was taking over the former Walk-in Burgers space at 2255 Sheridan Boulevard. And we nearly cracked our head on the sidewalk, since Nobu, of course, is one of the most vaulted…

Super Mini Walnut Cafe will open next week in Lafayette

Earlier this year, Julia Buonanno and Dana Derichsweiler, the owners of Boulder’s Walnut Cafe and South Side Walnut Cafe, put the brakes on the food truck they ran with Ashlie Beckham, but that didn’t stop them from moving full speed ahead on a project they have going in Lafayette: The…