Valentino Ujkic Trattoria Stella 3201 East Colfax Avenue 303-320-8635 http://trattoriastella.squarespace.com This is part one of my interview with Valentino Ujkic, the executive chef of Trattoria Stella on East Colfax. Part two of our interview will run in this space tomorrow. Valentino Ujkic emerges from his open kitchen at Trattoria Stella…
Summer is hamburger season. (But then, what time of the year isn’t the right time for hamburgers?) Green-chile cheeeseburgers at the Steuben’s truck at Civic Center Eats. JCBs on the patio at My Brother’s Bar. A big burger for a growing boy in this Guess where? post yesterday. But sadly,…
We just finished up the Colorado Cocktail Project, during which distillers and bartenders from across the state gave lectures, poured samples and, ultimately, created the ultimate Colorado Cocktail: the Tree Line, concocted by the Avenue Grill’s Marnie Ward, who bested nine other mixologists with her drink made with Leopold Bros…
“I had nothing to do with it, other than drinking at the bar last Tuesday night,” claims Jamey Fader, the culinary director of Big Red F, the Dave Query restaurant group that operates numerous dining dens in Denver and Boulder, including West End Tavern, Lola, Zolo Grill, Happy, Centro and…
Fourteen bartenders. Twenty minutes. One winner of an iPad. That was roughly the formula for the bartending competition Sunday night at Lola, sponsored by Don Julio. Using either Don Julio’s Reposado or Blanco, the participating bartenders made mini-cocktails, a concept that the tequila brand calls “Luxury Drops.” The winner, Dylan…
At the tender age of incredibly-awkward-teenager, I was packed, along with an econo-sized bottle of zit cream and my discman, into my family’s mini van for a summer road trip through the romantic Midwest. I was a terrible human to be around at that age, bitching about every stop along…
From the beginning, the founders of H Burger Co said they wanted to expand outside of their first location at 1555 Blake Street. Now a banner adorning the storefront at 727 Colorado Boulevard signals that expansion has finally begun. An H Burger location will take over the former Smiling Moose…
Last month, when I interviewed Robin Baron, executive chef of Udi’s Pizza Bar and Udi’s Bread Cafe, of which there are four locations scattered across the Front Range, she let on that the Baron family, spearheaded by her father, Udi, a confirmed bread head, were unleashing a quick-casual Middle Eastern…
Last night was you-get-a-burger night for the preteen, who scored this one an eight out of ten. The service, however, definitely gets a ten — and then some — since I’d forgotten my wallet and didn’t have $7.76 in spare coinage in my car. Instead of denying the kid the…
Noy Farrell doesn’t use pesticides in her garden. The chef/co-owner of Taste of Thailand uses ladybugs and beer instead. The ladybugs eat the insects that try to devour her greens and herbs, and a shallow bowl of beer attracts — and kills off — any snails. Noy’s primary garden is…
Over the past few years, Boulder’s Pearl Street has added several independent coffee shops — including Atlas Purveyors, Caffè and Ozo — to a strip already stuffed with caffeine stops. But now one of the area’s older cafes has made an exit…
Yesterday, Lori Midson reported that the former home of Walk-In Burger, at 2401 Sheridan Boulevard, was going to become Nobu — a NOBU! — with the notion of serving sushi and oysters after a hearing next week. Which prompted this from davebarnes: “a date with the Edgewater liquor-license board at…
I’ve yet to find a spirit that I really hate. I’ve had gins so smooth and floral, I’d willingly drink them neat. I’m a sucker for a good, smoky mezcal. Put tequila in just about anything and I’ll pour it straight down my throat. But at the end of the…
Of all the spirits, whiskey may be the most varied (the world can’t even agree on the spelling of the word). Bourbons must be made with at least 51 percent corn in charred oak barrels. Irish whiskey ages distilled cereal grains in wooden casks. Canadian whisky just has to be…
I’m geographically challenged. How else to explain that I was on Federal Boulevard and 72nd Avenue yesterday, when I spotted what I (wrongly) believed was the shuttered address of Teleras Deli Mexicana, a tortas joint that I’ve eaten at several times and written about more than once — a joint…
Approximately 2,200 semi-trucks full of Colorado potatoes head to Mexico each year. But an effort to open Mexico’s markets could mean a tenfold increase in potato exports from this state, according to John Salazar, Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture. Mexico is Colorado’s second-largest export market for agricultural goods, with 39 percent…
In today’s hilarious food news of the world report, David Harding, a man from South London, admits that he has a fetish — a major fetish — for sausages. It’s become so troublesome, he told The Daily Mirror, that he’s banging through thirteen sausages a day, a porkerrific compulsion that’s…
Converting an old gas station into a restaurant, Bittersweet was a major undertaking for Olav and Melissa Peterson, and construction problems have plagued them since the start of the project. Unexpected issues with the build-out pushed back their already-delayed opening until the very last day of 2010. And now the…
Highland Tap and Burger has been hawking burgers and beer since late last summer, attracting crowds to the patio and TV-lined bar for happy hour, dinner and late-night drinking. And now it’s adding lunch (with the same menu as at dinner) Tuesday through Friday. “They had a big request from…
When I was a kid, I hated mayonnaise — or at least thought that I did. It looked gross, and that was reason enough for me to avoid the stuff for nearly twenty years. But once I started falling in love with food — coincidentally around the same time I…
Cafe Society served up five Guess where? contests last week, featuring everything from a still-unidentified plate of figs to a super-bready breakfast sandwich at Salvaggio’s Italian Delicatessen to this much-maligned Brussel sprouts-with- bacon dish. For correctly identifying it as coming from Prima Ristorante, bpalms wins an EatDenver deck…
Man may not live by bread alone — but some sandwich shops seem out to disprove that. A super-bready breakfast sandwich in our Guess where? contest prompted guesses of Hi Rise, Heidi’s Deli (“bread for four sandwiches and meat for one!!”), Devil’s Food, Deli Zone, Gallop Cafe and Wooden Spoon,…
