Free food for National Donut Day

There are plenty of arbitrary, food-related holidays, but one dedicated to doughnuts? Now, that something to get excited about. Not everyone is celebrating National Donuts Day — such local shops as Walton Donuts and Marty’s 47th Street Donuts, along with the chain Winchell’s Donut House, are staying out of the…

Happy Friday: Here’s a good place to find a date

In the Best of Denver 2011, we named Common Grounds the Best Coffeehouse for Finding a Date, thanks to the constant crowd of young professionals who mingle over cappuccinos. And because we’re big proponents of ditching online dating and blind set-ups every now and then in favor of meeting people…

You’re the boss, act like it

Welcome to In the Weeds. Kyle will be right with you — most likely to complain about something. Usually he is pleasant, but this is his place to blow off some steam. Don’t take it personally; he just needs to vent because he’s been doing this for about thirteen years…

Smiling Moose Deli opens tomorrow in Boulder

The Smiling Moose moved its corporate offices to Boulder last year; tomorrow that town finally gets its own Smiling Moose Deli, in the Twenty Ninth Street development. (Update: The opening was originally slated for Thursday, then today, and was just pushed back to tomorrow.) “Smiling Moose Deli is a perfect…

Reader: There is no great barbecue here!

The days are getting hotter, which means it’s prime time for barbecue, whether in your backyard or one of “Denver’s five best BBQ joints,” as listed yesterday by Laura Shunk. Mr Sauce would add Moe’s, a homegrown chain that got its start in Vail. JimRome is nominating Serious Texas BBQ,…

Guess where I’m eating?

While I feasted on dozens of ant eggs, prepared every which way, in Mexico City a few weeks ago, I didn’t come across one restaurant that was serving anything close to a molcajete stew, but here, in Denver, I’ve found quite a few joints that do. Can you guess where…

Hooters lunch offers these students extra credit in physical education

Just when you thought your kids were not getting a real education, a field trip has justified our faith in the teaching profession. A group of eighth-graders from Berwick, Pennsylvania, recently went to Baltimore on a school-sponsored field trip to visit the National Aquarium. The group of a hundred students…

Round two with Row 14 exec chef Arik Markus

Arik Markus Row 14 891 14th Street 303-825-0100 www.row14denver.com This is part two of my interview with Arik Markus, executive chef of Row 14. In part one of that interview, Markus dishes on crashing kitchens, the day he was fired by Eric Ripert and the echo of Daniel Boulud. Favorite…

McCormick’s Fish House & Bar still pouring…drink up!

When McCormick’s Fish House & Bar opened in the corner of the Oxford hotel in 1987, it was an oasis in a lower downtown desert that desperately needed a new watering hole. Twenty-four years later, LoDo is overflowing with bars — and McCormick’s has achieved the status of an institution…

Denver’s gourmet food trucks are again on a roll

A year ago this week, Westword’s cover story was Laura Shunk’s “The Truck Stops Here,” a look at the spanking-new phenomenon — in Denver, at least — of gourmet food trucks. Steuben’s, the first truck to take to the streets, was the focus of that piece, but it wasn’t long…

Guess where I’m eating?

At this newly renovated watering hole, where I was graced by the presence of a friendly albeit pushy street dweller who bellied up to the bar with me, I sampled the chips and queso, which I probably should have shared — but I didn’t. Sorry, dude. Can you guess where…

Restaurant roll call for May

The dining scene saw lots of action last month, including the opening of two new spots in the 500 block of East Colfax — and the surprise closings of two Mark Tarbell restaurants in the Streets at SouthGlenn, including the one that served our Best Burger for 2011. Here’s the…