Never mind that the mountaintop picnic at this year’s Taste of Vail was nearly blown into oblivion by 50 mph wind gusts that knocked over tents, and, in some cases, a few snow bunnies who were tipsy to start with, thanks to the high volume of alcohol that was being…
In Best of Denver 2011, we served up many places to drink, including Best New Bar, Best Dive Bar and Best Tap House. But what if you’re looking for a drink and a smoke? Frank asks: Your last edition featuring “Best of” failed to mention best Cigar Bars. I would…
After pigging out on a lot of pork this past weekend at the Taste of Vail, I continued the streak when I get back to Denver, stopping at one of my favorite delis for an Italian sausage and roasted red pepper cannoli. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus:…
Here’s something we haven’t seen before:Former employees of restaurateur Antonio Race are opening a wine shop called Vino & Vino — and it’s attached to Pulcinella Pizzeria and Wine Bar (read my recent Pulcinella review here) /a>, by punching through a wall, allowing direct interaction between the shoppers and diners…
Last Friday, Denver District Court Judge Edward Bronfin stuck former Chopsticks & Sushi owner Yan De Yang with a six-year prison sentence for the shooting death of Lloyd Running Bear, who’d come to the restaurant to collect a football gambling bet from Yang — who shot him five times. Convicted…
Westword staff writer Joel Warner recently had a big night out with his wife and three-year-old son — not at Chipotle, their regular family haunt, but at Frasca Food and Wine, which just won Best Front of the House in the Best of Denver 2011 (as it has several years…
Last week Cafe Society served up six Guess Where contests, featuring everything from the skull art at the revived El Charrito to the lamb tongue soup at House of Kabob to this colorful serving of chips and guac. For correctly identifying them as coming from Table Mountain Inn, the appropriately…
The Masters Tournament starts this weekend, which is always a great excuse to invite the guys over for some grub and stogies, and trade stories about that pay-for-play night during that last golf outing in Vegas. If you’re lucky, your indentured servant, err, wife will make you a smorgasbord of…
Frasca Food and Wine scored “Best Front of the House” in this year’s Best of Denver, and with good reason. The employees are like epicurean Navy SEALs, making sure every guest’s needs are met instantly and unobtrusively. But what if that guest is just recently out of diapers? Does Frasca’s…
In this week’s Chef and Tell interview with Pizza Republica’s Eric Chiappetta, the kitchen wizard offered insight about what it was like to work with Sean Kelly, his chance meeting with Julia Child and why he believes the cook at Griff’s Hamburgers is a culinary god. He also talked about…
While the rest of you are down in Denver doing whatever it is that you do on a Friday, I’m currently living the high life in Vail, wining and dining at some of my favorite restaurants, including this one, where the above photo — sweetbreads — was snapped during one…
As long as there are pigs and people alive on the earth, bacon will never be over. Food trends have come, gone, lingered past their usefulness and then been recycled every week on the Food Network, but bacon remains an emotive staple, and a timeless culinary reality. Bacon has been…
Bacon can be used as a weapon. I visited the Denny’s at 900 West Alameda Avenue last evening, and was promptly greeted, not by a hostess or server (c’mon, that would be expecting way too much), but by a gigantic sign perched by the ubiquitous claw machine full of poorly-sewn…
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…
After all of the drinking we did in order to pick our booze-related awards in the Best of Denver 2011 — like Best Martini, Best House Margarita, Best Dive Bar and Best New Bar — (coupled with, uh, our normal food and booze pairing habits), we began to think of…
Want to be the star of your very own reality show? If you have an ailing pizzeria, you could soon be a big cheese. Cafe Society just received news of a casting call from Chad Patterson of Beyond Around the Block Productions in Los Angeles (you can look him up…
The cookie was fine, and you can’t really screw up a from-the-bottle pickle. But the sandwich and potato salad? Not good at all. And that’s all I have to say about that. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s…
“I got my passion from Tony,” Kelly Whitaker of Pizzeria Basta, which I reviewed this week, told me. “I carried that through everything else I did.” He was talking about Antonio Race, the native Italian who founded Pulcinella Ristorante in Fort Collins back in 1991; Whitaker got his kitchen start…
Eric Chiappetta Pizza Republica 5375 Landmark Place, Greenwood Village 720-489-2030 www.pizzarepublica.com This is part two of my interview with Eric Chiappetta, executive chef of Pizza Republica. In part one of this interview, Chiappetta weighs in on why he believes the cook at Griff’s Hamburgers is a culinary god, and that…
After short-lived runs as Jezebel’s Juke Joint & Brothel and Gin & Sin Speakeasy over the past year, the hundred-year-old building at 3862 High Street has re-opened as the High Street Bar & Grill. Frank Blea, who’s owned the building for over three decades, says that some of his family…
Let the good times roll! Lucile’s Creole Cafe has now brought a taste of the bayou to Littleton. The fifth link in a chain that started in 1980 in Boulder, then added Fort Collins and Longmont, and stretched to Denver in 2005, is now in the south suburbs, too, occupying…
The comments about Denver’s Five Best Burgers are still sizzling, and now people are getting hot about our Six Best Pizzas, adding five of our favorites to Pizzeria Basta, winner of the Best Pizza in the Best of Denver 2011. No Enzo’s? No Oven? At least Lipster was polite about…
