Reader: When visiting the Vine Street Pub, carry cash

The Vine Street Pub & (Brewery) does not take credit cards — a policy that’s led to a lively discussion following our update on construction at the pub that will finally let the place brew its own beer. As readers point out, Vine Street does have an ATM — which…

Heavenly foie gras and oysters served at Ototo on South Pearl

As we were finishing dinner at Ototo Food and Wine Bar, a waiter who’d had my table twice before stopped by to say hello. A true, lifelong professional who’d never planned on having any career other than this one, he’d passionately delivered information about food and wine along with my…

Bring out your best for the Best of Denver 2011

Cafe Society writers are hard at work on the Best of Denver 2011, which will include more than a hundred food and drink categories, many of which are included on the Best of Denver Readers’ Poll. Paper ballots are due at the office by Friday — but you can vote…

VG Burgers’ food is both very good and vegan-friendly

Denver’s veggie food scene is decent, but nowhere except the People’s Republic of Boulder would you find a restaurant quite like VG Burgers. Its all-organic, all-vegan menu is an anomaly in the quick-casual industry — as is the fact that the facility is entirely wind-powered, and there isn’t a wastebasket,…

Guess where I’m eating?

The pudgy, misshapen flying saucers in the above snap, draped with a potent tahini sauce and sided with rods of blushing turnip pickles, are some of Denver’s best falafel — scratch-made, herby and greaseless. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to…

Fire breaks out at Boulder’s Oak at Fourteenth

Part of the Pearl Street Mall has been evacuated after fire broke out this morning at Oak at Fourteenth, the recently opened restaurant owned by bartender Bryan Dayton, chef Steve Redzikowski and general manager Annie Polk. Flames burst out in the attic, a space between the ceiling of the restaurant…

Colt & Gray Denver Restaurant Week dessert: Brioche bread pudding

We’ve been eating our share of prix fixe menus over the last week, partaking in our share of Denver Restaurant Week (or Denver Restaurant Half Month, as TAG chef de cuisine Jensen Cummings calls it). And while some of what we’ve eaten has been entirely underwhelming — and has made…

Will Cisa, kitchen magician of the Corner Office, on monumental cooking disasters, Euclid Hall’s boudin noir and the impossible thirty-minute meal

Will Cisa The Corner Office 1401 Curtis Street 303-825-6500 www.thecornerofficedenver.com/food/dinner This is part one of my interview with Will Cisa, executive chef of the Corner Office Restaurant + Martini Bar. Part two of that interview will run in this space tomorrow. It’s day three of Denver Restaurant Week, and Will…

Ale House at Amato’s should start pouring this month

The Breckenridge and Wynkoop brewing companies have finally sealed the deal on their joint venture, which we first reported in December. Under the agreement, the two companies will keep their identities and their individuality, but they will share their brewing and restaurant resources. The Wynkoop’s restaurants include the flagship Wynkoop…

Reader: If you don’t want attention, don’t dine-and-dash

Readers are still pouring out stories about Denver Restaurant Week, as well as their opinions on wine-server etiquette and the ATM at the Vine Street Pub. But the biggest, fattest discussion yesterday focused on the dine-and-dashers captured on video at Virgilio’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar. RevBAFrederick weighed in with this:…

Review preview: Ototo Food and Wine Bar

Toshi and Yasu Kizaki have been serving Pearl Street for two decades, first with Sushi Den, which they opened in its current home twenty years ago, and then again with Izakaya Den, which first started serving dinner in 2007. Both of those spots pack crowds into cavernous spaces every day…

Guess where I’m eating?

Four of us went out last night for Denver Restaurant Week, although only one of us ordered the DRW menu, which didn’t include the foie gras sandwich and accompanying duck egg, beautifully graced with caviar and petals of black truffles, that set us back $52.80. Yes, you read that correctly:…

Sputnik reopens tomorrow after getting ripped for liquor-law violation

Sputnik, the hipper-than-thou Baker ‘hood bar, renowned for its hangover weekend brunch, live music acts and globetrotting menu catering (mostly) to vegetarians and vegans, has gone dark, at least until tomorrow, when the tatted ‘tenders can begin pouring booze again. Seems as though the groovy watering hole got itself into…

Reader: After gorging, taking a break from Denver Restaurant Week

With just four more days to go before Denver Restaurant Week ends on March 11, many diners are still scrambling for reservations. But some are sitting back, unbuttoning their pants, and digesting everything that’s gone before. Hotdog, for example, is taking a much-deserved break. But first, he offered this comment…