Modmarket snags two American Institute of Architecture awards

After being pleasantly surprised to be nominated at all for a prestigious American Institute of Architecture’s Los Angeles Chapter, restaurant design award, Boulder sandwich shop Modmarket was thrilled to walk away last week with not one but two cafe design awards: people’s choice and the jury prize (which it shares…

Pho Havana moves in where Chef’s Noodle House moved out

For more than fifteen years, Chef’s Noodle House commanded the corner of Havana and Sixth Avenue, but back in February, its Vietnamese chef and noodle emperor, Billy Lam, whose family once owned T-Wa Inn, shuttered the joint and disconnected the phone. But the space didn’t stay empty for long. Earlier…

Guess where I’m eating?

As with everything at this excellent restaurant, the vegetable dishes are done extremely well, including the plate in the above pic that benefits from a lob of butter and soft, chewy rolls, called pav, that are perfect for scooping up the mixed vegetables, or bhaji. Can you guess where I’m…

Flagstaff House whoops it up with tastes on the terrace, aka happy hour

Boulder foodniks and lushes whose wallets run on empty aren’t likely to fork over their beer or burger coinage at the Flagstaff House, Boulder’s treasure in the sky, where the average check is well over a hundred bucks per person, the extraordinarily wide-reaching wine list is dictionary-thick and the coffee…

Guess where I’m eating?

I wanted to try the happy hours deals at the restaurant where the above snap was flashed, but the happy hour menu isn’t offered at the chef’s counter, which is where we had our butts parked. So instead, we ordered a cheese plate, the rotisserie lamb and a few other…

Boulder’s Pupusas Sabor Hispano moving to larger, loftier digs

Pupusas Sabor Hispano, the Boulder joint that doles out its namesake spheres of griddled masa shaped around redolent fillings of chicharron, fiddlehead ferns, zucchini, Anaheim peppers, smears of refrieds and molten white cheese, has long been one of my favorite restaurants in the People’s Republic, as much for the pupusas…

SmartCo Foods job fair Tuesday

SmartCo Foods — the new grocery store concept started by California-based Smart & Final, and being tested out in Colorado — is holding a job fair Tuesday to staff a hundred positions at locations opening soon in Centennial and Littleton. (The first SmartCo, at 1442 South Parker Road in Aurora,…

Guess where you’re eating? At a DINR restaurant, if you’re Ben

Cafe Society served up four Guess Where I’m Eating/Drinking contests last week, featuring everything heat-beating cocktails at La Rumbato this still-unidentified breakfast to a molten cheese dip at La Sandia. For correctly guessing that one, Ben wins a DINR deck. Ben, send your contact info to cafe@westword.com, and we’ll send…

The week in Cafe Society bloggery: Stupid lawsuits, shuttered restaurants, Biker Jim’s new restaurant, Food & Wine Classic highlights, Chipotle bats 1,000 and Morton’s Bob Wiltshire maligns molecular gastronomy

Our favorite table scraps of the week from the Cafe Society blog: 1. Holy hot dog! After more than a year of searching for a freestanding restaurant to augment his fleet of carts, Biker Jim, aka gourmet wiener hustler, finally signed a lease on a build-out space at 2145 Larimer…

Sushi Sasa’s expanded dining room is open for business

Early this year Sushi Sasa, the wildly popular sushi joint at 2401 15th Street, took over the vacated Wilderness Exchange spot next door, with plans to double the size of the dining room, adding 70 seats to the original 62. Now that space is finally — thankfully — open, a…

No excuses: My genes made me do it

Suzanne C. O’Neill, an assistant professor with the Cancer Control Program at Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University, has co-authored a study whose finding is the non-surprising: We’ll use any excuse we can. Her research found that the least healthy people surveyed excused their unhealthy lifestyles by saying they…

Guess where I’m eating?

It’s a messy plate, to be sure, what with all those potatoes scattered here, there and everywhere, but brunch at this unheralded gem is one of the best in Denver, and this plate, a mashup of black beans, cubed avocado, eggs and chorizo, with a side of excellent bacon, puts…

Chances holds its grand opening this weekend

Chances, a new sports bar/grill at 1135 Bannock Street, the former home of Wolfie’s and Bambino’s, opened soft — very soft — last week. But now it’s pulling out the stops for a grand opening celebration that includes food and drink specials all weekend. And expect those specials to be…

Mel’s Bar and Grill will shutter after service on Saturday

Just got off the horn with Chad Clevenger, chef/owner of Mel’s Bar and Grill, who called to say he was done — finito — with the restaurant that he took over from Mel Master in July 2008. “I’m pretty much over Mel’s, over making Cobb salads and salmon for old…

Guess where I’m eating?

Yesterday, while interviewing a Denver chef, I asked him what he’d want to put on his menu, even if it wouldn’t sell, and he said “white cheese dip.” Sort of like the oil-slicked swamp of cheese and chorizo in the above snap. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus:…