The tale of the oxtail

Oxtails are everywhere. In the new Lola bowl on the new brunch menu at Lola, in this amazing dish from Pete Marczyk at Marczyk Fine Foods. But what, exactly, is the animal that contributes its tail to these delicious preparations? Here’s the answer from Marcyzk: “Ox can be any number…

Cafe Society: Week in review

What you may have missed this week on Cafe Society while you were busting your brain trying to compile a list of canteens worthy of Sir Anthony Bourdain’s refined palate during his pit stop in D-Town next Wednesday, November 18 to lecture at the Temple Buell Theater. By the way,…

Call for the dead: Boulder loses Spud Brothers, Sunflower

We’ve got two closures to report in Boulder, both of them somewhat surprising. First to go down? Spud Brothers at 2010 10th Street, which closed the doors on August 28, much to the disappointment of Micks and stoners city-wide. According to the official report from Spud Brothers management, the big…

Free grub at Tony’s Market

The new Broadway location of Tony’s Market (right across the street from the Westword offices, at 950 Broadway) was giving away nibbles of their complete Thanksgiving dinner feast today during the lunch hour. Unfortunately, if you’re reading this now, you already missed the fun. The good news? They’re doing it…

Guess where I’m eating?

Deep-fried, smothered in spicy buffalo sauce and served with a side of fluffy mashed potatoes and gravy, the above sandwich isn’t one of Jason’s favorite dishes, but it’s certainly one of mine. Can you guess where I’m eating?…

Take a bite out of First Bite Boulder

Beginning Saturday, November 14 and continuing through Saturday, November 21, you can take a big bite out of First Bite Boulder, a weeklong event that offers three-course dinners for $26 per person (excluding tax and gratuity) at 40 restaurants in the People’s Republic. For a list of participating feed houses,…

Starting tonight, Sushi Sasa goes late-night

Beginning tonight, Sushi Sasa, Wayne Conwell’s hip temple of Japanese cuisine at 2401 15th Street, is adding late-night hours to its lineup. “Over the past few months, we’ve had numerous customers showing up at our doors after 10:30 wanting to eat sushi, so we thought, hey, let’s stay open later,”…

Sugar High: Santa Fe Cookie Co.

Here’s a formula you wouldn’t think would work for a bakery in the middle of downtown Denver: Customers enter at one end of a shop, drop a dollar into a giant plastic jug, retrieve a small paper bag filled with three fresh-from-the-oven cookies and exit out the other end. There’s no…

In the kitchen with Lance Barto of Strings

“This is the perfect hearty recipe to help warm your body from the chill in the air,” says Lance Barto, the executive chef of Strings and the subject of this week’s Chef and Tell interview…

The Drink to start pouring this weekend

Paul Piciocchi has had his hands full this fall, turning the former Alto space at 1320 15th Street into not one, but three venues — and also running his other popular Denver club, Tryst, at 1512 Larimer Street, right up the street from his new project. A third of that…

Do you have a passion for food and restaurants?

Does reading this blog make you hunger to write? Westword is expanding its Cafe Society coverage, and we’re looking for a great freelance writer with a passion for food and restaurants, as well as the ability to produce stylish and knowledgeable news and opinion pieces about the Denver dining scene…

Guess where I’m eating?

Steelhead trout, beautiful beets just yanked from the garden, greens and risotto. Half of the dish — the trout and the beets — was spot-on perfect, while the second half — a gummy risotto that had turned to mush and the wilted weeds, which were gritty and intertwined with the…

Top ten most unappetizing food scenes from the big screen

The only thing better than a fabulous food scene on the big screen is a scene involving brutal, unabashed violence (True Romance, or anything Tarantino for that matter), or a fantastic food moment involving sex (9 1/2 Weeks, for example). But while some culinary scenes will leave you yearning to…

Happy Birthday to the Fainting Goat

846 Broadway has been a lot of things over the years. Failed restaurants have come and gone; bars have landed here, done well for a little bit, then died. I’ve spent time at every one of 846 Broadway’s incarnations over the past seven years and, with the exception of their…

Let them eat cake…from City Bakery

Yes, yesterday’s Guess Where I’m Eating? cakes were from City Bakery, Michael Bortz’s place up at 5454 Washington Street, an industrial-park setting that gives no hint of the wonderful things being created inside. Except for the smell, of course. Although Bortz breads and desserts are featured at many restaurants around…

Part two: Chef and Tell with Lance Barto of Strings

This is part two of my interview with Lance Barto, exec chef of Strings. You can read part one of my interview with Barto here. Best food city in America: Northern California. Right, I know that it’s not a city, but the whole northern region of California seems to have…

Marco’s, Root Down win Mayor’s Design Awards

John Hickenlooper will announce the Mayor’s Design Awards tonight, but we can tell you that two of the fifteen honorees are restaurants: Root Down and Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizzeria. Both restaurants opened last year, in old spaces made remarkably new. In Root Down’s case, a vintage service station was turned into…

Fogo de Chao sticks it to the steakhouse concept

On my first visit to Fogo de Chão, I was like Augustus Gloop in the chocolate factory — set loose in Wonka’s main room, eyes like saucers, jittery with excitement and trying desperately to shove everything into my mouth that would fit. And each time I half-cleaned a plate, some…