Chad Clevenger, exec chef/owner of Mel’s Bar and Grill, 5960 South Holly Street, is hosting a five-course winemaker dinner tonight with Daryl Groom, the former chief winemaker of Penfolds and Geyser Peak, who’s now representing and making his signature private label, Groom. Groom focuses on three main varietals: sauvignon blanc,…
Mojitos Cuban Bistro, which opened last year at 1120 East Sixth Avenue (in the former home of Mel’s, and Montecito, and Piscos, and Chives, and Dudley’s…), has poured its last mojito. The restaurant is locked up tight, and a sign on the door announces, “We are closed…sorry for the inconvenience.”…
The lights are on and the Open sign still hangs by the door at 1630 Welton Street, but that door is locked tight and the phone, which no one answered last week, is now disconnected. Looks like Chopsticks & Sushi is officially closed. But then, owner Yan De Yang is…
Brad Brallier gave it a good shot with BB O’Reilley’s Bar & Grille, which took over the space formerly occupied by Your Neighborhood Grille at 1500 West Littleton Boulevard in the Woodlawn Shopping Center. But the neighborhood watering hole dried up in less than six months…
While Jason Sheehan is busy building a dream team staff for Ondo’s, the tapas restaurant taking over the subterranean space at 250 Steele Street, owner Curt Steinbecker, who trained with his wife, Deicy, at the Escuela de Cocina Luis Irizar, is just trying to get his restaurant open. With any…
I spent the weekend in Austin, much of it arguing the politics of food with very intelligent writers who fall everywhere along the eating spectrum — from Jonathan Safran Foer, who is a born-again vegetarian, and James McWilliams, who also goes the green route, to Novella Carpenter, who raises and…
Just got off the phone with Jon Edwards, one of the owners of Kaos, a new take-out pizzeria that was skedded to open months ago at 1439 South Pearl Street, just a block or so from Gaia Bistro. That’s the excellent breakfast and lunch cafe that Edwards runs with Patrick…
There wasn’t a Balloon Boy in sight, but Ugly Betty would no doubt have blown away any Heene outfit at Saturday’s Halloween costume contest at Lola. Perhaps in deference to the site of the contest, the coastal Mexican restaurant located at 1575 Boulder Street, the contestants included several food-related get-ups…
Denver has about a million places where a man of little means can find himself a big-ass burrito swimming in some sort of chile. I wouldn’t say that Denver was necessarily built on big burritos (because, as everyone knows, Denver was really built on moonshine, whores and the good fortune…
RESTAURANTS OPENING IN OCTOBER: CY Steak, 1222 Glenarm Place Illegal Pete’s, 1744 East Evans Avenue Jack-N-Grill, 2630 West Belleview Avenue, Littleton Mangiamo Pronto!, 1601 17th Street Noodles & Company, 1737 East Evans Avenue Oskar Blues Home Made Liquids and Solids, 1555 South Hover Street, Longmont Patsy’s Pizza, 3651 Navajo Street…
What you might have missed this week on Cafe Society while you were counting the minutes to Zolo Southwestern Grill’s 105 days of tequila. While we locals aren’t pleased that the Rockies blew another season of baseball, we understand that not everyone is a fan of the purple and black…
The World Series is in full swing, and although the Rockies didn’t make it this year, just about every TV in every sports bar in town has been tuned to the match-up between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies. Fans of those two teams — and there are…
Denver has a titillating new charcuterie contender in town. And for better or worse, it comes with a side of fleshy skin. You can double the pleasure, double the fun if you know where to go.Well?…
Chris Long, ex sous chef of Boulder’s Black Cat (and a former line cook at Charlie Trotter’s) and Cyrus Stroker, a former manager of The Kitchen, also in Boulder, have given up the restaurant business to further their careers in trucking. Sort of. Seems the two have teamed up to…
Perfect apple desserts are a rarity. Too often, high expectations are met with watery fruit, a flavorless crust or cloying sweetness. Perfection, however, is attainable, and if that’s what you’re seeking in an apple tart, look no further than the torta di ricotta at Venue, 3609 West 32nd Avenue. …
Yesterday I kicked off “Staffing Up,” with some free advice for how Mark & Isabella can get its act together. But the idea doesn’t have to be confined to restaurants that need a swift, motivating kick in the ass; reading through these blog posts for the last few days, I…
Last week, my buddy Dave Herrera over at Backbeat debuted a new bloggity thingamajig called Recast, in which he and his guys redo the soundtracks of existing movies. First one? Blade Runner — one of the greatest movies of all time, and one with a soundtrack that already kicks some…
“I’ve just become the chef of Le Chateau,” writes James Mazzio, one-time Food & Wine magazine Best New Chef winner and until recently the exec at the Icehouse Tavern, 1801 Wynkoop Street. But that stint ended early this month when the “high-powered” Mazzio was turned loose by powers higher than…
This is part two of Lori Midson’s interview with Chad Clevenger, exec chef of Mel’s Bar and Grill. You can read part one of Midson’s interview with Clevenger here. Rules of conduct in your kitchen: Work clean, work quiet, ask questions if you don’t know the answer, respect your team,…
Just got off the phone with Bill Feid, a Denver entrepreneur who’s never done a restaurant, but has firm plans in place to open Billy’s, a gourmet hot dog and sausage shack, at 2445 Larimer Street in mid-November. According to Feid, this isn’t going to be your average dog house…
There are some restaurants I talk about a lot. There are others that I talk about hardly at all. And one of the very few places that I talk about continuously (some would say obsessively) isn’t even open yet. It’s Ondo’s. Ah, Ondo’s….I’ve been dreaming about having a new tapas…
Ceviche is a nearly perfect dish — simple and organic and beautifully balanced, using the strengths of every single ingredient to subtly alter every other; a dish virtually unchanged through generations of cooks, both amateur and professional. No one knows for sure where ceviche was invented, only that it most…
