Tonight: Harvest week wine dinner with monkeys at Avenue Grill

While close to forty members of the Denver Independent Network of restaurants are rolling out menus offering locally sourced products through Friday, September 18 — the last day of Harvest Week — a few restaurants are also celebrating the state’s allegiance to the locavore movement with special dinners. At 6:30…

Bacaro hires Fabio Flagiello

Bacaro Venetian Taverna already boasts a winning DeKuyper Mix Master bartender in Ken Kody. And now it has a new chef: Fabio Flagiello. Flagiello trained in Italy and France, and worked in restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco. During his time in L.A., he consulted with the film industry…

Toast comes to Cherry Creek, while Juicy Lucy’s takes off

We weren’t really looking to do a second restaurant, but everything just kind of fell into place,” explains Bill Blake. Along with business partner Jason Parfenoff, he’s just signed a lease on the long-vacated Village Inn space at 222 Columbine Street, where he’ll open a second outpost of Toast, the…

Jason Sheehan, back in the saddle

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been missing from both these virtual pages and the actual dead-tree pages of Westword for the past couple of weeks. And while I’m sure that some of you out there in Hotcakesland have rejoiced in thinking that finally someone over here came to his…

Zaidy’s liquor license up tonight

The lights were off on Monday, and the listing suddenly disappeared from the upcoming hearings schedule at the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses — but by all accounts, the liquor-license hearing at which the city will consider whether to expand Zaidy’s license to allow live entertainment at the Writer…

Guess where I’m eating?

There are few things that piss me off more than restaurants that serve frigid tomatoes. I’m only going to say this once: Your walk-in, refrigerator — whatever — is a tomato’s mortal enemy, its murderer of flavor, its slayer of scent. Ever wonder why the flesh of a tomato is…

Our Weekly Bread: Cafe Options

The sandwich: Rare Roast Beef What’s on it: Rare roast beef, grilled red onions, lettuce, tomato, horseradish havarti and aioli on a baguette Where to get it: Cafe Options (1650 Curtis Street, 303-573-0733) How much: $7.25 Do you believe in second chances? I do. That’s why I’ll probably try a…

Chef and Tell: Paul Reilly of Encore

“Ever since I saw Grover waiting tables on Sesame Street, I knew I wanted to work in restaurants,” says Paul Reilly. And he didn’t waste much time following in Grover’s footsteps, considering that he got his first taste of restaurant life while washing dishes in a German joint at the…

Hosea Rosenberg hosts Colorado harvest dinner at Jax Boulder

Jax Boulder exec chef and Top Chef New York winner Hosea Rosenberg isn’t hanging out a whole lot in the People’s Republic of Boulder these days. His Facebook page says he’s “heading into San Fran to find the city’s best Bloody Mary,” but presumably he’ll accomplish that goal before 6:30…

Guess where I’m eating?

Colorado lamb: It’s what’s for dinner, at least this week — Harvest Week — when nearly forty metro restaurants are offering special menus focusing on ingredients local to Colorado. Like lamb paired with french fries (my favorite in the city), jus and drunken horseradish made with Stranahans Colorado whiskey. This…

Denver’s newest road trip: Interstate Kitchen & Bar

Interstate Kitchen & Bar made its debut on Thursday, September 10, at 901 West Tenth Avenue (the former Santa Fe Tequila Company space). It’s a kitschy urban roadhouse bedecked with utilitarian shelving — a la Home Depot — and a psychedelic robin’s egg blue paint palette. In the back, by…

Zaidy’s turns into Fusion Cantina and goes for a cabaret license…maybe

David Hannes, president of the Writer Square Condominium Association, has had his hands full dealing with the ongoing renovations at Writer’s Square, which have turned the downtown oasis into a concrete desert. He lives above the restaurant that had been Zaidy’s Downtown Deli, and he’s also kept a close eye…

Confusion over Fusion Cantina, the former downtown Zaidy’s

Zaidy’s Deli, a mainstay at 121 Adams Street in Cherry Creek for decades, opened a downtown outpost several years ago in Writer Square. It did a decent breakfast and lunch business there, but the crowds flocking to LoDo and Larimer Square in the evening — and walking right past Zaidy’s…

Snaps from the Denver Food & Wine Classic

The three-day Denver Food & Wine Classic wrapped up on Saturday, September 12 with a Grand Tasting on the wet and sloppy grounds (thanks, rain) of Metro State College. To see a slideshow of all the fun, including some action snaps of Denver Five chefs Jamey Fader, Matt Selby, Troy…

Lucy at the Landmark snaps up exec sous chef from Del Frisco’s

Lucy at the Landmark, the mezzanine-level restaurant inside Comedy Works South, at 5345 Landmark Place in Greenwood Village, had closed in early July and just reopened on Thursday, September 10 after what sales manager Heidi McMillen calls a “menu redo.” It’s now a “great family-oriented, economically-friendly restaurant with American food…

Guess where I’m eating?

Independent restaurants across town are offering specials right now to celebrate Harvest Week. This order of albondigas is one of those specials; guess where we found it?…

Milking It: EnviroKidz Leapin’ Lemurs

Leapin Lemurs EnviroKidz Rating: Two-and-a-half spoons out of four Cereal description: Here’s a partial list of ingredients in Leapin’ Lemurs: “organic corn meal,” “organic whole grain corn meal,” “organic evaported cane juice,” “organic peanut butter,” “organic molasses,” “organic cocoa,” “organic soy oil” — as opposed to “soy oil assembled in…