Chapter Two BBQ closes the book

So far, the month of August has seen more restaurant openings (Colt & Gray, Doghouse Tavern and Big Hoss, again) than closings. But the hottest month of the year has smoked at least one barbecue joint, namely Chapter Two BBQ and Grill, which was located at 2260 South Quebec Street. A…

A sneak-peek of Colt & Gray

Colt & Gray, the new gastropub from Nelson Perkins and his wife, Allison Stamper, will definitely open tonight at 1553 Platte Street. “There is a light at the end of the tunnel!” joked Perkins, referring to the construction and patio-permit delays that pushed his proposed Fourth of July opening back…

Colt & Gray to open today

Colt & Gray, the city’s latest gastropub with an emphasis on ‘farm-to-plate” fare, promises to finally open today at 1553 Platte Street. The project met with several months of delays, but judging from the menu posted on the Colt & Gray website, this restaurant should be worth the wait…

Mysteries of Sheehan’s Desk: Day 5

Because of an office construction project, I had to clear off my desk — which meant moving seven years of accumulation. Every morning, I’ll share another uncovered item with you. Sometimes people ask me, “Sheehan? Why are you keeping all those boxes of carb-free muffin mix at your desk? Or…

Tonight: Take a bite out of LoDo

A whole slew of downtown Denver restaurants – Organixx, Ice House Tavern, Bistro Vendome, Vesta Dipping Grill, Dixons, The Palm, Morton’s, Wazee Supper Club, McCormick’s Fish House & Bar, the Wine Loft and the Wynkoop Brewing Company (that’s the short list) — are participating in tonight’s LoDo Bites, a food…

Brandon’s is still dark, dark, dark

Despite the sign posted in front of Brandon’s Pub last week, promising that “Bradon’s” would reopen last Friday “for real”, neither Bradon’s nor Brandon’s made an appearance. The doors were still locked up tight at 5 p.m. tonight, the room is dark, and the phone number just rings to voicemail…

Guess where I’m eating?

If you’re like me, you could just sit there all day long ogling over this plate-spanning stack of flapjacks, griddled golden and just seconds away from being slicked with butter and maple syrup. These sublime pancakes were my breakfast on Sunday morning, the perfect pick-me-up after a night of crippling…

Ask the Critic: Green power

Last week’s review?  All about a particularly good green and organic restaurant in Denver.  The column?  More about the green movement.  I wrote blogs about green eateries, made lists of them, and basically spent a week obsessing over the buzzword-heavy culture that has invaded the modern restaurant marketplace.This week, my…

Big Hoss Barbecue finally back in business

You wouldn’t believe me if I told you how many reopening dates Hoss Orwat, boss of Big Hoss Barbecue, 3961 Tennyson Street, had projected since his smokin’ hot house of ‘cue suffered a kitchen fire back in June. We’ll call it a half dozen (more or less) and leave it…

Sean Huggard’s SugarCube deal dissolves

“I’m sitting in front of my computer trying to put together a business and marketing plan,” says Sean Huggard, the former executive chef at Black Pearl and Encore. The business plan is for a new restaurant, but it won’t be for Newport’s, which was the LoDo restaurant Huggard had hoped…

Mysteries of Sheehan’s Desk: Day 4

Because of an office construction project, I had to clear off my desk — which meant moving seven years of accumulation. Every morning, I’ll share another uncovered item with you. Okay, so it’s fairly obvious what this is, right? A coconut. But where did said coconut come from? I don’t…

Milking It: Total Cranberry Crunch

Total Cranberry Crunch General Mills Rating: Two-and-a-half spoons out of four Cereal description: Brown wheat flakes of the sort that are typically described as “hearty” (presumably because they’re supposed to prevent your aorta from exploding), supplemented by wads of oat bits typically described as “oat clusters” (because “wads of oat…

Tonight: Frasca Food and Wine hosts quirky winemaker Abe Schoener

Tonight at 5:30 p.m., Frasca Food & Wine, 1738 Pearl Street in Boulder, welcomes Abe Schoener, a former Greek philosophy professor-turned-esoteric-winemaker who’s shocked more than his share of snobby critics with his wacky wine trials and errors. One of those includes fermenting his red wines at temperatures as high as…

Mysteries of Sheehan’s Desk: Day 3

I found four squeaky cheeseburger toys while cleaning out my desk, from at least three different restaurants. This is one of them. I will spare you pictures of the rest. So now, the question becomes, what does a man with no dogs do with four squeaky cheeseburger toys? I mean,…

Guess where I’m eating?

Yes, that is a breakfast burrito. The question is, which breakfast burrito is it? Three clues: 1) It is not just wrapped in a tortilla, but wrapped and then baked in some mysterious manner. 2) That’s chorizo it’s filled with, and the place I got it from doesn’t offer them…

It’s ‘shroom Sunday at the Denver Botanic Gardens

There’s fungus among us on Sunday, August 16, when the Colorado Mycological Society unearths its mushroom fair at the Denver Botanic Gardens, 1005 York Street. The fair, which goes from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., includes mushroom displays, seminars on how to cook mushrooms and the 411 on where you…

Cafe Society: Week in review

What you might have missed while stealing the letters from Bastien’s marquee…Jason Sheehan may hate green restaurants but that doesn’t stop him from having a list of his favorites.Think you know your Denver restaurant scene?  Here’s your chance to prove it playing Cook Street’s foodie photo scavenger hunt.Bad news for…

The List: Denver’s best green restaurants

This week, I talk a lot about green — about green restaurants and the green movement, about organic foods and natural foods and the perils of being a mountain locavore.  So for this week’s List, it seems only appropriate to slap together a spread of restaurants which, while sticking tooth-and-nail…

Colorado growers converge at Safeway to support Colorado Proud month

Today, at 11 a.m. at the Safeway located at 2150 South Downing, nearly a dozen local farmers from across Colorado will join the state’s Agriculture Commissioner to encourage consumers to buy local produce and boost Colorado’s economy. As part of “Colorado Proud” month, the growers will sample their locally grown…

Mysteries of Sheehan’s desk: Day 2

Because of an office construction project, I had to clear off my desk — which meant moving seven years of accumulation. Every morning, I’ll share another uncovered item with you. This is a Brazilian espeto that I (somehow) managed to smuggle out of a churrasco restaurant downtown.Honestly, I’m not sure…