Taste of the Nation is hottest ticket in town

One of Denver’s best annual culinary celebrations comes down on Sunday, July 19, at Mile High Station (2027 West Lower Colfax Avenue), this site of this year’s Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation, a fantastic food-centric event that raises funds to eradicate childhood hunger in Denver and across America…

Tonight: food and wine flights at Fleming’s

Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, 191 Inverness Drive West in Englewood, is hosting its second summer Friday Night Flights fundraiser at 6 p.m. tonight to benefit the Excelsior Youth Center, a local non-profit. The cow palace will serve a selection of appetizers paired with three wines for $25 per…

The dangers of working with liquid nitrogen

Germany is now short one chef and the science of molecular gastronomy has claimed another victim. This, from the Daily Telegraph: “The 24-year-old chef was experimenting with a recipe involving liquid nitrogen, which is used by chefs including Heston Blumenthal to freeze food, when there was suddenly an ‘enormous explosion.'”Said…

Look for Cilantro Fusion to leaf in August

Juan’s on Stout, a downtown Mexican joint that shared the same address at 1531 Stout Street as Mici’s Handcrafted Italian, has closed — but the space won’t be empty long. Cilanto Fusion, another south-of-the-border newcomer (La Brisa opened just last week at  375 South Pearl Street), is picking up where…

To the shock of no one, PETA barbecues a naked woman

The National Cattlemen’s Summer Convention is in town right now, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals responded in a way that only PETA could: by spray-painting a naked employee red and black and having her lie on a grill outside the downtown Sheraton, where the conference is being…

Candy Girls: Crackheads

We must be looking a little tired around the office, because a co-worker recently bestowed this candy upon us. Hey, we don’t look gift horses in the mouth, we just put them in our mouths. The gifts, that is. The candy.  Maybe we need a couple more of these…..

Guess where I’m eating?

First, there were the white trash enchiladas at the Rio Grande, followed by the white trash au gratin potatoes at Simms Steakhouse, which, to complement those scene-stealing views of Denver’s skyline, now has a menu (and a chef in Moosah Reaume, formerly of Willie G’s Seafood & Steak) that just…

Jonesy’s EatBar staff bears their cleavage for a good cause

See more of Lori Midson’s photos at westword.com/slideshow. While I didn’t buy the shirt straight off the bartender’s back at last night’s feel-good Share Our Strength-Taste of the Nation fundraiser at Jonesy’s EatBar, the rowdy (in all the good ways) gastropub at 400 East 20th Avenue, I did purchase a…

Whoa! Big Hoss opening halted

After a kitchen fire at the end of June, Big Hoss Bar-B-Q had hoped to reopen by the Fourth of July weekend. When Hoss Orwat’s barbecue joint blew through that deadline, it set July 15 as a goal. But Big Hoss didn’t make that one, either. The tentative reopening date…

Mulberries to pack up on South Pearl

Life on South Pearl Street will be a little less sweet when Mulberries Cake Shop leaves its longtime spot at 1570 South Pearl and moves to Colfax and Vine — where the baked goods will be just as impressive, they promise, and the new place will have the added amenity…

Tonight: Twenty bucks, twenty wines at the Table Mountain Inn

Bottle up your favorite oenophiles today and head to the Table Mountain Inn in Golden (1321 Washington Avenue) for a “Wined Up Your World” wine-tasting event, where twenty wines — reds, whites, blends and imports — will be paired with the restaurant’s Southwestern-focused foodstuffs. If you simply can’t wait to…

Join the crowd at Cuba Cuba

I don’t think there’s any such thing as a slow night at Cuba Cuba anymore. It used to be that if you showed up early enough on a weekday, you could be assured of getting some kind of table. Maybe not the best in the house, maybe not the one…

Walnut Room makes a move on Broadway

After almost two years of searching, Walnut Room owner John Burr has finally found a spot for his next venture, the Walnut Room Pizzeria. It’s the former home of Freaky’s, at 2 Broadway. There was a fire in the building at Broadway and Ellsworth back in March 2008 and the…

On bad service and worse servers

Last week, I asked a simple question: What’s the worst meal you’ve had in a restaurant that was supposed to be good? I posed the question because I was feeling a bit pissed off myself. Because I have had more than my share of terrible experiences in restaurants where I…

Our Weekly Bread: Tony’s Market

The sandwich: Italian Sub What’s on it: Mortadella, capocollo, Genoa salami, tomatoes, olives, banana peppers, red onion, lettuce, provolone and Parmesan on a demi baguette with Italian vinaigrette. Where to get it: Tony’s Market (950 Broadway, 720-880-4501) How much: $7.99 with chips and cookies; less without Tony’s Market opened to…

Guess where I’m eating?

Okay, so we’re going to try something slightly different today, mostly because I’m ridiculously, apologetically, stupidly hungover and my memory has gone in the crapper, which may or may not have anything to do with the thumping brain pain, but I mention it because I have absolutely no recollection of…

Saj Mediterranean Grill to open first at the Streets of SouthGlenn

As reported here in June, the Streets of SouthGlenn, the new retail, restaurant and residential living project sprouting in Centennial, will have a whole lot of eating places. And it looks like Saj Mediterranean Grill will be the first spot to fling open its doors — although judging from the…

Wine Cellar, Brio liquor license hearings today

As reported here in March, the Wine Cellar could soon uncork in Highland. This morning, the prospective owners of the joint, which would take over the spot at 2556 15th once occupied by the Red Door shop, are at their liquor-license hearing before the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses…

Ask the readers: What’s a restaurant screw-up worth?

On Saturday I went to a new restaurant — one that has been receiving good word of mouth — to enjoy the beautiful weather, sip a cocktail on the patio, and eat brunch. The meal started out well: The gentleman who seated us (maybe a manager) suggested a few cocktails…

Tonight: Frasca chef competes on Top Chef: Masters

If you’ve been following Top Chef: Masters, the Top Chef spinoff that airs every Wednesday night on Bravo, then you know that Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson, exec chef at Boulder’s Frasca Food & Wine (1738 Pearl Street), is a contestant on the show, wielding knives alongside fellow kitchen wizards Rick Bayless, Hubert…

Getting a taste of the dirty south at Buchi Cafe Cubano

There is virtually nothing to this small storefront space in northwest Denver, which is as it should be. A patio out front, soft yellow walls, a couple of framed prints of things Cubano, a counter, a few tables, a coffee machine, a small kitchen tucked away in a closet in…