El Noa Noa

I love a Mexican restaurant that opens for breakfast. One of the reasons I know I could never again live happily east of the Mississippi is that I could never survive without breakfast burritos, steaming plates of machaca and day-old takeout green chile in my fridge. There’s one thing I…

What the Hell’s Up at the Former Mel’s?

At this time last year, fans were still bemoaning the closure of Mel’s in Cherry Creek. But there’s been a lot of action since then. Mel Master turned his two Montecito restaurants into reincarnations of Mel’s — but now, as detailed here, plans to sell majority interest in the Mel’s…

Rachael Ray Invents Colorado’s Official Food

A few months ago, in order to assist the Colorado Tourism Office with its woefully embarrassing state marketing campaigns, we asked readers, “What Does Colorado Taste Like to You?” Looks like one of those readers was none other than that empress of evoo Rachael Ray, and she responded with an…

Hell’s Kitchen: The Game

I am not a fan of Hell’s Kitchen, the TV show. It is, without a doubt, the worst, most asinine, most ridiculously overdone suckfest of a reality cooking show on television: a horrifically over-shot and over-dramatized sixty minutes with half of its runtime taken up by commercials; another ten minutes…

Milking It: Pops Chocolate Peanut Butter

Pops Chocolate Peanut Butter Kellogg’s Rating: Three and a half spoons out of four Cereal description: Brownish corn-meal orbs — but not just any brownish corn-meal orbs. Big ones. Imposing ones. Brownish corn-meal orbs with a gland condition, or a steroid problem. Size-wise, they’re significantly larger than, say, the typical…

Out at Second Home

I’m a dumbass. In the June 26 Bite Me, while further excoriating Sage Restaurant Group for its miss at Second Home, I mistakenly lumped the Rialto Cafe in among the properties that Sage has taken over. In actuality, Rialto is (and always has been) run by Concept Restaurants, while Sage…

Candy Girls: Chill-In Frozen Yogurt

It’s no secret around here that Liz has been obsessed with frozen treats lately. Specifically, with finding Denver’s contribution to the growing Korean-style frozen yogurt movement, popularized in LA with the Pinkberry chain and then scores of copycat stores across the country. The first Pinkberries popped up in 2005, back…

Popeyes’ Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I love fast food, but prior to the announcement that Aurora resident Zion Gray had won Popeye’s national “Are You Bonafide?” video contest, I hadn’t heard a thing about the company’s call for thirty-second clips from chicken lovers across the country. So on my way to one of the area’s…

Second Home

Colorado is absolutely beautiful in spring. Unlike the East Coast — where spring will come on hot and wet and odorous, the land itself like some live thing waking after a long sleep, desperately in need of a bath — and unlike the North — where the first spring thaws…

Cafe Star

When Rebecca Weitzman left Cafe Star for the greener pastures of Manhattan last September, I thought for sure that was going to be the end of the place. I mean, if ever a restaurant was defined by a chef, it was Cafe Star, where Weitzman’s easy command of the eclectic…

Jack in the Box Eases Gas Pains

Jack in the Box, the once-and-future Colorado fast-food chain founded by fictional Colorado native and company CEO, Jack Box, is using the high gas prices for a little positive PR. San Diego-based Jack, which has locations in Arvada and Golden and plans two more in Parker and Aurora, will give…

Sheehan Needs to Mind His P’s and ‘Ques

This week’s print edition includes a few letters about Jason Sheehan — one taking issue with his very existence, another with his recent review of Bono’s Pit Bar-B-Q (shown here). It wasn’t the only letter we received on that subject; the following was too long for the paper, but it…

Swimclub 32 Dives Into Pizza

When I heard that Swimclub 32 (3628 West 32nd Avenue) was planning on closing its doors in a few weeks and turning into a pizza joint, of all things, I knew I had to talk with Chris Golub, owner (along with partner Grant Gingerich) of the four-year-old, oft-reconceptualized eatery. I…

No Place Like Second Home

Colorado is absolutely beautiful in spring. Unlike the East Coast — where spring will come on hot and wet and odorous, the land itself like some live thing waking after a long sleep, desperately in need of a bath — and unlike the North — where the first spring thaws…

Milking It: Froot Loops Smoothie

Froot Loops Smoothie Kellogg’s Rating: Two and a half spoons out of four Cereal description: The main cereal bits are as they’ve been since the days when Toucan Sam balanced a cornucopia-shaped fruit pile on his head like an avian Carmen Miranda: red, purple, orange, green and blue multi-grain circles…

Hit the Brix!

The Master family is on the move, as outlined here. But before all the changes hit Mel’s, there’s a goodbye party for Brix, the restaurant that Charlie Master opened five years ago at 3000 East Third Avenue. The party isn’t at Brix, though, since Charlie has been out of that…

Candy Girls: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with Caramel

Both of the Candy Girls love the original Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and since we’re pretty fond of caramel as well, we thought this might be a wonderful flavor combination. First Reactions: In the store, the wrapper didn’t strike us as particularly unusual, but upon closer scrutiny, wow, it really…

Mel’s: Master of His Domain

It looks like Mel and Jane Master will be leaving Denver, closing their Southwestern-themed Agave Grill (at 5960 South Holly Street in Greenwood Village), selling a majority interest in Mel’s of Greenwood Village (shown here, and located right next door to Agave) to its general manager and a group of…

Italian After Dark at Gemelli’s

While I wouldn’t think that northwest Denver would be the best spot in the world for a late-night menu, Gemelli’s owner Ken Griffin apparently feels differently. Back when I was doing my review of the then just six-month-old restaurant at 4363 Tennyson Street, this plan was still just a twinkle…

Wine Experience Cafe

I started worrying about Wine Experience Cafe the moment I stepped inside. The place was empty, completely deserted on a day and at an hour when the eighty-seat dining room should have been packed. I was thinking that in this neighborhood (Southlands, another one of those commercial/residential, new-urbanism developments that…

Cork House

Three years ago this month, Tante Louise finally faded from the Denver restaurant scene, after three decades of good works — including serving as a training ground for many cooks who would later come to form the top rank of Denver’s chef elite. As owner Corky Douglass bowed out, Ed…