100 Favorite Dishes: Banh Mi Tacos at Vital Root

No. 36: Banh Mi Tacos at Vital Root When Justin Cucci opened Vital Root in the Berkeley neighborhood this past June, little did we know how hungry the city was for some solid, healthy and innovative vegetarian and vegan fare. Sure, we have other options, but it’s been a while…

Wok Hei Adds Pan-Asian Flair to University Hills

The best lesson learned in working for a corporation is the importance of quality and consistency. The downside is a lack of creativity given to employees. Former P.F. Chang’s corporate employees Scott Lucas and Fred Garcia experienced both while running a string of Pei Wei Asian Diners in Colorado. After…

An Uptown Surprise: Construction Resumes at Las Delicias

Las Delicias has been a Denver institution since the Torres family opened its first Mexican restaurant at 439 East 19th Avenue in 1976. But the place closed sooner than expected in September 2015, ahead of a scheduled remodel. Things didn’t look promising for the return of the neighborhood green chile…

How Denver Chefs Are Putting a Spin on Three Asian Dishes

Denver has no shortage of traditional Asian eateries, from the longstanding strip of Vietnamese restaurants along Federal Boulevard to the more recent explosion of Korean barbecue places in Aurora. There’s a sushi bar in nearly every suburban strip mall, even if full-fledged Japanese menus are much harder to find. And…

First Look: Corvus Opens Second Location in DTC

Corvus Coffee Roasters is spreading the coffee love down south as the Broadway coffee house opened the doors to its second location over the weekend. Located at 4925 South Newport Street (just off I-25 and East Belleview Avenue), the Denver roaster is now giving DTC coffee lovers easier access to the highly…

Reader: No Cherry Cricket After Holiday Shopping? Bah, Humbug!

On the night before Thanksgiving, the Cherry Cricket — the iconic, seventy-year-old burger joint in Cherry Creek — suffered a kitchen fire that shuttered the Cricket. And while the current owner, Breckenridge-Wynkoop Holdings, was already in the process of turning Breck on Blake, a former brewpub at 2200 Blake Street, into…

Ten Unexpected Restaurant and Bar Closings This Fall

The thrill of so many exciting restaurant openings — and there were plenty this fall — can be tempered by news that one of our favorites didn’t make it. But things other than bad food or bad business can doom an eatery. A kitchen fire shuttered the Cherry Cricket —…

A Second Helping of Westword Food & Drink, November 28-December 2

This week we chomped our way through more than our share of fried chicken, as Gretchen Kurtz’s mouthwatering description of the bird at Steuben’s Arvada, which she reviewed this week, prompted us to update our list of the ten best fried chicken joints in town. Chicken also tempted us through…

First Look: Mizu Izakaya Brings Japanese Drinking Food to LoHi

Anticipation for the opening of Mizu Izakaya has been building over the last several months, in part because of the new restaurant’s prominent location — right at the corner of 16th and Boulder streets in the heart of LoHi — and in part because of the construction delays that have…