In 2001, Matt Robinette sat with his wife, Roberta, brother Jonathan and sister-in-law Cristina in a Tahoe cafe, where they pondered selling Roberta’s Pueblo-style green chile in California, an area of the country that wasn’t familiar with the stuff. It took nearly a decade — as well as a move…
When Elena Zasytiene moved to Denver from Colorado Springs, she knocked on restaurant doors looking for a job, but no one would hire her, so she shrugged it off and followed her gut: She, along with her partner, Baiba Sisco, signed a lease on their own restaurant, La Merise, a…
People driving by the Capitol building at Broadway and Colfax will notice many things about the Occupy Denver demonstration site, including energetic protesters chanting and waving signs, a Hooverville-style collection of tents and tarps for the 24-7 campers and, right in the middle of this organized chaos, the Thunderdome. This…
I’m not a big proponent of tofu — except when I have it here, at a restaurant that’s definitely not vegetarian, but whose vegetarian dishes are among Denver’s best. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I…
Cafe Society served up five guess where contests last week, ranging from an elk-jalapeno-cheddar dog smothered with pedestrian chili and nacho cheese at Coney Island to a superlative Philadelphia cheesesteak at Large Marge’s to these street tacos . For correctly identifying them as coming from Tacos Marlene, Joey M. Wins…
No one’s saying you have to go meatless just because it’s Monday — but as an incentive to join the growing Meatless Monday movement, we’re featuring an animal-free recipe each week. Biscuits and gravy are a common comfort food, and sadly, it’s very rare to find a good vegan b&g…
Laura Shunk just served up the “five things that should always be free at a restaurant,” including the glass of water she requested after ordering a round of drinks. And while some readers added a few she’d missed — chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant, tea at a Chinese…
Open just five days, Maria Empanada, a tiny storefront that’s dispensing food from South America, is one of those restaurants that makes me happier than an elephant freed from the circus to live in Denver. And Lorena Cantarovici, who owns Maria Empanada, which is named for her mother, couldn’t be…
A one-mile strip of Havana out in Aurora can pretty much cure any craving you might have for Korean food, so after making the sad discovery that Sae Jong Kwan, one of my favorite restaurants in Denver for bibim naeng myun, was (at least) temporarily closed, I was consoled by…
Oblio’s Pizzeria, 6115 East 22nd Avenue, makes great pizza, and now the owners want you to eat it all at once. The Park Hill joint is offering an eating challenge that they call “28 inches of pure madness. Two people, one hour, no upchucking.” If you pull it off, Oblio’s…
Leave it to British winemaker Ben Parsons, founder of the Infinite Monkey Theorem, the gritty winery in the Golden Triangle, to release a tap wine fittingly called Monkey Shine. Parsons, who rolled out a sparkling wine in a can during a blowout bash at the Food & Wine Classic in…
The strip along South University and Exposition is stamped with merchants, bars, cafes and restaurants, including the (inexplicably) long-standing Saucy Noodle and the Bonnie Brae Tavern, but the space at 723 South University Boulevard, next door to the Saucy Noodle, is cursed with bad luck…
I’m a certified spud head with an unwavering affinity for potato skins, and at this bar, which also does a great job with burgers, the skins, surfaced with cheese, bacon and scallions, would be worth the price of admission…if there were one. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus:…
Sesame Street, the show that has taught several generations of suburban white kids how to ask where the potty is in Spanish, is introducing a new Muppet this Sunday in a special episode about hunger, sponsored by Wal-Mart. Lily, the “food-insecure” Muppet, is seven years old, pink-faced, dressed in what…
Since Stranahan’s was sold to Proximo late last year, fans have been watching for signs that the corporate culture — not to mention Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey itself — has been changing. And they got a big clue yesterday when Jonathan Shikes reported that Stranahan’s is no longer allowing craft brewers…
Welcome to In the Weeds. Kyle will be right with you — most likely to complain about something. Usually he is pleasant, but this is his place to blow off some steam. Don’t take it personally; he just needs to vent because he’s been doing this for about thirteen years…
Shawn Tram is rattling off the names of Denver chefs and restaurateurs who have recently stuffed themselves to the brink at Super Star Asian, the Chinese emporium, renowned for its dim sum, that Tram has managed for the past three years: “Matt Selby, Frank Bonanno, Gene Tang from Restaurant 1515…we…
Almost ten weeks ago, the construction on Tennyson street moved a little too close to the patio at Tastes Wine Bar. “They literally started unbolting the patio rail mid-shift,” says Daniel Kuhlman, who owns the spot. “The people who were out there having a glass of wine really enjoyed that.”…
The couple behind us were gushing — positively gushing, I tell you — over the green chile that spans the plates at this long-standing Mexican joint. But just like I don’t get the hoopla surrounding the frankfurters at Coney Island, I definitely don’t understand the obsession with the green chile…
Thanawat Bates Palace Arms at the Brown Palace 321 17th Street 303-297-3111 www.brownpalace.com/dining This is part two of my interview with Thanawat Bates, exec chef of the Palace Arms at the Brown Palace. Part one of my interview with Bates ran yesterday. Favorite restaurant in America: I have so many,…
In late 2008, there was a race to see which restaurateur would open the first hip noodle bar in the area. Dave Query’s Big Red F group was planning to open Happy at 835 Walnut Street in Boulder, and the folks behind the Jet Hotel were going to put XO…
In honor of the recent Hug a Vegetarian Day, Cafe Society served up the “Thirteen hottest vegetarians.” But several commenters took issue with our choices:…
