Rare is the breakfast barn that bakes a really good biscuit, but the one in the above snap, scented with sage, and topped with scrambled eggs, cheddar and ham, is a biscuit that busts our chops. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct…
Restaurants owned and managed by smart people know that diners are interested in the main attraction: the steaks, the chickens, the fish, the enchiladas, even the sandwiches. But although customers don’t necessarily get up and do the hustle when they think about what sides come with their meals, they are…
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…
Today is the last day for servers to serve up their Denver Restaurant Week survival stories and win an EatDenver deck (earlier this week, we gave decks to diners with the two best/worst DRW stories). The deadline is 5 p.m., but we already have a contender: Brian Melton of TAG,…
I actually had to think for a few minutes to remember last night’s Quickfire Challenge on Top Chef, perhaps because it was as much, or more, about plating than food. The chefs, who are still in the Bahamas, had to split into two teams of two and create a hundred…
Six years ago, Ryan Hardy took the reins as executive chef at the Little Nell in Aspen, a position he won after stints at San Francisco’s Rubicon and another Aspen restaurant, Rustique. During his tenure there, he garnered awards and James Beard nominations for his menu of seasonal Colorado cuisine,…
Hail to the king — crab, that is. When I was growing up, my dad used to take me our for crab legs every Sunday, but then, one day, I I wearied of cracking the shells and dribbling butter down my chin. So I quit. Just like that. Recently, though,…
When I reviewed the Squeaky Bean nine months ago, I was amused and delighted by what Max MacKissock was dreaming up in his tiny kitchen, playing with classic American dishes and making them into something new and unexpected. A reimagined shepherd’s pie, light enough for a summer evening. Sweetbreads made…
“Restaurant Week brings out the worst in people,” lamented one chef this week, after a woman lambasted his menu for offering three courses rather than four. “What the fuck is this?” she shouted at her server, who was so stunned she broke into tears. The restaurant — one of Denver’s…
If you’ve ever been to the Valverde Country Club, a somewhat unsavory bar at 1319 West Alameda Avenue, then you know that the country club moniker is a little like comparing Fritos to foie gras. Still, the beers are ultra-cheap, the clientele, animated (to say the least), and now that…
Robert McCarthy Rialto Cafe 934 16th Street 303-893-2233 www.rialtocafe.com This is part two of my interview with Robert McCarthy, executive chef of Rialto Cafe. Part one of that interview ran in this space yesterday. Favorite restaurant in America: Lupa, Mario Batali’s restaurant in New York. It’s really simple, straightforward food…
Without exception, during every visit I made to Thai Flavor for this week’s review — and during the lunch I ate at US Thai Cafe for this week’s Second Helping — I overheard at least one table ask for chopsticks. I’d venture a guess that those diners thought they were…
Comments have been pouring out over the news that Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora (one of our “Top ten places to drink like a pirate”) has to change the name of its acclaimed Seven Seas Double IPA after getting a “nasty” letter from a lawyer representing 7 Seas Brewing Company…
Of the three dozen or so Thai restaurants scattered around the metro area, I can think of only one that rises to the curry occasion as triumphantly as Thai Flavor, and that’s U.S. Thai Cafe in Edgewater. Ma Vue, a Laotian, opened the eatery in 2006, with native Thai chef…
Sarah Amorese fell in love with chocolate when she lived in Amsterdam. “My boss used to bring Belgian chocolates back to the office,” she says. “And my husband — boyfriend at the time — and I did a lot of business trips through Europe. We used to visit every pastry…
Whenever I’m desperate for a breakfast burrito fix, I normally make the trek to the Taco Wagon in Lafayette, but that could soon change, because I recently discovered a taqueria closer to home that satiates my yearnings. Bonus: Excellent tamales and green chile, too. Can you guess where I’m eating?…
It’s not hard to see why Sputnik is so popular. At 8 p.m. on a Tuesday night — a time when most restaurants would see guests trickling out the door — the Baker-neighborhood joint is still packed, with every table occupied and almost every seat at the bar hosting a…
Last fall, the folks behind Organic Pizza Co., a nascent local chain, threw an introductory party in the top-floor party room of the spiffy Spire, where they demonstrated their commitment to top-notch ingredients and innovative pies. But there were delays in the build-out of the spot planned for the ground…
The Wash Park ‘hood, especially the stretch of Alameda, between Logan and Downing, is turning into a bona fide restaurant row, thanks to new restaurants like Bittersweet, Pho Pasta, and soon, a fifth outpost of Larkburger, joining stalwarts like Pete’s Central One, Lucile’s Creole Cafe, Fontana Sushi, Thai Basil and…
Robert McCarthy Rialto Cafe 934 16th Street 303-893-2233 www.rialtocafe.com This is part one of my interview with Robert McCarthy, exec chef of Rialto Cafe. Part two of our interview will run in this space tomorrow. Robert McCarthy shakes his head in aggravation and rolls his eyes. “The hoods went down…
It was sixty years ago that Jerry Feld, then a student at the University of Denver, decided to get into the bar business and bought a watering hole at 404 Broadway from a man who’d opened it on the day Prohibition ended. At the time, Jerry was too young to…
Denver Restaurant Week ended at the close of service on March 11, with a record number of restaurants participating: 303. “Talk about a Denver number,” says Rich Grant, the spokesman for Visit Denver, the convention and visitors bureau that organizes the seven-year-old event. Even more impressive was the number of…
