Restaurants

Tapas de Espana, the Basque-region-inspired eatery located in the back room of El Senor Sol, opened today for its first run serving lunch and dinner…

No. 88: Döner kabob from Shondiz Years ago, when I was a college student in London, I’d spend the majority of my mornings, noons and nights at a local pub knocking back cloudy pints of Scrumpy before staggering off in search of the nearest curry house or 24-hour kabob shop…

Frank Bush, the man who oversees the worst passing defense in the NFL — that of the Houston Texans — saw his squad defeated by Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos on Sunday, and a writer at our sister paper in Houston is taking Bush, and his boss Frank Gary…

While teetering on my stool at this pub, whose food is is no slouch, the jovial tender suggested mixing a cider from the Wynkoop with New Belgium’s La Folie Sour Brown Ale, the result of which was one of the best drink marriages I’ve had all year. There’s nothing better…

I hate sandwiches. The only way I’ll stomach one is if it’s on grilled bread and filled with a plethora of fancy ingredients that make me feel like I’m not eating a sandwich. I led cross-country tours over the summer and ate a picnic lunch at a rest stop just…

Full disclosure: My account of the best meal I ate all year makes me sound like the biggest food snob on earth. No matter how well I defend myself, it’s bound to come across as pinkie-out boasting and just plain holier-than-thou. But don’t judge me until you hop on a…

Even as a few restaurants try to squeak in under the wire to open before December 31, others are preparing to make their debut in early 2011. Among the contenders: 5th Sun, which is taking over an old lighting store on Speer Boulevard just off Federal and has a liquor…

Cafe Society writers are serving up some of their favorite meal memories of 2010 on the blog this week. Laura Shunk led this trip down memory lane with her “Top Five Meal Memories,” which included tasty reminders of meals both near and far. The latter inspired this response from the…

They infiltrated the city this year: a gleaming fleet of trucks, sporting vibrant color schemes and elaborate paint jobs, hawking everything from biscuits to banh mi. A hip generation was behind the wheel — restaurateurs who wanted to reach a broader audience, cash-strapped chefs who needed an inexpensive kitchen, ambitious…

“Calling them gourmet trucks is such bullshit.” I was on the phone with Gustavo Arellano, author of Ask a Mexican and managing editor (and food editor) at the OC Weekly, our partner paper in Orange County, and we were talking about the top food trend of 2010: the gourmet truck…

Thai Basil was loud, boozy and hairy — just like my senior prom date. And I enjoyed both about the same. I ate there, specifically the Washington Park location, twice this summer, for a cumulative total of two hours of my life that I’m never going to get back…

This year M&D’s Cafe provided me with two of my favorite things in a meal: geographic convenience and a glut of roasted meat. Five Points is my ‘hood, and having a place to get plump, mealy fried catfish, a mess of dark, steaming greens and warm, spicy sweet-potato pie on…

Govinda’s Buffet, 1400 Cherry Street, reopened this year after an almost year-long hiatus, serving up a vegetarian spread on Friday and Saturday nights. And there’s more good news coming: Govinda’s just announced yesterday that it will be bringing back lunch hours In 2011…

When I was at Urban Outfitters the other day, I spotted a book called Looks Like a Cock, with photos of different items that look like, well, a cock. The sake holder pictured above was not in that book, but it could have been. Can you guess where I was…

New York lost a legend this year when Elaine Kaufman, of the eponymous Elaine’s, passed away. She was a remarkable front-of-the-house restaurateur, a big personality who made her place a regular stop for New Yorkers despite the fact that the food, by most accounts, was terrible. And without her, the…

We don’t normally frequent hotel bars in Denver, but searching for a place to show some relatives the lay of the land, we stopped at the Hyatt Regency, 650 15th Street, over the weekend for a couple of drinks in the Peaks Lounge on the 27th floor, with its floor-to-ceiling…

It’s located in an unlikely spot, but there’s a new Colombian kitchen on the scene, serving up specialties from that Latin American country for lunch and dinner seven days a week. La Cocina de Paula is now cooking inside the Oasis Bar and Hookah Lounge, 1523 Market Street…

It may be an unseasonably warm winter in Denver this year, but we’re still craving cassoulet, the bean and meat stew that’s chock full of sausage and duck confit. Normally, that means braving the wait for a table at Z Cuisine, 2239 West 30th Avenue, where cassoulet is on the…

Cafe Society served up four Guess Where contests last week, with entries ranging from a holiday drink that stirred the finger of an unhappy drinker at the Bar Car (above) to a sad, closed restaurant at 2103 South Broadway, where no one will be eating again. For correctly identifying that…

If readers thought Kyle Garratt was whining about verbal tippers, his column about tea really landed him in hot water. One commenter stirred things up with the following: I guess bringing someone tea is pretty hard. No wait, being trapped in a mine shaft for two months because some soulless…

The lights are on but no one’s home at this sad spot, one of the local restaurants that closed in 2010. But there was more good news than bad on the dining scene this year, with many restaurants opening — and a few still hoping to squeak in before 2011…

Cafe Society writers consumed hundreds of meals in restaurants over the course of 2010, but a few really stood out. Next week, several of those writers will be serving up memories of their favorites (and we encourage you to post yours, too). In the meantime, here are my top five…