El Rancho, which bills itself as “a Colorado landmark since 1948,” is such a landmark that it has its own El Rancho exit off I-70. And now it looks like the current owners of the restaurant/event center are looking for their own exit. Although the restaurant’s still open, the 16,000…
Paula Deen, Food Network star and restaurateur, is being sued by Celebrity Chefs Tours LLC for an alleged breach of contract involving a ten-city promotional tour with Paula, her two boy-toy sons and her bearded snowman husband. In its suit, CCT claims it had multiple problems with the Deens, including…
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Vodka is not my friend. Nonetheless, I recently knocked back a few shots of the clear liquid, which had been infused with murderously spicy Fresno peppers, and mellowed by a plate of pickles. And much to my surprise, I didn’t gag,…
As a countdown to the Best of Denver 2010, coming April 1, Cafe Society is serving up, in no particular order, a hundred of our favorite dishes in Denver. Send your own nominations to cafe@westword.com…
While Denver chef and restaurant consultant Michel Wahaltere scours the city for a space to open a new steakery, tentatively called Meet, he’s also teamed up with Cucina Colore owner Venanzio Momo, who hired Wahaltere to tinker with the menu. “I’ve started to work with Venanzio to bring new ideas…
I’m often looking for a place for a nosh, an espresso and possibly a little hair of the dog. The first two are easy, but the dog hair is tough — not because it’s not available at a myriad of places, but because I don’t want to be judged. At…
The eleventh annual “Teens and Personal Finance Survey” conducted by the Junior Achievement and the Allstate Foundation was just released, and it contains a number of surprising findings. For example, the survey assures us that teens would be willing to not eat out, to stop loitering at the fast food…
Eugenia Bone, a cookbook author who divides her time between Crawford and New York City, is also a finalist in the James Beard Foundation Awards, in the cookbook Single Subject category for her 2009 book, Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods. Bone’s first book,…
Last week, historic downtown Littleton, which already has a formidable restaurant row, welcomed Delizios, 2299 West Main Street, to the ‘hood. The joint serves scones, danishes, quiches, croissants and pastries, along with organic coffee, to early risers, and then morphs into a lunch spot offering panini, soups and salads in…
As a countdown to the Best of Denver 2010, coming April 1, Cafe Society is serving up, in no particular order, a hundred of our favorite dishes in Denver. Send your own nominations to cafe@westword.com…
Denver has just bagged one of the sexiest chefs on the culinary planet. Lon Symensma, a former New York kitchen magician with a helluva lot of kitchen street cred and pedigree, is leaving the Big Apple, where he was the former chef of Buddakan, to open ChoLon Bistro in LoDo…
I was out with a client who needed food and a cocktail at 3 p.m. I figured I couldn’t possibly find a restaurant with decent food that would have any life at all. But when we walked into this restaurant, five fun people were at the bar and the owner…
I don’t know how to act my age. I have this bad habit of going to bed early, doing homework in the morning and not drinking nearly as much as a twenty-one-year old writer/cook should drink. Hell, I even occasionally go to class. My friend knows how to act his…
The James Beard Foundation just announced the finalists for its restaurant and chef awards, and while Colorado had a slew of semi-finalists when that list was announced last month, relatively few made the cut. No Outstanding Restaurateur, no Outstanding Chef. The names that did survive: Frasca Food + Wine for…
News of the writing finalists in the James Beard Foundation Awards is slowly leaking out of New York City, with the official list coming at noon today. But we already know that Jared Jacang Maher is a contender in the newspaper feature writing category for his February 2009 cover story…
After a weekend of great basketball and not-so-great snacks, I’m planning some sweet eating action for this coming weekend’s Sweet Sixteen. Here’s some of the top local fare from three of the remaining top-ranked teams, and one from a post-game replacement. We’re not in Kansas any more…
Johnson’s Corner, the classic truck stop just past the Berthoud exit on I-25, went through a major renovation a few years back that completely changed the joint, removing much of its ’50s charm — although we still considered it worthy of Guy Fieri’s attentions on a recent Diners, Drive-Ins and…
Cafe Society served up seven Guess Where I’m Eating/Drinking contests last week, featuring everything from a very veggie burger to a disappointing Sazarak to a charcuterie platter complete with caperberries. For correctly that dish from Second Home, Raven is now the lucky winner of a DINR deck. Raven, send your…
More than twenty of Denver’s star chefs will converge on the Colorado Convention Center this Sunday, March 21, for Chefs Up Front, a culinary bash to benefit Operation Frontline Colorado, a local nonprofit that fights hunger and malnutrition through food education. “This is such a fantastic event, because all of…
As a countdown to the Best of Denver 2010, coming April 1, Cafe Society is serving up, in no particular order, a hundred of our favorite dishes in Denver. Send your own nominations to cafe@westword.com…
Made correctly, a Sazerac is one of my favorite cocktails. Made incorrectly, it tastes like an absinthe bomb. Can you guess where I drank this shitty Sazerac that I review next week?…
Okay, so maybe the weather’s not cooperating at this very second, but remember earlier in the week when we had that glorious glimpse of spring? That right there was reason enough to get our minds in gear for cool drinks to sip in warm weather. We always welcome a delicious…
