Free pastries this morning at a Starbucks near you

Starbucks is apparently feeling flush, or maybe they’re just trying to pass off their pastries to all those cynics (like me) who normally bypass the glass counter shelved with muffins, apple fritters, bagels, banana bread, oat bars and oatmeal cookies in favor of a good ‘ol cup of java. Either…

Nine75 to go dark

Yup, you read that headline right. Nine75, the embattled hipster enclave and jumped-up comfort food joint inside the Beauvallon complex at 975 Lincoln Street, is finally throwing in the towel. Nine75 was already closed once, by original owner Jim Sullivan, then rescued and revived by the guys from the Jet…

Go underground tonight with Troy Guard and TAG

Beginning at 6 p.m. tonight — and then every Monday night until you hear otherwise — TAG, Troy Guard’s new restaurant in Larimer Square at 1441 Larimer Street, will transform its lower level into “TAG-Underground,” a subterranean food hall, movie house and cocktail emporium geared toward industry types. But even…

The Market Report, July 18

Based on the picture above, you’re probably thinking, “This week’s Market Report is fruiter than Lloyd on Entourage.” And you would be absolutely correct!After a quick sweep of the Boulder Farmer’s Market, I found four fruits for sale, three of which I bought (the other being apricots). I figured I’d…

Ask the Critic: After midnight

I recently got an e-mail from Chris asking one of the classic questions posed to restaurant writers in young food cities:”Westword always posts reviews of restaurants in the metro area, but have you ever done a review of late-night restaurants?  I work nights and am usually up for some food…

The Rib Shack is no more: An Our Weekly Bread update

It looks like the Rib Shack, 4736 East Colfax Avenue, which was reviewed last October in Our Weekly Bread, has gone under, replaced by something called Atomic Wings. Not that I should be surprised. This odd looking A-frame building – possibly a former Der Wienerschnitzel – has also been home…

Milking It: Clifford Crunch

Clifford Crunch Cascadian Farm Organic Rating: Two-and-a-half spoons out of four: Cereal description: Light-tan oat and barley bits formed into a variety of shapes; they resemble an arrowhead, a clover and a fish that could be mistaken for a Christian symbol by those who want to make eating a prayerful…

We wuz robbed: Denver ranks unhappy sixth in McDonald’s contest

McDonald’s is celebrating the thirtieth birthday of the Happy Meal by bringing back a favorite Happy Meal toy: Ty Teenie Beanie Babies. The happy chain kicked off its four-week celebration this weekend in Minneapolis, which McDonald’s has named the “Happiest City for Families,” based on such “family-fun criteria” as the…

This week: Seven days of Yelp Eats! on the cheap

Yelp, a well-known website where opinionated voices discuss and review restaurants, bars and other local businesses, is kicking off Yelp Eats!, a seven-day dining celebration, which begins today and continues through Sunday, July 26 with fifteen metro area restaurants offering multi-course dinner menus for $25 per person, exclusive of tax…

Tacos gratis at Taqueria Los Gallitos

Since I speak enough Spanish to get me nowhere fast, I have absolutely no idea what “gran control remoto” means, but I do know that “tacos gratis” means FREE TACOS. And I know that free tacos, whether from Taqueria Los Gallitos (2360 West Alameda Avenue) or some other taco joint…

Cafe Society: Week in review

What you might have missed this week while trying to guess where this pizza was from…Jason asked: what local chef would you like to see get his or her own television show?Is a restaurant screw-up worth a comped meal?  Or, are Denver diners a bunch of over-pampered whiners?Check out this…

The List: The sandwich man can…

My meals at Buchi Cafe Cubano were awesome.  And not only was the review a blast to write, for the first time in a long time I found myself at a restaurant where I actually wanted to eat every single thing on the menu.  Twice.That just doesn’t happen that often. …

Mamma Mia Trattoria to open in Westminster

Westminster, while never exactly the center of the culinary universe, has been seeing a few interesting openings lately, and now there’s another to be added to the books: Mamma Mia Trattoria. Mamma Mia is scheduled for a July 21 opening at 9008 West 88th Avenue. As if you couldn’t tell…

You, too, can judge Cook Street’s battle of the chefs

The kitchen crew at Cook Street Fine School of Cooking, 1937 Market Street, is searching for a kick-ass judge to sound off at the school’s upcoming cook-off, an Iron Chef-like duel on Friday, July 31, that’s all part of Cook Street’s ten-year anniversary celebrations. If you’d like to voice your…

Sengers files for Chapter 7

This could have been the quietest closing in town: Sengers on the Fax filed for Chapter 7 on July8, according to a legal notice in today’s Denver Business Journal. The watering hole at 3014 East Colfax Avenue got off to a fast start when it opened two years ago, but…

A very special delivery from a bachelor

If Mark Huebner got booted from The Bachelorette, it’s only because Jillian never got to try one of his Cripple Creek pizzas.We did yesterday, and the meat-heavy pie (sausage, pepperoni, Genoa salami) on an ideal crust was a big hit. “Not too thick, not too thin,” Huebner says of the…

Taste of the Nation is hottest ticket in town

One of Denver’s best annual culinary celebrations comes down on Sunday, July 19, at Mile High Station (2027 West Lower Colfax Avenue), this site of this year’s Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation, a fantastic food-centric event that raises funds to eradicate childhood hunger in Denver and across America…

Tonight: food and wine flights at Fleming’s

Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, 191 Inverness Drive West in Englewood, is hosting its second summer Friday Night Flights fundraiser at 6 p.m. tonight to benefit the Excelsior Youth Center, a local non-profit. The cow palace will serve a selection of appetizers paired with three wines for $25 per…

The dangers of working with liquid nitrogen

Germany is now short one chef and the science of molecular gastronomy has claimed another victim. This, from the Daily Telegraph: “The 24-year-old chef was experimenting with a recipe involving liquid nitrogen, which is used by chefs including Heston Blumenthal to freeze food, when there was suddenly an ‘enormous explosion.'”Said…

Look for Cilantro Fusion to leaf in August

Juan’s on Stout, a downtown Mexican joint that shared the same address at 1531 Stout Street as Mici’s Handcrafted Italian, has closed — but the space won’t be empty long. Cilanto Fusion, another south-of-the-border newcomer (La Brisa opened just last week at  375 South Pearl Street), is picking up where…