Sketch has a simple premise that leaves no room for mistakes

Almost everyone at Sketch Food and Wine knows me. The above-the-line guys for certain, some of the bartenders. I have acted well and poorly in their establishment, used it for celebrations and decompressions numerous times since it opened in March. And I have experienced the all-too-classic result of blown critical…

D Bar Desserts is too good to save for dessert

On the one hand, you have Sketch, which is trying to make a restaurant out of nothing more than a salumi bar and the best intentions. On the other, you have D Bar — Keegan Gerhard’s attempt to take some people’s favorite part of dinner (dessert) and build a restaurant…

Live from Sheehan’s book signing

We’re at Katie Mullen’s for the official release of Jason Sheehan’s book, Cooking Dirty, and get this: There are actual people here! And they have his book! And they want him to sign it! And someone just took a picture of him! Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising, but it’s always…

Squeaky Bean squeezes out a test run on Friday

Squeaky Bean, the Highland restaurant at 3301 Tejon Street that’s been serving breakfast and lunch since the second week of May, will open for dinner Wednesday, July  8, but you can get a sneak preview of the night-time menu during a test run on Friday, July 3, when exec chef…

The demise of the Tabor Center’s food court

There’s no shortage of places to get food along the 16th Street Mall. But if you’re after a grab bag of mediocre grub served from metal basins behind glass barriers — a food court, in other words — things are grim and getting grimmer. Last Friday’s closing of Panda Express…

Where am I eating?

Because I’m feeling especially generous today, here’s a hint list to help you nail this one:1.  Urban2.  Max3.  Bag4.  Not Brazil5.  Jump6.  Counter7.  Germination8.  Hill9.  Jack10.PorkThis should be easy…

The Restaurant Roll Call for June

RESTAURANTS OPENING IN JUNE Giovanni’s Italian Cafe, 3355 South Yarrow, Lakewood Pho-Yo, 2179 South Parker Road, Aurora Simm’s Steakhouse, 11911 West Sixth Avenue, Lakewood Johnie’s Bar-B-Que, 5280 West 25th Avenue, Edgewater Choppers Custom Salad Works, 5302 DTC Boulevard, Greenwood Village Einstein Bros. Bagels, 200 Quebec Street 3 Sons, 14805 West…

Tonight: Meet the very tall, dark and handsome Jason Sheehan

So…if you haven’t already heard about Jason Sheehan’s new memoir, Cooking Dirty: A Story of Life, Sex, Love and Death in the Kitchen, then your reading catalog clearly consists of titles that you should keep between yourself and your therapist. Oh, please. Shameless Sheehan has pimped his book here, here…

Simple things at Sketch Food and Wine

I was several whiskeys to the good on a recent school night when I found myself propped up against Sketch’s salumi bar, canting sharply like a ship taking on water.  I asked for the menu, gave it a cursory glance, then pushed it back across the dark, polished wood, slapped…

Guess where I’m eating?

I didn’t eat today until 3:15 p.m., and while it was certainly late enough in the afternoon to forgo real food in lieu of something like, I dunno, chicken fingers, french fries and lots of liquor, which was yesterday’s lunch, I was desperate for breakfast, except I didn’t want a…

California fast food more In than Out in Colorado

Colorado has plenty of homegrown fast-food and fast-casual chains to keep locals happy. There’s Chipotle, Qdoba, Smashburger, Einstein Bagels and Quiznos just to name a few. But Coloradoans also love their California fast food, and we’ve made some gains in the past few years, including a couple of new Del…

Where’s the beef? At the Green Fooder’s house

I’ve been checking out backyard chicken coops and downtown veggie gardens for months as part of my summer-long Urbavore’s Dilemma web series, and this week’s entry sent me to an unobtrusive Park Hill home in search of the origins of a pack of bacon I recently enjoyed — some of…

Bye-bye, Brandon’s…for now

Brandon’s Pub has apparently evaded the Beauvallon curse…for now. When the sports bar with the Mexican kitchen closed its doors last week, people thought that Brandon’s Pub, located at 955 Lincoln Street, had succumbed to the same misfortune as many of its former neighbors, most recently Mr. Coco’s. But according…

Adios, Mr. Coco’s

The beleaguered Beauvallon building has swallowed another restaurant. Mr. Coco’s Bar & Grill, possibly the worst-named Mexican joint ever, has shut its doors at 925 Lincoln Street. Before it was Mr. Coco’s, that space had held, very briefly, Marni’s Steakhouse (which left behind its awning) and before that, Moe’s Southwest…

S’more of a good thing at Forest Room 5

The only thing better than eating a fresh, gooey s’more is eating one for a good cause.  On Thursday, July 2, Metro Denver Promotion of Letters, a nonprofit offering tutoring and writing services for children, teams up with Forest Room 5 to bring you a night of s’more-making and fundraising…

Tonight: Wines, spareribs and Sinatra or rum, curried goat and jazz

At 6 p.m. tonight, Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, 1601 Arapahoe Street, is hosting an all-American food and wine event featuring the wines of California and the Pacific Northwest paired with a menu prepared by Flovor Catering, which includes house-smoked salmon with green goddess aioli; miniature chicken-in-a-biscuit sandwiches with watermelon relish; braised…

Guess Where They’re Eating?

It’s 8:30 p.m. on the second Monday night of summer — but you don’t need a calendar to know that. You just need to see the lines outside of Little Man Ice Cream, which opened exactly a year ago at 2620 16th Street.You scream, I scream, we all scream…..

Boobs and Beers at the Tilted Kilt

We’ve already posted the news about the ESPN Zone at 1187 16th Street going dark, but within moments of that announcement, something else popped up.  Namely, that a nice big chunk of that space has already been snapped up and will shortly be turned into another outlet of an Arizona-based…

ESPN ZONE turns off the scoreboard, blames economy

Just got word that ESPN Zone, the 23,000-square-foot sports-centric playground and game center (and the only Denver link in the company’s national chain) at 1187 16th Street, went dark today, exactly one day after Greg Goldfogel pulled the plug on Alto, the Northern Italian restaurant and live jazz venue at…

Ask the Critic: Where to get a good cart lunch

This week’s question is for all you office drones out there, from one of your own: When time is tight and money even more so, what downtown cart serves the best grub in the city?Easy, right? Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs. He has two locations now, one in Skyline Park at…