Qdoba pulls the pepper on its chile verde

It’s no secret that we Westworders are seriously obsessed with green chile, which is why we could barely contain our enthusiasm when word hit the pavement back in early March that the executive decision-makers who oversee important things at Qdoba Mexican Grill, a homegrown chain headquartered in Wheat Ridge, planned…

Columbine Steak House keeps the home fires burning

See more photos of Columbine Steak House at westword.com/slideshow. It’s 1983, I’m ten years old — and it’s steak night at the Sheehan household. Steak nights didn’t happen very often at my house. But every now and again, Mom would go to the freezer and pull out a frost-rimed, plastic-wrapped…

Cowbobas is still mixing it up

Cowbobas looks like it could be that rare spiritual successor to the Columbine. It is a reversion to form — like Ford making its new Mustangs along the tried, true and beautiful body lines of its original muscle-car progenitors — but with lots of modern improvements and concessions to the…

Our Weekly Bread: Bourbon Grill

The sandwich: Bourbon chicken sandwich Where to get it: Bourbon Grill (1618 East Colfax Avenue, 303-355-3821) What’s on it: Bourbon chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, mayo on a bun How much: $5.08 So, my sister called me this morning with a sandwich tip. Bourbon Grill, she said. Check it out, or miss…

Another bit of good news from Tin Star Cafe

Chef/owner Andrew Schutt has introduced a “new menu” — actually a reinforcement of the original menu — at his excellent barbecue and donut joint in Evergreen, Tin Star Cafe. When I reviewed Tin Star two years ago, I praised its excellent donuts (the apple fritters in particular) and excellent barbecue…

Delicious Designs: Eat this restaurant

Have you ever stood outside a restaurant late at night, hazily looked up at the edifice, and thought, Yeah, this place looks good enough to eat! Well, now you can!…kinda.April is Colorado Architecture Month, and the Colorado chapter of the American Institute of Architects has come up with quite the…

V.G. opens, veg-heads rejoice!

Some timely Earth Day news for you: V.G. Burgers, the vegetarian fast-food joint in Boulder, has completed its move, reopening two days ago at its new 1650 Broadway location. The store is open from 9 a.m.to 9 p.m. daily, and can be reached at 303-440-2400. …

Ask the readers: Cheese crisps in Colorado?

While Jason Sheehan is taking readers’ questions, I have one for readers: Is there a place in Colorado that serves cheese crisps? These thin, grilled quesadillas covered with melted cheese are staples at Mexican restaurants in Arizona. (I just had one at El Charro, a Tucson institution since 1922, and…

Old fashioned steaks at old fashioned prices

If I were Proust, the smell of cheap steaks charring on an overworked grill would be my Madeleine — the trigger for a crashing flood of recall, of me in the warm comfort of boyhood. And walking past the back door of the Columbine Steak House, I get a whiff…

Five stars at 30,000 feet

There’s much more planning required for very high-altitude cuisine than there is a mere mile above sea level, as Andres Jimenez is learning. Starting May 1, the exec chef at the Ritz-Carlton downtown will be the first of four Ritz-Carlton chefs to take on a two-month stint creating high-end, sky-high…

Boulder’s renegade lunch lady

Now serving: Renegade Lunch Lady Ann Cooper, who’s taking on the Boulder Valley School District. Cooper is known nationally as an advocate for healthier school lunches for children, and has already created greatly improved nutritional meal programs in New York and at the Berkeley Unified School District in California. I recently…

Samba Brasil Cafe & Grill dances to a June beat

I don’t want to make any sweeping predictions or jinx an address that hasn’t been particularly kind to previous occupants — most recently a java joint — and the stretch of asphalt that makes up Leetsdale Drive hasn’t exactly been a springboard for culinary greatness. Still, I’m going to postulize…

Market report, April 18: not

It may be in the sixties today and absolutely beautiful, but on Saturday morning it was demon-sleeting and I wasn’t about to walk to the Boulder Farmers’ Market, as I did last week when I was researching the second in what were to be weekly market reports. Make that almost…

Mud bugs and beer at Lucile’s

Just got word from Brian Heilman, one of the partners at the Denver outpost of Lucile’s, that his spot is going to celebrate the start of Louisiana crawfish season with a good, old-fashioned crawfish boil. “It’s our first attempt at what will hopefully become an annual tradition,” Heilman said. And…

Ask the Critic: The art of the Man Date

Last week, I posed this question: Where should Guy Fieri eat when (and if) his show, Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives, rolls through Denver? The comments poured in, and the debate was both spirited and (relatively) civil. I’ve culled the best of the bunch and sent them along to the production-company…

Milking It: Banana Nut Cheerios

Banana Nut Cheerios General Mills Rating: Two spoons out of four Cereal description: Those readers who hail from the planet Earth will recognize the standard Cheerios design: a circle with a hole in the middle, like a letter “O” designed to fill the diner with cheer. (Still can’t figure out…

Sunday at Chipotle is free food day for kids

While it was the pozole at Chipotle that pissed off Jason Sheehan, it was the ridiculous amount of time I wasted trying to get my hands on an effing kid’s menu — part of the homegrown burrito chain’s recent menu overhaul — that made me want to shove a few…

Club 404 loses a member of the family

When you’ve been in business close to sixty years, as Jerry Feld has at Club 404 (he bought the bar/restaurant before he was even old enough to have a liquor license), the people who come to your place are like family, and the people who work for you are like…

The List: Minor leagues

These weekly lists are often easy to put together. I review a Mexican restaurant, I can make a list of other Mexican restaurants I love. I write about Chinese food, I can list a half-dozen other places to get good duck. But this week?  Not so much. I’ve been sitting…