The power cord on the Rock N Soul Cafe, a cafe and music venue in Boulder, may be pulled unless the owners get some help. Like many places right now, the cafe is treading water, but the owners aren’t going down without a fight. Sheryl and Sam Radetsky recently sent…
While pulling junk out of my pockets the other day, I found a flier for a co-op grocery some people are trying to start called the Denver Cooperative Market. It seems like one of those member-owned, earth-lovin’ groceries could fly in Denver now that all the hippies are migrating here…
“Dearest Peers in Food and Life…” That’s the word-for-word salutation lifted from an e-mail I just read from Sylvia Tawse, the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ host city committee chair — and a woman I’ve never met in my life. But you know what? Anyone who starts her e-mails with…
The Best of Denver 2009 will be released today, and as I’ve done over the past couple of days (with discussions of the city’s best bread and places to go on a first date), I’m talking yet again about the process by which Denver’s best restaurants are chosen. The category…
What? After twenty years of offering the most dependable happy hour in the city, with a terrific cheeseburger among the other $1.95 specials, McCormick’s has changed its hours? Just walked into the bar at the corner of the Oxford Hotel and found out that corporate had dictated a cutback several…
Common Grounds will soon leave its longtime LoDo home at 17th and Wazee streets and move over to the SugarBeat space — across the street at 444 17th Street, in the Millennium Building. But the coffeehouse/winebar lost its liquor license when its lease ran out (there’s a story there), so…
A few days ago, I saw grown men cry. But no one’s feelings were hurt, and we weren’t even watching The Notebook. No, we were suffering the wrath of the hot wings from Skinny Jay’s, located at 800 28th Street, in the Outlook Hotel in Boulder. These are crispy little…
As reported by Lori Midson, Larkburger opened its doors last Friday at 2525 Arapahoe Street and immediately started bestowing big burgers and truffled fries on Boulder. Back in August, I’d moved just a few blocks from the spot where Larkburger was to roost, and I’d eagerly awaited the day the…
As with yesterday’s post about the sudden shortage of rice-flour baguette in Denver, this is another explanation of how I came to choose a certain award in this year’s Best of Denver issue. This time around, it’s about the best restaurant for a first date. Award in question: Best First…
Jean Phillippe Failyau, Frank Bonanno’s right-hand man (and my former chef at Osteria Marco), is busy tying up the loose ends at Park Burger, which he says is about a month away from opening.As Jason Sheehan reported in December, although Failyau is working with Bonanno on this burger joint at…
With any luck, the addition of Bernie’s Hot Dog Co., an independent joint located at 1601 Mayberry in the Highlands Ranch Town Center, will convince all those Land Rover-owning suburbanites who reside within the chain-ganged sprawl to stop spending their bonuses at Chili’s and Outback Steakhouse. I saw glimmers of…
My review of Bones — Frank Bonanno’s new restaurant at 701 Grant Street — was a love letter, a total crush note from one shameless omnivore to another, to the kind of guy who would put bone marrow, ice cream, escargot and udon all on the same menu, from the kind of…
It was a rough year for Colorado chefs (and writers) in this year’s James Beard awards. The finalists were announced this morning — and our white jackets just got spanked. A handful of Coloradans had made the semi-finalists list. Frank Bonanno (above) got tapped for Best Restaurateur. Yasmin Lozada-Hissom from…
While I was waiting in the parking lot of a strip mall off Alameda and Sheridan — Westside! — this weekend, I spotted the most awesome pizza-shop logo I’ve ever seen, for a place called Pizza Patron.The type font looks like Pizza Hut lettering, but the sign has a Latino…
Want a quick course in Slow Food, the anti-fast-food movement started in Italy years ago by Carlo Petrini? Attend an informational open house from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. tonight at the home of a member in central Denver. According to Slow Food Denver president Krista Roberts, the discussion will…
The 25th annual Best of Denver issue officially hits the streets (and this site) on March 26, and now that the hundred-plus food awards have been decided, I’m revisiting some of my favorite tales from this year’s always-weird awards process. Kinda like encounter therapy, and cheaper than going to a…
Cap’n Crunch’s Peanut Butter Crunch Quaker Oats Rating: Three-and-a-half spoons out of four Cereal description: An amalgam of corn, oat and rice flour baked into roughly shaped orbs whose surface is a symphony in brown: specs and swirls of varying intensity, pocked with the occasional dark blobs. The look doesn’t…
Alba Osteria, the upscale Italian restaurant at 2480 Canyon Boulevard in Boulder, will host a wine dinner on March 25. At first glance, the menu looks like a run-of-the-mill prix fixe dinner, one that happens to focus on the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. But since this region is arguably the…
Yup. You read that right. I just got off the phone with owner Tom Sumners, who, along with his wife, Marna, owns and operates Cafe Star, a restaurant I loved when Rebecca Weitzman was in the kitchen, and liked well enough when I had a long lunch on the patio…
Shortly after returning home from lunch today at El Taco de Mexico (Friday afternoon habit), I got an email from a friend alerting me to good news on the restaurant front, namely that earth muffins Boulderites have a new burger barn to fry them to the moon. Only it’s not…
After spending the past week biting off more than I could chew at a bunch of new restaurants with “sustainable,” “organic” and “seasonal” jargon littering their menus, I was ready for my Mexican food fix.I get a yearning at least once a week, and if it’s not fulfilled, I turn…
The sandwich: Italian sausage with peppers What’s on it: Italian sausage, peppers, provolone and marinara sauce on a hoagie roll Where to get it: Carbone’s Italian Sausage Market and Deli (1221 West 38th Avenue, 303-455-2893) How much: $6.49 The sausage-and-pepper sandwich should be our state meal. It speaks to our…
