I heard last week that recently vacated North Star Brewery space at 3200 Tejon Street (left) had been snapped up by Joe Vostrejs, Jeff Hermanson and Rod Wagner—the Larimer Square gang, in part, and the crew most recently behind the resurrection of Billy’s Inn at 4403 Lowell Boulevard. So I…
Justin Brunson and Steve Allee, the masters behind Masterpiece. Sriracha has become like a badge of craft among chefs slumming it on the wrong side of the culinary tracks. You see that bottle sitting on the table, lurking around the counter somewhere, and you know you’re in a place run…
Parsley knows its sandwiches, if not its radicchio Parsley is a tiny, newish sandwich shop located at 303 West 11th Avenue, not too far from Westword headquarters, open for lunch every day. I’ve eaten there twice now and enjoyed their offerings quite a bit: fresh, simple ingredients, a menu that’s…
The customer was always right at Cafe Star Sunday. I went to Cafe Star, at 3201 East Colfax Avenue, last night with my friend, Cathy, for the Sunday night special. It’s a great deal: $12 for either a pizza or pasta entree with a glass of wine. Cathy’s a vegetarian,…
Special K Cinnamon Pecan Kellogg’s Rating: Three spoons out of four Cereal description: Brown-tinted flakes made of rice and wheat of various shapes, sizes and textures. Imagine a topographical map of a mountainous region run through a blender set on “chop.” Pecans are part of the combination, too, but finding…
Super Star Asian could be on the move. Some good news for those as depressed as I am over the coming “revitalization” of Alameda Square at 2200 West Alameda Avenue, home to some of my favorite spots in Denver. I have it from a good source that several of the…
For months, the former American Costume Company has been undergoing a transformation — and you now can see the results for yourself, since Blake Street Vault has finally opened its doors at 1526 Blake Street. The restaurant/bar’s opening this week was a few weeks behind schedule, but as one partner…
We know there are candy corn detractors out there, but the Candy Girls can’t help loving the seasonal treats that appear as fall rolls around. While we would normally wait until next month to start in on candies that might otherwise appear in the Halloween category, it’s been so positively…
Things didn’t go well for chef Olav Peterson at Euro, but his move to South Broadway seems to be going smoothly. After a few months of just dinner and brunches at Bistro One, 1294 South Broadway, he and owner Alex Waters have started lunch service, with an emphasis on seasonal…
No matter how many bodies you pack inside, some restaurants are always going to be as cold and sterile as a surgical pre-op, where voices seem to evaporate into wisps of cold before they can travel across the length of a table, and even a surfeit of love won’t stop…
This bird is singing on the inside. Spicy Pickle 988 Lincoln Street 303.860.0730 Yard Bird Roasted chicken, bacon, fresh apples, spinach, bleu cheese crumbles and honey mustard. $6.95 Spicy Pickle started out as a single sandwich shop in Denver in 1999, making big subs and paninis with upscale, unusual ingredients…
Serving dinner for one is as important as doing the same for a multitude. Absent all considerations of circumstance, every single diner deserves the absolute best from everyone involved: This is the essence of professional service, of French service in particular, the core truth that makes being a servant a…
That’ll be nine dollars, please. Is it just me, or did prices go way up at A Taste of Colorado? The outdoor eatin’ extravaganza just held its 25th anniversary of offering Denver’s regular festival-goers a greater array of food options than turkey legs and corn dogs. But after checking it…
They’ve got a lot of crust… Of all the goofball promos tied to the Democratic National Convention, the goofiest may have been the massive outdoor billboard for Papa John’s: a six-acre crop circle in a wheat field near Denver International Airport that appeared in early August, promoting the company’s new,…
Froot Loops Marshmallow Kellogg’s Rating: Three and a half spoons out of four Cereal description: Yellow, green, orange, red, purple and blue circles of “multi-grain” cereal — meaning an amalgamation of corn, wheat and oat flour swirled together in a slather of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. (Bet fully hydrogenated vegetable…
Shotgun Willie’s
Poor Lala’s. If the history of the space at 410 East Seventh Avenue wasn’t enough to contend with, the new upscale pizzeria and wine bar also has to battle phonetics. I can hear the conversation now. “Hon, tonight should we eat at Lala’s?” “How about Lola?” “Actually I kind of…
Carl’s, please don’t change! Change can make a person hungry. And after standing in line in the sun for two and a half hours, watching speeches and bands for another five (Yes We Can!), hearing constantly about change, and then being funneled nearly a mile in the wrong direction by…
By this morning, most of the big names from the Democratic National Convention, Hollywood and the traveling press will have packed up their bags and headed for home (or the Twin Cities for the Republican National Convention). But for those of you who just aren’t quite ready to let it…
The 16th Street Mall today was the same mess it’s been for a week: ugly T-shirts, people selling ugly T-shirts and bewildered delegates and staffers haggling over a final-day discount on said ugly T-shirts. I dropped in to see my buddy Biker Jim at Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs in Skyline…
This is not the first invasion Denver has suffered. There was a sci-fi geek incursion just a couple of weeks ago, that basketball thing a couple of years ago. We’ve had Baptist conventions and World Series games and a thousand smaller, less publicized wrenches thrown in our collective works. And…
Tacos Jalisco does a good job of blending the Mexican, New Mexican, Texan and Coloradan styles of Mexican food into one reasonably coherent whole, and even offers authentic side trips into Michoacán and norteño cuisine. But Benny’s doesn’t even try. This is wholly and completely a Colorado Mexican restaurant —…
