If you’ve survived the fall of Saigon and fled your native country, how frightening can it be to start a restaurant? Very, it turns out. “It has been scary,” says Van Vo, who opened Tay Do seven months ago. “I admit that I know very little about cooking, but I…
Noodlin’ around: People always think that the best part of my job is getting to stuff my face. They’re wrong–that’s the second-best part of my job. The best part is letting people know about out-of-the-way, unheard-of eateries that serve excellent food, like Tay Do (reviewed above). Of course, in the…
Talk lobster: David Francavilla, owner of the three Chowda House Light House restaurants (see review above), thought he might attract some attention with the recent lobster giveaway at his newest location, at 158 Fillmore Place. But the fundraiser netted much more than $300 for Lakewood’s Hospice of Saint John and…
Cherry Creek isn’t exactly overflowing with cheap eats. Then again, a restaurant can’t charge five bucks for an entree when it’s paying top dollar for rent. That’s why David Francavilla passed up Cherry Creek when he opened a second location of his Chowda House Light House three years ago, opting…
Wienie roast: The current controversy engulfing Governor Roy Romer hasn’t distracted him from all of his duties. The outcome of a friendly Super Bowl wager between Wisconsin governor and loyal cheesehead Tommy Thompson and Romer is even now being consumed at the Denver Rescue Mission: 32 pounds of cheese. And…
When Jason and Vanessa Helfrich leased a hard-luck spot on Seventh Avenue for their JV’s The Cork, they faced the enormous challenge of turning the odd space, with its stifling, wall-separated dining areas and problematic lighting, into a workable, appealing restaurant. But they managed to do what Transalpin, and later…
It isn’t every day that you find a restaurant billing itself as “a Peruvian seafood and Chinese cuisine salsa and karaoke nightclub.” But that’s exactly how Francesca Reese describes her latest Los Cabos II, the third in a series of Los Cabos eateries with which she’s been involved. The other…
Mex and match: The most delicious sight of the week was the solo diner at the Mexico City Lounge (2115 Larimer Street) last Thursday tucking into a plate of greasy, cheesy tacos and reading a copy of The Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet. Will the real El Azteca please stand up? Although…
Oldies but goodies: The Broker (see review above) isn’t Denver’s only restaurant in the over-twenty club. Tante Louise (4900 East Colfax) serves incredible French food, and the Normandy French Restaurant (1515 Madison) is pretty good, too. La Cueva (9742 East Colfax Avenue) is one of the best Mexican joints in…
If you’ve lived in Denver at any time over the past 25 years, chances are pretty good that you’ve eaten at one of the Broker restaurants. Maybe it was for prom, or a tenth wedding anniversary, or a big business meeting, or a nooner. Maybe grandma took you there when…
Having two restaurants is a little like having two lovers. When you’re with one, you’re wondering what’s going on with the other one. You go broke trying to make both of them happy, and you’re too worn out to give either the attention it deserves. Mark Chaffee knows this all…
Voice wail: A guy I referred to as a “gutless wonder” (Mouthing Off, January 1) for not leaving his name when he called to complain about my review of Maharaja, at 233 East Colfax (“A Tale of Two Eateries,” December 11), turns out to have guts after all. Brian Wills…
Denver’s restaurants are multiplying so rapidly that businesses are forced to take on staff members who clearly aren’t qualified, just so they have enough bodies to get the food out. I’m tired of being waited on by irritated eye-rollers who make it clear that they think their jobs are only…
Greasing the wheels: Although there’s no such thing as a free lunch, on January 2 there were free fries. To introduce its new, allegedly improved French fry, Burger King offered potatoes au gratis–over 15 million small orders of them–at its 7,600 (and counting) restaurants as part of a $70 million…
In this country, tapas translates to hors d’oeuvres at appetizer prices. And that’s fine, if you like eating little bits of food and then forking over large amounts of money. But on my visits to Denver’s oh-so-trendy tapas places, I’ve found that while most diners love the idea of tapas,…
Top of the Rockies: Denver wasn’t the only town inundated with tapas in 1997. The trend has spread nationwide–which makes Denver uncharacteristically hip for a change. Analyzing the fad a few months ago, the New York Times noted that restaurants have Americanized tapas in two divergent, but typically American, ways…
Every year while on dining duty, I discover stand-out dishes–some so good that I must return to their home restaurants on my own time to sample them again. And 1997 was no exception: I ate at 200 or so restaurants and enjoyed so much wonderful food that I had a…
They’ve got my number: The Web is the gift that keeps on giving. Because my reviews are archived there, they have a shelf life longer than a Christmas fruitcake. And so I’ve been getting e-mail all year about Rodizio, the Cheesecake Factory and several other of my less-than-favorite places. But…
In the “best scenery” category of Denver-area dining, the Flagstaff House Restaurant is the undisputed view master–and has been on top for decades. The grand place perched on Flagstaff Mountain overlooking Boulder began as a modest summer cabin, built by a Chicago teacher in 1929. From there it passed into…
Eggs-pensive: Where in town can you drop more on a meal than at the Flagstaff House? Why, at Beluga, the exclusive new club at 1523 Market Street, in the bottom floor of the same building that houses Tapas and the hopping Club Velvet (same owners for all three, as well…
‘Tis the season to eat tacos: Speaking of old favorites, a busboy (busman? busdude?) called to say that his employer, the Mexico City Lounge, at 2115 Larimer Street, is now open until 4 p.m. daily–and that means Mondays, too, when the place used to be closed. That also means that…
Another opening, another show-biz eatery. With all the big chains linking their way across Denver, I sometimes worry that these warehouse-sized “concept” restaurants are going to overwhelm the small, locally owned places that have already mastered the only important concept: good food. And that’s when I hurry to south Denver…
