As Denver’s restaurant industry has fattened over the past decade, business at the old favorites has thinned. Almost forgotten in the face of fresh Mexican grills and pseudo-tapas bars, these longtime standbys somehow keep things cooking. Don Quijote is one such blast from the past, one of those restaurants that,…
South of the border patrol: When I visit decent places like Don Quijote (see review above), I realize there’s no excuse for serving lousy Mexican food. Since the ingredients for most Mexican dishes are inherently cheap, the difference comes down to a willingness to take the extra step involved in…
Get to the Points: Kal’line’s owners aside, not everyone is enthusiastic about the promotional work being done by the Five Points Business Association and the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development (MOED). “I’m going to tell you my truly and honest position,” says George Brown, whose Brown Sugar’s Burgers and Bones…
Rebuild it, and they will come. At least that’s what Willy, John and Mac Watts are counting on in Five Points, where their year-old Kal’line’s Cafe has slowly been building a following of Denverites who appreciate good soul and American cooking. Kal’line’s is named for the Watts brothers’ mother, Caroline…
Consider the alternatives: You’re downtown at lunchtime and feel the cream-cheesy pull of the Cheesecake Factory. What to do? How about trying one of these locally owned spots that serve better food–and without a wait to get it. Like the Factory’s pastas? The selection at City Spirit Cafe (1434 Blake…
Who is waiting in line at the Cheesecake Factory? I’ll tell you who: the same people who give me dirty looks and curse under their breath when I take eight items into the nine-item express line at the grocery store. The same people who roll their eyes and sigh repeatedly…
Warning: If you are under thirty, unbelievably gorgeous, hip and charming, a wine taster and wearer of a 100 percent cotton T-shirt in basic white or black–or if you desperately want to be any of the above–the following food-related opinions will mean nothing to you. What you want is a…
Street eats: Hey! We thought it was against the rules to take food into Elitch’s. So why were two pizzas delivered to employees of the amusement park’s guest relations office last Thursday? Nice of Wellington Webb to grab coffee at Dixons, 1610 16th Street, when he took his walking tour…
The New York Deli News is housed in a classic California Coffee Shop structure, with windows reaching boldly for the early-1960s sky’s-the-limit sky. Nevertheless, it’s the kind of restaurant that seems to have been around forever. I know for a fact I ate here when I was four or five,…
Pulling up steaks: Two Denver dining landmarks are history. Although both enjoyed their heydays at about the same time–the Seventies and early Eighties–their clientele came from decidedly opposite ends of the spectrum. Glendale’s Colorado Mine Co. ruled in Denver’s disco days–and owners Buck and Cindy Scott were king and queen…
A few weeks ago I awoke dogged by a beautiful fantasy. This was it: Every day precisely at noon, I would rise from my typewriter, don my fedora, slip a detective novel into my suit pocket and head over to the Union Station lunch counter, where a sneering counter boy…
Union label: Redfish Seafood Kitchen, reviewed by Robin Chotzinoff in this issue, doesn’t look (or taste) like part of a chain–but you sure can tell its public relations firm is from out of town. A release faxed over on July 29 announces, “Soooo, Denver’s been having a little heat wave…
When partners George Blincoe and Michael Reed brag that their brewpub serves the “best dam beer” and “best dam food” in Colorado, they can be forgiven the hyperbole, if not the pun–because when you open yet another brewery/restaurant in a county that boasts more breweries per capita than any other…
A shot in the dark: According to the announcement stuffed into the mailing envelope, “Mexico’s Legendary Secret Hits the U.S.” in the form of Don Julio tequila. But the big secret may be how the importer, Remy Amerique, Inc., got a liquor sample through the U.S. Postal Service, which delivered…
What’s on tapas? So far, the summer’s big food trend is the return of tapas–essentially dim sum for the bar crowd. The town’s last two places to really push tapas are now pushing up daisies: Majorca looked great but business wasn’t; its old space at 777 East 17th Avenue is…
So many of the dreamy things attributed to childhood are a crock. The innocence, for instance, or “the carefree days of…” A popular parenting cliche is: “What are you complaining about? You’ll never have it this good again.” But all of this is just plain wrong. It’s hard and weird…
Another opening, another chow: After a lull of, oh, about a minute, restaurants are popping up in LoDo faster than fly balls in nearby Coors Field. Last Thursday Redfish Seafood Kitchen opened in the Union Station space previously occupied by TGIFriday (and thank God that one’s gone); even though this…
Cafe Brazil has always been a curveball to throw at someone from out of town. It’s particularly fun when visitors assume there’s not much to eat in Denver other than big haunches of elk–and then they stumble into the turquoise-and-salmon-pink cinder-block interior of this tiny northwest Denver bistro. Order them…
If he weren’t stoned, he said, he would never have eaten the food at Elitch Gardens. Even stoned, the red-mohawked teen was reluctant to try most of the snack items we picked up at the amusement park. And after eating the food myself, I can’t say that I blamed my…
Catering to my needs: Last month, while in line for the buffet at a wedding reception, I chatted with a socialite who throws many parties at her expansive Cherry Hills Village pad. She asked me which caterer I recommended, and I gave her three names: Bistro Boys (the catering sidearm…
Getting the best of them: As usual, there are a few hotly contested awards in this year’s Best of Denver issue, which came out last week to cheers and jeers from readers and the restaurant community. The most controversial item (so far) seems to be my selection of Sonoda’s, with…
The voice leaving the message sounded sadder than that of a person whose best friend had just died. “I’m so, so worried that this place is going to close,” the caller said. “If you went there, you’d just fall in love with the food. Please visit it and see what…
