Kachina Southwestern Grill

A meal at Kachina, which opened in the Westin Westminster in the fall of 2012, is supposed to be “a magical trip through the Southwest,” according to its menu. The dining room is separated from the exhibition kitchen by a partition of pueblo-style niches; the space is lovely, if overdone. The menu needs some editing, […]

Tacos y Salsas

Tacos y Salsas is a tough place to miss — all the outposts of this growing local chain are as shiny and carnival-colored as their surroundings are gray and grim. The food at this taqueria shines just as bright, with excellent meats sliced and seared right in front of you. You can doctor your dishes […]

Big Choice Brewing

Boulder County boys Tyler Ruse and Nathaniel Miller filled the craft-beer gap in the Highway 36 corridor with Big Choice, a 2,500-square-foot tasting room and brewery with eight beers on tap and a late-’80s/early-’90s music, movies and skateboarding theme.

Cheapskates Action Sports Bar

After working in the action-sports industry for years and setting a Guinness World Record for longest journey on a mini-motorcycle, Ryan Galbraith and Chris Stinson have now embarked on a different journey: Cheapskates Actions Sports Bar, which opened May 2011 in the former home of Bliss Cafe in Arvada. The partners gutted the space and […]

Arvada Beer Company

Kelly and Cary Floyd opened Arvada Beer Company in 2011 in a 95-year-old brick building that was gutted and restored. The airy spot now anchors a corner in Olde Town Arvada with a steady stream of regulars and newcomers who want to try the beers designed by Kelly, an award-winning homebrewer and one of the […]

Mind Benders

About a year after Arvada’s Brickhouse Nightclub closed, Salmineo Martin — or Big Sal, as he’s known in the professional wrestling community — took over the spot and completely remodeled it, putting in a new stage, dance floor and lighting rig, and he gave the place a black-light theme, making it one of the few […]

Rockabillies

With checkered floors, an Elvis jukebox, a wall-sized Johnny Cash mural, and framed black-and-white photos of Hank Williams, Elvis and ’50s hot rods hanging on the other walls, Rock-A-Billies is obviously geared toward folks who love rockabilly culture. Housed in the former Cucina Roma Roma restaurant spot in a strip mall at 64th Avenue and […]

Cheeky Monk

Not only is the Cheeky Monk a destination restaurant for all you European beer snobs looking for unpronounceable brews made by monks who’ve dedicated their lives to Jesus and zymurgy, but it also happens to be a great place to sample the rather unique cuisine of the Benelux — all mussels and frites and sausages […]

Silvi’s Kitchen

The bakers at Izzio Artisan Bakery (formerly Udi’s) sell loaves of bread all over the Front Range, providing the staple for restaurants and filling home bread boxes via farmers’ markets and Whole Foods. And in Arvada, the bread’s available at Silvi’s Kitchen, a restaurant that occupies a vast corner spot on a narrow Olde Town […]