Il Porcellino Salumi is offering meat CSA boxes in 2019; the deadline to order is coming up.
Courtesy Il Porcellino Salumi
You may be dreaming of a white Christmas, but the same can't be said for people experiencing homelessness. With the holiday season comes freezing temps and (thanks to Denver ordinances that increasingly penalize the homeless) limited spaces for people without shelter to eat, sleep and simply exist. But on Monday, December 17, the Crafty Fox Taphouse & Pizzeria, 3901 Fox Street, is inviting all homeless individuals to enjoy a free meal from 5 to 7 p.m. for its inaugural Christmas at Crafty. The restaurant is preparing for up to 500 guests, and needs volunteers to help put on the dinner. So instead of bemoaning the return of the work week, take a few hours that evening to ensure that everyone who wants to can enjoy one of life's simple pleasures: a hot meal. Email [email protected] for more info and to sign up.
Oak at Fourteenth chef Steven Redzikowski (right) takes to the airwaves this month in an episode of Beat Bobby Flay.
Linnea Covington
In anticipation of his appearance on the Food Network's Beat Bobby Flay, chef Steven Redzikowski of Oak at Fourteenth, 1400 Pearl Street in Boulder, is hosting an epic dim sum feast on Tuesday, December 18. From 6 to 10 p.m., the restaurant will be taken over by carts on wheels as Redzikowski, his brother Brian (fellow chef and competitor on the show) and chefs from Acorn, Smok, Brider and Arcana turn out dishes for the all-you-can-eat-and-drink extravaganza. Expect Thai-flavored chicharrones, char siu and chicken soup dumplings, pork-belly bao buns, fried tofu and kimchi, and mango sticky rice along with cocktails, wine and beer. When the brothers' episode airs on December 27, you'll have firsthand knowledge of the food, and watching the show will be an even more delicious experience. Tickets are on sale for $75 at Eventbrite.
Santa's sack, indeed.
Flickr/Cat
December: the twelfth month of the year, and the month cookie decorating becomes an Olympic sport. Bars, bakeries and bistros alike have hosted events designed to get you icing sugar cookies or, for the ambitious, building gingerbread houses. But what if your sweet tooth doesn't ensure sweet thoughts about the season? Join Good Sugar Baking at Zuni Street Brewing, 2355 West 29th Avenue, for its Naughty Nibbles Cookie Decorating event from 6 to 8 p.m. Turn your biscuits into boobs and your wafers into wieners without a care for the sanctit(t)y of the season. Just $12 gets you a pint, a pair of confections (nut balls, anyone?) and decorating supplies. Get the details on Facebook and prepare to unleash your inner twelve-year-old.
Bring the outdoors into your home with a bûche de Noël from Coperta this holiday season.
Courtesy Coperta
If you want a showstopping holiday dessert — something more impressive than pies and cookies — but you have the pastry-making skills of an non-opposable-thumbed hippopotamus, consider Coperta for your cake needs. The restaurant, 400 East 20th Avenue, is offering the classic bûche de Noël (or Yule log) for $69. The elaborately constructed chocolate cake serves ten to twelve people and comes with meringue mushrooms, candied cranberries and sprigs of rosemary, or splurge on additional accoutrements (gumdrops, sprinkles, peppermint candies) for $5 more. Pre-orders by Thursday, December 20, are required, and you can pick up the creation on December 23 or 24; just call 720-749-4666 to make your request, then prepare to fill your bouche with bûche.
Friday, December 21
If you haven't hit up Dos Luces Brewery, 1236 South Broadway, it's high time you made a trip to a South Broadway storefront for something other than weed. The chicha and pulque bar, one of the best new drinking establishments in town this year, serves Latin American brews, and as such is celebrating not the winter, but the summer solstice on Friday, December 21. Two new seasonal beers will be released at noon during the Fiesta del Sol: guanabana (or soursop) chicha, made with clove, cinnamon and the tangy, pineapple-y guanabana fruit; and Mexican chocolate pulque, with agave sap, cinnamon, cloves, cacao nibs and cayenne pepper. Bonus: If you start your tab before 4 p.m. on Friday, you'll get 20 percent off. Now that's a reason to celebrate the season. Details are up on the brewery's Facebook page.
Keep reading for future food and drink events.
Il Porcellino Salumi is offering meat CSA boxes in 2019; the deadline to order is coming up.
Courtesy Il Porcellino Salumi
Il Porcellino Salumi, 4334 We st 41st Avenue, expanded dramatically this year with the addition of a production facility in Basalt, and with its increased capacity, it's also bringing a slew of new products to market. One of those is the meat CSA the Berkeley shop is debuting in 2019. Just think of a typical summer produce CSA, but for carnivores. Each box comes with the makings for two meals for two people, such as polenta, shredded beef in chile sauce and a half-chicken marinated in white wine, butter and garlic. The program will run from January through March, with four boxes each month; customers for February (the first month of the CSA) must order by Sunday, January 27, and can pick up their goodies at the shop each Sunday, beginning February 3. A one-month commitment ($200) is required, so call 303-477-3206 to sign up, then say goodbye to hitting the grocery store and fretting about recalled ground beef for the next thirty days.
Friday, February 22, through Sunday, March 3, 2019
Denver Restaurant Week is coming, so clear your calendar from February 22 through March 3; you'll want to visit a different eatery every day. Hundreds of Denver’s top restaurants will offer multi-course dinners for three tasty prices ($25, $35 or $45) during the fifteenth year of the wildly popular week. Stay tuned to Visit Denver for a list of participants and menus, and book your first choices right away, before someone else nabs your table.
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Beer festivals in this town are serious business; there's at least one happening somewhere in the metro area every weekend, and many are long-running ventures with the attendee count growing each year. Some people (not us, of course) even plan their fests a year in advance. Collaboration Fest is hoping you're one of those people, as tickets for the Saturday, March 16, event are now on sale — even though the beers won't touch your lips until March. Early bird tickets are priced at $55 and $80 at collaborationfest.com, where you can get a few details about the festival, which will run from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Denver, 650 15th Street. The upside to snatching up those tickets now? By the time the fun rolls around, you'll have forgotten how much you spent to have it.
If you know of a date that should be on this calendar, send information to [email protected].
