Twelve Tastiest Events on Denver's Culinary Calendar, March 7-11

Denver Restaurant Week may be over, but some of the participants will continue their specials this week, adding to a cornucopia of other culinary events, including a big chef benefit for the National Kidney Foundation. Keep reading for the tasty details.

Monday, March 7

The Alamo Drafthouse will be hosting a five-course Scarface Cuban feast this evening with special guest Matt Zoller Seitz,  author of the upcoming The Oliver Stone Experience.  You'll  be treated to a screening of the gangster flick alongside a five-course, Cuban inspired menu complete with drink pairings; Seitz will do a Q&A. For tickets and more information, head over to drafthouse.com.

Frasca Food and Wine will highlight the wines of Castello di Bossi with guest Jacopo Bacci, for this week's Monday Night Wine Dinner. It's $50 for a prix fixe, four-course dinner, with optional wine pairings ranging from $40 to $50. For reservations and more information, call Frasca at 303-442-6966. 

Tuesday, March 8

Arugula will join forces with Cured to take you on a culinary journey across Italy during today's Small Vineyards Tour of Italy wine dinner. The five-course meal will be paired with "Small Vineyards Imports," wines that come from small, family-owned estates. The dinner starts at 6:30 p.m. and is $89 per person. For reservations and more information, call Arugula at 303-443-5100. 

Upslope and Spirit Hound are celebrating the release of their special, limited-run collaboration, Scottish Style Ale, with a series of tapping events around Denver and Boulder this week. The first tappings will take place today at both Upslope Tap Rooms (Lee Hill and Flatiron Court). Starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Backcountry Pizza in Boulder will hold a tapping; Thursday Lyons Fork has the honors, and Friday Falling Rock will crack open a barrel. For more information, check out upslopebrewing.com.  

 
Wednesday, March 9

Join Walk2Connect Founder Jonathon Stalls for a northeast Park Hill walking tour, from the Garden/Love, Peace, & Sol Cafe, to Mountain Fresh Market, to the new Dahlia Campus for Health & Well-Being, and through Axum Park. The tour will end back at Love, Peace, & Sol Cafe for a vegan comfort-food lunch. Interested in joining the walkabout? Meet at the Garden on East 35th Avenue and Albion Street by 10:30 a.m. with $15 cash in hand. Get all the details at walk2connect.com.   

Firenze a Tavola is holding an organic wine dinner tonight at 6:30 p.m. The tab is $58 per person; call the restaurant at 303-561-0234 to make your reservations. 

Thursday, March 10

Enjoy the chance to step “inside the orchestra” at Inside the Orchestra for Adults today, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Wings Over the Rockies. The event will feature food by Y.Lo Epicure, beer by Ratio Beerworks and Call to Arms Brewery, wine provided by Corks Wine Store, and music by Inside the Orchestra musicians. You can test instruments at the instrument petting zoo, try your hand at the paper airplane-folding competition, or win a variety of packages in the auctions. There will be surprise musical performances throughout the night leading up to the final piece, when you enjoy a concert surrounded by a 32-piece professional orchestra performing everything from “2001: A Space Odyssey” to “Star Wars.” Tickets range from $45 to $125, and can be purchased here. Proceeds from the event will benefit Inside the Orchestra's music education programs. 

The 33rd annual Great Chefs of the West Gala, benefiting the National Kidney Foundation, will take place from 6 to 10 p.m. today at the Denver Marriott Tech Center. Throughout the evening guests can support a good cause while sampling good food from sixteen of Colorado's most notable chefs, from restaurants ranging from Bar Dough to ChoLon, City O'City, Fruition, Mercantile Dining &Provision, Oceanaire Seafood Room, Old Major, Osaka Ramen, The Rib House, Root Down, Second Home, WaterCourse Foods and many more. The chefs will compete for best dish honors as attendees enjoy live music and auctions. Tickets to the gala are $200 and can be purchased here.   

La Biblioteca welcomes Artenom Tequila for the restaurant's Tapas and Tequila event. Every second Thursday of the month, guests can experience a four-course tasting menu with tequila pairings for $35. For reservations and more information, call the restaurant at 720-904-0965.

In celebration of the Colorado Springs Conservatory's 25th anniversary, the 25th Annual Wine Festival of Colorado Springs will feature a slew of guest vintners from all over the world in a variety of special tastings and events. The event kicks off today and will run through March 12. For more information, visit coloradospringsconservatory.org. 

Get your food-truck fix at Civic Center Nosh & Posh from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. today. The monthly gathering of food trucks and mobile boutiques brightens up Civic Center Park with a variety of foods and fashions to choose from on the second Thursday of every month through April. For more information, click here.

Friday, March 11   

Get weird at MCA Denver's Black Sheep Fridays. From 6 to 8 p.m. most Fridays, the museum will be serving up beverages and "sophisticated non-sense" that ranges from lip syncing competitions to poetry readings of spam e-mails to this week's Stitch and Switch, where guests can assemble mutant stuffed animals. You can join in on the fun for $5; the weirdness changes every week, so check out mcadenver.org to see the full schedule of shenanigans.  

For more Food & Drink events, go to our online calendar. If you know of an event that should be included in that calendar, send information to [email protected].