Bees, Blooms and Beer: Fourteen Tastiest Events on the Culinary Calendar

This week you can explore the relationship between your food and blooms, bees...and beer, of course. The city will be buzzing with tasty culinary events; keep reading for all the delicious details. 

Monday, August 24

Frasca Food and Wine will explore the wines of Bodegas Muga with guest Steve Lewis at its Monday Night Wine Dinner. The weekly series is $50 for a prix fixe, four-course meal with optional wine pairings priced from $40 to $50 dollars. For reservations call Frasca at 303-442-6966. 

Tuesday, August 25

This week at the Denver Art Museum you can feast your eyes on the museum's In Bloom exhibit and also enjoy cooking demos featuring flowers in recipes. Aran Essig, executive chef at the University of Colorado, will lead a team of local chefs who are teaching museum visitors how to safely incorporate fresh flowers such as squash blossoms, herbs, lilies, rose petals and pansies in to salads, appetizers, desserts and drinks. The cooking demos will run from 11 a.m. to noon Tuesday through Saturday (except Friday, when the demo will be from 7 to 8 p.m.) and are included in general admission. For more information, click here. 

Wednesday, August 26

Today at 5 p.m. Frasca Food and Wine will welcome chef Marc Vetri for the restaurant's August Guest Chef Dinner. Vetri will join forces with Frasca's culinary team to showcase some of the pasta dishes in his new book, Mastering Pasta. The dinner is $155 per person; call Frasca at 303-442-6966 to make a reservation. 

Go Fish! will bring together top chefs for an evening — including California's Dory Ford, as well as local starts Sheila Lucero, Kelly Whitaker, Alex Seidel, Troy Guard and Paul Reilly — for an evening celebrating sustainable seafood. You can drop a line at Baur's Restaurant between 6:30 and 9 p.m. today. Tickets are $40; purchase yours and learn more here. 

At 6:30 p.m. today, Firenze a Tavola will host a vegetarian harvest community-table dinner. The menu is completely vegetarian, and $29 per person. Make a reservation by calling 303-561-0234.  

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot's Women & Whiskey Tasting Series will wrap up at 7 p.m. with an installment on Scotch and Cheese. Participants can explore the flavors of Macallan Fine Oak 10, 12 and 15 year, paired with small bites.  Tickets to the tasting are $25 and can be purchased here. 

Jax Fort Collins will wrap up the restaurant's Farmer in the Kitchen Series today with guest Spring Kite and Jodar Farms. The dinners have featured local farmers who grow the produce featured on Jax’s menu, and also take part in the preparation, serving and eating of their crops. The dinner is $35 per person; save your seat by calling 970-682-2275. 

Thursday, August 27 


Buzz on up to the Butterfly Pavilion today from 6 to 7:30 p.m. for Science Talk: Colorado Honey Bees. Learn about the importance of honey bees from Beth Conrey, president of the Colorado State Beekeeper’s Association and owner of Bee Squared Apiaries, who'll talk about how how to keep a backyard bee colony, why a colony collapses and the impacts the colony deaths are having in Colorado. The lecture is free; find out more here.

Are you a fan of Jack Daniels? Interstate Kitchen is holding a Gentleman Jack Cocktail Competition — and you can be a judge. Being a part of the judge's panel has its privileges, since snacks and cocktail samples are included in the $10 price tag. The winning cocktail will be featured as part of National Bourbon Month all September long at Interstate. For more information, call 720-479-8829.

The Great American Beer Festival is about to roll into Denver and starting today, the Road to GABF Goes Through Euclid Hall. A series of craft-beer dinners leading up to the Great American Beer Festival will feature craft beer paired with menus from the Euclid Hall team. Today's guest brewery will be Verboten Brewing, and the $55 dinner starts at 7 p.m. Grab your tickets here. 

They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away, and we think a hard cider should count ,too. Today you can drink your apple a day at C Squared Ciders' Say Cheese! Cider and Cheese Pairing. The event gets rolling at 7 p.m. and tickets are $20; get yours here.

Stir Cooking School is dropping the beat for Beet It: Beet Cookery and MichaellJackson Jams. Students in the class will learn five ways to incorporate beets into meals, all set to the music of Michael Jackson. Class runs from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. and costs $75 per person; register at stirtolearn.com.  

Friday, August 28

Go back to the Roaring '20s at a Gatsby-themed event to benefit Make-A-Wish Colorado tonight from 6 to 11 p.m. Whiskey, Wine and Wishes will feature food, silent and live auctions, dancing, music from Soul School, and local wines, whiskeys and signature drinks from Williams & Graham, InVINtions, Blanchard Family Wines, Vapor Distilleries, Mile Hi Spirits and Laws Whiskey House. The evening will kick off at 6 p.m. at the Seawell Ballroom with cocktails and a silent auction, followed at 7:45 by a live auction and a program at 8. Tickets for the gala are $100; pick yours up at colorado.wish.org.  

The Landmark Esquire Theater will be screening the new film Steak (R)evolution starting today. In a search for the best steak in the world, director Franck Ribiere leads viewers through exclusive conversations with chefs, farmers, butchers, steakhouse owners, journalists and experts about the many variables that affect the quality of our meat. The film will run today through September 3; for more information, click here. 

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]. And watch for our weekend culinary calendar on Friday.