It's a Tough Job: The Best Bites I Had in July

July wasn't just a hot month for climate. It was hot for food fanatics, with events such as EatDenver's The Big Eat, where hungry diners could graze to their heart's content on samples from seventy independent eateries, and the Mile Long Table, which aimed to feed a free meal to 5,280 people on the Auraria campus. There was certainly no shortage of dining options or food for thought at these events, which reflected Denver's growing sophistication and commitment to building community through food.

For me, July was a great month because I not only had some amazing meals here in metro Denver, but I also got to eat on the road — including on a quick trip to Longmont, which is becoming a culinary mecca. I went to the Longmont Farmers' Market one Saturday and met Devin Keopraphay of Rising Tiger, an Lao-American chef who's starting his run August 3 as a contestant on Food Network's The Great Food Truck Race. He's been a fixture at the market and plans to open a restaurant in Longmont one day; I had his popular scallion pancake and also a refreshing saffron rose seltzer that hit the spot on a hot day.
On another road trip to the Western Slope, I headed off on Highway 285 and saw one of my favorite architectural delights, the Coney Island hot dog stand, now renamed South Park Coney Island in honor of the television show that's bringing in a new generation of customers who are surprised that the hot dog-shaped building isn't just something the show's creators made up. I ordered the standard Junior hot dog, which is a regular wiener (the popular size is a quarter-pound dog), along with a Hatch Chile N Cheez Sausage smothered with green chile. Messy, but worth it!
On my drive back from the Western Slope the next day, I enjoyed a quick meal at Aspen's Sway Thai, a posh place that opened in 2024. I had a very tasty Som Tam green papaya salad, something most tourists probably aren't looking for, and Tom Kha Gai, a bracing creamy soup with coconut and lemongrass broth, chunks of roasted chicken, oyster mushrooms, Thai basil and chili oil for a finishing flame of gentle heat.
An unexpected treat at the Big Eat (and if you're new to the area's rocking restaurant scene, you probably encountered a lot of unexpected treats) was what looked like an old-school snack: deviled eggs. But au contraire, these were Smoked Yolk Deviled Eggs from American Elm, with gourmet touches that made them so much more than ghostly images from your parents' cocktail parties. The filling was smoked egg yolk kissed with pickled mustard seeds, a bite of pork belly and a sprinkle of paprika.
Another way to elevate a traditional dish to new levels is to take an established winner — say, a huge slice of New York-style pie from Anthony's Pizza and Pasta, which has been serving classic 'za in Denver for forty years — and boost it with a new (old) partner. That partner is the 100-year-old Polidori Sausage, and now not only can you have some sandwiches with Polidori sausages and meatballs, but you can order it on your pizza for no extra cost for a limited time. The sandwiches are heroic, and the sausage slices take me back to my college daze in Manhattan.
As I've already reported, I was honored to enjoy a variety of omakase sushi restaurants in the area last month. One of the best — and most unusual — was Odell's Bagels. That's right, it's a bagel bakery by day, run by chef Miles Odell, who happened to have trained in some of the best kitchens in Japan and dreamed of opening a bagel shop where he could serve a variety of sushi to diners by night. The sushi was exquisite and one course was a treat I hadn't seen at other omakase counters: chilled soba noodles in a cold dashi, or broth, with a piece of shrimp. It was a delicious extra.
Staying in the lane of Asian cuisine, I'd wanted to visit Sắp Sửa ever since the modern Vietnamese restaurant opened to much anticipation and acclaim in 2023. I finally got the chance, and the wait was definitely worth it. The food was terrific, the service helpful and knowledgeable, and owners Anni and Ni Nguyen are such a pleasure to meet. They're the bosses, yet Ni spent a lot of time folding napkins, cleaning silverware, wiping off tables and greeting every table. He's a great example of someone who believes that he should be able to do everything that his employees do. Every dish we ate was a standout, but the foodporn I had to share is the lỗ tai heo, or fried pig ears. The taste and crunchy texture made for a fantastic gateway to the rest of the meal.
And to finish out the month, it was a pleasure and honor to meet in person Scott Warnick and his daughters, Scarlett and Alice, who have been going out for Taco Tuesdays for six years. That's 312 different restaurants every week. They celebrated their sixth anniversary at Chubby Unicorn in RiNo and were treated like celebrities, with 9News on hand to include them in an upcoming broadcast, free tacos, an incredibly realistic cake that looked exactly like two huge tacos, and a photo with the Chubby Unicorn ice hocky team. I had a damned good pair of tacos, too: carne asada and carnitas.