For me, July was a great month because I not only had some amazing meals here in 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, a 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.

Two dogs for the road: A Junior hot dog and a Hatch Chile N Cheez Sausage, smothered with green chile, from South Park Coney Island.
Gil Asakawa
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 (anyone new to the area's rocking restaurant scene would have encountered a lot of unexpected treats there) 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.

Anthony's Pizza & Pasta, a local institution, has partnered with the 100-year-old Polidori Sausage company.
Gil Asakawa

Not just sushi: Odell's omakase experience included a chilled soba palate cleanser with shrimp.
Gil Asakawa

Sắp Sửa offers a modern take on Vietnamese cuisine, like this dish of fried pig ears, lỗ tai heo.
Gil Asakawa
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 hockey team. I had a damned good pair of tacos, too: carne asada and carnitas.