In an interview a while back, architect Daniel Libeskind really said all there is to say about French food. He was talking a little about the work he did on the expansion of the Denver Art Museum — defending himself from the usual snoots and lunkheads — and a lot…
“You know what they call French food in Paris?” the chef asked, repeating his shtick. “What, chef?” I responded, my fingers sore and shredded from peeling hard-boiled eggs under tap water, my brain numbed from hours of prep. I’d heard the question before, as well as the answer, but that…
I knew the news was going to be bad as soon as I got William Kennedy, one of the two partners at Santa Fe Tequila Company (along with Joe Falco), on the blower this afternoon. It was in his voice, in the defeated slump of his shoulders that I could actually hear over…
Okay, so I already wrote about the urbanspoon iPhone app, but just after I filed that blog, I went out back for a smoke (brrrr) with Sean, the IT guy who first introduced me to the gadget in question, and he showed me a couple other sweet (and marginally creepy/nerdy) things…
I am a luddite. And I don’t mean that lightly. I am not some cutesy dipwad who gets flustered trying to work the copy machine. I don’t eschew the use of computers out of some misplaced paranoia over the loss of my IBM Selectric. I am not your grandma who…
Just got word from Leigh Jones that Jonesy’s EatBar, her “gastropub” at 400 East 20th Avenue, has lost chef Mike “Waldo” Walden due to undisclosed circumstances (meaning something unsavory, no doubt). But she didn’t have to look far for a replacement: She’s hired back one of her old sous chefs from Brasserie Rouge,…
Elway’s Downtown (see review, page 41) sells luxury — fat steaks and lobster tails, murderously expensive ports and oysters from the raw bar, all cloaked in the trappings of a retro-nouvelle design meant to invoke those heavy, serious steakhouses of yore while still keeping the dining room approachable enough that…
The first time I stepped into Elway’s Downtown at the Ritz-Carlton, I immediately wanted to turn around, get in my car and drive somewhere more my speed: some greasy taquería, perhaps, a dive bar where I could get into an argument with a midget about Irish versus Scotch whiskey, even…
Hotel restaurants have always been a sort of safe haven in the food industry. For operators, a hotel restaurant seems like a sound investment, given the captive audience and the chance to piggyback on expenses. For employees, a hotel restaurant looks like a middle ground between the freedom and penury…
Elway’s — the original Elway’s — spawned this second location, which opened in January. The Ritz management, its F&B people and chef de cuisine Ben Davison all spent time poking around the kitchen and dining room of the Cherry Creek restaurant. In one of those quirks of synchronicity that I…
Mark Tarbell has finally chosen a name for the new restaurant he’s putting into the old Chama space near The Oven, his great pizza restaurant in Belmar. This second spot will be called Mark & Isabella. “The name, like a good rock lyric, has no real story,” he tells me…
After I posted last Friday’s blog about the opening of El Camino, I received this note from partner Chris Golub about the new spot, which took the place of his four-year-old Swimclub32: Howdy Jason! Thanks for the mention in the blog! I have yet to reach out to you to discuss the…
Yeah, it did. Swimclub 32, where sake and hot-rock wagyu kobe ruled. Small plates and Asian-influenced nouvelle cuisine was what Swimclub 32 started out with (as documented in the picture at right), before it shifted into a strange, Italian fusion concept with a garden on the roof and sous-vide prep in the minuscule galley. Next…
When I talked with Charlie Master over a month ago, he stated rather conclusively that he was getting out of the restaurant business for good once his parents, Mel and Jane Master, sold the last Mel’s – whose former home at 1120 East Sixth Avenue is now occupied by Mojitos…
“South Capitol Hill was booming in the early 20th century. The area on the ridge south of Cheesman Park sloping toward the Country Club neighborhood rapidly emerged as a premier residential location as Denver recovered from the Panic of 1893. Before long, distinguished houses dotted 7th Avenue. Nearby were houses…
Go Fish certainly has Asian-American fusion down, and that’s because the owners learned a few things at Spicy Basil, which they’d opened a few years before in the other corner of the same building. The fact that Spicy Basil had replaced a failed barbecue restaurant and I didn’t hold the…
For more photos of Go Fish, go to westword.com/slideshow. I first came to sushi as a teenager in upstate New York. Cutting class at Irondequoit High School, I’d duck out during lunch or skip remedial math to run up to Wegmans a few blocks away for terrible grocery-store sushi in…
Noodle shops are big again, and a couple of upcoming openings speak to a new trend/fad among serious chefs going slumming for fun. It seems to have been inspired by a fantastic article in the March 24 New Yorker by Larissa MacFarquhar on chef David Chang and the opening of…
The space is simple, almost iconic Japantown nouvelle, with wood and steel and stone all polished to a high and gleaming gloss, mismatched walls in shades of lime and mustard, one of those trickling fountain things and abstract sculptures of fish on the walls done in shiny, candy-colored…
I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. On November 16, the good people at TiVo announced what has to be one of the signs of the foodie apocalypse: that through a partnership deal with Domino’s, customers would now be able to order pizzas through their TV. Why? Because getting…
“Best Burger in Denver.” That’s what it says on the signs, banners, website and advertising for CityGrille. Best burger in Denver, as voted on by just about anyone with an opinion on such things. I’ve been one of the lone holdouts, refusing to lend my name to the deafening chorus…
For more photos of The Counter, go to westword.com/slideshow. So, what’re you gonna get?” “I dunno. What’re you gonna get?” “That depends on what you’re gonna get. Like, I was thinking about the ham, but then I was thinking green chiles…” “Yeah, I was thinking green chiles. Bacon.” “Of course…
