Larry Herz is happy. Walking the floor of Go Fish Grille on a Saturday night, he’s in his element — an industry veteran working a crowded house — and he’s got an energy that arcs off him like sparks. He moves between tables, chatting, checking up, floating, dodging. He back-pedals…
In the September 18, 2003, installment of this column, titled “Luna Eclipse,” I detailed the fateful, drunken and calamitous last hours of Flow — the restaurant in the basement of the Luna Hotel at 1612 Wazee Street then helmed by one of Denver’s best young chefs, Duy Pham — and…
Finally, I feel like a true Coloradan. I’ve eaten at the Brown Palace. I’ve eaten at Casa Bonita (and lived to tell about it). And now I’ve eaten at The Fort. That’s the goddamn trifecta, isn’t it? So where do I get me one of them “Native” bumperstickers? When do…
Long story short, I recovered. The tom kha soup at Yummy Yummy Tasty Thai (see review) did no lasting harm; in fact, within a few hours of that dreadful first taste, I’d returned to Pim Fitt’s Thai restaurant for another round of fried bananas and another dose of homemade coconut…
Reporter, huh?” Fred said, looking entirely uninterested. “Like, you work for the newspaper?” “Yeah,” I said, looking down at the Vesuvius of cigarette butts in the ashtray, the half-eaten cheeseburger and cold coffee in front of me, thinking how working was the last thing I was doing. “Something like that.”…
Before it opened this Monday, I got a sneak preview of Rioja, chef Jennifer Jasinski’s new digs on Larimer Street, courtesy of local PR impresario John Imbergamo, who’s been handling “chef Jen” since her departure from Panzano earlier this year. The space — which co-opted some of its real estate…
It’s an embarrassment, the amount of instant ramen noodle soup in my cupboard right now, from a variety of companies (Nissin, Maruchan, some off-brand called Ninja), in several preparations (both the cup and the brick, as well as a microwavable bowl) and a spread of flavors that all taste exactly…
t’s a good thing I can get a decent croque monsieur at Devil’s Food Bakery (see review). Not a fantastic croque monsieur, mind you (I’m not crazy about how the kitchen’s bechamel turns the house challah all spongy), but certainly decent, and with a side of excellent pommes frites. It’s…
For nearly half my life, I watched no TV. When I tell people that, a squint of fundamental distrust screws up their faces, and they look at me like I’ve got lobsters crawling out of my ears. They always treat me differently afterward — as though I’ve just admitted to…
Like Denver as a food city, Sixth Avenue as a restaurant neighborhood always seems on the edge of becoming the next big thing. Its progression can be tracked the way die-hard fans follow a perpetually losing ball club — watching through the seasons as the roster is brought up and…
It must be weird when fame pays off, when you’re not just recognized for what you do well, but when that recognition translates into the kind of fast return that usually only comes in movies. There’s that scene of the Beatles in their hotel room, tumbling all over each other…
This time last year, there was a lot of talk about the big man, Bryan Moscatello, and the guys from Adega Restaurant + Wine Bar (1700 Wynkoop Street) trying to clone their phenomenal success at, first, Table 6 (in the former home of the Beehive, at 609 Corona Street), and…
I never thought Mirepoix would make it. I didn’t believe that Bryan Moscatello and crew could squeeze Adega’s smart, beautiful cuisine into a JW Marriott corporate template; I kept seeing all that lovely food dying under the domes of room-service trays. And the fact that they were trading on the…
THURS, 10/28 So it’s a Thursday night, and you’ve got some extra green burning a hole in your pocket. What is there to do? Well, if you’re in a culinary frame of mind, you can drop that dough at the Too Many Chefs in the Kitchen dinner and fundraiser for…
Sometimes when I have a bad day, I console myself by thinking about sandwiches. Not about eating them — although I do dearly love a good sammich — but making them. It’s an obsession, something just short of a religion. I think of sandwich-as-spiritual-object the way a Mexican Catholic might…
Phil Collier, owner and executive chef of A La Tomate Cafe and Tarterie, is a nervous sort of fella. I can see him in the kitchen — a big space for such a small place, full of tall bakery racks, new ovens, antique slicers with exposed motors, bright stainless steel…
It was early in my tenure here — and in Littleton, of all places, while visiting Opus Restaurant, at 2575 West Main Street — that my passions for the true New American cuisine were first revealed (“This Note’s for You,” November 7, 2002). It was one dish that set me…
Wild-mushroom-and-Fontina grilled cheese. Frittatas; toasted-oat pancakes that taste like giant oatmeal raisin cookies laced with wispy vanilla; seared tuna in a soy-ginger glaze. Eggs Benedict made with poached eggs wrapped in smoky Nova lox and topped with crème fraîche, and a breakfast pizza assembled from scrambled eggs, beef tenderloin, sprigged…
Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.” Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said that, and I believe it. What a person eats says volumes about his personality; his choice in food speaks with a clear voice straight from the heart and gut. And that’s why I…
Once is an event, twice is a coincidence, but three times? Three times is the beginning of an addiction, and for the Bush administration, Heaven Dragon Chinese Cuisine and Lounge is starting to look like an unhealthy habit. It was back in 2002 that President George W. Bush got his…
Recounting the history behind Chez Thuy’s exquisite cuisine (see page 61), I was reminded of this episode: During the siege of the French at Dien Bien Phu by the Viet Minh, one of the last cargo drops recorded before the base was overrun included, in addition to the usual ammunition…
One of the best Vietnamese restaurants in the country, Dac Hoa, is in Rochester, New York. It’s a small, Barton Fink-ish place, with a perpetual pall of dishwater gray light, rickety tables and peeling everything in a borderline-creepy neighborhood. Still, most people who eat there have no idea how good…
