My meals at Westerkamps Steakhouse and Meat Market, which I review in this week’s Westword, unleashed a strange but insatiable craving for steak — cheap steak, like a griddled flatiron or hanger, preferably sided by a couple of eggs and a pile of potatoes. Which is how I found myself…
In the months since a massive fire consumed Boulder’s Oak at Fourteenth, requiring a remodel that would strip the property to its studs, owner Bryan Dayton hasn’t exactly been idling. The former president of the Colorado Bartenders’ Guild has kept up with staff trainings, continued his involvement with the state’s…
When I first stepped through the doors of the covered wagon-adorned building that houses Westerkamps Steakhouse and Meat Market, which I review in this week’s Westword, I thought I was on the way to a quiet breakfast special of pork chops and eggs. What I found, though, was a kitschy…
When I reviewed Mt. Everest Restaurant & Bar this spring, I was especially enamored of the lunch buffet. Far from the boring, all-you-can-eat-of-this-mediocre food orgies that mark most buffets in this town, Mt. Everest’s buffet featured some of the kitchen’s strangest, and most enjoyable, Nepalese and northern Indian offerings. But…
Westerkamps opened decades ago in north Denver as a grocery store serving a then-German neighborhood. The name remains, but the original owners are long gone — as is the market concept, save for the butcher counter in one corner of the space that still peddles cuts of cow…
Mike and Matt Casarez have been running a restaurant in the historic Crook’s Palace since 2008, where they’ve attracted a following with their house-cured bacon, house-baked bread and house-churned ice cream. Over 1,000 flavors of ice cream, in fact, which just landed them in the Guinness Book of World Records…
Quick, what are the hottest restaurants that have opened in Denver since the last time Eater did a heat map of our fair city, chronicling where to eat right this very second?…
Growing up, I spent summer vacations with a pack of cousins, running around a small town in North Dakota, and while the walleye was plentiful, as were the pan-baked dessert bars, the area was not known for its culinary treats. Meals, whether served in a restaurant or the basement of…
The steakhouse’s business card proclaims that Westerkamps is closed Sundays to honor God. It was also closed on a recent Saturday so that the entire staff could head up to Loveland for Heavenfest, a massive gathering featuring workshops, speakers and a lot of God rock. I know this because I…
When Curt and Deicy Steinbecker opened Ondo’s Spanish Tapas Bar in late 2009, they wanted to give Denver a true Spanish experience, channeling the country where they’d met and learned to cook. And in that spirit, they’re importing another of their favorite Iberian traditions: the Basque pintxos happy hour…
After garnering a legion of fans at the original Mona’s Restaurant on 15th Street, which features a pair of high-heeled legs dangling above the door, Linda and Garen Austin opened a second location on South Broadway, followed by a third Mona’s Cafe on 17th Avenue and Sherman Street, which began…
So many coffee shops… so few actually doing coffee and espresso drinks right. And even fewer that are owned or operated by people who really know their beans. Eric Yochim knows his beans…
Plans tonight? If not, and you happen to be looking for a kick-ass way to get your food and drink on that’s a little out of the ordinary, head over to Tennyson Street and partake in some First Friday activities. A scaled-down version of the busy Santa Fe First Friday…
When I reviewed Boulder’s Salt the Bistro almost a year ago, it seemed to have unfulfilled potential. “Every detail at this place, so painstakingly crafted to fit perfectly into an ideal rendering of a Boulder restaurant, is fine on its own — but added together, those details equal exactly a…
Twisters Burgers and Burritos, the Albuquerque-based fast-casual chain with a New Mexican menu and seventeen outposts, crossed the border into Colorado a couple of years ago, opening shops in Parker, Lakewood and Aurora. And now the company is getting ready to open a fourth Denver-area spot, planting a Twisters in…
Our feelings for the magical pairing of chips and salsa extend beyond just casual flirtation. We love them deeply. In fact, we’re pretty sure we could live on chips and salsa alone if we had to, and at many restaurants in this city, we’ll gladly skip everything else just to…
Just over a month ago, Jamawn Woods shuttered the last of his three Soul Daddy locations. That was the fast-casual chain he was trying to get going with the help of Chipotle CEO Steve Ells, Bobby Flay, Curtis Stone and Lorena Garcia after that team of investors awarded him the…
Jesse Morreale and chef/partner Sean Yontz opened El Diablo, the Mexican restaurant that I review for this week’s Westword, just shy of a year ago. And the crowds — which made it nearly impossible to nab a bar seat that first week of business — continue to pack the place…
This week I review El Diablo, the devilish restaurant that Jesse Morreale and Sean Yontz opened on the first floor of an old hotel last year. While I loved some dishes more than others, my love for the sexy space knows no bounds, and El Diablo keeps luring me back…
“Thanks for not sucking.” That was the handwritten sentiment on the back of my check the last time I ate at Mezcal, penned by an attentive server who was friendly, unpretentious and a little irreverent — the same combination of traits that characterizes the restaurant these days. The place feels…
I got my first glimpse of El Diablo one late-summer night last year, soon after the restaurant opened its doors. The place was packed, with groups crammed into the tables and booths that line the sides of the vast space and more people standing around the bar, which anchors the…
In the three years since Jesse Morreale bought the old First Avenue Hotel on Broadway, the two restaurants he’s opened on the bottom floor of the property — Sketch and El Diablo — with chef and partner Sean Yontz have completely transformed the corner…
