They infiltrated the city this year: a gleaming fleet of trucks, sporting vibrant color schemes and elaborate paint jobs, hawking everything from biscuits to banh mi. A hip generation was behind the wheel — restaurateurs who wanted to reach a broader audience, cash-strapped chefs who needed an inexpensive kitchen, ambitious…

New York lost a legend this year when Elaine Kaufman, of the eponymous Elaine’s, passed away. She was a remarkable front-of-the-house restaurateur, a big personality who made her place a regular stop for New Yorkers despite the fact that the food, by most accounts, was terrible. And without her, the…

We don’t normally frequent hotel bars in Denver, but searching for a place to show some relatives the lay of the land, we stopped at the Hyatt Regency, 650 15th Street, over the weekend for a couple of drinks in the Peaks Lounge on the 27th floor, with its floor-to-ceiling…

It’s located in an unlikely spot, but there’s a new Colombian kitchen on the scene, serving up specialties from that Latin American country for lunch and dinner seven days a week. La Cocina de Paula is now cooking inside the Oasis Bar and Hookah Lounge, 1523 Market Street…

It may be an unseasonably warm winter in Denver this year, but we’re still craving cassoulet, the bean and meat stew that’s chock full of sausage and duck confit. Normally, that means braving the wait for a table at Z Cuisine, 2239 West 30th Avenue, where cassoulet is on the…

Cafe Society writers consumed hundreds of meals in restaurants over the course of 2010, but a few really stood out. Next week, several of those writers will be serving up memories of their favorites (and we encourage you to post yours, too). In the meantime, here are my top five…

Since it opened back in June, Comfort Cafe, 3945 Tennyson Street, has fed the community as a non-profit, pay-what-you-can restaurant, offering comfort-food meals to anyone who walks through the door for however much of a donation that person can muster up. And on Saturday, it will be providing Christmas dinner…

The next generation in mobile food has arrived: In California this week, the Roving Mammoth hit the slopes at Mammoth Mountain, using a snowcat-like base to bring burritos and beverages to skiers all over the hill…

Know what I’m really looking forward to this holiday season? Not the gifts or the family time or the generosity of spirit or the tidings of comfort and joy. Nope, I’m looking to the fact that having Christmas fall on a weekend gives me an extra day or two to…

Boulder might be a college town, but we’re still a little surprised at the influx of pizzerias there over the last year, especially because these aren’t greasy slice joints — they offer gourmet pies, pulled straight from the depths of a wood-fired oven. Pizzeria Basta, 3601 Arapahoe Avenue, opened last…

For years, Gaia Bistro has been a serene breakfast and lunch spot, serving crepes, salads and sandwiches to diners packed into the charming dining room or sunning themselves at tables on the large patio. There was just one drawback: Gaia never had a liquor license. Which is part of the…

We’re into any social activity that involves eating and drinking, but something about the cozy traditional vibe of the holiday season makes us want to put on a fancy dress and head out to a high tea, where we can eat delicate cookies and drink English breakfast with our pinkies…

It’s late on a weekday morning — too early for lunch, but well past the breakfast hour, and the Egg Shell is still half full. A woman giggles to herself, text-messaging as she finishes her coffee at the marble-topped bar. A silver-haired man in the corner leans back in his…

Our family led a pretty modest existence when I was a child, but weekend mornings were sheer luxury. My brother and I would plod down the stairs and be greeted by a pile of misshapen chocolate chip- or banana-studded pancakes, steam still rising from the freshly griddled ones on top…

The New Belgium Hub on Concourse B is one of our favorite places for a meal and a beer at DIA, but thanks to its location — buried in the distant express gates all the way at the end of a hallway — we often run a very real risk…

Mediterranean coast native Alon Mor’s Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill first brought hummus and shwarma to Denver’s fast-casual dining scene in 2007. Since then, a dozen more Garbanzo outposts have popped up in Denver and Colorado Springs. And while there are plans to take the homegrown chain national, it’s tapping into another…

Matt Robinette was out in Tahoe, California, in 2001, training to work for the Hard Rock Cafe when he noticed a gaping hole in local culinary options: No one was selling green chile. “My wife — fiancee then — makes insane Pueblo-style green chile,” Robinette says. “We thought about selling…

Yes, that Barolo Grill — the same restaurant I reviewed this week, tacking on an addendum of 36 restaurants where I’d rather drop $200 instead. Some of you call that classless. I’d rather call it putting my money where my mouth is. Still, the restaurant has its charms, especially if…

The space left vacant by Nohana Sushi at 2301 East Colfax Avenue has been under construction for almost six months. Tomorrow, though, the dust will finally clear, and Japanese restaurant Okinawa will open for business…

In this week’s review of Barolo Grill, I wrote about my regret at dropping $200 on dinner for two there — when there were three dozen restaurants in the area where I’d rather spend that kind of cash. And then I decided to put my mouth where my money was,…

Right now, BALLS! A Holiday Spectacular, a variety show featuring comics, musicians and other performers from around the city engaged in some PG-13 holiday fun, is now at Curious Theatre, 1080 Acoma Street. And if you go to BALLS! tonight, your ticket benefits a good, food-centric cause: Slow Food Denver…