El Diablo and Sketch will remain closed this weekend

Happy hour will not be very happy today at El Diablo and Sketch tonight. The restaurants remain closed, after the city slapped the building in which they’re housed, the First Avenue Hotel, with a notice to vacate very early on Tuesday, July 10. According to the city, the structure is…

Rocky Ford cantaloupe hit King Soopers today

Rocky Ford cantaloupe took a big hit last year, unfairlyfingered by the FDA in the early days of the listeria outbreak in a September 14, 2011 release that warned consumers not to eat Rocky Ford cantaloupes. And never mind that the real culprit, Jensen farms, was more than a hundred…

Reader: Here’s why we need a health department…

There’s lots of action on the Denver restaurant scene — the ongoing controversy over Frank Bonanno’s fight with the health department, the upcoming Tavern Platt Park…and today, the opening of a new Bubba Chinos downtown, just steps away from City Hall, which will be serving up free chile cheese fries…

Erik Osborn’s conviction tossed in One Lincoln Park case

Erik Osborn wanted to be a big-time developer, but his plans almost landed him in the big house. In 2009, a group of high-profile investors — including Dealin’ Doug Moreland — accused Osborn of stealing $255,000 intended for the pricey One Lincoln Park condominium complex downtown and another project in…

Yard House sells to…owner of Olive Garden?

Former local boy Steele Platt has made very, very good: Darden Restaurants — an Orlando-based company that operates Olive Garden and Red Lobster, among other chains — announced today that it has agreed to buy Yard House USA Inc. for $585 million — cash, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. There…

Tavern Platt Park should sprout next spring

All systems are go for Tavern Platt Park, which will transform the former home of India’s Pearl (and Lola, Micole and Greens before that) at 1475 South Pearl Street. Tavern Hospitality Group, which bought the building, had a hearing with the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses on July 2…

Curt Fentress exhibit ready to take off at Denver Art Museum

More than two decades ago, Curt Fentress got Denver International Airport off the ground, designing the iconic tent-roofed terminal after the Perez Group’s plans crashed and burned. But when the city decided to expand DIA, it snubbed Denver-based Fentress, going with starchitect Santiago Calatrava…

Reader: City attacks local businesses, rather than help them

Two prominent restaurateurs are involved in very public spats with the city. Frank Bonanno, owner of Osteria Marco, among other restaurants, admits he can be a “dick.” Especially when fighting the Denver Department of Environmental Health: posting missives on his blog aimed at Danica Lee, the department’s food program manager…

Reader: Josiah Hesse is cruising for a bruising

Cool or crap? Yesterday two Show and Tell writers offered a point/counterpoint on cruiser bikes. But while Britt Chester has been cruising with his “Cruiser bikes rule” piece, Josiah Hesse’s “Cruiser bikes suck” seems to have hit a brick wall…of criticism…

El Diablo and Sketch are closed…for now

El Diablo does not look like this tonight. There are no crowds. In fact, the restaurant is closed, as is Sketch, its sibling next door. Very early yesterday morning, the city slapped the entire First Avenue Hotel building with notices to vacate the premise — immediately…

Blue Sushi Sake Grill joins the LoDo swim

The second of three new sushi joints just opened in LoDo. After a series of preview parties, Blue Sushi Sake Grill opened yesterday in the former home of Dixons on the 16th Street Mall (or at least some of it; the other portion is now Lucky Pie)…

Reader: Colorado Tomato Battle is one juicy story

You say tomato, I say tomato — either way, it hurts like hell when you’re hit by a green one. And it smells worse when you’re hit by a rotten one, as Natalie Gonzales learned when she joined in the Colorado Tomato Battle this past weekend. The event brought back…