Argyll may put expansion on hold

Robert Thompson’s Argyll was the surprise hit of 2009; despite being labeled a “gastropub,” it even took top honors for Best New Restaurant in our Best of Denver 2010. Argyll was doing so well that Thompson had considered taking on the space next door to the restaurant at 2700 East…

Medical marijuana dispensaries in L.A. go up in smoke

Industry insiders have predicted that Colorado’s new medical-marijuana laws might nearly halve the number of dispensaries in the state, and some of Denver’s dispensaries are on the hit list. But since new laws were instituted in Los Angeles, the reduction has been far more dramatic, with hundreds of dispensaries required…

BenchWarmers’ third Colorado location gets off the bench this week

BenchWarmers will open its third Colorado location on Thursday, June 24, and in touting this accomplishment, the Colorado-based company offers the most succinct business plan ever: “I was at a Colorado Avalanche game one evening with friends,” founder and chief executive officer Kevin Foote, explains in this earlier Cafe Society…

Pinnacol’s Ken Ross hits a rocky patch after Pebble Beach

Graeme McDowell may have won the U.S. Open, but in a far more inexplicable Pebble Beach victory, Ken Ross, the CEO of Pinnacol Assurance, was named Business Person of the Year by the Colorado chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. The award cited his “communication skills.” And he…

Andrew Romanoff job offers focus of House inquiry resolution

It’s getting to be a full-time job tracing the fall-out from the job offers dangled by the White House for Andrew Romanoff. According to Roll Call, House Republicans issued a resolution of inquiry last night demanding documents from the Justice Department on the White House’s role in making job offers…

Mangia Ganja has a gourmet pedigree, thanks to Greg Goldfogel

Greg Goldfogel checked in a couple of weeks to reveal his new plans since abruptly closing Alto, the restaurant that replaced the beloved Ristorante Amore, last summer. “I have finally got my head back on straight,” he said, “filed for bankruptcy, and decided to launch Amore Natural Foods, bringing back…

Chick-a-Latte: Tempest in a D cup

The neighborhood has been hot, hot, hot since Chick-a-Latte started pouring out the coffee — and pouring on the sex — at 4736 East Colfax Avenue. Tomorrow, the coffeeshop’s owners hope to warm up the neighbors by offering a free D cup of coffee to anyone who comes in. That’s…

Pinon Canyon Preservation Festival: Home on the Range

Colorado candidates cowboyed up this week, riding into the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association annual convention in Pueblo to tout their ties to rural Colorado. And in the southeastern quadrant of the state, no topic causes more of a rural row than the proposed expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. The…

Chances takes a chance on former Wolfie’s space

“Eat*Drink*Play,” urges the logo of Chances, a new joint that just opened today in the spot at 1135 Bannock Street that had been Wolfie’s and, before that, Bambino’s. Make that half of the spot — the space has been cut back (the other half is a salon), but there’s still…

TAG takes top place in the Hot Rocks Griller Challenge

Elway’s was hot, hot, hot at last night’s Hot Rocks Griller Challenge, a benefit for the men’s programs at Denver Health. Governor Bill Ritter welcomed the crowd — and got to speak from experience about Denver Health’s care, since he spent several days in the hospital in March after his…

USA Today takes off on Anubis and aliens at DIA

Thanks to the Anubis statue now standing guard outside Denver International Airport, all those conspiracy theories about DIA have taken off again — and they’ve landed the airport smack-dab in today’s edition of USA Today. “Officials insist the 26-foot tall statue of the ancient Egyptian god Anubis now standing outside…

El Diablo lives up to its name — even before opening

El Diablo may be the most appropriate name ever for a restaurant. Jesse Morreale, who took on the massive project of renovating the old First Avenue Hotel at First and Broadway, turning the front area into a restaurant he named El Diablo (an adjacent portion is already Sketch), was in…

Gary Faulkner displays Colorado’s can-do spirit

And here we thought Ryan Snodgrass and Justin Lariscy, the rafting guides who rescued a thirteen-year-old girl from Clear Creek and got arrested as thanks, were take-charge guys. Now comes news of Gary Faulkner, the Greeley man who made it his mission to kill Osama Bin Laden — and was…

Corner Office corners the market on hip restaurant art

The rubber-band installation in the back room of the Corner Office, 1401 Curtis Street, snapped a while ago, but its been replaced with a far cooler piece of art: a mural created by renowned graffiti artists David Villorente and Robert Cartwright, who created New York street art under the name…

Andrew Romanoff edits his former reporter, Dana Milbank

On Sunday, Washington Post writer Dana Milbank weighed in on his “prickly” former editor at the Yale Daily News: one Andrew Romanoff. Romanoff, who’s challenging incumbent Michael Bennet for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, may have left journalism behind, but he still knows how to edit an upstart…

PETA’s ten-worst publicity stunts — until the chicken

The City of Denver will decide today whether PETA can install a 250-pound, bloody and butchered chicken sculpture — dubbed “McCruelty,” but really looking like a worse-for-the-wear Foghorn Leghorn — on the 16th Street Mall. This isn’t PETA’s first stunt, of course. Last year, Jason Sheehan catalogued the animal- (and…

PETA to City of Denver: Pluck you

PETA isn’t chickening out on its push to put “McCruelty,” a 250-pound, bloody and bandaged chicken sculpture, on the 16th Street Mall — and today could be decision day for the City of Denver. PETA has filed all the required applications for the “temporary display of a sculpture…as part of…