Frank Bonanno, who was named a semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur in this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards, didn’t make the cut when the finalists were announced Monday. But he’s already won a string of honors, including Best New Restaurant in Best of Denver 2009 for Bones, the noodle house that…
It’s all over but the shouting — and the counting — for the Readers’ Choice for the Best New Restaurant to open in 2009. More than fifteen noteworthy restaurants opened last year — add Cafe Options, Interstate Bar & Grill and the Lobby to the list here — which could…
For months, my e-mail has been deluged with a blizzard of messages from Colorado candidates. And although the City of Denver just announced that it’s opening late today because of the snow, I just received my first generic message from Mayor John Hickenlooper, who announced his run for governor in…
El Rancho, which bills itself as “a Colorado landmark since 1948,” is such a landmark that it has its own El Rancho exit off I-70. And now it looks like the current owners of the restaurant/event center are looking for their own exit. Although the restaurant’s still open, the 16,000…
Eugenia Bone, a cookbook author who divides her time between Crawford and New York City, is also a finalist in the James Beard Foundation Awards, in the cookbook Single Subject category for her 2009 book, Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods. Bone’s first book,…
The people gathered in a meeting room at the Blair Caldwell library last summer were getting restless. “You all wasted our time,” proclaimed one community activist. “This was not a waste of your time,” replied Rico Munn, then-director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Affairs, which includes the Division of…
The James Beard Foundation just announced the finalists for its restaurant and chef awards, and while Colorado had a slew of semi-finalists when that list was announced last month, relatively few made the cut. No Outstanding Restaurateur, no Outstanding Chef. The names that did survive: Frasca Food + Wine for…
News of the writing finalists in the James Beard Foundation Awards is slowly leaking out of New York City, with the official list coming at noon today. But we already know that Jared Jacang Maher is a contender in the newspaper feature writing category for his February 2009 cover story…
Johnson’s Corner, the classic truck stop just past the Berthoud exit on I-25, went through a major renovation a few years back that completely changed the joint, removing much of its ’50s charm — although we still considered it worthy of Guy Fieri’s attentions on a recent Diners, Drive-Ins and…
Cafe Society served up seven Guess Where I’m Eating/Drinking contests last week, featuring everything from a very veggie burger to a disappointing Sazarak to a charcuterie platter complete with caperberries. For correctly that dish from Second Home, Raven is now the lucky winner of a DINR deck. Raven, send your…
The last time the House judiciary committee considered HB 1284, which would regulate medical marijuana from seed to sale in this state, the March 4 hearing went on for ten hours, and over 800 people signed up to testify. Today, when the committee again takes up HB 1284, there will…
Denver is suddenly getting very rustic. Earlier this month, the Lost Lake Lounge took over the former home of the Bulldog Bar at 3602 East Colfax Avenue. Now the Cabin on Broadway has opened at 2479 South Broadway. That’s the woodsy-looking building previously occupied by Olde Tyme Drafts & Dawgs…
Steve Horner, go back to your corner. This week, Westword received a packet that contained copies of a dozen letters sent to Horner, the anti-ladies’ night crusader, from Steven Chavez, director of the Colorado Division of Civil Rights, all dated March 11 and all starting this way: “This letter is…
Despite the lousy economy, 2009 was a great year for new restaurants. Some years, when we set out to pick the Best New Restaurant for the Best of Denver, we’re hard-pressed to come up with one worthy contender. This round, we have more than a dozen restaurants that last year…
Steve Horner, go back to your corner. This week, Westword received a packet that contained copies of a dozen letters sent to Horner, the anti-ladies’ night crusader, from Steven Chavez, director of the Colorado Division of Civil Rights, all dated March 11 and all starting this way: “This letter is…
Soleil Mediterranean Grille & Wine Bar, at 2817 East Third Avenue, had a sunny atmosphere — but its forecast was looking cloudy. So the owners have closed the doors of the Cherry Creek restaurant — for now. Although Soleil’s website is still up, the phone is disconnected. The owners plan…
Leadville has a long, colorful history. Colorful enough even without the latest colorful chapter: the much-publicized arrest in Ireland of Leadville-come-lately resident Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a 31-year-old blond, single mom whose own mother — also a recent addition to the Leadville lineup — has been all over TV talking about her…
The first sign that something was funny? People kept coming up to Jolt — real name Jeremy Silas Ulibarri — at First Friday, telling the urban artist that they’d seen his work on the History Channel earlier that evening, that his Guerilla Garden logo, a stylized graffiti gorilla, had been…
More than anything, I’m mad at myself,” admits Francisco Gallardo, program director of Denver’s Gang Rescue and Support Project, one of the key players in the Gang Reduction Initiative of Denver and a willing participant in “Mile High Killers” — until he actually saw that episode of Gangland. “Nothing but…
Like so many people before and after him, Samuel Clemens found himself in the West. But Mark Twain, the character who emerged after Clemens’s almost six-year sojourn along the frontier, was very unlike anyone who’d gone before — or has come after. He remains America’s best-loved, most influential writer…and advanced…
Dazzle, at 930 Lincoln Street, is already a great jazz bar with an incredibly expansive happy hour, both in terms of items — big burgers and fries (with homemade ketchup) for $5, a pot roast slider that’s a meal in itself for just two bucks — and hours (4 to…
We’re just two weeks away from the Best of Denver 2010 and starting to tally the Readers’ Poll ballots, on which we asked your opinion on everything from the best blowout brunch to the best nachos to the best vegetarian dish in a non-vegetarian restaurant to the best new restaurant…
