Both Governor Bill Ritter and Lieutenant Governor Barbara O’Brien were out of town yesterday (he to the Western Governors’ Association meeting in Utah, she to an education confab in North Carolina). And who did that leave in charge? By the Colorado Constitution, the State Senate President. But Brandon Shaffer, who…
Pasta Jay’s has opened a new restaurant at 9226 Park Meadows Drive in Lone Tree. That makes three for the Boulder-based business, which didn’t have much luck when it made a brief foray into LoDo, at 1435 Market Street (now the Pour House Pub), more than a decade ago, but…
The White Way Grill, a classic diner created by Valentine Diners, a Wichita, Kansas-based company that produced “portable steel sandwich shops,” is back in business in Lakewood. Sort of. The White Way was an Aristocrat model, purchased for $3,300 back in 1948 (Valentine made diners between 1938 and the late…
Today’s the last chance to vote for the next selection in the city’s sixth One Book, One Denver reading program — and no, despite the wacky weather lately, not to mention yesterday’s funnel clouds over downtown Denver, the Wizard of Oz is not one of the possibilities. The 27 eligible…
The Congress for the New Urbanism is holding its annual conference in Denver June 10-14, complete with bus tours of our most well-known new-urbanist enclaves. But how do you judge walkable, neighborhood-based developments? Is it by the diversity (or lack thereof) of their residents, the number of parks nearby, their…
Stella Cordova celebrated her hundredth birthday on April 20. But she’s the one who gave Denver the gift: Chubby’s, the old drive-in at 1231 West 38th Avenue that she turned it into a neighborhood icon, as well as a purveyor of the town’s hottest, meanest green chile.Stella kept an eye…
Details are finally coming in on the Simms Steakhouse redo. According to the announcement, the restaurant “is now splashed with deep hues of red, turquoise, green and brown and adorned with unique lighting, creating a sleek new ambience with a modern, yet welcoming feel.” (Judging from the photo above, the…
Two decades ago, Simms Landing was still a dining destination, because the view overlooking Denver was so spectacular you could almost ignore how mediocre the food was becoming. (That view even rated a few pre-web archive Best of Denver awards.) And in the intervening years, the place was still packed…
The film stories keep unrolling in Denver, where the Denver Film Society is trying to rebuild after a morale-deadening miss at installing a new executive director, and the just re-established state film office starts the process of luring moviemakers to Colorado. Still, as Imagine That, the Eddie Murphy filmed here…
Yes, mom-and-pop places are suffering in today’s economy — but so are strip clubs! According to a story by former Denver Post writer Kris Hudson in today’s Wall Street Journal, the country’s two publicly traded strip-club chains have been hit hard by the recession, and are now “catering to a…
See a slideshow from the event at westword.com/slideshow. Last night’s Hot Rocks Griller Challenge at Elway’s in Cherry Creek was hot (if a bit damp). Some of Denver’s most talented chefs grilled up a storm, creating sliders for a cause (the event benefited the Denver Health Foundation). Come back here…
This just in: The Icehouse Tavern at 1801 Wynkoop Street will be opening June 22, according to James Mazzio, the award-winning chef who ran the kitchen at the space’s previous incarnation, Via, and who’s taken a very active role in its transformation into the Icehouse Tavern.It’s still owned by the…
Late Monday, the Denver Film Society announced that a search was already under way for a new executive director to take the place of Bo Smith, who’d finally been dismissed just two days before. “We are looking for a permanent replacement,” DFS board chair David Charmatz told me. “We’ll decide…
In retrospect, the new executive director’s on-stage debut at the screening of Slumdog Millionaire at last November’s Denver International Film Festival should have been a clue. Bo Smith, who’d been selected by the Denver Film Society board to take over from retiring founder Ron Henderson and two interim directors, had…
Colorado, Take 2 “I found it in Colorado.” That’s how Billy Crystal explains his smile at the end of City Slickers, the 1991 movie filmed largely in Colorado, and it’s the final scene on David Emrich’s promotional reel touting Colorado filmmaking and the more than 375 movies at least partially…
Maggiano’s Little Italy introduced an amazing deal today. From now through July 8, if you dine at a Maggiano’s — and there are two in Denver, one in the Pavilions and one in the Tech Center — and order a chef’s $12.95 speciality dish, you’ll get your next night’s dinner…
Twins Will and Dave Elger, who were born in Mexico but are very much Denverites, worked in the tequila business for a decade before creating their own five years ago: Muchote Tequila. Nancy Levine first caught up with it last September at Lime XS, where she discovered it made a…
While most of the employees of the Denver Film Society are back at work, they’re not quite sure if they’re still employees, because twenty of them had officially resigned before the board voted to dismiss new executive director Bo Smith last Friday. And there’s also the matter of a major…
Westword’s last office was across the street from the Wynkoop Brewing Company at 1634 Wynkoop Street — and in the early days of that brewpub, our staffers drank a lot of beers (and other things) there. “Westword kept us in business for two years,” former brewmeister/now mayor John Hickenlooper recalled…
Denver’s entry on The Bachelorette, “pizza entrepreneur” Mark Huebner, survived round three of the show last night. But while he’s wooing bachelorette Jillian — in TV time, at least — work continues at Huebner’s Denver Pizza Company, with the windows at 309 West 11th Avenue filled with city permits and…
From the hillside overlooking downtown, La Loma has been slinging green chile for close to four decades. It’s the recipe created by grandma Savina Mendoza, whose chile became so popular that the two families that opened La Loma in an old bungalow back in 1974 soon had saved enough money…
There’s plenty of action in the 2000 block of Larimer Street these days. The Gin Mill is finishing up the Barn Out Back, its backyard patio; the Three Door Bistro is looking at a July debut; and across the street at 2046 Larimer, Zanzibar Billiards Bar & Grill is getting…
