CityGrille gets a crash course

Those “Best Burger” banners over CityGrille, at 321 East Colfax Avenue, got plenty of play last week when TV newscasts reported on a Colfax car accident November 24 that sent a car careening into the doorway. The bar/burger joint had to close for the night to assess the damage, but…

Wake-Up Call: Buy local, think local December 1-7

Buy local week continues through December 5. And while, with Barack Obama’s appointments announcement today, it doesn’t look like many Coloradans will be heading to D.C., there’s plenty to do here at home. Nothing gets the home fires burning like neighborhood fights, and Denver’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program — created by the…

Start December with dinner out — but not too far out — at Black Cat

Think local, eat local. Black Cat is celebrating this holiday month with “100 Mile” dinners, with four-course menus that will change nightly through December 30 — but will always feature ingredients that chef Eric Skokan can find within a hundred-mile radius. And as Jason Sheehan discovered when he reviewed this restaurant…

Red Trolley is moving fast — too fast

Red Trolley — the coffee house/ice cream shop/cafe that opened just this summer at 2639 West 32nd Avenue — left its second hang-tag of the week on the doors of houses in northwest Denver. “O.ver.zeal.ous,” it read. “Excessively enthusiastic.” The Trolley, it turned out, is moving so fast that it…

Building for the future: Who’s next for 1100 Bannock?

For lease: the luckiest building in Denver. Four years ago, this space at 11th Avenue and Bannock Street was home to the Ken Salazar for Senate campaign — a race that Colorado’s then-attorney general won easily when the Republicans lined up behind Peter Coors, whose candidacy fell flatter than a day-old…

Return to Five Guys

Allow me to let you in on a little secret: I didn’t let Five Guys go after this week’s review was done. Couldn’t let the place go, actually.There was just something about it that bugged me–the amount of praise the chain has gotten, the pure number of people who list…

Drink Breckenridge

D’Vine Wine, a boutique winery, just opened at 211 South Main Street in Breckenridge, the fourth Colorado location of the California-based franchise. D’Vine makes handcrafted wines in its Colorado wineries, using freshly crushed grapes from Napa vineyards to create customized wines. “We are eager to introduce our wines to locals and tourists alike in one…

Eat Aspen! Part two

Over in Snowmass, Silvertree Properties has a new executive chef: Alan Sirull, a 25-year veteran of the business. He’s bringing comfort food — with an emphasis on rotisserie meals — back to the property’s two restaurants, Brothers’ Grille and Village Steakhouse. For all the details, go to www.silvertreeproperties.com.  …

Eat Aspen! Part one

It’s not too late to head for the hills. On Friday, November 28, the Hotel Jerome will reopen two dining venues: The Library (a wine bar with a small-plates menu) and the Century Room (fine dining). And in honor of their reopening, on Friday both hotel guests and local residents will…

Holy mole! The Mexican weighs in

El Maestro, a reader of the SF Weekly, Westword’s partner paper, recently asked Gustavo Arellano, author of Ask a Mexican and a food editor himself, to explain the difference between a mole and molé, since an “offending column” was placed on the back “of the glorious page that has ¡Ask…

Wake-Up Call: The view from DIA

Either Denver International Airport really has its act together — or travel is way, way down this holiday season. I arrived at DIA at 7 a.m., parked in the garage — the $18-a-day fee is my way to atone for spending Thanksgiving, and considerable dollars, in Arizona rather than Denver,…

I am not the guy for Five Guys

Since 1986, Five Guys Burgers and Fries has focused on keeping things simple, serving burgers wrapped in foil and bagged to-go in greasy brown paper sacks, even if you’re eating in; Idaho potato fries, hand-cut and fried in peanut oil; cold Cokes; some hot dogs. It’s a classic American operation,…

Put the turkey in the basket or else it gets the hose again…

Do they give Academy Awards for cameramen on local news remotes? They should, and this year it should go to the guy who shot the now notorious Sarah Palin Turkey Video–the one in which the once-and-future governor was at a Wasilla turkey ranch to give one of those ridiculous Thanksgiving…

They’re not thanking heaven for this 7-Eleven

Focus Property Group is striking out with some neighbors in the Ballpark neighborhood. The company wants to put a 7-Eleven at 2425 Broadway, between Silver State Lofts and the PBA Architectural firm, and across the street from the Granada Fish Company.  Tonight at 6 p.m., representatives of Focus, as well…

Critical picks on Thanksgiving Day

In case you’re looking for anything but turkey and stuffing on Thanksgiving, several of Jason Sheehan’s favorite restaurants will be serving their normal menus on Turkey Day. The short list:…

Wake-Up Call: We all have a duty to buy

When he kicked off Denver ArtsWeek earlier this month, Mayor John Hickenlooper echoed former Governor Dick “Duty to Die” Lamm when he told the crowd, “We all have a duty to shop.” Now Denverites will get a chance to put their money where Hick’s mouth is, when the mayor and assorted…

Win a holiday party at Loews Denver Hotel

If your company has canceled its holiday party because of the economy, there’s still hope! Loews Denver Hotel will be giving away a full holiday party to a local small business. To enter, a business manager must create a DVD or YouTube video explaining why his or her company should…

Hosea Rosenberg dodges a bullet on Top Chef: New York

Seriously, dude? Canned crab? What the fuck was Hosea Rosenberg thinking? For those of you who missed the most recent episode of Top Chef: New York, let me catch you up. The chef-testants had to cook New American for fifty. The catch? They had to do it from the kitchen…

A tough month for Colorado kitchen disasters

First, the historic Branch Inn in Pueblo was wiped right off the map by a massive explosion; last Friday, authorities announced that their investigation into the disaster had concluded it was an accident. That’s undoubtedly the same conclusion they’ll reach in the southeast corner of the state, where three people died…

Wake-Up Call: The week ahead, November 24-30

It’s the economy, stupid. While chairmen of the Big Three auto-makers jetted by private plane to Washington, D.C., looking for a handout last week, hundreds of out-of-work Coloradans lined up before each prospective employer at job fairs across the state last Thursday. And on Saturday, 40,000 people descended on a…

Truffles and flourishes at Marczyk Fine Foods

For the not-so-thrifty holiday shopper, Marczyk Fine Foods has just the thing: black and white truffles. I just got word from Barbara Macfarlane that the store at 770 East 17th Avenue has taken in a shipment of white truffles from Alba and Burgundy blacks — right in time for the…