Wake-Up Call: The rest is history

In retrospect, Denver might have been smart to delay its 150th anniversary celebration to next May, to mark the day in 1859 when the towns of Aurora and Denver officially merged into the start of the city we know today. Back in 1959, the city and state had quite a…

Discovery of the day: Partida Organic Agave Nectar

For those of you who don’t like margaritas because the sweet and sour makes your teeth squeak, have we got a discovery for you: agave nectar. At a Partida Tequila tasting at Lola this week, we got to sample Partida’s 100 percent organic agave nectar — clean-tasting, sweet, not as…

Tocabe coming to northwest Denver

The concept behind Tocabe: An American Indian Eatery sounds like a concept whose time has come. It’s designed to be almost a Native American Chipotle, with an emphasis on healthy, local fare. But while Tocabe sounds like a concept whose time has come, it’s also taking its time. The owners…

What burns my toast: Bad bacon

I’m a hopeless romantic and my one true love is food — so when it betrays me, I am especially hurt. On Monday I ambled into my local Whole Foods (which is the equivalent of a candy addict going into a candy store or a porn addict into a porn…

Salud! The naked truth on Lola’s Partida Dinner

Jamey Fader, with pants. “Tequila is a very expressive spirit,” says Sofia Partida, whose family tequila was first introduced to this country in Colorado in 2005. “That’s why we get so expressive when we talk about it.” And how. “Tequila has its fun side,” says chef Jamey Fader. “Like Sometimes…

Shazam! Shazz Cafe suddenly appears

If you were the person you’d always wanted to be, would you look like this? Suddenly, Lowell Boulevard is becoming a very hot restaurant street. First, of course, there was the much ballyhooed transformation of the old Billy’s Inn at 4403 Lowell into the very cool, very hip Billy’s Inn…

Wake-Up Call: Looking for work is hard work

Today is officially Keep Colorado Working day – but where, exactly, are people supposed to be working? Yesterday, Intrawest Corporation– which runs Winter Park and owns Steamboat and Copper Mountain – announced companywide cuts. (Happy opening day, Winter Park!) And here in town, longtime businesses are looking at layoffs –…

The Cooler is very cool

Yesterday we took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to visit The Cooler, a bar/restaurant at 2045 Sheridan in Edgewater that not only has a great outdoor patio with a view of Sloan’s Lake, but an unbeatable gimmick: Every beer — and there are lots of them available — comes…

Rocks, on the martini at the Capital Grille

If your bank account isn’t on the rocks, the Capital Grille has just the holiday item for you: a $1,000 martini. But this drink, officially named the Share Our Strength Charity Martini, comes with a real twist: a white topaz and diamond caviar rope bracelet, a limited-edition, custom piece by…

Let Us Eat Cake

History is never very tidy. Technically, we could have celebrated Denver’s 150th anniversary on September 24, the day in 1858 when William McGaa and other min-ers founded St. Charles on the northeast side of Cherry Creek. Or on November 1, when William Russell founded a competing settlement, Auraria, on the…

Flick Pick

Back in 2005, Dorothy Stang died thousands of miles away, in the Amazon jungle where the 73-year-old nun had spent decades trying to help poor settlers and save the Brazilian rainforest. But her story hit home with local filmmakers Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher, who followed Denver resident David Stang…

Buy at Whole Foods, help SAME Cafe

On Thursday, November 20, on Whole Foods Giving Day, 5 percent of all purchases made at the Capitol Hill store at 900 East 11th Avenue will benefit SAME Cafe, at 2023 East Colfax Avenue. According to the Whole Foods website, that store “has been an integral part of the Denver…

The most famous line cook at HoJo’s: Jacques Pepin

Dwayne Clark just opened his third Davies Chuck Wagon Diner — this one inside a Howard Johnson’s at 12100 West 44th in Wheat Ridge. I remember the days when every HoJo’s had its own restaurant, but the chain has not fared particularly well through the ups and downs of this…

Beatrice & Woodsley is a real trip

Chef Pete List welcomes you to Beatrice & Woodsley. After dark, Beatrice & Woodsley glows. The windows, tinted gold, show a dreamlike version of the interior. The interior shows a dreamlike version of a restaurant that’s supposed to be a cabin in the aspens that is really the fancy of…

A late-night visit to Izakaya Denver

(Photo from izakayaden.net) In light of the recent departure of chef Gabe Stallone from Izakaya Den, I decided I’d better get back there and see whether the crew he left behind was capable of turning out food as fine as it had been under Stallone’s command back when I reviewed…

Denver ArtsWeek: Piecing together art at Rockmount Ranch Wear

The late Jack A. Weil. Art is where you find it. And on Friday, November 14, the kick-off of Denver ArtsWeek, when eleven museums across town opened their doors to huge, enthusiastic crowds, I found it in what could be the city’s smallest museum: the mezzanine of Rockmount Ranch Wear…

The Branch Inn is history

When the building housing the Branch Inn exploded in Pueblo on Thursday, it not only took a life, it wiped out a piece of history. Although the building at 301 South Union, in the Union Street Historic District, had been empty for some time before new proprietors reopened the Branch…

The week ahead: and the rest is history

Be a Society type. At 5:30 p.m. today, the Colorado Historical Society will host a public confab on the new History Center project, to be built in the 1200 block of Broadway – and not smack-dab in the middle of Civic Center Park, the original scheme when the entire 1300…

Encore for Encores on 26th

There’s action in the 2600 block of Welton Street, with a new sign suddenly appearing on the outside of the 725 Club. But as it turns out, the real action is around the corner on 26th, just past Zona’s. Because after a long delay, Encores on 26th is now getting…

Parallel Seventeen is without parallel

Parallel Seventeen continues to set styles. Since it opened three years ago, Parallel Seventeen has always been a style leader — in food (Mary Nguyen’s classical Vietnamese cuisine, which Jason Sheehan raved about when he reviewed the restaurant), in decor (elegantly hip), in entertainment (with rotating DJs). And now it’s…