Denver Daisy, RIP

Leave town for a few days, and what happens? Your Denver Daisy starts pushing up daisies. As described here, my Denver Daisy — or Rudbeckia Denver Daisy, as the special plant celebrating the 150th anniversary of Denver is officially known — got off to a fast start. It germinated almost…

When It’s Swingtime in the Rockies

Just got copied on a form letter sent by one Bradley Guildner of Thornton to CBS regarding Swingtown. “The offensive content clearly violates our local community standards and does not reflect your license obligation ‘to serve the public interest,'” he writes. “I urge you to refuse to air future episodes…

Road Food

Just a few hours after returning from the James Beard Awards in Manhattan, sans medal, to Laura’s folk’s house in the Philadelphia suburbs, we found ourselves once again back in our rental car and hightailing it for the heart of the City of Brotherly Love. The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies…

Ted, RIP

A moment of silence, please, for Ted, the inanely named little brother of United Airlines. The low-cost, shuttle-like service to nearby destinations made sense when it was announced in late 1993; the name never did. It was the equivalent of renaming an economically challenged portion of this city “Ver.” Even…

The Final Frontier

I try to be faithful to Frontier, the homegrown airline that took off in 1994. And when I heard that it was adding flights to Missoula, Montana, where I frequently travel, it seemed that my longtime loyalty had paid off: I used to fly the old Frontier direct to Montana,…

Culinary Cruising: All Aboard

Marisol, the author of The Lady, the Chef and the Courtesan, a sensual, romantic novel that comes complete with recipes, has left landlocked Denver for a stint as a celebrity chef. She’s sending daily missives from her temporary home: a cruise ship. Day One: After fifteen or so hours of…

Beard House Blues

So, yeah….As has already been announced, I tanked it at the James Beard Awards. Didn’t win, lost it in the clutch, came home empty-handed (again…). But you know what? That’s cool for a couple of different reasons. For one, it was just an honor to be nominated and blah blah…

Play Ball: The Tavern Downtown

Catering to the pre- and post-Rockies game crowd, the Tavern Downtown has a massive rooftop where the drinks are strong and the atmosphere is laid-back. From this vantage point, you can see any fights that might break out on Market Street, as well as any action over by Coors Field…

James Beard Awards Update

Five years ago, when Jason Sheehan had not yet worked at Westword a year, he won the James Beard Foundation award for reviewing — the biggest award around for a food critic. This year he was again a finalist for the prize, but at last night’s awards ceremony in New…

Room With a View: Tamayo

Tamayo may very well be the best place in Denver to watch a sunset. It’s certainly the best place in Denver to watch a sunset while shooting a flight of tequila. From the spacious rooftop deck of Richard Sandoval’s upscale Mexican restaurant at the edge of Larimer Square, you have…

Urban Oasis: La Rumba

Party! Party! Since it’s attached to a popular nightspot, La Rumba’s patio isn’t open every day. But on sunny afternoons, it can be a pleasant urban oasis, a perfect spot to sip a mojito and marvel at all the construction still going on in this once-sleepy part of town. And…

Bursting Sheehan’s Bubble

A condensed version of Justin Warner’s letter about Jason Sheehan’s talents — or lack thereof — is published in the June 5 letters column. But the entire letter was so tasty that we present it here, uncut and unedited: Jason Sheehan: I write in regards to my disgust of your…

Where the Action Is: Mezcal

The night before the first Colfax Marathon in May 2006, we decided that we needed to go the distance ourselves — with some marathon drinking. And where better to show our support for the runners than from Mezcal’s patio, a sliver of sectioned-off sidewalk in the heart of the Bluebird…

Denver Daisy, Day Twenty

My Denver daisy got off to a fast start, but it’s been slow going — and growing — since then. By June 4, day twenty, from when I poured the seed packet into my scrounged pot of dirt — and the official date for germination — my packet had produced…

Let’s Put On a Show!

City boosters suffering performance anxiety over the upcoming Democratic National Convention should take heart in the major gathering that hits town today: the National Performing Arts Convention, with more than two dozen disciplines banding together at one confab to share thoughts on the challenges they face — and then sharing…

Mean, Lean ‘N Green

It’s not easy being green. Not much fun, either. Although restaurants specializing in good, healthy food abound in Denver, and many chefs focus on using local products whenever possible, the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee has a way of sucking all the flavor out of a concept with its bossy,…

Get Sauced: Maggiano’s Little Italy

We love the patio outside Maggiano’s in the Denver Pavilions, where the people-watching is almost as delicious as the happy-hour deals from 3-5:30 p.m. weekdays, including calamari fritte ($1.95), spaghetti & mini meatballs ($2.95) and chicken saltimbocca ($3.95). And both this location and Maggiano’s DTC are offering lighter, seasonal summer…

Welcome to the Windy City

The newspapers? Chicago Tribunes. The tattered phone books? Chicagoland area directories. The game on the radio is the Cubs or the Bears and the tin stars in the display case are all replicas of Chicago police badges. Chicago is really less a restaurant than a small, cramped, cluttered and plastic-wrapped…

Taste of Taste of the Nation

Looking around the Westin ballroom Sunday night, I was overwhelmed by one thought: Restaurateurs in Denver are unbelievably generous. Two dozen chefs had volunteered their time, and their supplies, and their sous chefs, to cook up a storm at the 21st annual Taste of the Nation Share Our Strength benefit…

King Aldo

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to have the greatest meal of my (relatively) young life at Eric Ripert’s Manhattan restaurant, Le Bernardin. There was me, my buddy East Coast Dave, Dave’s fiancé Nikki from Hawaii, and it was, in a word, absofuckinglutelymindblowinglyawesome. I wrote about said dinner…

Seafood, Eat It

The owners of Prime 121 at 121 Clayton Lane, a spot formerly (and briefly) occupied by Bob’s Steak and Chop House, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization last month. When I reviewed it last fall, I was impressed by the service, not so much by the steak and trimmings. Now…