Mexican Standoff

I asked the Mexican what he wanted to eat during his visit to Denver. In addition to being the author of Ask a Mexican, a weekly column now published in 31 papers, Gustavo Arellano is the food editor at our sibling paper, OC Weekly, in Southern California. So finding the…

Mexican Standoff

I asked the Mexican what he wanted to eat during his visit to Denver. In addition to being the author of Ask a Mexican, a weekly column now published in 31 papers, Gustavo Arellano is the food editor at our sibling paper, OC Weekly, in Southern California. So finding the…

Greetings from DIA

Maybe all it took was Sunday’s visit from Mary Peters, the Transportation secretary, who vowed to keep the nation’s airports operating through the holidays — and choose Denver as the poster child for last year’s dysfunctional flying. Maybe it was the holiday entertainment that kicked off yesterday, which translated to…

Chicken and Waffles

There are essentially two kinds of restaurants: those run for the benefit of customers and those run as playgrounds for chefs. The Corner Office is unabashedly one of the former, and that “unabashedly”part is why it’s so successful. With no shame, no tongue-in-cheek, smirking irony, the bar will pour you…

Tuesday Hearsay

Received word last week thatAchille Lauro’s Matt Close, was recently hospitalized after the bike he was riding was hit by a van. The accident, which left Close with a fractured pelvis and rib damage, has sidelined the singer/guitarist from performing for the time being. (In a bit of cruel irony,…

The Late, Late Election Results

More than a week after the dust had settled in every other political battle in the state, results were finally announced in the only contest that really counts among firefighters in a certain mountain town: the Evergreen Fire Protection District recall election. The mail-in ballot had been delayed by printing…

To the Top, With a Bullet

In the Best of Denver 2007, Jason Sheehan named Ha Noi “The Best Taste of Hanoi,” saying this: “If you’re from Vietnam, this is comfort food. If you’re not, it’s a fantastic education in the less common flavors of Southeast Asia. Gelatinized duck’s blood, fishscale mint, sawgrass and other, even…

To the Top, With a Bullet

In the Best of Denver 2007, Jason Sheehan named Ha Noi “The Best Taste of Hanoi,” saying this: “If you’re from Vietnam, this is comfort food. If you’re not, it’s a fantastic education in the less common flavors of Southeast Asia. Gelatinized duck’s blood, fishscale mint, sawgrass and other, even…

Shop Till You’re Dropped

A few years ago, our hearty band of pranksters devised the Bad Colorado Souvenir Mall Crawl Challenge, a one-hour contest to find the very worst souvenir available on the 16th Street Mall. But it was no challenge at all. Once a bastion of great shopping – with real department stores…

Getting Denver Ready for the DNC

Hundreds of journalists descended on Denver this week for a Democratic National Convention briefing at the Pepsi Center, just a taste of the tens of thousands who will hit this city next August. On Monday night, many of those journalists got their own first taste of Denver at a reception…

The Plains Truth

Plainsong, Colorado author Kent Haruf’s lyrical, spare novel, was considered too racy for the One Book, One Denver program. But it should work just fine at the Stage Theatre, where the world premiere of the adaptation based on the novel debuts tonight in previews. Last year, the Denver Center Theatre…

God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut

On Sunday, the city hosted its first — but with any luck, not last — Kurt Vonnegut appreciation event, with assorted celebrities (or what passes for them in this town) reading two-minutes snippets of his work, fans doing the same, and then Mayor John Hickenlooper — whose father went to…

A Date at 8 Rivers

The new restaurant is small — a shotgun storefront in the middle of the Highland Square action, surrounded by boutiques, bookstores, galleries and other restaurants, with seating for thirty, maybe, a small patio and a loud sound system that plays non-stop reggae that drifts out into the street and down…

A Date at 8 Rivers

The new restaurant is small — a shotgun storefront in the middle of the Highland Square action, surrounded by boutiques, bookstores, galleries and other restaurants, with seating for thirty, maybe, a small patio and a loud sound system that plays non-stop reggae that drifts out into the street and down…

Welcome to Demver

Hundreds of journalists are in town for a Democratic National Convention briefing at the Pepsi Center today, a taste of the thousands who will descend on this city next August. Last night, the journalists got their own taste of Denver at a reception at the Wynkoop Brewing Company, the town’s…

A Killer Special

Tonight, KBDI Channel 12 will repeat of “When Kids Get Life,” a Frontline special that profiled five young men in Colorado who received the mandatory sentence of life without parole when they were convicted of first-degree murder in adult court — even though they were juveniles when the crimes were…

The Old Magic and the New

Old magicians never die. They just disappear in a puff of smoke, usually through a trapdoor. When I heard that the New Denver Civic Theatre had actually booked a live magic show for the next four weeks, staged by up-and-vanishing illusionist Nick Felix, I knew I had to get Vel-Dini…

A Party Goes Dry

While Coloradans raised their glasses last September in a coordinated toast to British beer expert and frequent Colorado visitor Michael Jackson, who died on August 30 at the age of 65, they will lower their glasses today to salute Earl Dodge, the six-time Prohibition Party presidential candidate and longtime Denver…

Season’s Greetings

Sure, you’ll be snowed by all the deals at the sixteenth annual Colorado Ski & Snowboard Expo, which turns the Colorado Convention Center into a giant temporary ski shop (with 20,000 square feet of inventory, as well as info from all 25 Colorado resorts) today through November 11. But there’s…

Giving Arts the Business

It used to be that companies thought they’d done their bit for the arts when they slapped a couple of cheesy LeRoy Neiman prints on the wall, piped in Montovani and put an old copy of the New Yorker in the waiting room. But over the years, Colorado companies have…

Icon Burger Gets Smashed

When I was talking with Tom Ryan for my review of Smashburger, he told me that Icon Burger — the classic burger joint at 2755 Dagny Way in Lafayette that was the first burger property picked up by Cervantes Capital — will soon be shut down and turned into a…

Icon Burger Gets Smashed

When I was talking with Tom Ryan for my review of Smashburger, he told me that Icon Burger — the classic burger joint at 2755 Dagny Way in Lafayette that was the first burger property picked up by Cervantes Capital — will soon be shut down and turned into a…