My Blue Heaven

At the end of a good night, I often have more takeout stacked in the front seat of my car than I can carry up the stairs in a single trip. Some of my to-go compulsion is work-related. When I need to know exactly what ingredients were in the ravioli,…

Chief Michaud Given Parole

It’s old home week in the Ritter administration, as multi-pensioned top cops who worked with the guv when he was Denver’s DA find new state criminal-justice jobs. Former Denver police chief Ari Zavaras was recruited to try to fix the bloated budget at the Department of Corrections — again; and…

Pimpin’ for Upstate

I have long held that Buffalo, New York — where I spent a few formative years of my cooking career — is a city unjustly labeled as a one-hit food town. Chicken wings, chicken wings, chicken wings, right? Nothing but deep-fried bird parts and snow. But this is wrong. Well,…

Pimpin’ for Upstate

I have long held that Buffalo, New York — where I spent a few formative years of my cooking career — is a city unjustly labeled as a one-hit food town. Chicken wings, chicken wings, chicken wings, right? Nothing but deep-fried bird parts and snow. But this is wrong. Well,…

First, Do No Harm

“Look, Rhumba was never a restaurant that I was fully, culinarily happy with.” That’s Dave Query telling me this. Dave Query, owner of the now defunct Rhumba (above), of the very much funct Lola and Jax and West End Tavern and Zolo Grill. Dave Query, who I took to task…

First, Do No Harm

“Look, Rhumba was never a restaurant that I was fully, culinarily happy with.” That’s Dave Query telling me this. Dave Query, owner of the now defunct Rhumba (above), of the very much funct Lola and Jax and West End Tavern and Zolo Grill. Dave Query, who I took to task…

High Fidelity

The Colorado Legislature may not have known that “Rocky Mountain High” references drug use (ha!), but John Denver sure did. Because here are his lyrics for another song, “Poems, and Prayers, and Promises”: And I have to say it now It’s been a good life all in all It’s really…

High Anxiety

In today’s New York Times piece on the Colorado Legislature adopting “Rocky Mountain High” as a second official state song — “Colorado Has Song in Its Heart, and Not Drugs on Its Mind” — reporter Kirk Johnson offers this gem: “A lot of people probably think it’s already the state…

Coors, of Course

Wow — dope really does affect your memory. Because in all the yapping over making “Rocky Mountain High” a second official state song, no one at the Colorado Legislature mentioned a potential snag. Back in 2005, Coors Brewing Co. bought the rights to the song — the lyrics and music,…

Everybody’s High

The Colorado General Assembly must be on crack to approve making a song like “Rocky Mountain High” the second official state song. After all, the last time it was proposed as a replacement for “Where the Columbines Grow,” soon after John Denver’s death in 1997, legislators shot down the proposal…

Shall We Dance?

Ceviche…fresh chips and chipotle salsa…empanadas and arepas con something-or-other with goat cheese…fried plantains, thick-cut and buttery, crisp at the edges and gooey in the middle. Plantains are hard to do even moderately well, and these were the best fried plantains I’ve had in Denver. Since I eat fried plantains everywhere…

Shall We Dance?

Ceviche…fresh chips and chipotle salsa…empanadas and arepas con something-or-other with goat cheese…fried plantains, thick-cut and buttery, crisp at the edges and gooey in the middle. Plantains are hard to do even moderately well, and these were the best fried plantains I’ve had in Denver. Since I eat fried plantains everywhere…

A Little Confidence

Locked down for years, Casey Holden hardly ever talked to anyone. He lived inside his head because there was no one around but the guards, and they were, well, guards. His social skills, never elaborate to begin with, devolved into a series of grunts and cold stares. Now Holden is…

Columbine Study Questions

The eighth anniversary of the Columbine shootings is rapidly approaching. So is the moment of decision for U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock, who plans to rule on the fate of a trove of court-sealed documents dealing with the massacre’s last remaining secrets. The materials include medical and psychiatric information about…

More Head Games

The last time we reported on Troy Anderson, known on the street as Evil, he’d been trying for more than a year to get an appointment with a psychiatrist at the Colorado State Penitentiary. Being locked down with little human contact for year after year can do things to your…

Denver…Why I Love Her

Rounding the corner at DIA Monday morning, I ran smack into artist Gary Sweeney, who moved from Denver more than a decade ago, but left plenty for this city to remember him by. “America…Why I Love Her,” for example, the airport’s most beloved public-art piece, complete with a map of…

Pennies for Peace

Give PeaceJam a chance. On March 8, a handful of celebs — including Nate Corddly and Martin Sheen — will launch Refunds for Good, which aims to take $20 billion collected over the past 108 years through a federal telephone tax — the “War Tax” — and redirect it to…

Skin Deep

Is it true that bronzed have more fun? Colorado Senate Bill 23, a bill intended to prohibit the use of a tanning bed by a minor unless specifically prescribed by a physician — thus depriving the rest of us of supple, bronzed teens — advanced yesterday on a 6-3 vote…

D Note

The lineup was always heavy on jam bands and, eventually, Adam, Jeremy and Matt realized one of their fundamental problems: the fans of that trippy, spacy, Grateful Dead style music were all showing up stoned and stoned hippies don’t drink. Or at least not enough. What stoned hippies do have…

D Note

The lineup was always heavy on jam bands and, eventually, Adam, Jeremy and Matt realized one of their fundamental problems: the fans of that trippy, spacy, Grateful Dead style music were all showing up stoned and stoned hippies don’t drink. Or at least not enough. What stoned hippies do have…

Devil on the Dance Floor

Denver Police Department Offense Report No: 07-5003857 Date: 3-02-07 Type of Offense: Theft Location of Offense: Armida’s, 840 Lincoln Street Loss: $300 25-year-old victim reports: “I was at Armida’s for Karaoke night. My purse was on the table with my wallet and cash inside it. Some guy tried flirting with…

Return to The Real World

Tyrie is the best The Real World has to offer. It’s been a while since I last picked apart the travesty that is The Real World: Denver. And although it can be argued — and rightfully so — that I’ve been shirking my responsibilities, I’m blaming MTV. I mean, come…