Cherry On Top overly sweetens Cherry Creek mall

If you recently went looking for Häagen-Dazs in the Cherry Creek mall, instead you no doubt found a sleek frozen yogurt vendor with a line of self-serve dispensers and a toppings bar floating oddly close to the flow of passerbyers. Cherry On Top is the latest entry in a string…

What’s the perfect Colorado cocktail?

Rich Grant, the beer-loving communications director for Visit Denver, is looking for the perfect Colorado cocktail. Denver already enjoys a reputation as the Napa of craft brewing — but Grant thinks we could use an emblematic cocktail, too. Something he could pour out for visiting journalists to give them a…

Is Cassie Smith too heavy for Hooters? Fat chance.

HHorton sees a Hooter. If you’re into breasts and thighs for happy hour, there’s no better place to find them than your local Hooters, where the servers wear skimpy attire and hang on your every word, if not your wallet. Cassie Smith of Roseville, Michigan, had been hoofing it at…

Hotel Teatro springs forth with a new signature cocktail

It’s spring cocktail season, and you know what that means: the drinking is easy. And at the Hotel Teatro, which houses Prima and Restaurant Kevin Taylor, sommelier Brandon Tebbe has concocted the Summer-tini, a cocktail shaken with Vodka14, a Colorado organic vodka that’s distilled in the Rockies. “It’s a top…

Einstein’s is liberating its chickens — or maybe it’s not

The Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, which owns several bagel and coffee chains, including Einstein Bros, recently announced that it will start using cage-free eggs in its stores. “We’re proud to be launching this initiative and believe that moving in this direction will help improve the treatment of hens,” says James…

Strange Brewing tapped its first kegs last night

Strange Brewing Company, Denver’s newest craft beer maker, opened for business Wednesday, pouring its Paint It Black Stout and Strange Pale Ale for friends, family and beer lovers who showed up to toast the place. Located in a business park at 13th Avenue and Zuni Street, Strange was founded by…

Chipotle is gunning for 50 percent local produce this year

Chipotle Mexican Grill, the ever-expanding Denver-based burrito chain, which just opened its first international store in London, is now upping the ante in the local produce department by committing to use 50 percent of at least one produce item from locally grown sources in its restaurants. In Colorado, that means…

Guess where I’m eating?

Last week, during one of our recent torrential downpours, I ducked into a restaurant to dry off and shake off the shivers with a hearty bowl of steaming minestrone soup. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am…

Today: Both Botanic Gardens locations grow culinary knowledge

Tonight, garden designer and cookbook author Lucinda Hutson will speak at the Denver Botanic Gardens, 1005 York Street, as part of the Bonfils-Stanton Lecture Series. The garden will host an herb-garden tour at 5:15 and a Slow Food Denver tasting at 6 p.m.; the lecture starts at 7. Admission is…

Highland Tavern is LoHi and mighty

There are more than forty restaurants in Denver’s Lower Highland neighborhood, and that’s if you stop counting at I-25. Extend the boundary by one block to the Platte River and you pick up another seven: a sushi place, a gourmet pizza shop, a wine bar/coffee shop, a date-night destination, a…

Jezebel’s serves up spirits — alcoholic and otherwise

Back in February, trudging drunkenly down the middle of High Street in near-whiteout blizzard conditions, Darren and I decided that if the just-opened Jezebel’s could hold on through the winter in its outskirts-of-town location, we’d have found our summer spot, our walking-distance watering hole — the Holy Grail for Cole…

Guess where I’m drinking?

This classic dive was recently purchased by a new owner, who did a little updating inside — including adding the new “signage” hyping the patio. Can you guess where I’m drinking? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I drinking/eating posts is entered…

Hey Y’all! You, too, can cook with butter queen Paula Deen

I love Paula Deen. I mean, which other high-profile chef whose mug is plastered all over your TV screen, gets hit in the face with a ham, loads her promotional videos with lewd sex talk and profanity, accidentally drops her pants, revealing her beige granny undies, while strutting across the…

Guess where I’m eating?

After last Saturday’s “Spring Chicken” Hush Denver dinner on the roof of the Denver Art Museum Residences, the chefs from Sweet Basil pined for a platter of tacos, which they got in abundance (and happily shared) at a local restaurant renowned for its Mexican grub. Can you guess where I’m…