Are you a restaurant owner? Does your waitstaff constantly jab your guests with elbows, point when asked where the restrooms are, or, god forbid, pick their nose in plain sight of the diners? Waiting tables is a skill and the best waiters can turn a disaster into a delight. Not…
According to those in the know, a certain food personality that recently whizzed through town stopped in for a bite to eat at the joint where the above pic was snapped. No word on what he digested, but I’m hoping it wasn’t the clams. Can you guess where I’m eating?…
Julie Powell, the former blogger who cooked every recipe from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and then turned her hits and misses into a book of her own, Julie & Julia, was meant to take the big stage tonight in Denver, but for whatever reason (low ticket…
As a countdown to the Best of Denver 2010, coming April 1, Cafe Society is serving up a hundred of our favorite dishes in Denver. Send your own nominations to cafe@westword.com…
The FDA recalls thousands of products each year, presumably so that no one gets numb to all the hysteria. But when it’s popcorn that’s been pulled from the shelves, especially during the time of year when popcorn balls and popcorn strands and big bins of popcorn, caramel corn and cheese…
This is part two of my interview with Max Mackissock, executive chef of Squeaky Bean. To read part one of this interview, click here. Proudest moment as a chef: One of the best parts about being a chef is watching people enjoy our hard work — our food — every…
Quick! First, think of the worst (but funniest!) possible food or beverage around which to stage a cook-off. Now, imagine the worst (but, again, funniest) place to hold said cook-off. Now, imagine the one celebrity chef on earth who should stay far, far away from such a debacle in the…
The Wynkoop Brewing Company, 1634 18th Street, will host a holiday beer dinner tonight pairing seasonal brews from Wynkoop, AC Golden, Breckenridge Brewing, Dry Dock, Great Divide and Odell with a special menu by chef Bart Profitt. Brewers from the guest breweries and Wynkoop’s own Andy Brown will be on…
Troy Atherton Guard, the man behind the semi-eponymous restaurant TAG, serves the best rice I’ve ever had. Yeah, rice. But this is no backhanded compliment. Rice is important — vitally so to maybe half the world. There are about a bazillion varieties of it, each one requiring its own infinitesimally…
I have fond memories of the holiday season up at 44th and Federal. The space that was then 3 Sons always featured the most over-the-top, tacky Christmas decorations in town; as a kid, I liked counting all the different decor items, especially the red bows and cherubs. The owners sold…
Last week, I wrote about a not-so-great cheesesteak. Unfortunately, I wasn’t alone in having that not-so-great cheesesteak. Laura was with me, and Laura is a woman who knows from good (and not good) cheesesteaks. I was disappointed. She was even more so. And so, in advance of the recent snow…
We’ve just scored two tickets to Guy Fieri’s “Culinary Road Show” tonight at the Paramount Theater. The meet and greet starts at 6:30 and the show begins at 7:30. Want the tickets? Be the first person to answer the following question correctly: Fieri’s first car was a Datsun 280z. He…
In case you’ve got nothing else planned for tonight and have a yen to go rub up against a whole bunch of other Denver foodies and star-fuckers, don’t forget that the one and only Guy Fieri (the restaurateur, Food Network workhorse and hair-bleach pitchman) is bringing the circus to town…
Okay, so maybe the new location for Yanni’s Greek Restaurant isn’t quite this pretty, but it is certainly a step up — a move from a slightly rattletrap strip mall on South Monaco Parkway to a space smack-dab in the middle of the Landmark development’s throbbing retail heart, right next…
We met five weeks ago. We’ve seen each other at least once a week since then, and it’s always been just as good as the first time. It’s a relationship of consistency, simplicity and warmth; I’m completely smitten. The creator is a goddess in my book, and she’s whipped up…
When I first tried this beer last year, on the recommendation of a liquor-store employee, I thought I’d gotten a bottle from a batch that had been contaminated. Although it smelled like pine trees, it tasted like, well, the mold that grows on a plastic container full of spaghetti that’s…
There’s a new watering hole on Colfax. Sort of. Pete’s Monkey Bar, 717 East Colfax Avenue, opened October 2 in the space formerly occupied by Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey, the jazz-turned-jam club that was owned by Jay, Phil and Aric Bianchi (the three brothers who are also the force behind Sanchos’s…
Liver lovers are an exclusive bunch. And as a lunch special on a cold winter’s day, this steaming plate of organ meat smothered with onions and jalapenos had half of our table swooning — and the other half cringing.Can you guess where I was eating?Special bonus: Every Friday, anyone who…
As a countdown to the Best of Denver 2010, coming April 1, Cafe Society is serving up a hundred of our favorite dishes in Denver. Send your own nominations to cafe@westword.com…
Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market’s choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast. Pete and Barb…
“After all that nonsense at Primebar — those guys are the biggest scumbags ever — it was unbelievably refreshing to get a job at a restaurant that’s owned by one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met,” Max Mackissock says during our interview at Cafe Europa. Mackissock, who was the…
How cold was it last night? So cold that Barry Fey was wearing long pants. But the dining room at CY Steak, the revamped steakhouse attached to the Diamond Cabaret at 1222 Glenarm Place, warmed up fast — and not just because of the evening-gowned (at the start) girls dancing…
