This is part two of my interview with James Rugile, executive chef of Venue. To read part one of this interview, click here. Culinary inspirations: Thomas Keller of the French Laundry for his pursuit of perfection and emphasis on technique, and Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns for…
The night before Thanksgiving is always a busy night for bars. After all, when your biggest mental challenge the next day will be choosing between pumpkin or apple pie, a hangover doesn’t seem like a big deal. So my friend decided shotgunning beers and dancing till closing sounded like a…
Originally, Hollywood Theaters was boasting that SkyBox Lounge, the restaurant that’s part of the new Southglenn Stadium 14 in Centennial, would be a “gastropub.” But now that the place has opened, that label has been dumped in favor of “a creative twist on American cuisine.” Although it’s unlikely that any…
Stop by the Dillard’s at the new Towne Center of Aurora from 1-4 p.m. today, and you can pick up a copy of the Southern Living Christmas Cookbook for just $10. It’s packed with recipes for good food, and buying it benefts a good cause: proceeds from the sales will…
Going stir crazy on Thanksgiving? The Bass Pro Shop at 7970 East 49th Avenue is open until 6 p.m. today, and starting at 5 p.m., the store will host the Great Turkey Campout with free hot chocolate and s’mores at outdoor firepits, with prize giveaways until 8 p.m.; for more…
It worried me that Argyll, the new restaurant from Robert Thompson, called itself a “gastropub,” a word I hate with a rare and white-hot passion that only a true word geek can muster for the hating of a bunch of letters. It worried me that the very first word on…
I was sitting at the bar at Jax in LoDo on a snowy Sunday afternoon, enjoying the quiet while also enjoying Leo’s Manhattan ($10), made with New York Apple Whiskey, Dolin Vermouth de Chambéry, muddled apple and pumpkin pie spice. And I couldn’t have been happier. As the snow piled…
There are two things they do real well in New Orleans: drink and eat. New York might be a great town for chefs; San Francisco might be a Garden of Eden for foodies. But New Orleans is a town made for eaters — men and women for whom dinner isn’t…
I’ve lost track of all the cocktails I’ve drunk this week, but the one in the above pic stood out from among the usual suspects. This is very much a holiday slammer, complete with a housemade cinnamon-apple chip garnish. Question is, where’d I slam it? Special bonus: Every Friday, anyone…
Mellow Mushroom outlets are popping up like, well, mushrooms. Another outlet of the Georgia-based pizza chain is slated to open next June in the Tabor Center, joining a line-up that already includes the Cheesecake Factory, Green Fine Salad, Corner Bakery and Ling & Louie’s. There are over a hundred Mellow…
You want to talk about bad food photography? This is bad food photography — mostly because there’s just no good way to make a lump of meat and cheese like this look tasty until someone invents Smell-O-Vision or scratch-and-sniff websites. Still, buried in the middle of this photographic nightmare are…
Before I ever ate at Argyll, I was worried about the place. I worried about the space that Argyll occupies (the ex-Squealing Pig location in Cherry Creek) and the guy running the show (Robert Thompson, ex of Brasserie Rouge). I worried that it was calling itself a gastropub, a word…
As sad and time-wasting as frivolous lawsuits can be, they’re a part of American life. Sometimes they can be downright funny (except for the people involved). Remember the dumbass Washington D.C. judge who sued his dry cleaners for $54 million over a pair of lost pants? Fortunately he lost that…
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. Last month, Pete…
What better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than to start thinking about Christmas shopping? It is an American tradition after all. What would we do if we didn’t have an entire aisle of the grocery stores crammed year-round with campy crap.But all scroogery aside, Jamba Juice has announced an at-home version…
After I chatted yesterday with Josh Wolkon of Steuben’s and Vesta, he kindly forwarded me an article from the travel section of the Los Angeles Times about the sudden, fierce boom in food trucks that has gripped the foodie Shangri La of Portland. That city now has about 400 trucks,…
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. Number 90: Eggs Benedict from Devil’s Food Bakery…
Admit it: There are really only two good ways to enjoy Thanksgiving turkey: fresh from the oven and carved on the table on the big day itself, and on sandwiches for days on end afterward. Everything else is more or less a sociological experiment — a study, perhaps, on just…
Head down 32nd Avenue in Highland, and you’re likely to find 25-year-old James Rugile in the kitchen at Venue, turning out some of the most incredibly delicious food in Denver (if you haven’t tried Rugile’s shrimp and grits, go now). The studious young chef, who grew up in Basalt and…
Last month, chef/owner Andrea Frizzi told Jason Sheehan that he’d soon be serving lunch at Il Posto, his excellent Italian restaurant at 2011 East 17th Avenue. And now he’s made good on that promise: Il Posto opened for lunch this week. It could be just the place to get an…
Kick off the holiday season tonight at the annual Lighting of Mezcal. The restaurant at 3230 East Colfax Avenue will light up at 7 p.m. — but you can get lit on the restaurant’s award-winning margaritas during two extended happy hours, which will run from noon until 7 p.m. and…
It worried me that Argyll is located in a subterranean address in Cherry Creek — which seems to almost always doom any restaurant to a slow, lingering death. It worried me that this particular subterranean address used to be the home of the Squealing Pig: a terrible excuse for an…
