Top ten Italian restaurants in Denver

Denver has many great Italian restaurants. As I wrote this week, Mark & Isabella is not one of them. Here are ten of my favorites: Il Posto (2011 East 17th Avenue, 303-394-0100). Il Posto has an excellent location, crammed between other bars and restaurants, their patios shoulder to shoulder. The…

A tale of two Chopsticks

Chopsticks & Sushi, the Asian restaurant and bar at 1630 Welton Street that was the site of a fatal shooting yesterday, is not connected to Chopsticks China Bistro, the goofily-named restaurant that just moved from South Federal Boulevard to 5117 South Yosemite and is a Jason Sheehan favorite. But plenty…

When cold and flu season hit, reach for chicken soup

Cold and flu season has arrived, and while there are vaccines and a multitude of drugs out there that will be used to combat these illnesses, doctors remain constant on one remedy: chicken soup. According to WebMD, doctors prefer milder, natural alternatives to treat colds and flu, with the exception…

Lights, camera, action: Last call for Mezcal dinner

As of late Thursday, there were just five reserved spots left at the tequila dinner being thrown by Sean Yontz at Mezcal. He’s putting together this dinner (the menu for which I posted a few days ago) in order to properly celebrate the TV pilot that will be filming at…

Tonight: Get celebrity served at Maggiano’s

You could be surprised by who’s at your service tonight at Celebrity Server Night at Maggiano’s Little Italy, 500 16th Street. If you purchase a table for ten, you can choose your celebrity server — but if you buy tickets for a smaller group or an individual dinner ticket, you’ll…

Smashburger invites you to Aurora for free burgers

The Smashburger in Aurora didn’t open this week — a permitting delay — but as a consolation prize, the public is invited to register for the last few spaces at the VIP/Sneak Peek party at the new store, at 2630 South Parker Road, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on…

Eating In: Finding the best market dinners

For obvious reasons, most of my meals are eaten out. Almost all of them involve me getting up off my indolent backside, putting on trousers, finding my sunglasses, grudgingly leaving the care of my mountain compound to the hundred monkey butlers I employ, finding my way to my autogyro and…

Ex-Sushi Heights chef takes over Taki’s

There’s a new owner at Taki’s: former Sushi Heights chef Keiho Omine. Hisashi Takimoto, the former owner of the Japanese restaurant, located at 341 East Colfax Avenue, passed away of natural causes back in February after feeding hungry Capitol Hill customers for more than a decade. Takimoto didn’t have any…

Guess where I’m drinking?

I love an ice-cold Manhattan almost anywhere, but the drink’s particularly delightful at this fine dining establishment in Denver — where the chef is smokin’ hot, and the bartender is adorable. Can you guess where I’m drinking?…

New in the neighborhood: Patsy’s Pizza

Patsy’s has been promising pizza for almost a year now. When the venerable red-sauce joint at 3651 Navajo Street was sold last fall to Kim DeLancey and Ron Cito (second cousin of founder Chubby Aiello), one of the managers there told me that pizza — a return to something that…

Under Fire: Learning in a trashy way

​Number 4627 in a series of things you don’t learn in culinary school: handling trash bags. This lesson may seem of minimal importance, but it is not. If you put in more than five pounds of garbage and tie the bag too close to the top, it snaps and the…

Qdoba wants to know who’s making a difference in your community

Know an everyday hero in your community? Qdoba Mexican Grill is accepting nominations for its new online campaign geared toward recognizing the do-gooders in society, called Qmmunity. The campaign is a joint effort between the Denver-based Mexican restaurant chain and its national charity partner, Starlight Children’s Foundation, which has helped…

Tonight: Take a bite out of the Taste of Greenwood Village

The Taste of Greenwood Village kicks off at 5 p.m. tonight at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center, 7800 East Tufts Avenue, with 32 restaurants, more than 30 wineries and a silent auction to benefit the Beacon Center, a Denver child-advocacy nonprofit. Ticket prices range from $50, which includes food samples…

Part two: Chef and Tell with Sean Kelly from LoHi SteakBar

This is part two of Lori Midson’s interview with Sean Kelly, exec chef of LoHi SteakBar. You can read part one of Midson’s interview with Kelly here. Ten words to describe you: Husband, father, cook, dedicated, extreme, blessed, impossible, critical, introspective and obsessive. Best food city in America: I adore…

Buy a pie for Project Angel Heart

Bluepoint Bakery is donating more than 3,000 pies to Project Angel Heart next month — and with every $25 pie the non-profit sells, it will be able to deliver five more meals to a client battling a life-threatening illness. You can order pies — cherry, apple, pecan and pumpkin –…

Our Weekly Bread: Sputnik

The sandwiches: Benny Mac and Persian Chicken Sandwich What’s on them: The Benny Mac is a breaded chicken cutlet, with mac-n-cheese, bacon and BBQ sauce; the Persian chicken is spiced chicken meatballs, mild roasted green chiles, lettuce and tomato, harissa and tahini. Where to get them: Sputnik (3 South Broadway,…

Guess where I’m eating?

It’s been a while since I’ve found a formerly untrodden (at least by me) taqueria that showed promise, but that changed yesterday when I stumbled across this upbeat taco shack in Aurora. It was out of horchata, but had an ample supply of Mexican coke in the bottle, jarritos and…

The juices have run dry at two Old School Burgers locations

At 6:06 p.m. last night, my phone rang. It was my kid — distraught, in real tears and as pissed off as your kid would be if Santa Claus showed up at your house dressed like Barney or, worse, a Teletubbie. “It’s closed!” he wailed, in between heaves and sniffles…

Sushi Hai celebrates its fifth birthday tonight

Sushi Hai, at 3600 West 32nd Avenue, celebrates its fifth anniversary tonight starting at 7 p.m., with half-off on sushi and drinks. The Scott Davis Project will be playing acoustic blues in the downstairs Hai Bar — a space guarded by an off-duty cop this past weekend. It was an…

Tonight: Show your support at Simmer & Stir for the Cure

Put your money where your mouth is tonight at the annual Simmer & Stir for the Cure, which runs from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Kimball Distributing, 1400 West Third Avenue. The $30 ticket gets you in the door for chef demonstrations, wine tastings and more; all proceeds will…