A Cut Above

From my spot at the sushi bar, I can’t see outside. The windows are frosted, decorated with pictures of geishas and stalks of bamboo. I can’t hear anything from the outside, either, because they have the radio tuned to some kind of Asian soft-rock station—Tokyo’s version of Kenny G toodling…

The SAME, But Different

Last week, while writing about the resurrection of Pizzeria Mundo (right), I mentioned that new owner Patrick Pool was trying to be nice to the planet and his fellow man by using as much local, organic produce as he could. Since he was heavily involved in Denver Urban Gardens, he…

Can Do!

Here it is, just off the line and popping fresh. New Belgium Brewing started canning Fat Tire Amber Ale today. By mid-June, the cans should be available in limited markets, including Denver stores. “We are looking forward to introducing our old friend, Fat Tire, in a brand new package,” says…

The Lunch Bunch

The Cherry Creek neighborhood went into mourning when Greg Goldfogel closed Amore last year. (The space it once occupied across from Little Ollie’s s slated to become a Hudson’s steakhouse.) But Goldfogel gave Denver a real consolation prize with Alto Restaurant, the spot he opened in the former home of…

Give Them a Hand

My father used to smoke a pipe. For decades, the man was rarely without it, and he seemed to be forever packing and unpacking it, tamping it, lighting it, re-lighting it or just generally fussing with it. I came to know the sounds of his pipe-smoking as a kind of…

Milking It: Indiana Jones Chocolate Cereal with Marshmallows

Indiana Jones Chocolate Cereal with Marshmallows Kellogg’s Rating: Three spoons out of four Cereal description: The main pieces consist of brown oat-and-corn puffs — but the main attractions are the marshmallows, which come in four different shapes. “Indy’s Hat” might more accurately be described as “a triangle,” and only its…

Candy Girls: Strawberry Milkshake Whoppers

Can a candy with a malted center ever really be milkshake-flavored? Wouldn’t it automatically be malt-flavored? This obviously isn’t a question the marketing people at Hershey’s worried themselves over, and it certainly didn’t stop us from picking up a giant pink pack of the candies when we spied them in…

I Want Candy: Introducing the Candy Girls

If you’ve got a sweet tooth, you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to Candy Girls, where we, your faithful candy enthusiasts, Aubrey and Liz, will review a new sweet treat every Friday. We’ll be on the lookout for oddball delectables, out-of-the-ordinary confections, and all those bizarre sweets you always…

Starbucks Goes Dunkin’

Okay, what the hell is up with my coffee? Seriously, I go to Starbucks because I like Starbucks. If I didn’t like Starbucks, I could go to any one of a dozen other coffee shops within spitting distance of my office door. But I don’t, because I like Starbucks. Or…

Taco Bell Giveaway a Dinger

I wanted to get above thirty. Thirty sounded respectable: the number of days in June, the number of minutes it’s safe to stare at Rachael Ray before your head explodes. Thirty would be an accomplishment, something I could brag to people about and they’d stare back at me, impressed, and…

Gemelli’s

Three weeks ago, I had the worst shrimp scampi of my life. Two weeks ago, I wrote about it when I reviewed Grand Lux Cafe. The shrimp scampi there was so bad that even though I ate only a few bites before pushing it away, the horror of it (and…

Son Set

While going back and forth (and back and forth and back and forth…) from Gemelli’s for this week’s review, I noticed that one of Denver’s longtime Italian restaurants, 3 Sons, at 2915 West 44th Avenue, was sporting some new exterior decor: a huge FOR SALE sign. A couple of them,…

Loca Hot

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. I loved the Hot and Cold Margarita at Cielo. I don’t remember much else about the restaurant, since the food and service were forgettable — yet for years I couldn’t find a suitable replacement for that cocktail. Plenty of places have infused tequila, but…

Barry’s on Broadway

“Oh, my gawd, I’m going to die!” exclaims the brunette seated to my left, the one with the new-haircut glow, probably from Stun! next door. It’s pretty dark inside Barry’s on Broadway (58 Broadway), but from where I’m sitting, the cut looks good — a little short in the back,…

Pizzeria Mundo

“If you’re going to take Vienna, take Vienna.” Napoleon said that, and I’ve always liked the line. He was speaking, of course, not just about sacking Austria’s capital, but of a certain conqueror’s mindset: Don’t just say you’re going to do something; do it. And once you’ve started, see it…

A Stink and a Smile

Mark Schlereth isn’t a green chile expert. He doesn’t know how to make it, he doesn’t have any favorite places around Denver that make it, and he certainly wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between Colorado-style chile and New Mexico-style. Until recently, he admits, “I’d never had green chile…

Almost Famous: Denver’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

I recently got an e-mail from Page Productions, a Minneapolis company that produces the show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives: “We are researching the Denver area for our Food Network show which will be filming 6 or 7 different establishments in Colorado in a couple of months. I keep stumbling across…

A Really Raw Deal

Talk about a raw deal! According to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, the former owners of Osaka Sushi have been charged with human trafficking — because they allegedly made two South Korean immigrants work there for no pay, threatening them with deportation if they complained. Here’s the press release from…

Sauce Rules

At its most elemental, a great shrimp scampi consists of shrimp, garlic, lemon and white wine. It is shrimp in an Italian beurre blanc—the garlic (and shallots) used to start a sauté pan, seasoned with good olive oil, deglazed with white wine, spritzed with lemon juice and mounted, at the…

Green with Gluttony: The Original Chubby’s

Can you digest a steel-belted radial? Are you goiter-popping iodine-deficient? If so, has Chubby’s got the lard-laced saltastic green chile you’ve been looking for! I understand why people don’t love this place. The north Denver landmark can put a hurtin’ on anyone’s bowels. Even those who were raised at the…

Milking It: My Friends Tigger & Pooh Corn Puffs

My Friends Tigger & Pooh Corn Puffs General Mills Rating: A half spoon out of four Cereal description: Not much innovation here. The enclosed corn puffs are, quite simply, corn puffs, as generic as they can be. Their hue is similar to to the color of Winnie the Pooh’s fur,…