Vietnamese cuisine had a long, noble history before the French arrived in the 1940s and launched their ill-fated adventures through Indochina. But the French army didn’t just come with rifles, trucks and funny hats; they were also considerate enough to bring along their cuisine. Though historians would no doubt disagree…
“Is this your first time dining with us?” she asks, smiling. In response, I just bob my head like a moron—completely gone on whatever weird cocktail of hormones and brain chemicals it is that makes a grown man fall in love with a menu, with nothing more than words on…
Denver has had newspaper wars for as long as there have been newspapers, and just because the size of the papers is shrinking doesn’t mean this war is any less intense. But another, newer battle between media outlets took place last week, and it was even more…heated. The Women’s Bean…
View larger specimen In order to make more sense of the world around us, illustrator and public house naturalist Nate Stone is compiling here a taxonomy of different barflies. While you’re out and about in Denver, if you spot any of these specimens please add your observations about their habitat…
Mel Master, current owner of three restaurants in metro Denver, former owner of a half-dozen more in Denver and Manhattan, wine guy, ex-street musician, enthusiastic raconteur of all things boozy and delicious, and the guy I blame for loosing Bobby Flay on the world, is not in the house tonight…
In the process of scouting out Agave Grill (see review), I did catch sight of Mel and Jane Master (for more on that, see From the Gut) and even had a long chat with Charlie Master, son and floor man. Our conversation was wide-ranging, but what really stuck in my…
The Brown Palace has been open for business every day since it debuted in 1892. I haven’t been around quite that long, but since I was a child, I’ve always loved the grandeur of the old hotel. As a little girl, I looked forward to our annual ladies’ holiday outing…
I have a young, hip uncle who grew up in trendy West Coast locales such as Seattle and Oakland. I came of age in clueless, couture-less Illinois. Once, when I was in my teens, he said to me, “I’d rather look good than feel good.” I could never quite get…
I was surprised this week to get an email from DISCUS, the national trade group for distilled spirits producers and marketers, about a pro-Sunday sales press conference to be held at Argonaut Wine and Liquor — of all places. Two years ago, when I was reporting on a campaign to…
Originally, my review of Agave Grill was supposed to be a two-fer — a kind of culinary Entebbe Raid whereby Laura and I would roll in fast on slow nights to the King Soopers plaza at Orchard and Holly, where both Agave and Mel’s Greenwood Village incarnation are located, have…
About three weeks ago, Chad Clevenger put Agave Grill through a mid-season menu overhaul, altering or outright dumping about two-thirds of the opening board. While the result could have been a return to the mixed Chihuahua-meets-Lyon Old World/New World fusion of the Cherry Creek Mel’s during Clevenger’s days there, he…
View larger specimen In order to make more sense of the world around us, illustrator and public house naturalist Nate Stone is compiling here a taxonomy of different barflies. While you’re out and about in Denver, if you spot any of these specimens please add your observations about their habitat…
I wanted cheeseburgers. Cheeseburgers and beer, a shot of whiskey. Laura wanted Mexican food — chips and salsa, top-shelf mezcal and tamales. New Mexican would’ve been all right with her. A bowl of pozole, a plate of tacos and thee. She was chasing after some memory of our destitution and…
Sometimes it seems like Bite Me World HQ is all about the esoteric discussion of cassoulet, coq au vin and the perils of foie gras production (those ducks and geese can get pissed, and they stand just about crotch-high). I’ve written about crepes (see my review of Crepes ‘n Crepes),…
Is “après ski” little more than a contrived, unnecessary name for an overpriced happy hour? Yes. Conceptually, is getting drunk in long underwear, snow pants and horrifically uncomfortable ski boots (assuming said drunkard is not a snowboarder) absurd, especially considering the skis and sticks that still must be hauled home…
View larger specimen In order to make more sense of the world around us, illustrator and public house naturalist Nate Stone is compiling here a taxonomy of different barflies. While you’re out and about in Denver, if you spot any of these specimens please add your observations about their habitat…
Crepes ‘n Crepes is uncompromisingly, unabashedly and unstintingly French. The cooks are French. Owners Kathy Knight and Alain Veratti have imported all their iron crepe griddles from France. The ingredients and preparations — the Camembert and Chambord, ratatouille and sauce aux champignons — are French. And the space itself –…
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m now old enough to remember when a pizza was just a pizza, a round crust (though the occasional square-crust party pizza was okay, too) that was always thin, but not too thin (certainly no cracker crusts, and outside of the high-school cafeteria,…
Potato pizza. Barbecued-chicken pizza. Organic spinach and wood-ear-mushroom pizza on a hand-tossed artisan crust. The occasional sushi pizza or nightmare of salmon, caper and crème fraîche notwithstanding, the World of Pie has benefited from such innovations — from the brave (and occasionally terribly misguided) adventuring of American pizza-makers unwilling to…
I’ve always been an Olde English (OE) guy. At the ripe age of eighteen, I popped my malt-liquor cherry while sitting with a high-school buddy on the stained shag carpet of my first, still furniture-less college apartment. We had just driven a borrowed Suburban the four hours from our home…
Anthony’s Pizza and Pasta (or, as it’s known around my house, “Ant-anees”) has long been my reliable Denver standby for New York-style pizza in a hurry. Do the locations do slices? Yes. Do they offer the triumvirate of New York styles? Absolutely: a thin-crust cheese and pepperoni, a thin-crust double-cheese,…
As reported in Off Limits this week, absinthe is now legal in the United States! And I don’t mean that phony shit that’s like anisette dyed green or that Eastern European stuff that tastes like cough syrup or that legally gray gunk shipped under cover and marketed specifically for its…
