When this spot was known as Burgers-n-Sports, before last year’s run-in with In-N-Out attorneys, it was a great burger joint, serving waxed-paper-wrapped singles and doubles, excellent hand-cut fries and killer milkshakes, all under the watchful gaze of Colorado’s own Goose Gossage. With its green paint, chain-link décor and gift shop,…
I love zombie movies. Of all the filmmakers in the world, I feel the most kinship with the guys who make zombie movies — freakish, obsessive man-children who know how to guiltlessly tell a ripping good yarn and who never got over that visceral thrill of being fourteen-year-old boys, up…
I ate my first two official meals at The 9th Door (see review) while the kitchen was still technically under the command of Michel Wahaltere, and was ready to file my review when I got the news that he was leaving the kitchen he’d set up. “For the record,” Wahaltere…
It’s that bittersweet time of year when we must say goodbye to certain members of the Institute of Drinking Studies as they move on to greater responsibility, more disposable income and, with any luck, more time between binge-drinking bouts. While their departures sadden those of us who remain at the…
Sean Kelly and his chef, Seth Black, have been doing the Tapas Thing (see Bite Me/a>) for quite some time. They may have been the first in town — this time around, at least — to take the trend seriously, and they built the entire Somethin’ Else menu around the…
This is your father’s bad toupee. It’s a leisure suit, lovingly tended and preserved and worn regularly by a guy who still thinks he looks good. It’s an old Volvo kept running by unconditional love and duct tape, the ABBA record you listen to when no one else is home,…
A critic’s lament: Maybe I shouldn’t be so pissed off. After all, the Aspen Food & Wine Classic, which wrapped up June 12, did invite twice as many Colorado chefs as it had in 2004. Problem is, last year it invited exactly one — Goose Sorenson from Solera — and…
Exactly what the trendy (read: expensive) bars around the corner along Larimer Square needed: a front porch. The Front Porch is a beautiful yet comfortable sanctuary for twentysomethings, like your coolest friend’s parents’ basement, complete with PlayStation. I walked in and ordered a more grown-up toy, an extra-dry vodka martini…
Numerous traits separate the men from the guys. Men come up with sensitive gifts to present their dates, surreptitiously hoping to buy a night in their company. Guys look on such behavior as brown-nosing; a guy’s date is lucky if he shows up on time and dressed appropriately. Men drink…
Just because you’re not part of the problem doesn’t mean you’re part of the solution. I’ve become increasingly tired of Chinese restaurants claiming some sort of special capacity for greatness simply because they aren’t part of a chain. Most independent Chinese joints offer food that’s no more authentically Chinese than…
My first visit to WaterCourse Foods was on a bet. It was a bet with myself — a wager between my better and worse natures that revolved around my good self’s belief that every restaurant, no matter its kink, offers something tasty to those willing to really look, and my…
Me happy in a vegetarian restaurant (see review) is weird, but how’s this for mind-blowing: me fucking ecstatic in a full-on vegan bakery. I have spent years walking the earth like Caine in the old Kung Fu series, roving around the countryside in disreputable pants and indulging my every culinary…
I’ve never understood why certain food and drink specialties are available just once a year. Do I only crave Cadbury Creme Eggs at Easter? Do I only want candy corn around Halloween, candy canes at Christmas? Had McDonald’s kept its Shamrock Shake on the menu year-round, perhaps children today would…
On a midweek foray to the Atomic Cowboy (3235 East Colfax Avenue), I quickly ingratiated myself with one of the waitresses and got some background on the joint — because that’s the kind of Woodward-and-Bernstein journalist I am. “Why is it called the Atomic Cowboy?” I asked. “I don’t know,”…
Bad business, like bad karma, generates its own sort of poison. The taint of failed enterprise can linger for years in the floorboards and hood vents of a space, sickening and killing new businesses indiscriminately. Realtors, consultants, accountants and other numbers types will point to things like parking, visibility, foot…
Sitting on the patio on top of the West End Tavern, gazing at the great view (and I’m not just talking about the unparalleled sight of the Flatirons), I sipped whiskey and smoked a cigarette in one of the few places where you still can in Boulder, and thanked God…
Creating a financially successful tavern isn’t tough. Aside from a ham-and-cheese-sandwich joint that gives away free booze and hand jobs, no restaurant venture offers a better rate of return than your average tavern, and unless you’re a congenitally bad businessman, you should have some cash in the register at the…
Many years ago, I drank many margaritas at Juanita’s. So when noted restaurateur Frank Bonanno returned this corner space on 17th Avenue to its Mexican roots, transforming the old Rhino Room into Milagro Taco Bar, it seemed like my formative years had been miraculously resurrected. And what I found at…
It had been a long week, and by Friday, several members of the Institute of Drinking Studies were looking forward to what would prove a cataclysmic night in the Vortex. As if reading our collective mood, Mother Nature had crowded the western skies with ominous thunderheads by the time JP…
If restaurateur, chef and culinary man-about-town Dave Query has a signature spot that captures the evolution of his empire, that would be the Jax in LoDo. Here, in a retooling of the Boulder original, Query’s vision and his attempts to meld the upscale with the downhome come together most smoothly…
Every spring, Chinook Tavern celebrates white-asparagus season as long as the season lasts, getting only the best product overnighted from producers in Holland, Germany and France, using it in only the best ways. For ten years Chinook has been doing this, and just a whiff of the house’s special white-asparagus…
If seeing the special Spargelfeier menu got me excited about grabbing a table at Chinook Tavern (see review), then hearing Clemens Georg talk about it made me realize I had to grab that table now. “Do you know about white asparagus?” he asked. Yes, I know plenty about white asparagus…
