Some weird geopolitical analogies about the shifting influences of power and turf can be applied to Denver’s ever-changing restaurant scene. Not so much by the big openings and closings and the movements of recognizable chefs and restaurateurs, but by the constant shift and wiggle of the little guys. Ethnic eateries…
After too many jobs that required way too much travel, I try to avoid hotel bars. They depress me. They’re usually filled with smoke and professional salesmen who spend 90 percent of their lives on the road and typically believe that their marriage vows are legitimate only within a hundred…
Whatever happened to customer service? Bars don’t have Guinness on tap. I get soggy fries at McDonald’s. If I’m out eating with five other people, the restaurant assumes that group-think has ruined our math skills and tacks a 15 percent tip on the tab even though we probably would have…
Of Earth and Spirit is how I describe my style of cooking. The foods chosen are pure and of the Earth; they are intended to be food for the spirit as well as sustenance. They have been prepared for generations by the distinctive combination of Native, Mexican and Spanish flavors…
Movies and food, food and movies. Would I have enjoyed Julia Blackbird’s New Mexican Cafe (see review, page 61) had it not been for the unfortunate mention of Like Water for Chocolate on the menu? Not likely. Still, there should be a rule in the restaurant business about not setting…
Jerry Seinfeld once imparted these words of wisdom: When you hit that high note, say goodnight and walk off. So for my final act as Drink of the Week girl, I gathered a group of faithful friends and headed to Moda Ristorante & Lounge for several rounds of Gocce di…
After a year of our close collaboration, the Head of Research at the Institute of Drinking Studies finally shared this piece of information: The true Irish often frown upon the Black and Tan that I love so much. Historically, the drink’s components are Guinness and Bass ale, the latter an…
Back when I was hungry and vicious and always questing after dumb-luck fortune in the galleys and basement kitchens of this country, I could smell doom in a restaurant a mile away. It was a survival mechanism then, learned rather than instinctive, though no less hardwired into my autonomic switchboard…
The in-laws were in town again recently. It was just a quick visit, a few very busy days of catching up and shooting the breeze, punctuated (of course) by meals. Lots and lots of meals. That’s the thing about visiting me and Mrs. Critic — no matter who you are…
Most people who wear cowboy hats in Colorado are, as one variation of the saying goes, “all hat and no cowboy.” But now these wannabes can put some beef under their brim and gain a certain cowpoke credibility, thanks to Hollingsworth Land and Cattle’s meat-buying program, which allows them to…
Summer nights seem so right for a little Latin lovin’. And since my blue-eyed, blond-haired boyfriend doesn’t exactly fill that bill, when I’m in the mood for Caribbean spice I hit the twinkling patio at Cuba Cuba for a Havana Special ($6.50). A recent addition to the exotic drink menu,…
I’ve been in bars all over the world, and good bars are pretty much the same no matter where you find them. They’re all dark, smoky — as long as you’re not in the People’s Republic of Boulder — and serve greasy food. Everywhere I’ve gone, even Bahrain, a good…
Here’s what Emil-Lene’s Sirloin House is missing: a really big steak. Not just a big steak — big steaks it’s got. There’s a 16-ounce sirloin on the board, a 10-ounce prime rib that’s cut so generously it takes up half a plate, even a 24- ounce T-bone that certainly far…
Forty-six years. That’s a good run — a historic run, even — for any restaurant. And that’s what Emil-Lene’s Sirloin House (see review,) has rung up since 1958, weathering every storm, every up-and-down surge of the economy, by following one credo: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. “You don’t…
With summer in full swing, I’m longing to spend every afternoon lying by a pool. But while I’d be nice and tan, I’d also be broke. So instead, I’ll be spending my evenings reclining on a black leather couch at the hot Swimclub 32 and sipping a Lychee Martini ($8)…
Two weeks ago, the planets and several other heavenly bodies — as well as most of the cheesy guy population in the greater Denver area, four representatives from the Institute of Drinking Studies and several hundred dollars’ worth of alcohol — collided at Avalon (9535 Park Meadows Drive, Lone Tree,…
Outside the front doors of the Fresh Fish Company was a valet — a big fella, slouched in his chair at the curb, hands in the pockets of his windbreaker. He was staring out at a lot with room for about 10,000 cars, enough parking for the hundreds of people…
I have often made the smartass claim that brunch exists only as a convenient excuse for those who want to get drunk in public before noon. This conceit comes both from my own experience as that drunk in question, and from my time spent on the other side of the…
In nineteenth-century Ireland, priests, politicians and upstanding ladies who wanted to sneak a quick nip without tarnishing their reputations could enter their local pub through a separate entrance and settle into a snug — the original VIP room, an intimate, private space where bartenders would pass pints through a frosted…
I just about walked out of Legend’s (201 Milwaukee, 303-320-4710) a few minutes after walking in. I’d never been inside this bar before, despite having walked past it numerous times while taking the Great Circle route back to my apartment after just the right number of Black and Tans at…
The phone rings once, three times, five, and then Charlie Master answers. “Brix. Happy Monday.” This would be an incredibly annoying way for anyone to answer the phone — shades of that “case of the Mondays” scene from Office Space — if Charlie didn’t sound so sincere. He really means…
A moment of silence, please, for Vega, the innovative (and really good) Nuevo Latino eatery run by Michael Payne and chef/partner Sean Yontz. After eighteen months, Vega served its final meal on Saturday, May 15, adding one more name to the long list of restaurants that have lived and died…
