In discussions of ethnic restaurants, the first question many people ask is, “Is it authentic?” Restaurateur Joseph Kim is aware of this, so at his two Dae Gee locations (I review the one on Colorado Boulevard this week), his cooks “are doing it exactly the way they would in Korea,”…
Neighborhood Chinese restaurants are almost invisible to passersby in the strip malls and shopping centers around the city. Most aren’t destination dining establishments; they get by on take-out orders and a steady trickle of business from local customers. But over time, a place can earn a reputation for solid food…
It’s not easy to find a happy hour that doesn’t just make you feel full and happy — but one that challenges your palate. Leña, the new spot on the block on South Broadway, manages just this feat. Exploring the cuisine of Central and South America through a hipster-friendly glass,…
It started out as the Denver FIVE and then became just FIVE. But this year’s incarnation of Leigh Sullivan’s eighth annual kitchen cabal is being billed as FIVE Colorado, in part because it includes its first chef from a Fort Collins restaurant. Sullivan founded FIVE in 2008 as a way…
Rosa Linda’s Mexican Cafe celebrated its thirtieth birthday on January 17. We were among the regulars who stopped by that day, to chat with members of the Aguirre family and remember the first time we came to this spot on West 33rd Avenue, then a down-and-out neighborhood that was decades…
Wouldn’t a nice, warm doughnut taste good right now? Ian Kleinman, known for his Inventing Room food lab and catering company, will be hosting Molecular Donuts 4.0 Highlands at Sunnyside Burger Bar from 6 to 10:30 a.m. today, and he will be back every morning through January 25. See also:…
Falling Rock Taphouse will hold its annual Vintage Beer Sale this Saturday, January 24, starting at 5 p.m., unloading bottles for on-premise consumption only. “Going through the cellar and cooler we have found some lonely bottles. The last of their kind, the last of that year, some really special ones…
What would you do if you had just 36 hours in this city? “The signs of Denver’s economic high times as a pot boomtown and bastion of progressive urban policies are everywhere,” says the New York Times in the just-published “What to Do in Denver.” Although the Times doesn’t mention…
Matthew Osterman plans to open one of Denver’s largest breweries this month — but he won’t be making a single beer there for himself. Rather, Sleeping Giant will contract to brew beers for about a dozen craft breweries in Colorado and other western states. The brewery, which doesn’t have a…
HuHot Mongolian Grill started in Missoula, Montana more than fifteen years ago and has been stirring up Asian-inspired meals at three metro-area locations for the past several years. Now the company is jumping into the fast-casual game, with a new concept called NuHu Mongolian Express, slated to open in the…
From the start, this city knew chef Alex Seidel’s Fruition was something special. When it came time to choose our Best New Restaurant for the 2007 Best of Denver, Fruition was the clear winner — even though it had opened just a few months before, in the former home of…
Natalia Spampinato Bittersweet 303-942-0320 500 East Alameda Avenue “I was pretty burned out on school by the time I got to college,” recalls Natalia Spampinato, Bittersweet’s pastry chef, “and I really missed cooking when I was living in the dorms.” A Denver native, Spampinato had graduated from the International Baccalaureate…
Dae Gee 827 Colorado Boulevard 720-639-9986 The Inuit have more than fifty words for snow, which tells us two things. First, there’s a lot of snow in the Canadian hinterlands. Second, and more important for our purposes, is that the more people know about something — which snow is powdery…
Chef Ryan Leinonen will host a Finland-themed dinner at Trillium beginning at 7 p.m. tonight. “Food from Finland tends to be more rustic, simple and peasant-like than the other Scandinavian countries,” the chef says. See also: Blue Trillium, the Inspiration for Ryan Leinonen’s Restaurant, Is a Rare Bloom Indeed…
Azucar Bakery, which sells custom-made cakes and other confections for special occasions as well as traditional Peruvian treats from owner Marjorie Silva’s homeland, recently received a notice from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) stating that a religious discrimination complaint had been filed against the bakery. The complaint stems…
Mexican restaurants that start with the letter Z haven’t had much luck of late. Zocalo closed two location in 2014 (on South Broadway and in the Golden Triangle), and now the doors are locked at Zanitas Mexican & Margaritas. Zanitas moved to south Denver in 2013 in a prominent new…
No. 55: 48-Hour Short Ribs at Chop Shop Casual Urban Eatery 4990 East Colfax Avenue 720-550-7665 Chop Shop opened last summer with an upscale menu from chef and co-owner Clint Wangsnes — but in a casual, counter-service setting in a neighborhood clamoring for more dining options. Rather than following the…
Park Burger feels like a Denver institution even though owner Jean-Philippe Failyau opened the first one in Platt Park just under six years ago. Since then, he’s added two more Park Burgers (one in Lower Highland and one in Hilltop), Park & Co. in Uptown, and a pizza place called…
Simple Complex and Clever Satchel’s On 6th 1710 E. 6th Avenue 303-399-2560 While it’s easy to see Prohibition as a golden age of American cocktails, the history of mixing booze dates back much farther. Before the eighteenth amendment to the Constitution outlawed the production and sale of booze in 1920…
The pupusa joints I’ve visited for this month’s exploration of one aspect of Salvadoran cuisine keep getting smaller as January progresses. The first, El Chalate on Colfax, had a decent-sized dining room with a number of Salvadoran and Mexican dishes and even featured an attached market. The second, Pupuseria San…
Frasca Food and Wine launched its Instituto Per il Vino series this month. The four-part, interactive classes take an in-depth look at different wine regions around the globe, with curated flights that showcase each region. This week you can take the New World Pinot Noir class, which will take place…
When word got out on social media that the irreplaceable mainstay of the Easter holiday, the Cadbury Crème Egg, was being fucked with, the virtual table-flipping and wall-punching could not be contained. British CCE fans are getting the shaft this year because six-packs are now five-packs at the same price,…
