You want it Thai hot?” the server asked when I ordered my kana moo krob. Incredulous, he repeated the question, practically begging me to reconsider. But I didn’t want to reconsider. I wanted my crispy pork with Chinese broccoli amped up to its maximum sweat-inducing capacity. At Thai Monkey Club,…
I celebrated a birthday yesterday, not at a fancy restaurant with Champagne and shavings of foie (or nibbling on scones and crumpets at the Brown Palace), but at a Mexican restaurant, a deliberate choice just to keep the “Midson is obsessed with Mexican food” sentiment going strong. The joint was…
This fall, when I chatted with Amerigo chef-owner Iain Chisholm for my weekly Chef and Tell interview, he described Amerigo, a craft-Italian restaurant on Upper Larimer, as “my stepping stone to set up the prototype for other concepts in the same vein — small, neighborhood restaurants that I can build…
In a baseball stadium named after a brewery, you can understand why conversations about other beer brands might seem a little, well, out of left field. Coors (and its parent company) is a fiercely competitive conglomerate that has paid millions and millions of dollars since 1995 for the rights to…
Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with a spacious kitchen. They often bring some of their market’s best ingredients home with them and cook up a feast, and when they’re not…
Months ago, I had the pleasure of spending the day butchering a pig with Kate Kavanaugh and her fiance, Josh Curtiss, the two of whom have spent the last few years conceptualizing, cultivating and building Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe, a new-school, artisanal chop shop of saws, hatchets and butcher blocks,…
Things don’t always go as planned, as would-be restaurant and brewery owners find out on a daily basis in Colorado. Case in point: only five of the breweries listed in our August blog post, “Ten breweries that will open in metro Denver before the Great American Beer Festival,” have actually…
Darren Pusateri Gallo Di Nero 1135 Bannock Street 303-825-1995 gallodinero.com This is part one of my interview with Darren Pusateri, exec chef of Gallo Di Nero; part two of our chat will run tomorrow. Darren Pusateri, clad in a heavy coat with an ebony scarf swaddled around his neck, shakes…
Westminster Brewing, located along a rural stretch of road between a subdivision and Highway 36, celebrated its grand opening last weekend, December 7-8, introducing a lineup of English-style cask ales and other beers to its neighbors. Westword’s Kenneth Hamblin III was there. You can see all of his photos in…
In A Federal Case, I’ll be eating my way up Federal Boulevard – south to north – within Denver city limits. I’ll be skipping the national chains and per-scoop Chinese joints, but otherwise I’ll report from every vinyl booth, walk-up window and bar stool where food is served. Here’s the…
In Denver, breakfast burritos are the breakfast of champions — and just about everyone else, with drive-thru joints selling them on almost every corner, and vendors delivering them door-to-door in downtown office buildings. Still, some Denverites don’t appreciate breakfast burritos — or having to guess their origins. See also: Guess…
Support the Prevent Child Abuse Colorado (PCA) initiative while sipping brews and shooting pool at the Wynkoop Brewing Company from 5 to 8 p.m tonight at the Pints for Prevention fundraiser. Tickets are $20 at the door and include one drink, appetizers and free pool; there will also be a…
On my last few trips to Portland, I’ve eaten at Thai joints ranging from holes-in-the-wall to empires (hello, Pok Pok), looking for yam makheua yao or a bowl of spicy jin hoom. I seek out these places to remind myself that not all Thai food is cooked as it so…
Stephen Gould, proprietor and distiller at Golden Moon Distillery, began producing spirits in 2012 and distributing earlier this year. And while Golden Moon might seem like yet another distillery in an expansive collection of stills that have spawned throughout the state this year, Gould and his team chose the road…
Breckenridge Brewery’s Colorado Craft location in LoDo celebrated the release of The Women of Colorado Craft Breweries pinup calendar with a party on last night, December 9. A handful of the models — employees of some of the state’s most-loved craft breweries — made appearances in full regalia (don’t they…
Boulder Beer Company, which invented Colorado’s craft brewing industry in 1979, is planning to stop bottling Planet Porter, one of its three original beers. While the brewery will make Planet Porter occasionally on its three-barrel pilot system, the decision ends the sale and distribution of what has been the longest…
Arapahoe Basin is reopening what it calls its “nineteenth hole” — 6th Alley Bar & Grill, the perfect place to get down at A-Basin, one of Colorado’s last down-home mountains. And the new/old look of 6th Alley pays homage to that reputation, as well as A-Basin’s long history as one…
Memo to Mother Nature: Don’t think, even for a minute, that just because you’re trying to give us all frostbite with your insanely cold temperatures, that I’m going to stay holed up inside with a blow dryer shooting hot air on my face. In fact, I walked a whole block…
The holidays tend to bring out the very best — and sometimes the dead worst — in culinary acumen. In this age of gourmet foods and luxury drinks, it almost surpassed belief that there are still stale, tasteless and terrible tidbits adorning X-mas tables and sideboards in the misguided name…
Between the very cold snap and Gretchen Kurtz’s discussion of hot, hot spices in her review of Namaste India, we were about ready to book a passage to India last week. Instead, Cafe Society came up with a list of the ten best Indian restaurants in Denver. It inspired much…
Two weeks until Christmas and you’re far from ready. But that’s no reason to start shopping now — not when you can instead drink whiskey in a basement for a good cause or indulge in a four-course, tap-room dinner. Read on for more details about booze with benefits. See also:…
Earlier today, in the kitchen of Lower 48, the all-male squadron of cooks and chefs were prepping for tonight’s blast of bodies that will undoubtedly want a first glimpse — and taste — of one of the most anticipated restaurant openings of year. And considering it’s the crew’s first night…
