Food & Drink

Barman Sean Kenyon, who occasionally pens a booze-centric column for Westword but spends the majority of his time designing — and pouring — innovative cocktails at the Squeaky Bean and Williams & Graham, received a major kiss-up shout-out in Food & Wine magazine, which just released its list of the…

The Downtown Aquarium’s Nautilus ballroom was filled with all sorts of foodie-fun — perfect, medium-rare steak; disgustingly good chocolate mousse layer cakes with edible pearl accents; mermaids and a guy in a giant shrimp suit — last night for a Landry’s showcase of the dining and entertainment venues it owns…

People ask me what my favorite restaurant is on a daily basis, and it’s a question that’s impossible to answer. But I will say that the restaurant where the above snap was taken is very, very high on my list, and while desserts aren’t its focus, the pastry chef is…

JP Krause Aloft Broomfield 8300 Arista Place, Broomfield 303-635-2000 www.aloftbroomfielddenver.com Part one of my interview with JP Krause, exec chef of Aloft Broomfield, ran yesterday. This is part two of our interview. Favorite restaurant in America: Denver’s own Bennett’s BBQ, but not because of the food. It’s all about the…

Liquor-license renewals are generally routine affairs in Denver — but for Jesse Morreale, nothing has been routine this year. He’s in a fight over his First Avenue Hotel, and has an October 1 deadline to satisfy the city’s demands — or face having the building closed. Again. And late yesterday,…

For days the discussion has focused on Cherry Creek North, once this town’s hottest restaurant neighborhood, which may — or may not — be making a comeback. But this morning we’re returning to Highland, the area that Forbes just declared one of “America’s Hippest Hipster Neighborhoods,” citing many of the…

If you’re of a certain age — I’ll leave the exact number of years up to you — you’ll remember when restaurant menus were as long as novellas, with enough adjectives to give Emily Brontë a run for her money. Intricate details of cooking technique and provenance were listed for…

Mark DeNittis, the co-founder of Il Mondo Vecchio, a local artisan sausage factory, has his hands in a lot of different projects, and up until today, one of them was Cinque Soldi Salumeria, a tiny Italian market and deli exclusively selling Il Mondo Vecchio products that DeNittis co-owned with Tony…

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 the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market’s choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast. “The delicious smell…

Jesse Morreale has spent much of the summer in meetings with the city, which on July 10 slapped a “notice to vacate” on his First Avenue Hotel property – the circa 1906 building at 101 Broadway that holds Sketch and El Diablo, as well as Morreale’s offices. And those meetings…

JP Krause Aloft Broomfield 8300 Arista Place, Broomfield 303-635-2000 www.aloftbroomfielddenver.com This is part one of my interview with JP Krause, exec chef of Aloft Broomfield. Part two of our interview will run in this space tomorrow. “Right. My name. It’s John Patrick, but ever since high school, I’ve gone by…

Denver just got another Red Robin’s Burger Works, with another Freestyle Coke machine, so that more folks can be controlled by Skynet treated to Burger Works’ signature craft-your-own-burgers — with drinks designed to match. This location — the fourth in Colorado — opened Monday in the new Hotel and Hospitality…

Before we move on to controversies in other restaurant neighborhoods, we’re taking one more turn around Cherry Creek. That’s where Rodney’s closed this weekend, prompting Denver Dave to say that Cherry Creek North is “just becoming another food court in any mall USA.” That rallied the CCN defenders, including JPL35,…