Food & Drink

Colorado legislators work hard, and apparently deserve a break today — with a catered lunch from McDonald’s, complete with the Ronald McDonald mascot. Representatives from America’s favorite Quarter Pounder-pimps will be visiting the State Capitol at 11:30 this morning to “highlight its economic impact on Colorado,” according to the announcement,…

Admittedly, a dish of noodles, tofu and vegetables isn’t what’s typically on my plate, but here, at this restaurant, I’ve discovered that the vegetarian dishes are every bit as good as the meat and seafood alternatives. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct…

Joe Troupe Lucky Pie Pizza & Tap House 1610 16th Street 303-825-1021 www.luckypiepizza.com This is part one of my interview with Joe Troupe, exec chef of Lucky Pie Pizza & Tap House. Part two of our chat will run in this space tomorrow. Unless you count shit on shingles, my…

A snowstorm might not be the best weather for a pig roast, but that didn’t prevent a crowd from descending on Boulder’s Oak at Fourteenth last night for the restaurant’s first quarterly pig roast, a new tradition that was slated to get off the ground the very week the six-month-old…

Close to 300 restaurants opened in the metro area last year, which made choosing the best for the Best of Denver 2012 was a daunting task. But in the end, Pinche Taqueria was the clear choice for Best New Restaurant. But many other worthy spots opened in 2011, and Laura…

Michelangelos Wine Bar, a cozy, comfy java hut and wine respite, where lattes, laptaps, live music and lambrusco all co-mingled, has closed at 1 Broadway. The website has gone black, and a hand-scrawled message on the front door thanks customers for their support over the years. No word on what…

When Chris Dailey took over the old Ruby’s Diner spot in Boulder’s Twenty-Ninth Street development, he planned to turn the space into his own diner in just a few short months. StarLite Diner & Lounge, he announced last year, would be ready by March 2012. Close: It opened today…

For months, we’ve been keeping an eye on the construction at Alameda Square, which lays claim to some of the best Asian markets and restaurants in the city, including Super Star Asian, which is undergoing an expansion, and Pacific Ocean, which is also enlarging its space. But it’s Pho Ta,…

Yesterday morning, three Buddhist monks appeared at Adrift to bless the new tiki bar, a ritual for co-owner Jay Dedrick, who has asked Buddhist monks to ceremonially bless all of his Denver restaurants, including his four Swing Thai joints. And last night, during an animated — very animated — friends-and-family…

Burger King issued a battle cry yesterday. In order to help boost its sluggish sales — the chain has slipped to third, behind McDonald’s and Wendy’s — the company rolled out the heavy artillery: ten new menu items, including specialty salads, chicken snack wraps, smoothies, flavored frozen coffee drinks, some…

There are tatami rooms at Kobe An where you can have a traditional Japanese meal while seated on the floor around a low table — all hidden away in an above-street-level storefront in that most American of landscapes, the strip mall. The inside of this restaurant belies its bland suburban…

After a month of Street 16 menu madness, the two finalists — South Federal Boulevard and Lower Highland — finally faced off. And when it was all over yesterday morning, South Federal was proclaimed the winner: the best restaurant neighborhood in town, at least according to Cafe Society voters. (Readers…

When I was living in New York, I constantly craved Mexican food — which, aside from upscale Tex-Mex, was about as easy to find on the East Coast as a pro-choicer at a Tea Party convention. Real Mexican food isn’t all that common in Denver, either; despite the abundance of…

Next to food trucks, the biggest Mexican-food trend over the past decade has been Denver burritos — not the Mile High City’s indigenous marvels, but the type that originated in San Francisco’s Mission District: gargantuan, foil-wrapped bricks stuffed with beans, rice, meat, cheese, guacamole, salsa, sour cream and seemingly every…

Earlier today, we posted the result of our Street 16 restaurant neighborhood tournament, and South Federal, which had been pitted against Lower Highland in the final showdown, took the prize…but one reader suggested that South Federal might have lost one of the very restaurants that pushed the South Federal neighborhood…

The space at 3801 West 32nd Avenue that last housed Apres Dessert Bar is going in almost the exact opposite direction: toward wings, sandwiches, burgers and beer. Fire on the Mountain, a mini-chain with locations in Portland, Oregon, is expanding into Colorado. By the week of April 23, Denver’s Fire…