Yesterday I kicked off “Staffing Up,” with some free advice for how Mark & Isabella can get its act together. But the idea doesn’t have to be confined to restaurants that need a swift, motivating kick in the ass; reading through these blog posts for the last few days, I…
It’s back: Chipotle is giving away free food on Halloween eve. The Denver-based burrito chain has done this annually, though it’s kept the offer a little more quiet in recent years. But we may as well shout it out: From 6 p.m. until close, customers can get a free burrito,…
Third-generation Napa Valley winemaker Marc Mondavi is coming to the Broker Restaurant, 821 17th Street, tonight to host an evening of wine-tasting from 7 to 9 p.m. Mondavi will share his knowledge while attendees sample Charles Krug wines and heavy hors d’ouevre. Attendance costs $125; call 303-446-4815 or visit www.thebrokerrestaurant.com…
It’s billed as a Bloody Mary on the libations roster, but with the accompaniments of shrimp, blue cheese-stuffed olives, peperoncinis and a kick-ass, kick start mound of spices, it’s more like a snack before breakfast. Or a prelude to a long afternoon of snowbound restlessness. I’m on my way to…
Last week, my buddy Dave Herrera over at Backbeat debuted a new bloggity thingamajig called Recast, in which he and his guys redo the soundtracks of existing movies. First one? Blade Runner — one of the greatest movies of all time, and one with a soundtrack that already kicks some…
When the lights come on, and the only thing separating you from Hammered Enough to Want Taco Bell is one last shot, it’s good to have a plan. Hesitate, and risk the bartender reneging on his gracious offer to tack fifty more dollars on your tab. But: Know what you…
The String Cheese Incident’s Kyle Hollingsworth is touring to push his new solo release, Then There’s Now, but the keyboardist/songwriter isn’t just an expert musician. He’s also a home brewer, and is teaming up with local breweries along his route for Kyle’s Beer Tour. Although the tour won’t hit Colorado…
So you’re headed to a friend’s Halloween party or hosting one of your own and the pressure’s on to find the perfect party food to delight and entertain. You’ve done cute mashed potato ghosts, are bored with spider web cheesecakes, and are so over doll hands reaching out from cupcakes. Maybe…
“I’ve just become the chef of Le Chateau,” writes James Mazzio, one-time Food & Wine magazine Best New Chef winner and until recently the exec at the Icehouse Tavern, 1801 Wynkoop Street. But that stint ended early this month when the “high-powered” Mazzio was turned loose by powers higher than…
Restaurants and bars continue to offer a flurry of snow deals. Yesterday we reminded you about McCormick’s excellent dollar Irish coffee offer whenever it snows, as well as half-off Murphy’s at Argyll and new deals at Mezcal, Tambien and Sketch. Now comes word that Lime XS, at 730 East Sixth…
Cook’s Fresh Market is serving up a new dish to downtown dwellers and commuters. The upscale grocer at 1600 Glenarm has begun selling bistro dinners on weeknights from 5 to 8 p.m. for an unbelievably not-so upscale price of under $10 an entree. Menu items include wood roasted beef tri-tip…
This is part two of Lori Midson’s interview with Chad Clevenger, exec chef of Mel’s Bar and Grill. You can read part one of Midson’s interview with Clevenger here. Rules of conduct in your kitchen: Work clean, work quiet, ask questions if you don’t know the answer, respect your team,…
Just got off the phone with Bill Feid, a Denver entrepreneur who’s never done a restaurant, but has firm plans in place to open Billy’s, a gourmet hot dog and sausage shack, at 2445 Larimer Street in mid-November. According to Feid, this isn’t going to be your average dog house…
There are some restaurants I talk about a lot. There are others that I talk about hardly at all. And one of the very few places that I talk about continuously (some would say obsessively) isn’t even open yet. It’s Ondo’s. Ah, Ondo’s….I’ve been dreaming about having a new tapas…
Go on a bar crawl with a long-dead cinema star tonight when Matthew Martin, Bette Davis impersonator extraordinaire, leads a Bette Davis Bar Crawl in anticipation of the October 30 Awful Things in Denver party being thrown by the Denver Public Library’s Fresh City Life. The crawl starts at 8…
Ceviche is a nearly perfect dish — simple and organic and beautifully balanced, using the strengths of every single ingredient to subtly alter every other; a dish virtually unchanged through generations of cooks, both amateur and professional. No one knows for sure where ceviche was invented, only that it most…
My family wasn’t the Irish pub kind. Some of my earliest, fondest memories involve going with my dad to Trader Vic’s in the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Or the Brown Palace. Or Eddie Bohn’s Pig ‘N Whistle on West Colfax, where we’d sit in one of those red booths with his pals…
After my last meal at Chili Verde, a new and very traditional Mexican restaurant that was about to get its liquor license, I stopped by Chubby’s, a forty-year-old Mexican joint that never has (and never will) serve a drop. They’re in the same northwest Denver neighborhood, yet fill very different…
This just in from the boys at Frasca: “Despite receiving over 14 inches of snow (and counting…) on Frasca’s patio today, we’ll still be open this evening for regular dinner service. We hope to see you soon.” Two feet of snow. More on the way. But what do chefs do?…
The good people at Mezcal (3230 East Colfax Avenue), Tambien (250 Steele Street) and Sketch (101 Broadway) have declared a state of happy hour emergency, which is often the case when the streets and sidewalks are canvasses of white. And so long as the snow continues to fall, all three…
If there was such a thing as a Vietnamese Whopper, the banh bao would be it. Banh bao, a steamed rice dumpling, is like its Chinese cousin, the char siu bao. But instead of harboring BBQ pork, banh bao contains two types of pork mixed together: salty ground pork with…
I got a call from chef Andrea Frizzi yesterday, thanking me for including his little 17th Avenue restaurant in my list of Denver’s best Italian spots, and then letting me know that he’ll soon add lunch service at Il Posto. Oh, and not just any lunch. I checked out the…
