You can’t talk about Colorado cheeseburgers — which I do in my reviews of Larkburger and the Counter — without talking about Smashburger, the Denver-based chain that’s exploding everywhere. Last Thursday I talked Smashburger with Tom Ryan, managing partner and chief concept officer at Consumer Capital Partners, the private equity…
For days, I’d eaten nothing but crap and tourist fodder and overpriced lunches and dinners in the mountains while trying to pretend I was relaxing amid the spectacular views, German tourists and stands of regal, if dying, pine. I needed a great burger the way some people need oxygen while…
“I got my ass kicked, but man, did I learn a lot,” recalls Tyler Wiard, talking about the early ’90s and his days as a line cook for Dave Query and John Platt at Q’s Restaurant in the Hotel Boulderado. He must have been up to the task, because Query…
The cocktails that the original Mad Men drank are back. Classic cocktails are the new, new thing — and the fact is, these old standards generally taste better than all those contemporary cocktails. They taste more like alcohol and less like bananas, pomegranates and apples; they taste more sophisticated. Depending…
While talking with Tom Ryan, the man behind Smashburger, I heard how the original Smashburger service model — in which customers wrote down exactly what they wanted on their burgers by checking boxes on a sushi bar-style paper menu — was abandoned rather quickly once the company realized that a)…
So I was cruising around the web’s nethers this morning, and what should I stumble across but the BEST CHEF’S ACCESSORY EVER. Or at least the best accessory ever until I find something even cooler. This meat tenderizer ring made the front page over at Eat Me Daily (which, if…
The decision went like this: “Okay, head to class now, or… ” I glance over at the simmering basil syrup in the works, and the strawberries blending in the robo-coupe …”just stay here.” “Here” was the kitchen, and “class” was college. And finally, I decided to stay “here,” because it…
Modmarket opens tomorrow at 1600 28th Street in the struggling 29th Street retail district in Boulder. But since Boulderites have a thing for green, and Modmarket’s “menu is created from ingredients like you find along the perimeter of your local grocer … you know, fresh produce, the highest quality of…
Our listage of new restaurants that opened in August is lengthy, and September is shaping up nicely, too, especially with the very new opening of SALT Bistro, which served its first lunch on Tuesday in the former Tom Tavern’s space, the iconic Boulder burger joint and bar that occupied the…
“I got my ass kicked, but man, did I learn a lot,” recalls Tyler Wiard, talking about the early ’90s and his days as a line cook for Dave Query and John Platt at Q’s Restaurant in the Hotel Boulderado. He must have been up to the task, because Query…
This is part two of Nancy Levine’s interview with Sean Kenyon, the bar manager at Steuben’s. You can read the first part of Levine’s interview with Kenyon here. What do you think of bartending school? I am not a believer in generic bartending school as a way to get into…
At 6 p.m. tonight, the original Cru Wine Bar, 1442 Larimer Street, is hosting an Australian wine tasting with grape guru Stephen Chambers, whose collection of fortified Australian wines will be paired with dishes from Cru exec chef, Erasmo Casiano. The four-course dinner, priced at $65 per person, excluding tax…
No, that’s exactly what it looks like. It’s a pumpkin-carving kit. And I can’t even begin to explain why I kept this at my desk…
What famous Wyoming bar is serving me a Jack and Coke — amidst all the brands and dead heads?…
I believe that a great cheeseburger can change your life. Depending on the circumstances, depending on the time, the place, the company or lack thereof, your age and, most important, depending on the cheeseburger itself, a truly great one can alter your fate, leave you feeling elated and in a…
It seems oxymoronic to call a guy covered in tattoos a geek, but when it comes to cocktails, Sean Kenyon is the biggest geek in town. He has taken his engineering coursework and applied it to the engineering of cocktails, with infusion experimentation and enhancements behind the bar a daily…
Lucy, the restaurant that occupies the second floor of Comedy Works South at the Landmark in Greenwood Village, has been on hiatus since July 2. At the time, Comedy Works marketing manager Susan Collyar told Westword that the restaurant was being “revamped” and would be open by the end of…
Smashburger has long been a point of contention in Denver’s highly competitive cheeseburger scene. There are those out there who love the place all out of proportion — swearing up and down that it is our answer to In-N-Out, that it is the long-awaited Chipotle for the American food enthusiast. …
What’s geekier than having a fantasy football draft party at your house? Having it at a bar! And we’ve got three great suggestions for places to go to get your fantasy football geekosity on bigtime. For starters, there’s any one of the Tavern Hospitality Group’s five Denver restaurants (Tavern Uptown,…
A relatively new addition to my mountains of junk, these are official Mario Batali-style bright orange Crocs which I got (courtesy of Lori Midson) from the big Food & Wine whatsis up in Aspen this year. Though never worn by Mr. Batali himself, they are nonetheless the same kind of…
Stomp Them Grapes, central Denver’s only brew-at-home beer-and- wine store, is moving this week from 2563 15th Street to 4731 Lipan Street, near I-70. But the added driving distance will pay off in added inventory. “We’ve outgrown the space. We’re going from a miserable 860 square feet to 4,800 square…
While it’s still a few weeks before we bid a formal farewell to summer, the wine geeks at Lala’s Wine Bar + Pizzeria, 410 East Seventh Avenue, see no reason to wait, which, in part, explains why the restaurant and watering hole is hosting an end-of-summer pinot party tonight from…
