Following service Saturday, Mel’s Bistro at 1120 East Sixth Avenue went dark. After lots of back-and-forth and sniffing around by some of Denver’s best-known chefs, Mel Master finally signed a deal to sell the last restaurant in the Master family empire to Steve Mursuli. He’ll turn it into a Cuban…
Of the fifteen spaces honored in the 2008 Mayor’s Design Awards, several honorees are particularly delicious, because the buildings look just as good as the food created inside them. “Great cities are just as enriched by many discrete and beautifully designed projects as they are by large and bold civic…
Jared Boller has a whole lotta shaking going on. When I first talked to Jared Boller for Bite Metwo weeks ago, it was because he was one of the multitude unexpectedly let go by Jim Sullivan during the synchronized closures of Nine75 and Ocean. Then the head bartender at Ocean,…
East Moon Asian Bistro opens its doors tomorrow at 10431 Town Center in Westminster. It’s a new restaurant, but its owners are veterans in the business — they also have East Moon locations in Fort Collins and Longmont (and two related East Moons back East). And depending on who you…
I was too hungry to take a picture. Denver Ted’s 1308 Pearl Street 303-830-9089 Regular cheesesteak: steak, American cheese, onions, bread $6 for a nine-inch sandwich It’s not fair to expound on the merits of a sandwich I’ve eaten after letting myself become so ravenously hungry that I can barely…
“It’s made from corn. It doesn’t have artificial ingredients. Like sugar, it’s fine in moderation.” This from a new TV ad campaign extolling the virtues and relative safety of high-fructose corn syrup. One can only presume that members of the Lard Council must be licking their fatty chops in anticipation…
With Sheila Lucero in the kitchen, a meal at Jax goes swimmingly. Once again, I find myself wishing I were a big fat man, one of those renowned, infamous gastronomes of old. I wish I were James Beard, who could put away a dozen oysters, a pound of Gulf shrimp,…
When The Real World: Denver production crew took over the former home of B-52 Billiards, at 1920 Blake Street, they turned it into some pretty swank digs. And in November 2006, before the MTV show had even finished its run, Shane Alexander and Josh Hawkinson bought the building and remodeled…
When Brix opened at 3000 East Third Avenue a few years ago, it gave Cherry Creek an unexpected, hip hot spot. But then the partners behind Brix split (read more about it in this week’s Bite Me), and earlier this year the space became Barron’s Bar & Bistro. But Barron’s…
The variety of dining options near the hip Highland intersection of 32nd and Lowell recently got a little more diverse. Ben Ke opened Highlands Asian Grill about three months ago, at 3940 West 32nd Avenue. In addition to a stellar-looking variety of Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese options, the menu…
It was always a desperation drink, what you grabbed when you just couldn’t look at another beer, something you could pretend was a gin-and-tonic in a bottle if you used enough limes. Coors Brewing Company, then the nation’s number-three brewer, devoted one and a half years–and a reported $3.5 million–to…
The First Avenue Hotel in 1917. Denver restaurateur Jesse Morreale (Mezcal, Tambien, La Rumba, Rockbar) recently announced he was taking the next step in building the nascent hotel empire that started with the All-Inn at 3015 East Colfax Avenue by purchasing the historic/empty/decrepit 1st Avenue Hotel building at 101 Broadway…
High School Musical cereal Kellogg’s Rating: Two spoons out of four Cereal description: Round-cornered corn-and-oat stars evenly split between a robust yellowish-brown and a ripe red — and all of them are speckled with white sugar pustules seemingly ready to erupt with sweetness. It’s a look that raises expectations soon…
Chef Frank Bonanno. I think we all knew that it was only a matter of time before Sparrow Market Café (701 Grant Street) tanked, since Sparrow restaurant had already flown the coop. And guess who’s picked up the space? Frank Bonanno, who already owns the restaurants on either side of…
Morreale is feeling confident after his makeover of RockBar at the All-Inn. Remember a couple years back when Jesse Morreale, out for one of his morning constitutionals, just up and decided he was going to buy the aging transient hotel at 3105 East Colfax, so he walked into the All-Inn…
There’s a new Asian spot in Aurora, and it’s dishing up a wide variety of Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese cuisines with a menu that includes an extensive array of sushi, bento boxes and teppanyaki. Purple Orchid Asian Bistro, the vision of owner Rui Shang, opened about two weeks ago at…
Now, I’m a huge fan of caramel candy. Something about the rich, deep sweetness of good cooked sugar is pure candy heaven to me. On a recent trek to Big Lots to find strange and unusual candy, I spotted two filled caramel options that looked intriguing. Goetze’s “Original” Caramel Creams…
Construction — or, rather destruction — began this week on Sean Yontz’s old Chama space in the Belmar development, which is scheduled to become Phoenix chef Mark Tarbell’s second Colorado restaurant, following the success of his first, The Oven, in that same Lakewood project. One complication: Tarbell doesn’t yet have…
“No more root beer for me, bartender. I’m driving.” Happy Hour: It’s no longer just for alcohol. That’s the idea behind the Red Trolley ice cream shop’s root beer float happy hour. The phrase alone inspires giddy excitement; saying it aloud will certainly leave a childish grin on your face…
Goodnight, Mel’s. I got word last night from Charlie Master that the last location of the Master family restaurant empire is finally closing. Mel’s Bistro, at 1120 East Sixth Avenue, has been on the block for some time now, and while many of Denver’s big names were rumored to have…
Either it’s the best kept secret in town, or other Denver-ites just don’t appreciate the restorative qualities of a good soyrizo-and-egg burrito and an icy cold Chelada after a night of too many indulgences as much as my husband and I do. When we first stumbled upon the abundance of…
After just a couple of years as Leenah’s Deli, the long-standing Greek market at 1035 Lincoln Street has changed ownership and is now called Melit’as Greek Cafe & Market. New owner Maria Gibson took over the deli about six weeks ago from Nader Wadhen, and while the menu does have…
