Bite Me

Market watch: If you don’t get your fill of the Far East at T-Wa Inn (see review, page 63), head across the street to Lucky Market (506 South Federal Boulevard), where you’ll find all those weird, freaky, Jesus-why-would-anyone-eat-that? ingredients you’ve been looking for. Need some pork pâté? Jackfruit chips? Frozen…

Consumed

iker culture and beer are as inseparable as a Harley-riding man and the female passenger wrapped around his back. “Bikers do consume mass quantities of beer at their functions,” notes Roger Unrein. And if he has his way, the beer they’ll be drinking is Hardtail Ale. “Being a biker and…

Drink of the Week

Cucina Colore 3041 East Third Avenue 303-393-6917 Columbus proved that the Earth isn’t flat — but you could be flat on your back after one too many drinks honoring Italy’s most famous explorer. Cucina Colore’s refreshing New World Sangria — the creation of owner Venanzio Momo — is a fruit-filled…

Room at the Inn

In prison, they say the quickest way to gain respect among the general population is to pick the biggest, meanest, ugliest guy in your block and, on your first day inside, beat him to death with a chair. Sure, you’ll spend a few months in the hole, but this establishes…

Taqueria Patzcuaro

The Oldsmobile Toronado is a monster of a car. Seventeen feet long and grossing nearly two tons, it’s an old-school blacktop heavyweight and, in its day, was one king-hell luxury ride. Although it never had the power of a Corvette or the raw muscle of those classic Mustangs, pound-for-pound, the…

Bite Me

Repent, foodies, for the end draweth nigh: The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story this month full of doomsday prognostication and dire warnings for the future of the indie restaurant biz. According to Technomic Inc., a food-consulting firm out of Chicago, last year the Big Evil Empire of chain…

Food Fetishes

It’s cool and damp inside the harvesting room of Hazel Dell Mushrooms, where sprayers create a fine, pervasive mist. On row after row of shelves sit plastic bags filled with sawdust; inside the bags, fungal spawn of various kinds dream their strange dreams. Is there any foodstuff stranger than the…

Drink of the Week

Denver may be totally landlocked, but even so, a tropical storm blew into town this winter when Gumbo’s opened in LoDo and began serving its potent Hurricane. According to legend, the bright-red cocktail was created during World War II when brown liquors, such as whiskey, were in short supply; in…

Now, That’s Italian

It’s been almost two years since I’ve had decent Italian food. I’ve just recently come north from the culinary hinterlands of New Mexico, where a good red sauce is as hard to find as a cloudy day, a competent driver or a virgin bride. There were nights when I would…

Bite Me

Just so you know: I’m Jason Sheehan, your hot-off-the-press, brand-spankin’-new restaurant critic and gustatory point man, and I’m co-opting this week’s column for a little self-serving rant. I always promised myself that if I were ever given the chance to start fresh in a city where I was entirely unknown,…

Consumed

If the folks at the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council had their way, you’d already know that July is National Hot Dog Month and July 24 is National Hot Dog Day. If Coe D. Meyer had his way, every day would be a hot-dog day. From his office in…

Drink of the Week

With the mountains and plains of Colorado drier than a tinderbox, the best way to get Rocky Mountain high this summer could be to sip a Blue Sky Martini inside the cool, cavernous Blue Sky Grill. Made with Skyy Vodka and Blue Curacao and served straight up with a lemon…

Head for the Hills

A trip to the Buck Snort Saloon is legendary, an outing in itself, a day’s itinerary for out-of-town visitors. My own memories of the place always start with trying to get there in a substandard car — the International with the haunted carburetor; the Baja bug missing a lug nut…

The Bite

Liquid assets: The building that for many years housed the Highland Bar (2532 15th Street) is even older than the Buck Snort Saloon (see story above). And its history is just as colorful: The space started out as a firehouse in 1879, then became a grocery store, and for the…

Drink of the Week

If you’re on a hot date and looking to score, take her to Hapa Sushi and show off your sensitivity by sipping a naughty pink G Spot. The word “cocktail” has never sounded more appropriate than it does at Hapa Sushi, a swank Cherry Creek sushi grill and sake bar…

Ursa Major

My Hungarian stepfather was a fussy eater. He wasn’t a gourmet. He was just following — rigidly, as he did almost everything — dietary restrictions imposed by various bodily ailments and psychological quirks. He had a weak stomach, he said, so he couldn’t eat garlic, onions or cabbage. Heart problems…

The Bite

To market, to market: A few years back, the town of Minturn — a little slice of reality between the never-never lands of Vail and Beaver Creek — decided to grow its summer business with the Minturn Market. “It started as a real grassroots effort,” remembers Liz Campbell, who’s worked…

Consumed

Cyd Szymanski grew up on a chicken farm, but she’s still chicken. “I’m the Egg Lady, and I’m terrified of chickens,” confesses Szymanski. “I am really phobic about them. I think I just got pecked too often when I was little.” Even so, she’s managed to scratch out a living…

Drink of the Week

The classic remedy for soothing the pain of a bee or wasp sting is to apply a cold compress and baking soda. But if you’re stung by one of the nasty little buggers this summer, the contemporary treatment is to head to the Hornet for a medicinal Rum-O-Rita. Served on…

Steaking a Claim

Barry Fey has braved the LoDo crowds still celebrating Colorado’s victory over the Yankees — “I hate Coors Field because of what the scores have done to baseball,” says the concert promoter and sports fan — to try the town’s latest steakhouse. Self-professed steakhouse, that is. “This is not a…

The Bite

What’s in a name? The fact that Denver already had a Keg — Ron and Dan’s Keg Lounge, a classic dive at 1851 West 38th Avenue, was apparently no obstacle to the Canada-based chain opening a Keg Steakhouse & Bar in town (see story above). And truthfully, there’s not much…

Fire in His Belly

John Stubbs likes to smoke. That’s not surprising, given his line of work: He’s a fireworks expert. And at the Putting Green Pub, 7785 West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood, he’s allowed to indulge his habit. Stubbs — known in the bar’s trivia contests as “Pyro” — cradles a cigarette in…