Tools of the trade: Like those of most foodies, my kitchen drawers need to be opened with a certain amount of care and apprehension. An aggressive yank will only serve to intensify the orgy of kitchen gadgets under way inside. Oh, it’s ugly: The lemon zester’s mixed up with the…
We were halfway through our entrees when we realized what we’d been doing since the start of the meal. Here we were at Little Nell, the Aspen restaurant voted by Gourmet readers as one of the 25 Top Tables in the United States this fall, and all we could do…
Out with the old, in with the new: Is the restaurant scene hopping, or what? In just one week in December, six new restaurants opened. (A seventh, Del Frisco, a southeast Denver steak place, postponed its debut scheduled for that same week until January.) The newcomers: Cucina Cucina, Bella Ristorante…
Having a potentially fatal food allergy and trying a new restaurant is a little like jumping into a one-night stand of unprotected sex: You have to have faith that someone you know nothing about is telling you the truth. My poison: dill in any form. Since it shuts down my…
Here’s a good New Year’s resolution for public-relations people: Stop sending so much junk mail along with press releases. Every two weeks I recycle at least forty pounds (that’s not an exaggeration, because I can barely carry it out to the curb) of paper, the majority of which is excess…
Over the past year I’ve eaten the food of more than 200 restaurants, including 32 Italian spots, 15 Chinese, 5 steak, 4 French, 2 fusion and 1 Japanese/Salvadoran. Some meals stuck with me longer than others–the Japanese/ Salvadoran dinner, for one–and some provided memories that will stick with me for…
Read-letter daze: In response to a statement I made that Parker lacks “decent pizza” (Mouthing Off, November 21), the owner of a Parker pizzeria wrote to ask if I’d eaten at her Mak’s Pizza, Subs & Ice Cream, at 10841 South Parker Road. “If you have not been to Mak’s,”…
The holidays cry out for traditional activities, so this year a few harried wives and mothers in my neighborhood collaborated to start what we hope becomes an annual “Girls’ Night Out.” The original intention was to hire a limo–that way no one would get stuck as the designated driver–and go…
Tempting fate: It was my first fortune-cookie message completely out of the realm of possibility. “The secrets of seven dynasties will be revealed to you,” claimed the slip of paper I found in the cookie with my to-go order from Pavilion restaurant (see review above). Not a chance: When I…
Before I left on a trip to New York many years ago, I called an old college buddy who’d grown up there and asked him for restaurant recommendations. He gave me about ten names, including an eatery on the edge of Chinatown that he said served some of the best…
Foie gripe, part II: Talk about your wild goose chases. I’ve been following foie gras around for weeks now, and guess where it’s brought me: right back to Denver. I initially waded into these waters with my November 7 review of Tante Louise, “Fedded Bliss,” that mentioned its “humane” foie…
The sign outside the modest Lancer Lounge promised Salvadoran and Japanese food, a combination so unusual we couldn’t resist popping in for a multicultural bite to eat. Never mind that we were overdressed (one member of our group was wearing a suit, something the Lancer probably hasn’t seen since they…
Foie gripe: My mention of Hudson Valley Foie Gras in the November 7 Tante Louise review, “Fedded Bliss”–particularly my use of the word “humane” in conjunction with the duck liver I’d eaten–prompted reader Amy Crews to request more information about Hudson Valley and its purportedly “humane” foie gras. “Being aware…
Most couples promise to stay married “for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health,” but no wedding vow directly addresses the problems unique to twosomes who take on restaurants. Of course, the “richer or poorer” part applies, but so does “and when the dishwasher calls in sick and…
Withered on the vine: Cliff Young has shut down Napa Cafe, at 2033 East Colfax Avenue. This isn’t the first Young venture to close abruptly, leaving employees jobless and disgruntled. One such casualty of Napa left a bitter voicemail message wherein he listed all of Young’s closed restaurants–several of which…
At the rate they’re going, the partners in the Larimer Group have only to open a Sephardic-Ethiopian restaurant and they’ll have the culinary bases pretty much covered. They’ve already done Italian at Josephina’s, upscale Mexican at Mexicali Cafe, American pub grub and microbrews at Champion Brewing Co. and Southwestern-meets-the-rest-of-the-world at…
Beers repeating: After poring over Claim Jumper’s extensive beer roster, we were inspired to have a microbrew tasting with some old friends visiting from out of town (it’s best to do this with people who won’t have to leave your house for a while). At the restaurant, we had tried…
In case someone missed it the first several hundred times I said it, I don’t like chain restaurants. They generally have all the charm and warmth of a metal Christmas tree; their service is usually non-existent; their food is almost always of substandard quality; and, worst of all, they frequently…
“I’ll take you anywhere you want to go,” said my husband of seven years (as of that very day). “No review, no analyzing the food, no eavesdropping on conversations. We’ll just relax. You pick the place.” I didn’t need to give it a second thought: I wanted to eat at…
Here’s the beef: Ivan Utrera’s letter to the editor published in this issue is itself filled with so many “ignorant criticisms” that I feel compelled to reply. Utrera, the president and CEO of Rodizio Restaurants International–which isn’t quite international yet, since the only location so far is in Denver–writes to…
Book ’em: International restaurant reviewer and cookbook author Patricia Wells wasn’t originally scheduled to come to Denver on her book tour to promote Patricia Wells at Home in Provence ($40), but when she saw that Houston was on her itinerary, she called the publisher. “I asked them if I could…
In Denver to promote her latest cookbook, Patricia Wells, restaurant critic for the International Herald-Tribune, complained about cooking’s newest trend: fusion. “Most of the time it’s throwing foods together from different cuisines, like an experiment to see if they work,” she said. “I don’t think the chefs actually sit down…
