Food & Drink

The luck of the Irish has been running low of late as several Irish pubs have shuttered this year. The latest is Conor O’Neill’s Irish Pub at 1922 13th Street in Boulder, which will close permanently on Sunday, October 2, after seventeen years in business. The Boulder longtimer posted this…

For the month of September, twenty chefs around town have been challenging each other to sell weekend specials made with unusual ingredients as part of the Culinary Cricket Challenge. Sales of each dish have gone directly toward funding food skills and nutrition education programs at Cooking Matters Colorado, which is…

“Colorado barbecue” are two words that just don’t go together, according to many smoked-meat enthusiasts. This state lacks the tradition, they explain, arguing that all of the barbecue in Colorado is inspired by barbecue from somewhere else. But as Mark Antonation notes, there’s a small group of chefs attempting to put…

On paper, Steve Fenberg, Rob DuRay, Casey Berry and Sam Alviani look like an unlikely coalition of bar owners. Fenberg and DuRay are nonprofit and politics guys. Boulderite Fenberg is currently running for state Senate; a decade ago he launched progressive political organization New Era Colorado, where he met DuRay,…

Another Westword DISH is in the books — and this, our 22nd, was a great one. The Colorado fall weather cooperated for our annual celebration of the city’s restaurant scene, making for a cool, sunny day as dozens of Denver’s top eateries put out their best for the crowd. The…

No. 58: Griddle Cooked Bullfrog at Yum Yum Spice Skip the sizable menu of pedestrian Chinese-American offerings at Yum Yum Spice and head straight for what makes this DU strip mall joint special: a collection of dry-pot hot pots, listed as “griddle cooked foods,” which will give you a glimpse…

Alarms sounded, overhead sprinklers went off and customers of businesses at the Lowenstein Theater complex at 2526 East Colfax Avenue were evacuated on Friday night as the Denver Fire Department responded to a kitchen fire at The Goods, which had just opened on September 16 in the space formerly occupied…

The long-awaited Denver Central Market officially opens today at 2669 Larimer Street, with eleven vendors purveying foodstuffs — from produce to fresh seafood to complete meals you can eat on-site. You can grab drinks, too. Developer Ken Wolfe, who’s lived in the RiNo neighborhood for years, partnered with restaurateur Jeff Osaka…

There’s only a day left until Westword’s DISH, our annual celebration of the Denver dining scene, which returns Sunday, September 25, for its 22nd year. The festival of food will take over Sculpture Park at the Denver Performing Arts Complex, where dozens of local restaurants will offer samples of their best dishes — along…

Gretchen Kurtz just reviewed Spatola Ristorante & Wine Bar, which took over the former home of Julia Blackbird’s at 3434 West 32nd Avenue a few months ago. Although she’d been impressed when she interviewed owner/chef Francisco Spatola for Chef and Tell in August, she was disappointed that his presence wasn’t felt more at…

This week was marked by the announced closings of two of Denver’s favorite bars: the Campus Lounge on South University, and the Celtic Tavern (along with the attached Delaney’s Pub) in LoDo. Both will have send-offs this weekend before locking the doors. And both could return soon in some form…

If you’re trying to live by the motto “sing like there’s nobody listening,” Voicebox, a new private-suite karoake bar that opens today at 4 p.m. at 2601 Walnut Street, is just what you’ve been waiting for to unleash your inner Adele or Eddie Vedder. Voicebox comes to Denver from Portland,…

Adrian Miller knows his soul food and barbecue. He’s an accredited barbecue judge and author of Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time, so he doesn’t just eat soul food, he studies its history, travels the country talking to professional and home cooks, and…

There are only two more days until Westword’s DISH, our annual celebration of the Denver dining scene, which returns Sunday, September 25, for its 22nd year. The festival of food will take over Sculpture Park at the Denver Performing Arts Complex, where dozens of local restaurants will offer samples of their best dishes, including…

Developer Ken Wolfe has lived in the RiNo neighborhood for years — long before the area was given that monicker by the River North Art District. As condos and apartments sprang up and hip restaurants and galleries moved in, Wolfe realized that the neighborhood was missing the kind of community-oriented…