“We’re the biggest tequila bar in the city — we should be winning margarita contests,” saysLa Biblioteca bartender Ben Carrington of his double-win in the margarita category at Top Taco. The taco and margarita competition, which took place Thursday, June 26 at Sculpture Park, pitted area restaurants against each other…
UPDATE: We have three winners of our Wings & Whiskey contest, in which we asked Cafe Society readers to answer this question: How many tiger wings did Ace serve between Sunday, June 15 and Sunday, June 22? Congratulations to BigAl, who came the closest with a guess of 1475. Congratulations,…
This week in Cafe Society, Gretchen Kurtz visited El Chingon, where the relleno fell on the soft side, but almost everything else rose to the side of delicious. In Chef and Tell, Jordan Wallace of Pizzeria Locale dishes on a particularly bad calzone, studying cooking in Italy and more. Also…
A whopping 1,360 breweries from all fifty states and the District of Columbia will enter beers into the competition at the Great American Beer Festival this October. That’s about 81 percent higher than last year, when 750 breweries tried to register for the fest, according to preliminary numbers provided by…
The little brick storefront tucked under a looming tan awning at Iliff and Havana isn’t exactly an eye catcher. Perhaps that’s why restaurants — including Sumo Sushi and Seoul Dook Baegi — haven’t had much success gaining a foothold. Newcomer (at least to Denver) Tofu House is the latest to…
Lakewood just got its second Stack Subs location, this one in Belmar. Built on white or wheat baguettes, with a preztel roll and gluten-free bread from Udi’s as additional options, the sandwiches are the main draw at Stack, but both shops also offer salads, soups and milkshakes. See also: Breakfast…
Number 99: Gurage kitfo at Megenagna Ethiopian Restaurant 307 Ironton Street, Aurora 720-532-0266 Kitfo — finely minced beef seasoned with the Ethiopan herbed clarified butter called niter kibbeh and the tongue-searing spice blend called mitmita — originated in the foodways of the Gurage people of southern Ethiopia. The deceptively simple…
A few weeks ago, when a rash of readers were claiming that the best meals were made in their own kitchens, we asked what you wanted to read about on Cafe Society. Home cooks? Professional cooks? Good restaurants? Bad restaurants? National trends? Local trends? See also: Reader: I love all…
Texans love Colorado; they come by the wagonload to ski, hike, mountain bike and otherwise spend tourist dollars in Denver and nearby mountain towns. Colorado may not love Texans, but we’re more than happy to take their money — so why not show our guests from the Lone Star State…
Sculpture Park was the scene of Denver’s Top Taco competition yesterday, and tacos will be the talk of the town again this weekend. The fully loaded culinary calendar also includes a wing competition, a food truck fiesta, a boozy punch contest and more. Keep reading for a rundown of these…
The British Bulldog may be the most American bar in Denver during the FIFA World Cup. Go to one its parties during a USA match through July, and prepare to be serenaded by multiple Bruce Springsteen songs, stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the sun and get an occasional drop of beer spilled…
Whiskey is part of our Western heritage; it captures the flavors of the grains grown across Midwestern landscapes, the pioneer spirit of early settlers, and a touch of outlaw pride that kept distilling alive during a sad, sad part of American history, a time called Prohibition. Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey, which…
Like many beer fests, the Colorado Brewers Festival was a victim of its own success. Inspired by the Oregon Brewers Festival, it was founded in 1990, at a time when there were only nine breweries in Colorado and even fewer beer gatherings. Over the years, the event — one of…
Even with experienced teams, it takes a while for a new restaurant to settle in. But right around the time chefs usually begin to catch their breath, the family behind El Chingon realized that they’d need to do it all over again — soon. “Within the first three or four…
July marks the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and the Wailers, the compilation released after Marley’s death that brought reggae to the forefront of rock-music popularity (read all about it in our current Bob Marley Backbeat feature). Marley fathered nearly as many children…
Cold coffee is suddenly hot. Not sat-in-the-pot-all-day cold coffee, but purposefully cold-brewed coffee. And now Denver’s Corvus Coffee is taking it up a notch — bringing beer lovers and coffee lovers together by adding hops to its cold brew. See also: First Look: Corvus Coffee opening in new space today…
Jordan Wallace Pizzeria Locale 550 Broadway 720-508-8828 pizzerialocale.com This is part two of my interview with Jordan Wallace, chef of Pizzeria Locale; part one of our chat ran yesterday. Most memorable meal you’ve ever had: A dinner at Quince in San Francisco before the restaurant relocated to its current home…
The restaurant and bar landscape in Edgewater keeps evolving and improving. With craft breweries, Thai joints and neighborhood bars filling in the gaps around longtime favorites like the venerable Edgewater Inn, it’s no surprise that the quality and quantity of options vying for space along Sloan’s Lake is rising as…
A traditional chile relleno is soft, but some people like a crispy variation. And then there’s a version unique to Denver: the relleno in an eggroll wrapper. “I’ve had chiles rellenos stuffed with cream cheese in Arizona copper country, with ground meat in Oaxacan dives, with quinoa in hippie places,”…
Sculpture Park at the Denver Performing Arts Complex will be the scene for tonight’s Top Taco, a taco- and margarita- tasting competition with trophies to be awarded for the Top Creative, Top Traditional Taco and Best Margarita — with a people’s choice and judges’ choice for each category. See also:…
David Lopez, who shares executive-chef duties with his grandmother, Gloria Nunez, at El Chingon restaurant in the Berkeley neighborhood, says that his family’s goal for the eatery, which moved from Arvada last year, is “to keep it a bistro, a little more high-end.” As a result, diners will find items…
From chef Marcus Samuelsson’s impressive finish in a 5K charity race to Jose Andres stuttering in the microphone when a reporter asked about his first “foodgasm,” this past weekend’s Food & Wine Classic in Aspen was a bonanza of celebrity chefs, grape masters, spirit kingpins and beer authorities, boozy hazes,…
