There’s a lot of action over at Mel’s on Sixth Avenue, which is in the process of changing names and management. And then there’s this odd e-mail from Mel, Jane and Charlie Masters making the rounds, which invites recipients to “Become a Mel’s Bistro Truffle Hound”! The details, in their…
I’d ordered the hash at my first breakfast at Mona’s because I’m a Mick, because I’m a Mick who grew up blue-collar, lower-middle-class in a neighborhood full of blue-collar Murphys, Doogals and McDonoughs, because I’m a lower-middle-class, blue-collar Mick who’s always had a weakness for girls whose families spent their…
The Masters are on the move. Mel’s in Greenwood Village (at 5970 South Holly Street) had a couple of parties (one for friends, and then a knock-down, drag-out staff bash) over the weekend, and is closing today for remodeling. The hostess I talked to last night said that the staff…
Coming home from Breckenridge this weekend, I stopped in at the A&W in Frisco, conveniently located near the entrance ramp to I-70. Though I was sure the ride back to Denver would not be as hellish as the ride up — through a blitzkrieg of Fourth of July traffic –…
Kung Fu Panda Crunchers Kellogg’s Rating: Two spoons out of four Cereal description: The cereal’s building blocks are actually building circles — light tan orbs made of oat and corn flour. Think of them as Kix, or more accurately, fake Kix. These mounds are supplemented by four varieties of marshmallows:…
Timing is everything, and the Georg family picked a very good time to close their Chinook Tavern, a landmark at 265 Detroit Street for almost two decades. By closing up on Tuesday, they managed to avoid the chaos of the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. Now if they can just survive…
A drunk dialer sent us this coaster she discovered at My Brother’s Bar during some early Fourth of July celebrating. It comes complete with ring sizes — and the number for Hyde Park Jewelers. Genius marketing — even if she only got a coaster, and not a ring. Unless you…
I had to have some half-unexpected dental work done a couple of days ago. It was nothing terribly serious but it was serious enough, if you know what I mean. Lot of blood, stitches. An annoyance. And as I was getting finished off in the chair, my dentist (a miracle…
The restaurants keep coming to that block of Broadway just south of Center — three in the last two months alone. First Beatrice & Woodsley and Delite, and now Karma, at 22 South Broadway. A sign on the door announces that it’s “Opening Soon for Dine-In” — and judging from…
Jason Sheehan is no fan of Hell’s Kitchen, but he watches it. And now he’s playing it, as he describes here. Week One: FNG The game is divided into five seven-day weeks with no days off and no quitting until the last table is served and out the door –…
Albuquerque, New Mexico, about eight years ago… The rush started around five. There was never any way to gauge it — nothing scientific, no outward sign. Though we flew a jolly roger from the fryer end and my guys comported themselves like the hippest of pirates (bandannas, tattoos, ear and…
I love a Mexican restaurant that opens for breakfast. One of the reasons I know I could never again live happily east of the Mississippi is that I could never survive without breakfast burritos, steaming plates of machaca and day-old takeout green chile in my fridge. There’s one thing I…
At this time last year, fans were still bemoaning the closure of Mel’s in Cherry Creek. But there’s been a lot of action since then. Mel Master turned his two Montecito restaurants into reincarnations of Mel’s — but now, as detailed here, plans to sell majority interest in the Mel’s…
Santa Fe Tequila Company, El Noa Noa, green chile cheeseburger, Jason Sheehan
A few months ago, in order to assist the Colorado Tourism Office with its woefully embarrassing state marketing campaigns, we asked readers, “What Does Colorado Taste Like to You?” Looks like one of those readers was none other than that empress of evoo Rachael Ray, and she responded with an…
I am not a fan of Hell’s Kitchen, the TV show. It is, without a doubt, the worst, most asinine, most ridiculously overdone suckfest of a reality cooking show on television: a horrifically over-shot and over-dramatized sixty minutes with half of its runtime taken up by commercials; another ten minutes…
Pops Chocolate Peanut Butter Kellogg’s Rating: Three and a half spoons out of four Cereal description: Brownish corn-meal orbs — but not just any brownish corn-meal orbs. Big ones. Imposing ones. Brownish corn-meal orbs with a gland condition, or a steroid problem. Size-wise, they’re significantly larger than, say, the typical…
I’m a dumbass. In the June 26 Bite Me, while further excoriating Sage Restaurant Group for its miss at Second Home, I mistakenly lumped the Rialto Cafe in among the properties that Sage has taken over. In actuality, Rialto is (and always has been) run by Concept Restaurants, while Sage…
It’s no secret around here that Liz has been obsessed with frozen treats lately. Specifically, with finding Denver’s contribution to the growing Korean-style frozen yogurt movement, popularized in LA with the Pinkberry chain and then scores of copycat stores across the country. The first Pinkberries popped up in 2005, back…
I love fast food, but prior to the announcement that Aurora resident Zion Gray had won Popeye’s national “Are You Bonafide?” video contest, I hadn’t heard a thing about the company’s call for thirty-second clips from chicken lovers across the country. So on my way to one of the area’s…
Colorado is absolutely beautiful in spring. Unlike the East Coast — where spring will come on hot and wet and odorous, the land itself like some live thing waking after a long sleep, desperately in need of a bath — and unlike the North — where the first spring thaws…
When Rebecca Weitzman left Cafe Star for the greener pastures of Manhattan last September, I thought for sure that was going to be the end of the place. I mean, if ever a restaurant was defined by a chef, it was Cafe Star, where Weitzman’s easy command of the eclectic…
