Boulder Farmers’ Market starts a season of shopping

The Boulder Farmers’ Market, which opened for business this past Saturday (read Juliet Wittman’s story about opening day here), is always the first farmers’ market of the season. In fact, when Boulder introduces its Wednesday hours on May 5, only a few other markets will have started up along the…

New Relaxing Tea follows in the footsteps of Mary Jane

The soda jerk who brought us Mary Jane’s Relaxing Soda has taken his love for kava to the next level of mixology and given us…the Relaxing Tea. “It’s a move away from carbonated drinks,” says Matt Moody, CEO of the Relaxing Company Inc. “Tea is a hot market, and the…

Cooking with Pete: Split pea soup

Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market’s choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast. “Eternity is a ham…

Chef and Tell with Jennifer Jasinski from Rioja and Bistro Vendome

Jennifer Jasinski Executive chef/owner: Rioja and Bistro Vendome Unless you’ve been in self-imposed isolation or mandatory lockdown, you’ve no doubt heard the news: Jennifer Jasinski, executive chef/co-owner of Rioja and Bistro Vendôme, is just months away from opening Euclid Hall Bar and Kitchen, an American tavern that she describes as…

Fruition’s Alex Seidel named a Food & Wine magazine Best New Chef

Just minutes ago, Food & Wine magazine released the names of the country’s Best New Chefs for 2010, and Alex Seidel, executive chef/owner of Fruition, earned one of the ten coveted spots. Bryan Moscatello, the former exec of the long defunct Adega Restaurant and Wine Bar, was the last Denver…

Backcountry Provisions about to provide for LoDo

Backcountry Provisions is shooting to open its LoDo store on Thursday morning — just in time for Friday’s Colorado Rockies home opener. The sandwich shop/deli has moved into the former Willie Matthews Gallery space at 1617 Wazee Street — and don’t worry, says Denver store manager Chelsey Moore, “We’re keeping…

Café Aion opens in Boulder

When Burnt Toast closed last December, on the day before Christmas, Boulderites mourned the loss. But the mourning was short-lived, because owners Buddy Kring and Ellen Dale sold the joint to Dakota Soifer, one of their chefs. Soifer, whose past gigs include an executive chef stint at The Kitchen [Upstairs],…

Fighting for the American way — but not fueled by American fast food

There’s a saying that war is not won on an empty stomach, but American officers on the battlefields of Afghanistan seem to have forgotten that adage, since Reuters reports that some American eateries have been stricken from the menu there. Kandahar, the location of our biggest base in that opium-based…

Tavern Downtown uncovers its colossal rooftop patio

“I don’t worry about what they think, I worry about what I think,” answers Frank Schultz when I ask what the owners of Lodo’s Bar & Grill, located directly across the street from the new 9,500-square-foot rooftop patio that Schultz unveiled earlier today above the Tavern Downtown, say about what…

Star Bar is now shining on Larimer Street

It didn’t make it by the promised April 1, but close enough: The new, improved Star Bar at 2137 Larimer Street opened its doors on Friday, April 2, with new owners (after more than fifty years) but some of the same down-home, divey atmosphere…

Guess where I’m eating?

Over a succession of several different dishes at a restaurant whose soundtrack is more Sinatra than Sound Tribe Sector 9, the scampi puddled in a buttery white wine broth scented with garlic and studded with Italian parsley, was the runaway favorite. Can you guess where I’m eating?…

Vietnamese noodle bowls at the new KimBa Grill

For the past 25 years, Ba Forde has been the matriarch behind Kim Ba, the excellent Vietnamese joint at 2495 South Havana that’s been the recipient of numerous Westword Best of Denver awards, including Best Vietnamese Restaurant, a prize it snagged every year between 2005 and 2009. And now her…

Cafe Society: Week in review

What you may have missed this week on Cafe Society, while bickering over whether Argyll, Colt & Gray, Olivea or TAG should have walked away with the Best New Restaurant award in this year’s Best of Denver 2010 (Argyll, if you didn’t already know, won that award):…

Your child wants a toy — slathered in butter

The United States government thinks your child is an obese, junk-eating machine. How to put a stop to this? The best idea the feds have come up with is to remove the toys from fast-food meals — because the meals contain so many calories and the toys contain lead from…

Food Ink: Matt Selby’s tatts

As part of an upcoming photo essay project spotlighting Denver restaurant pros whose tatts are as prevalent as their dissections, burns, blisters, knife slashes and stabs, we promised that we’d post some of the best on the Cafe Society blog. Earlier this week, we posted the food ink of Brandon…