Colorado growers converge at Safeway to support Colorado Proud month

Today, at 11 a.m. at the Safeway located at 2150 South Downing, nearly a dozen local farmers from across Colorado will join the state’s Agriculture Commissioner to encourage consumers to buy local produce and boost Colorado’s economy. As part of “Colorado Proud” month, the growers will sample their locally grown…

Mysteries of Sheehan’s desk: Day 2

Because of an office construction project, I had to clear off my desk — which meant moving seven years of accumulation. Every morning, I’ll share another uncovered item with you. This is a Brazilian espeto that I (somehow) managed to smuggle out of a churrasco restaurant downtown.Honestly, I’m not sure…

Is Bobby Fitzgerald the nation’s top griller?

A couple months back, Bobby Fitzgerald — ex of Cherry Creek Grill, currently exec at the White Chocolate Grill at Park Meadows — brought honor to his home state by kicking ass and taking names in the oddest of possible locations: on LIVE! With Regis and Kelly.  He and his…

The Highland Tavern adds a kitchen

Just as the “Kitchen Now Open” sign says, the long-awaited kitchen is now open in the Highland Tavern, 3400 Navajo Street. It’s serving all the usual suspects…and some not-so-usual Slavic specials: beef shank pierogies, spaetlze and bacon. If you’re looking for more traditional pub fare, try the cheese Tots or…

Candy Girls: Indulge Gourmet Soft Caramels

This is serious caramel.  If all you’ve ever known is Caramello and Brachs, then Indulge Caramels will blow your mind.  It’s only related to that store-bought stuff in the most broad connection of similar ingredients.  But this fresh, melt-in-your-mouth candy is both easy on your teeth and not achingly sweet.According…

Mysteries of Sheehan’s Desk: Day 1

As promised, this is the first in a series of items uncovered when I was cleaning my desk. It wasn’t the first thing I found, wasn’t the weirdest by a long shot. But still, this cat has its charms. You can’t tell by looking at this picture, but if you…

Tonight: Wines from California vines at Opus

Littleton’s Opus restaurant, 2575 West Main Street, is hosting a wine dinner at 6:30 p.m. this evening with grape guru Lisa Rein, the associate winemaker for Row Eleven Wine Company, a producer based in San Rafael, California. The four-course menu, prepared by owner/exec chef Michael Long, includes vanilla rum shrimp,…

Organixx may be green, but that’s not what makes it great

Sustainable, eco-friendly, reusable, recyclable, fair trade, natural, energy efficient, organic, local, green, low-impact, fresh. These are words that inspire us at Organixx. From the building materials that surround you in our dining room, to our food product choices, culinary procedures and sanitation practices, we strive to have those words define…

A conversation with John Broening, of Duo and Olivea

“We’ll have head cheese at Olivéa on Friday — I expect to see you there,” summoned the e-mail. The note, short and to the point, was from John Broening, the executive chef at Duo and Olivéa — the former a restaurant in Highland with a field-to-plate, seasonal approach to food,…

Avon Bakery makes heavenly pastries

Bakers have a great terror of trying to bake at altitude. Books have been written about the complications, volumes of secret lore passed down through generations of bakers and patissiers, all dealing with adjustments in measure, in time, in how to make the magic of flour, water, butter and eggs…

Biker Jim Update: Bad news for the southern suburbs

A few weeks back, I gleefully reported that my favorite hot-dog man, Biker Jim Pittenger, had finally taken the plunge and was going to open a brick-and-mortar location in the Southlands development. He had a great location, he had some partners in the Waffle Brothers (with whom he’s been working…

Guess where I’m eating?

Last night a very good friend of mine, who happens to be pregnant, was looking at all the snaps in my camera, most of which are food shots, and commenting about how she could never eat this, or that, or that other thing, because oh my god, that’s so gross!…

Chef and Tell: John Broening

“We’ll have head cheese at Olivéa on Friday — I expect to see you there,” summoned the e-mail. The note, short and to the point, was from John Broening, executive chef at Duo and Olivéa — the former a restaurant in Highland with a field-to-plate, seasonal approach to food, the…

Going green at Organixx

“Sustainable, eco-friendly, reusable, recyclable, fair trade, natural, energy efficient, organic, local, green, low-impact, fresh. These are words that inspire us at Organixx. From the building materials that surround you in our dining room, to our food product choices, culinary procedures and sanitation practices, we strive to have those words define…

The mysteries of Sheehan’s desk

That picture above? That’s my desk as it existed this morning, shortly after I was told that I was going to have to move that glorious collection of crap, box it all up and put it in storage while the Westword offices are remodeled. I love my desk. Seven years…

It’s a city of chaos at Kaos

Jon Edwards, co-owner of Gaia Bistro, isn’t particularly happy with the City and County of Denver.  Edwards, along with his business partner, Patrick Mangold-White, had hoped to open Kaos, a little pizza operation in the small wedge of space at 1439 South Pearl Street that formerly held Nosh, by the…

Menu mystery: Who made the Cesar salad?

When I Googled “Cesar salad,” Google asked me if I intended to search for the correct spelling of the item in question, which, of course, is a Caesar salad. I’m guessing that the restaurant whose menu is in the snap above didn’t use Google (or an old-fashioned dictionary) when creating…