Toke of the town: Mary Jane’s Pizza

Could be a fight to the finish to see which storefront pizza joint opens first: Denver Pizza Company — whose owner, Mark Huebner, can focus on finishing his Golden Triangle spot now that he’s been booted off The Bachelorette — or Mary Jane’s Pizza. Mary Jane’s is located at 2013…

First report from the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen

See more photos at westword.com/slideshow.As expected, the first night of the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen was a culinary red carpet of celebrity chefs and the giggling, starstruck fans who couldn’t stop pawing them. And then there were the blowout parties, like the charity event hosted by Mario Batali,…

Huebner off the Bachelorette, back on pizza

We’ve spent a lot more time looking at the home of the new Denver Pizza Company — a few blocks away from the Westword office at 309 West 11th Avenue — than we have watching The Bachelorette, even though one of the swains vying for Jillian Harris was from Denver:…

Barbecue this weekend in Frisco, at Randolph’s

Head to the hills of Frisco this weekend for the mountain town’s annual two-day Barbecue Challenge, a heated event that brings together competitive grillers from across the country. The riotous pig races are always a big draw, as is the pancake breakfast, live music and parade of barbecue grills, barrels…

Pad Thai on the go…

This just in from observant reader Jason Marsell: There’s a somewhat new cart on the 16th Street Mall (at Stout) that’s a one-woman Thai food operation, and it’s fantastic. I consider myself a Thai food fanatic and her pad thai gai is some of the best in town. I know,…

Prickly Pete’s opens on Leetsdale

Prickly Pete’s, which bills itself as Denver’s “newest outdoor sports bar,” opened June 16 at 5151 Leetsdale Drive, in the space formerly occupied by Oli’s Café. And what is an outdoor sports bar? The main qualifier appears to be a massive patio that seats about a hundred people. That patio…

Candy Girls: Lees’ Jaffa Bar

It was only a matter of time before the pull of Tony’s Market and its selection of imported candies drew us in. We spied the bright blue bar from a checkout lane and snagged the dense treat as an impulse buy.The wrapper told us the Jaffa Bar is from Scotland…

Drug bust outside Elway’s — and it wasn’t botox

At Elway’s, the usual drug of choice is botox. But on June 1, it was ecstasy. That’s the night that Marcus Long took his girlfriend to dinner at the Cherry Creek restaurant. Meanwhile, out in the parking lot, Jamie Medina was allegedly selling ecstasy out of Long’s car — to…

Gluttony, debauchery and, yes, chefs: Food & Wine Classic in Aspen

Today marks the beginning of the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, a three-day food orgy and wine romp that lures all sorts of grape stompers and rock-star chefs — you know, big names like Mario Batali, Jacques and Claudine Pépin, Ming Tsai, Nancy Silverton, José Andrés, Bobby Flay, Michel…

Tonight: Barbecue, beasts and biodynamic wines

Devil’s Food Bakery, the bake shop and java joint at 1020 South Gaylord Street, is welcoming Denver-based food stylist and cookbook designer Erica McNeish from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. tonight for a down-home dinner featuring barbecue, sandwiches, grilled sweet corn, Southern-style salads (many of which are vegetarian), cobblers and…

The Fainting Goat revived a doomed address

The Fainting Goat is just nine blocks up Broadway from Dougherty’s — and less than a block away from my office. As a result, I’ve been to the Goat, which just opened last November, more times than I can count, and have occasionally left it in no condition to be…

Prime time at Primebar

Primebar, the new restaurant in the old home of Palamino at 1515 Arapahoe Street, opened last month — but it threw its big grand-opening bash, a benefit for Food Bank of the Rockies, last night. The very pretty space was packed with pretty people — but looking even better than…

Guess where I am…?

Ah, yes.  Another installment in my favorite time-wasting afternoon game: Can you guess where the critic is eating? On my first visit to a restaurant as a non-anonymous restaurant critic?Here’s a clue: I chose this place specifically 1) because I love it and have been eating here almost obsessively for…

More news from the new Snooze

Just drove by the soon-to-be-pancake-land over at 700 Colorado Boulevard, where the second Snooze is scheduled to take up residence sometime in August.And from the looks of things, owner Jon Schlegel isn’t wasting a lick of time. Tear-down seems to be proceeding nicely (as evidenced by the clouds of dust…

Our Weekly Bread: Lakeside Waffles

The sandwich: Cee-Lo What’s on it: Country ham, turkey, bacon and Swiss on French toast-battered, waffle-grilled potato bread Where to get it: Lakeside Waffles (4335 West 44th Avenue) How much: $7 I’ve got two words for you: guilty pleasure. Or how about: hangover cure. Either one fits the Cee-Lo, a…

Birthdays, barbecue and Black Pearl

For reasons that are now unclear to me, I thought that attending the anniversary bash of Black Pearl, the classy Platt Park restaurant at 1529 South Pearl Street that celebrates its fourth birthday this month, would be a night off from the typical debauchery that follows me just about everywhere…

The name game continues at Hickory Prime

Gallagher’s held down the corner of 15th and Arapahoe for a decade. But one day last fall, the steakhouse pulled the franchise, and building owner Bruce Rahmani replaced Gallagher’s with the locally operated (by J.G. “Lupe” Gonzales) 5280 Steak House, which quickly changed its name to Hickory Prime Steak House…

A fish story at Oceanaire’s Celebrate Alaska dinner

At last night’s “Celebrate Alaska” seafood dinner at Oceanaire, winner of the Best Seafood Restaurant in the Best of Denver 2009, we were stumped by the statement that Alaska ranks second-highest of all fifty states for production of seafood. What state could possibly rank higher? We googled as we swilled…

Cooking Dirty: Fourteen days and counting

And who, you may ask, is the handsome devil right there?  That’s me, folks. No bullshit. No disguises.  The anonymous restaurant critic in the flesh and en clair. On Monday, June 15, at around 4 p.m. local time, my cover was finally, permanently blown.  That picture is the jacket photo…

Lollipops and whiskey at Dougherty’s

I was at Dougherty’s the night that chef R.J. Van Stockum was adding Irish Leprechaun Lollipops to the menu. Lucky Leprechaun Lollipops. Irish Lollipops. The name had not yet been decided, but the prep had: a wad of Irish cheddar wrapped in prosciutto, cooked and stuck on the end of…