The Squeaky Bean adds a non-squeaky Greek rotisserie

As Jason Sheehan reported yesterday, sometime this summer Yanni Stavropolous will move Yanni’s, his Greek taverna, from the strip mall at 2223 South Monaco where it’s been for eighteen years to the Landmark development in Greenwood Village. But not all of the equipment is making the move. The Squeaky Bean,…

Free donuts!

I’m sure you’ve had the date marked all year: Today is National Donut Day, an observance started by the Chicago Salvation Army in 1938 to honor the “lassies” of World War I – women volunteers who served donuts to soldiers behind the front lines in France. Today, head over to…

It’s a big weekend for local food and wine events

It’s gearing up to be a big food and wine weekend, kids. On Saturday, Ace Hardware, Alameda Station, 417 South Broadway, is holding its first-ever “Big Green Egg” grilling competition, a smoking and grilling face-off between students from the Art Institute of Colorado and other participating hopefuls, all of whom…

New home for Yanni’s

Spent the afternoon chasing down yet another restaurant world rumor, and this one? It turns out to be true. Yanni’s, the opa-and-ouzo Greek taverna, is finally abandoning its home of eighteen years — a strip mall at 2223 South Monaco — and moving out for the new Landmark development. According…

Burrito Giant’s giant burritos served with a side of gym equipment

I first heard about the giant burritos at Burrito Giant, 4501 West 38th Avenue, from poster “Penguin 18,” who commented on a recent Westword blog about the breakfast burrito wars between Jack-n-Grill, 2524 Federal Boulevard and Santiagos XII, which just took up residence directly across the street from Jack’s joint…

Q & A with Robert Kenner, director of Food Inc.

On June 23, Denver will host an advance screening of Food Inc., a documentary that asks a seemingly simple question: Where does our food come from? It turns out that the answer is incredibly complex, possibly depressing and definitely surprising. So was my conversation with director Robert Kenner:…

Candy Girls: Strawberried Peanut Butter M&M’s

What’s summer without a blockbuster movie sequel and tie-in candy from Mars?  We spotted these weird little guys at the 7-Eleven on Third and Broadway and snatched them up.  Odd combination of flavors?  Check.  Made-up word in the description? Check.  Dubious thematic connection to movie? Check.  Let’s roll…

Golden City Brewery’s beer garden is easy and breezy

Relying on a sardonic sign, inscribed with the words “2nd Largest Brewery in Golden” and an arrow directing potential beer imbibers to its off-the-beaten path location in a residential Golden neighborhood, Golden City Brewery is everything that Molson Coors isn’t: a ramshackle roadhouse that hands out free pretzels (hey, nothing’s…

Barolo Grill makes Nation’s Restaurant News hall of fame roster

New York-based food industry publication Nation’s Restaurant News just announced its 2009 Fine Dining Hall of Fame winners, and Barolo Grill, Blair Taylor’s Italian restaurant at 3030 East Sixth Avenue, was one of ten temples of gastronomy inducted into the elite winner’s circle. But while Taylor was “hugely, hugely, truly…

Happy Noodle House is trying — sometimes too hard

The nouvelle noodle bar is a fad that’s been building for years among the trend-humping foodies — a business model built on the restaurant industry’s love of all things Asian, on the passionate lust for getting ten or twenty dollars for two bucks’ worth of noodles, on the same cook’s…

More Is Less at Centro Latin Kitchen

It was raining when Laura and I ducked into Centro. We’d already eaten twice at Happy Noodle House over the course of the long weekend and had gotten our fill of pickles and noodles, so we were looking for something a little different, a little more south-of-the-border. But mostly, we…

Cheba Hut finds itself in a sticky situation

Got the munchies? Don’t worry, Cheba Hut plans to sell plenty of Kind, Kush and Chronic on the Sixteenth Street Mall starting this summer, along with Acapulco Gold, Panama Red and the White Widow. “The White Widow, man,” says store owner Matt Clark-Johnson. “Chicken, bacon and ranch. It’s our most…

Cooking Dirty: Twenty-seven days and counting

Yesterday was a big day. On Monday morning, the first finished copies of my new book, Cooking Dirty, rolled off the presses in wherever it is that they print books nowadays.  That afternoon, one of the first (I like to think of it as the first) was dropped in an…

P.B. Loco, esta muerto

Okay, so it was never the greatest restaurant in the world. It was designed as a kind of culinary one-trick pony, hanging all its hopes and dreams on people’s uncontrollable craving for peanut butter on everything. But it still surprises me just a little that P.B. Loco (part of a…

Calling all (really) experienced waitresses

If you’ve got three decades of serving experience under your belt, there just might be a position for you at a new greasy spoon opening its doors this month in Aurora, and currently advertising on Craigslist. And I stress might, since Howard — the gentleman doing the hiring – also…

Buy a cookie from Gateaux, support Work Options for Women

Each month this year, Gateaux, the elaborately whimsical bakery at 1160 Speer Boulevard, is donating a portion of its proceeds to a local charity — and this month, that charity is Work Options for Women, a nonprofit that offers a sixteen-week culinary program to impoverished women who want to work…

Vegans in Denver!

In the video above, WaterCourse Foods and City, O’ City get a nice little shout-out. The video comes from The Healthy Voyager, a woman who travels around the country trying out vegan spots. WaterCourse, of course, is the restaurant at which Jason Sheehan and Joel Warner had their momentous wing…

Our Weekly Bread: Marczyk Fine Foods

The sandwich: Market Roast Beef What’s on it: Niman Ranch roast beef, horseradish sauce, cheddar and arugula on rye Where to get it: Marczyk Fine Foods (770 East 17th Avenue, 303-894-9499) How much: $6.99 I love markets. They’re often expensive, but browsing through their awesome, gourmet stuff is part of…

Is this the sexiest lunch in Denver?

Late last week, the big banner went up on the Sugar House, Scottie Ewing’s controversial club at 1395 West Alameda Avenue, proclaiming that as of June 1, it would be serving “Denver’s sexiest lunch.” What, a special on New York strip? Salad, hold the dressing?…

Pasquini’s goes for a cabaret license

The Highland branch of Pasquini’s, at 2400 West 32nd Avenue, is going for a cabaret license so that it can offer live music at the restaurant, which has become quite the hipster hangout as well as a major pizza purveyor. The hearing is at 9 a.m. tomorrow at the Department…