Opinion & Commentary

Chef’s counters are becoming increasingly important features at local restaurants, including Brazen Neighborhood Eatery, the new restaurant in northwest Denver that Gretchen Kurtz reviews this week. In fact, Brazen rates our list of the twelve best chef’s counters in Denver, which we rolled out yesterday. But did we miss one?…

The sign outside Bruxie promised “Sweet Treats,” but the waffle sandwich shop, one of our ten best new fast-casual restaurants in 2014, just met a sour end. Bruxie has closed up shop on Colorado Boulevard “due to unforeseen circumstances,” according to a message you reach when you dial the place…

The Denver ramen scene has been heating up, with high-profile noodle-house openings late last year, and more to come soon. But in Aurora, a deep demand for Japanese noodle bowls has apparently been bubbling beneath the surface, because when Katsu Ramen opened Monday at the corner of Havana Street and…

The Inuit have more than fifty words for snow — including pukak and matsaaruti — but you’d need more than fifty words to describe the amazing things done with cabbage at Dae Gee, which Gretchen Kurtz just reviewed. In the process, she offered a few tips about traditional Korean food…

The New York Times served up a “36 Hours in Denver” feature last week, filled with suggestions for what to see and eat in Denver — including New York-style bagels at Rosenberg’s Bagels & Delicatessen, the incredibly popular new spot on Welton Street. Some readers liked the Times’s suggestions, others…

The New York Times just served up “36 Hours in Denver,” a feature on what a visitor should see and eat during a short trip to the Mile High City. The piece included standard must-go spots (Denver Art Museum, Biker Jim’s) and some surprises (sending New Yorkers to Rosenberg’s Bagels…

Peruvian-born Marjorie Silva opened Azucar Bakery in 2006 to fill a hole in a town more accustomed to cupcakes and pie than flan and Suspiro de Limeña. But while she’s giving Denver diners a good taste of South American delicacies from her shiny, pink-frosted space on South Broadway, she’s also…

Every April Fool’s Day, Brad Evans, founder of the Denver Cruiser Ride, rolls out an elaborate prank. In 2013, he listed fictitious themes for that season’s rides, including “Skid Marks & Seaman Stains.” And on the morning of April 1, 2014, the B-rad 4 Denver Mayor campaign popped up on…

When Gustavo Arellano, author of Ask a Mexican, was researching his 2012 book Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, he discovered that in 1886 Buffalo Bill had opened what might have been the first Mexican restaurant in the country, a pop-up place outside of Madison Square Garden in New…

Even before Paris on the Platte, a Denver institution for almost three decades, poured its last cup of coffee on Saturday, the memories were pouring out. This is where artists would hang after last call at My Brother’s Bar in the late ’80, where teens from the suburbs would smoke…

Happy Martin Luther King Day! After the Marade, which kicks off this morning in City Park, you should have plenty of time to enjoy the good weather, maybe sit on a patio in the January sunshine and have a brew or two. Some of those patios will even encourage you…

UPDATE: Paris on the Platte closed out its run by selling off memorabilia in what the owners dubbed a “nostalgia sale”, unloading everything from fixtures to furniture. Denver will lose another institution today, when Paris on the Platte closes this afternoon. The wine bar poured its last glass of vino…

On Wednesday we made our annual pilgrimage to the National Western Stock Show, which always includes a visit to the Cowboy Bar, the temporary watering hole that sets up in the basement of the Hall of Education, right by the stalls where the steers are getting all spiffed up for…

Last week Gretchen Kurtz reviewed Amass, the bistro that took over the Corner House space in Jefferson Park. For this week’s review, she went across town to northeast Denver, home of The Bistro at Stapleton. The two neighborhoods are very different, but the two restaurants have one thing in common:…

“The dog park has always been my favorite place to hang,” says Christine Peters. “It’s that zen feeling, all your problems go away and you’re just hanging out watching dogs play. They have no ego, no issues, no agendas.” Unlike people. Since Peters opened the Bark Bar in West Highland,…

What kind of pizza is your favorite? New York-style? Chicago-style? New Haven-style? Denver has them all, along with many commendable versions of the traditional Neapolitan. Yesterday Mark Antonation ticked off ten different kinds of pizza you can find in metro Denver, including those that defy categorization, like the pies at…

Mark Antonation recently took an unplanned tour of LoHi, on a search for fois gras. He found it at Old Major, Z Cuisine and Williams & Graham — but some readers don’t think it has a place on any menu. See also: A Walking Tour of Three LoHi Eateries Serving…

After forty years, Burger King has resurrected the Yumbo — just one of the fast-food items that Jenn Wohletz had hoped would come back. The chain’s announcement that it was bringing back the breakfast sandwich drew both praise and complaints. But one reader thinks the fast-food bashers are too quick…

At the end of 2014, Jenn Wohletz served up five food trends that need to die in 2014 — including snoozy mac-and-cheese rehashes. Mac fans were quick to respond to that suggestion, while other readers trashed more trends. See also: Snoozy Mac-and-Cheese Rehashes and Other Food Trends That Need to…