Butcher’s Bistro 2233 Larimer Street 303-296-2750 Journalists are taught not to “bury the lede,” which is newspaper-speak for remembering to put the most important information first. If you’re writing about a fire, for example, you don’t want to wait until the tenth paragraph to tell people when and where the…
Brazen Neighborhood Eatery 4450 West 38th Avenue 720-638-1242 Given the excitement that chef’s counters can bring to dining rooms, it’s hard to believe they weren’t always a staple of restaurant design. Rather than being separated from the kitchen by solid walls and a swinging door, a chef’s counter lets diners…
In discussions of ethnic restaurants, the first question many people ask is, “Is it authentic?” Restaurateur Joseph Kim is aware of this, so at his two Dae Gee locations (I review the one on Colorado Boulevard this week), his cooks “are doing it exactly the way they would in Korea,”…
Dae Gee 827 Colorado Boulevard 720-639-9986 The Inuit have more than fifty words for snow, which tells us two things. First, there’s a lot of snow in the Canadian hinterlands. Second, and more important for our purposes, is that the more people know about something — which snow is powdery…
The last two restaurants I’ve reviewed, the Bistro at Stapleton and Amass, seem to have little in common. With its long bar, community counter and seasonal patio, the Bistro serves as a home away from home for residents of restaurant-starved Stapleton, who drop by from morning to night for crepes,…
The Bistro at Stapleton 2955 Ulster Street 303-388-9463 Over the past fifteen years, Stapleton has morphed from a land of tumbleweed and prairie dogs to a thriving community, with enough houses to constitute its own suburb. Though the development has been a success, the restaurant scene in this corner of…
Unless you’re a loyal reader who gets all your restaurant news from Westword (and if you are, thank you!), you’ve no doubt noticed that Denver Post critic William Porter and I seem to be tracing each other’s footsteps. Over the past few months, we’ve had reviews of the same restaurant…
At Amass, which I review this week, chef-owner Joe Troupe relies on sous-vide cooking to prepare his proteins. While the technique has its strong points, I found it a poor match for classic French fare such as boeuf bourguignon. Unlike Troupe’s version, in which the wine-rich sauce is added to…
Amass 2240 Clay Street 720-287-1895 Imagine you’re in a movie theater for a showing of your favorite film. The lights dim. The music starts. But instead of the opening scene, what flashes on the big screen is a montage of pivotal moments, snippets of the movie displaced from the chronology…
People swoon over tonkotsu ramen, with pork bones — including heads and trotters — boiled for twelve or more hours until the broth turns opaque. Vegetarian versions don’t have quite the same heady effect, but some chefs are trying to change that. In my current review of Tokio, I write…
Tokio 2907 Huron Street, Unit 103 720-639-2911 With his chic, minimalist noodle bar, global restaurateur David Chang did for ramen what Julia Child did for coq au vin, putting the Japanese soup once relegated to Styrofoam cups squarely on the American culinary map. In the decade since Momofuku opened in…
Move over, Brussels sprouts. Stand aside, kale. It’s time for another vegetable to be tapped as trendiest snack: shishito peppers. And we’re all for it, because unlike those other two veggies, these slender green peppers are proving themselves to be highly versatile, so that every bowl around town doesn’t taste…
I ate hundreds of restaurant meals this past year, comprising thousands of dishes. Narrowing those down to the ten best dishes I ate in 2014 wasn’t easy — especially when you consider the energy coming out of the 300-plus bars and restaurants that opened over the past twelve months and…
With the year drawing to a close, it’s time to look back on the top trends of 2014. The most important — the one driving all the other trends — is sheer growth. More than 300 bars and restaurants flung open their doors this year in the metro area, enough…
A banner hanging outside Sunrise Sunset, which I review this week, proclaims, “We serve only Colorado farm-fresh eggs.” This got me thinking about eggs, because in the hundreds of conversations about sourcing I’ve had with chefs over the years, no one has ever waxed poetic about eggs. Local produce? Yes…
Sunrise Sunset 7400 West 38th Avenue, Wheat Ridge 303-423-8380 Michael Pollan famously proclaimed that we shouldn’t eat anything our great-grandparents wouldn’t recognize as food. Most of us play along with this theory by reading labels and skipping things that belong in the lab. But there’s another way to heed Pollan’s…
In my review of Adelitas Cocina Y Cantina, I explore the deals — Margarita Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, etc. — that contribute to the popularity of this locally-owned Mexican restaurant. But Adelitas isn’t the only spot in town that looks beyond happy hour to drive business. Here are a half-dozen other…
Since it opened its first outpost on Larimer Street almost a decade ago, Snooze has tried to take over the world, or at least the breakfast table, one pineapple-upside-down pancake at a time. But this homegrown chain isn’t the only metro Denver restaurant that takes the morning meal seriously, crafting…
Adelitas Cocina Y Cantina 1294 South Broadway 303-778-1294 It’s early on a Tuesday night, so early you can still nab a parking place on South Broadway. But inside Adelitas Cocina Y Cantina, nearly every seat at the bar is taken and there’s a wait for tables. We crowd by the…
Why deck the halls with boughs of holly when you can deck the tables with treats instead? If you’re pressed for time — and who isn’t this time of year? — stop by any of these three eateries to pick up delicious, holiday-inspired goodies. See also: A Closer Look at…
After a long, hard day, we all like comfort food, but “comfort” differs from person to person. For some it’s pho, for others it’s short ribs or macaroni and cheese. I’ve always been partial to spaghetti Bolognese for the coziness it brings to a cold winter’s night. And at the…
The Nickel 1100 14th Street 720-889-2128 The first time I went to The Nickel, the spiffy new restaurant that took the place of Prima Ristorante in the refurbished Hotel Teatro, I felt like I was buying a new car. There was wheeling. There was dealing. There was even that awkward…
