Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, Denver: Have you picked up your heritage, free-range, hand-fed, lovingly nurtured turkey? Baked your from-scratch, orchard-to-table pies? Decorated your table with festive decorative gourds? Worked out how to avoid conversation with your slightly sloppy, mildly offensive uncle? No? Well, saddle up and pour yourself a…
When Michael Hancock ran for mayor in 2011, part of his platform called for changing the way Denver government interacted with its constituents. “We wanted to be the most globally competitive city, so we had to get better from the inside out,” Hancock explains. “We needed an innovative way to get at old vestiges of thinking in city government. We want a city built for 2016, not 1916.” The result was Peak Performance, which is winning awards and accolades around the county.
After months in limbo, three weeks ago La Loma finally shuttered its sprawling location in Jefferson Park and moved downtown into the former home of the Trinity Grille. On November 1, when the restaurant reopened in its new location regulars breathed a sigh of relief: La Loma still feels like…
When we recently chatted with the owners and chefs of the Way Back, they told us they were plotting an American Grind location for 2017, but refused to divulge further information. Now they’ve revealed that they’ll be taking over MiJo’s slot on the first floor of Avanti when that concept…
The Way Back opened in the Tennyson neighborhood just six months ago and quickly became a local landmark. Much has been made of its bar — partner and bartender Chad Michael George is president of the Colorado Bartenders’ Guild and did a long stint at Williams & Graham, and he…
No. 42: Huevos rancheros at Las Potrancas Testament to the strength of the cooking at Las Potrancas is the fact that the restaurant has grown rather quickly: after winning fans with a tiny shop on Wadsworth, it usurped a space near 64th and Simms (11651 West 64th Avenue) that’s been home…
No. 43: Italian combo #2 at Carbone’s We practically wept when the original Carbone’s closed its doors, making good on a longtime threat from Lonardo family matriarch Rosa to exit the business. The original 38th Avenue storefront was short on space but long on charm, and it frequently commanded long…
When developer Ken Wolf first cooked up his plan for Denver Central Market, he envisioned a neighborhood linchpin, a place where RiNo residents could buy meat, cheese and produce without getting in their cars and driving to a grocery store. He pulled in Jeff Osaka, with whom he’d worked since…
Developer Ken Wolf and chef Jeff Osaka have spent the last several weeks managing the opening of Denver Central Market, the food hall and gourmet grocery store that opened its doors on Larimer Street to immediate crowds on September 25. But the pair have a few other projects in the…
Rosenberg’s Bagels & Delicatessen came roaring back into Five Points a week ago, greeting long Sunday lines again after a five-month closure following a fire. In the almost two years that the shop had been open, it had become a Denver institution: Owner Joshua Pollack’s New York-style bagels, lox and…
If you walk past Bar Dough’s bathrooms and continue through what looks like an emergency exit, you’ll find a staircase that leads to the restaurant’s office. In this space — which, with its corner copy machine and computer-stacked desks, is one of the most unlikely dining rooms in Denver —…
Does this state have a distinct brand? What does it mean to provide Colorado-style hospitality, or to be part of the Colorado production industry? To discuss those questions, last week the Colorado Bartenders’ Guild convened a panel with out-going 5280 food editor Amanda Faison; New Belgium specialty brand manager and…
Photography exhibit Processed Views opened at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center (3636 Chestnut Place) over the weekend, and if you didn’t catch the opening, you’re going to want to make your way over to see these prints before November 26. The works, from Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman, consider the connection between nature,…
Thick, freshly fried tortilla chips scoop tangy green-chile salsa swimming with avocado. Hand-made steamed tortillas sop up rich chicken mole and peppery carne asada. Hibiscus tea, sweet and tart, chases each bite. This is the food of Comal, a lunch restaurant and heritage food incubator scheduled to open in the TAXI development…
Chef Scott Durrah and his wife, Wanda James, ended the four-year run of their restaurant Jezebel’s Southern Bistro last Sunday, in order to focus on their marijuana business. But it turns out that they didn’t exactly abandon the space at 3301 Tejon Street — instead, they passed the baton to Juan…
Dozens of slices of white bread sit stacked in columns, forming crags mimicking Yosemite’s Cathedral Rock. Corn cobs, Corn Flakes and husks are arranged so that they suggest cliffs hugging Cape Horn of the Columbia River. Fruit Loops bob in a river of milk, imitating a mining camp on the…
No. 49: Spicy Beef Hot Pot at the Bronze Empire Those of you lamenting the dearth of real Chinese food in Denver — as well as anyone who’s curious about what real Chinese food actually tastes like — should hurry to the Bronze Empire, the restaurant that Tian Xia and…
Five months after fire shuttered wickedly popular Rosenberg’s Bagels and Delicatessan, there’s reason to rejoice: The shop at 725 East 26th Avenue (with an entrance on Welston Street) has been rebuilt and will reopen on Sunday, once again doling out its killer New York-style bagels, fish smoked in-house and a…
The village of Takayama sits in the heart of the Japanese Alps, a six-hour train journey from Tokyo. It was settled centuries before Christ, and it has long been known for its carpentry; many of Japan’s most famous temples are believed to have been built by craftsmen from Takayama. Today…
No. 50: Bison Pastrami at To The Wind Bistro Well-edited. That’s how we’d describe To The Wind Bistro, the restaurant from husband-and-wife Royce Oliveira and Leanne Adamson. The space is snug but smartly appointed, the wine list short but well-curated, and the menu brief but long on winners — no…
In China, one of the more popular ways to dine out with friends is to hit a hot-pot restaurant. At these often raucous halls, you order a bubbling cauldron of broth — in Sichuan, it’ll be spicy; northerners tend to like milder lamb broth — and then dump in a…
In the spring of 2014, two Palestinian women from the West Bank landed in Boulder. They’d come for yoga training, though not instruction in sun salutations or Bikram technique. Instead, they were working with Calming Kids Yoga, a local organization recognized by the American Medical Association that uses yoga to…
