In the Best of Denver 2011, Lower Highland rated the award for Best Restaurant Neighborhood, and with good reason: In the past few years, the blocks on the bluffs above I-25 have added an incredible number of eateries — everything from steakhouses to cafes to inventive finer dining spots –…

Craving a crawfish boil? While Denver’s not exactly crawling with spots to get your fix, there are a few options, including Red Claw Seafood and Wings. In this dark, dilapidated joint, you can order crawfish by the pound, flavored with your choice of a boatload of seasonings and delivered to…

Over the past ten years, Danny Cash has built a business on crafting custom hot sauces, wing sauces and rubs — and several Denver restaurants put his creations on the table as a proprietary blend. The private-label man also has a label of his own, though, and he recently opened…

Sometimes I need something a little stronger than caffeine to jump-start my day. Fortunately, right across the street from the Wooden Spoon Bakery & Cafe is the Gallop Cafe, which serves a great Bloody Mary: a goblet full of peppery tomato juice and vodka garnished with a long toothpick loaded…

Since moving down to Denver from Boulder, I’ve developed a weekend ritual. After rolling out of bed, I walk up West 32nd Avenue to Zuni Street, passing patio-dwellers at the Gallop Café and brushing by brunchers waiting for a table at Duo, then cross the tree-lined street and walk into…

East Colfax is home to several Ethiopian restaurants, and another joint just opened near the corner of Colfax and Quebec: Peacock Restaurant and Bar, which, says owner Eden Habte, is unaffiliated with the other Ethiopian spots in the area. There, in a dark dining room painted gold and infused with…

My recent review of Rackhouse Pub, the restaurant that fronts the Stranahan’s Distillery and pairs high-end pub food with bourbon and beer, inspired several readers to jump to the defense of Rackhouse, including this anonymous e-mailer: As you may have read, Miss Shunk is not respected by your Westword readers,…

In the Best of Denver 2011, we named Common Grounds the Best Coffeehouse for Finding a Date, thanks to the constant crowd of young professionals who mingle there over cappuccinos. And because we’re big proponents of ditching online dating and blind set-ups every now and then in favor of meeting…

When Kinga Klek, owner of Kinga’s Lounge, told us about her plans for Belvedere Restaurant, a Polish joint she’s putting in the old Cafe Berlin location on 14th Street, she said she hoped to have the doors open by July 1. Klek didn’t quite make that deadline. The spot was…

We’ve got dozens of cupcake shops in the Mile High City, and the past few months have seen an onslaught of frozen yogurt shops, too. But there have been few — if any — places that offer both. Until now. 32nd Treat, “part self-serve yogurt bar, part gourmet cupcake and…

One of downtown Denver’s newest architectural assets is the Spire, a skyscraping complex of sleek condominiums located directly across from the Convention Center. In addition to stylish condos, the building houses a handful of restaurants, including the posh Row 14, which holds down a corner street level spot…

Jason and Jeanette Burgett’s Wooden Spoon Cafe & Bakery is a regular stop for Highland neighbors who can’t get enough of the spot’s pastries, breakfast sandwiches, egg scrambles and baguettes. Weekends are particularly busy, and after a three-day 4th of July stretch that called for extended hours, the cafe is…

Row 14 isn’t the only eatery that’s taken up residence on the ground floor of the Spire. Just around the corner, Organic Pizza Co. turns out take-home pies, and next door to that is an outpost of Snarf’s Sub Shop, the beloved sandwich shop that got its start when Jim…

I wanted a burger. I wanted a big, fat, meaty burger that would smear condiments and grease across my face as I attempted to stuff it down my gullet. I wanted a protein bomb that would sit like a dead weight in my stomach all afternoon, inducing a food coma…

Along with Rackhouse Pub, this week I paid a visit to Pints Pub, the quirky British brewpub that claims to stock the largest collection of single malt whisky outside of Great Britain. I had my doubts — a number of restaurants make the same claim, including Dundee Dell, an Omaha…

Temperatures threaten to approach the triple digits as we prepare to celebrate our country’s independence this weekend, which puts us smack into summer, the season of baseball, lazy patio nights and, of course, hot dogs, which we like to feast on as we wander the streets, tend the grill or…

Thirty years ago, long before the food truck made the jump from lonchera to gourmet movable kitchen, a Boulder couple was wheeling around in a vehicle called RollinGreens, serving up what they were then calling wholesome meals on wheels. And while they managed to generate plenty of buzz at the…