Happy Friday: Here’s a good place to find a date

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 over cappuccinos. And because we’re big proponents of ditching online dating and blind set-ups every now and then in favor of meeting people…

Super Mini Walnut Cafe will open soon in Lafayette

Boulder’s Walnut Cafe is on an expansion tear. Just last year, owners Julia Buonanno, Dana Derichsweiler and Ashlie Beckham, the trio behind the South Side Walnut Cafe, located at 673 South Broadway, unveiled Walnut-a-go-go, which took their most popular items to the street. And now, Nicole Plotkin, a long-time employee…

Denver’s five best spots for ice cream

The Memorial Day weekend is upon us, which means that many of you are firing up the grills and planning to hit the parks for a weekend of frolicking in the sunshine. As for us, we’re getting ready to celebrate the holiday — and what feels like the beginning of…

Pristine Bar & Grill set to open in June

Pristine Hookah Lounge opened near Evans Avenue and South Sheridan Boulevard last year, and it’s about to get a concept overhaul: Owner Iran Faamausili has shut down the smoking operation and will reopen it as Pristine Bar & Grill, a Hawaiian restaurant. Though details are still scarce on exactly what…

Level 3 poolside bar at the Four Seasons opens tonight

After two weeks of downpours, it looks like we’re finally turning a corner: The forecast for today, thankfully, promises sunny skies and temps in the high 70s. And if you’re ready to hit a patio after being cooped up, you might want to head down to the Four Seasons tonight…

Food porn: African Grill and Bar

For this week’s review, I visited African Grill and Bar, an oasis in an Aurora strip mall that offers a culinary journey to West Africa — as well as an education on the fare served in Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia, Senegal and Liberia. Here’s a side of food porn of some…

Denver Restaurant Week has a record-breaking year

If you booked a table to cash in on the $52.80 prix fixe deals offered during Denver Restaurant Week (or, as TAG’s chef de cuisine, Jensen Cummings, more accurately put it, “Denver Restaurant Half-Month”), you helped create a banner year for the event. According to Visit Denver, the seven-year-old citywide…

The Kitchen [Next Door] will take sustainability seriously

Last Friday we got a first look at the The Kitchen [Next Door], the third in the growing family of restaurants that started seven years ago when The Kitchen sprang to life on the west end of Pearl Street in Boulder. Partners Kimbal Musk and Hugo Matheson will open their…

West African dishes and a family atmosphere are on the menu at African Grill

Residents of Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal may speak different languages, live within different political systems and celebrate different traditions, but the people of West Africa are bound by their cuisine. They all rely on plantains, tomatoes, goat meat, cassava and peanut butter, combined and prepared in countless ways…

Review preview: African Grill and Bar

I love it when an unfamiliar cuisine forces me out of my comfort zone, sending me into a post-dinner frenzy of research as I try to understand a culture through what it eats. When I first sat down at African Grill and Bar, an Aurora restaurant that specializes in west…

Rainy day pick-me-up: beef hearts and B3 at Colt & Gray

We’re optimistic that the clouds will break for good later this week, returning Denver to its typical sunny self. But until then, we’re combating our rainy day depression by doing what we always do: drowning our sorrows in a good meal and a good drink. If you’re feeling the same…

Los Oasis Latin Grill will open in Boulder in early June

When the Boulder Draft House vacated its digs on 13th Street between Walnut and Pearl last year, it left a massive space, conveniently outfitted with a brewing system, empty for several months. But that spot is about to get new life. George Hanna, who once owned The Oasis (which shuttered…

Wyland’s Ocean Blue dries up

It was just a short seven months ago that Wyland’s Ocean Blue first opened its doors, bringing Northfield a seafood spot adorned with marine-life art by Wyland himself. But now the place has dried up for good. Wyland recently gave a statement to Texas-based Pegasus News, where two more outposts…

The Kitchen [Next Door] sets opening date of June 9

This under-construction facade fronts the newest member of the growing family of restaurants that began when The Kitchen opened on the West End of Pearl Street in Boulder. And though the crew is still hard at work installing beetle-kill floors and a bar made from reclaimed Douglas fir, the opening…

Nanna’s Teas will go in where El Gordo Loco went out

El Gordo Loco was the first victim of our Best of Denver curse, shuttering just a few days after we bestowed it with the Best Breakfast Under $2 award. But the building won’t stay empty for long: the house is getting a remodel and will reopen as Nanna’s Teas…

Happy Friday: Here’s a good place to find a date

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…

Denver’s ten best draft beer lists

American Craft Beer Week is in full swing here in the Denver, making our ale and lager-focused city even more enthusiastic about hitting the bars and drinking up craft liquids in celebration of the occasion. In honor of that, we present Denver’s ten best draft beer lists…

Drink free Pinot Noir tonight at Caveau Wine Bar

Need something to combat the seasonal depression you may be experiencing this rainy afternoon? Here it is: free booze. Specifically, free Paul Mathew Vineyards Pinot Noir. Caveau Wine Bar is doing a free tasting with selections from the Russian River Valley vineyard tonight, and if you’re into jammy California Pinot,…

Bernie Madoff’s cellar nets $41,530 in auction

Remember Bernie Madoff? The most notorious of the white-collar criminals nailed when the economy was going to hell for using the biggest Ponzi scheme in American history to swindle investors — including several Coloradans — out of a cool $65 billion? Well, he’s now serving 150 years in the pokey,…