No. 44: The Juicy Lucy at the Midwestern Saloon With plenty of imported foods and international cuisines coming to Denver, you may wonder why someone would open a restaurant dedicated to Midwestern fare. Such is the case at the aptly named Midwestern Saloon in Berkeley, and if you need a…
The Rocky Flats Lounge has been a landmark on Highway 93 for more than sixty years. Before the building became a bar, it was the original payroll office for the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, and when it was moved from that top-secret facility across the road to a spot…
There are dive bars and then there are neighborhood bars. What’s the difference? Sometimes it’s difficult to define. But we knew that the Kentucky Inn had phased from a dive to something a little more genteel after the Pearl Street watering hole was purchased by Dave Bryan and Lisa Bryan,…
November is shaping up to be a tasty — and busy! — month for culinary events. In addition to our twice-weekly Culinary calendar, here are a few extra events for which you’ll want to plan ahead, including a pastry chef’s brunch, a week of good eats in Boulder, dining on…
No. 45: Hisbiscus-Flower Tacos at Comal Comal opened last month in the TAXI development in RiNo, with the dual missions of serving home-style Mexican cooking while giving Globeville and Elyria-Swansea residents career-oriented job training. The restaurant calls itself a heritage-food incubator, which means that menus shift regularly but always include recipes…
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…
Chef/restaurateur Kevin Morrison is a believer in understated simplicity, at least when it comes to naming his eateries. His first Denver success came with the Spicy Pickle, which he founded and ran until the chain went public and he sold out of the business. Next came Tacos, Tequila, Whiskey (better…
The sunny cantina at East Sixth Avenue and Clarkson Street seems custom-built to draw taco lovers, what with its ample patio space and indoor-outdoor bars. Lime XS made taco Tuesdays work for a number of years, but the new name and concept, the $5 Buck Drinkery, that moved in last…
Let’s get one thing out of the way: Mister Tuna is an unfortunate name, suggestive of a cartoon mascot in a canned-tuna commercial. Saying it aloud makes you feel silly. But Mister Tuna — the institution, not the moniker — is nothing to laugh at. Instead, it’s the restaurant that…
La Loma closed the doors on its home of 35 years a week ago, but fans who have been following the Mexican restaurant’s moves knew that they wouldn’t have to wait long for an order of crispy mini-rellenos, a big margarita or an order of green chile. La Loma reopens…
If there was an October surprise on the Denver dining scene, it was the number of eateries that closed, especially in hot neighborhoods. Highland alone lost Vita, Small Wonder and Jezebel’s Southern Bistro. Even breweries weren’t safe, as Hall Brewing Tap Room shuttered in Parker (although the farmhouse brewery several…
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…
No. 45: Jungle Curry at Aung’s Bangkok CafeChef Aung Kyaw is Burmese by birth but learned to cook Thai cuisine from a restaurant chef while living in Thailand as a refugee from his home country. And what a teacher that chef must have been — or what a good student…
Gustavo Arellano, author of Ask a Mexican, coined a term for the Mile High City’s unique take on Mexican food: Den-Mex. This variation on that country’s cuisine has led to the creation of such Denver-centric dishes as the Mexican hamburger (Arellano calls the version at Chubby’s “the dish that best personifies…
News of closings overshadowed openings this week, especially with the loss of the Squeeze Inn (one of the city’s tiniest bars, which is now gone from our list of the ten best dive bars) and La Loma, which closed its doors on Monday after 35 years at the same address…
Chef Darren Pusateri has worked in his fair share of Denver kitchens, including the Squeaky Bean when it moved to its current downtown location in 2012. Now he’s back at the Bean as the new executive chef after two years at the TAG restaurant group. Squeaky Bean co-owner Johnny Ballen…
Although we write about Denver food and restaurants for a living, we’re just like you: we have to eat — generally three meals a day, every day. Sometimes that means cooking at home, sometimes it means an extravagant dinner out for a special occasion. Often it means just popping into…
Last week, Colorado Beer Man Jonathan Shikes brought us news that Crazy Mountain Brewing Company had teamed up with restaurateur Richard Sandoval (of Zengo, Tamayo and La Sandia, among many others here and worldwide) to open a beer-tasting room inside Sandoval’s Latinicity food hall in Chicago. Tempting as it is to…
Since chef Elise Wiggins left Panzano after more than a decade to open her own restaurant, Cattivella, the search has been on for a new executive chef at the Italian eatery on the ground floor of the Hotel Monaco downtown. Despite being part of the Kimpton hotel group, Panzano has…
Denver Restaurant Week, the annual discount dinner program put on by Visit Denver at the end of every winter, has seen tweaks and changes over the past dozen years. But one thing that has remained constant has been the pricing structure. While the per-person price went up a few years…
Good news for those missing the comfort-food pleasures of bang!, which closed last year after a nineteen-year run in West Highland: Co-owner Cissy Olderman is back with a new partner and a new food venture, albeit one on a much smaller scale. Olderman has joined forces with her ten-year-old daughter,…
Lunch is getting just a little better in Denver, starting tomorrow with a lunchtime pop-up at Mister Tuna and a sushi giveaway at P.F. Chang’s. And one of our favorite barbecue spots will soon add Friday lunch. Keep reading for the details on all three. Mister Tuna 3033 Brighton Boulevard…
