The Berkeley neighborhood’s historic watering hole, the Rosa Mia Inn, which opened in 1966, recently sold and will reopen as the Nip & Sip Neighborhood Lounge. The new ownership group includes J.D. Dossett, Margaret Moore, and Leigh Jones — of Jonesy’s Eatbar fame, who also runs the Horseshoe Lounge, Inga’s…
Denver diners love breakfast, and brunch could be the official meal of the city. This week Gretchen Kurtz reviews Four Friends Kitchen, a worthy newcomer in the breakfast/brunch/lunch arena. And a longtime favorite with fans of morning meals is adding another link: Lucile’s is coming to Evans and South Ogden…
Last week Chris Utterback tried the happy hour at Bayou Bob’s, which has been serving up Cajun food in downtown Denver for almost thirty years. The dishes are hot stuff, the drinks are stiff and the good times definitely roll here. Says Jeff: Bayou Bob’s is a good place to drink and…
The restaurant scene did some shuffling in June, with Taste of Thailand moving from its longtime Englewood location to a new spot in Denver on South Broadway, Pho Duy moving one storefront north (into the short-lived Wonderbowl space), and Blue Pan Pizza bringing Detroit-style pies to West 32nd Avenue after…
Families comprise a big part of the clientele at Four Friends Kitchen, a breakfast-and-lunch spot that opened in Stapleton this spring. That’s why the eatery hands out retro Etch A Sketches, crayons and activity books by the armful, and why banquettes are lined with jokes such as “Why was the…
High Plains Bison maintains the second-largest herd of bison in the world, according to Kevin Lamar, chief customer officer for the bison company’s new weight-management branch, Plainsmart. So it’s no wonder that when the company decided to jump into the weight-loss industry, it built a menu making its own bison meat…
Gene Tang hired Joseph Arena as 1515 Restaurant’s new executive chef in February, a move that reflected his penchant for bringing in young talent that appreciates the restaurant’s combination of classical fine-dining technique with modern culinary sleight of hand. Back in 1997, when Tang opened 1515 in the century-old storefront…
With development wiping out many of the favorite spots around Denver, our nostalgia cup is overflowing. Bree Davies poured out plenty of memories in My Denver, My Dream for How to Keep It Great, and that included shopping at local businesses, such as the two Marczyk Fine Foods stores or Pete’s…
A friend recently returned from Peru extolling the quality of the Andean nation’s cuisine, including alpaca, something I’d never considered as a potential protein source. Hearing this, I wondered if, given the chance, I would order alpaca pot roast or loin of llama. After all, llamas, alpacas and their kin…
It took Mother Nature a while to come around, but summer is now in full swing and a few restaurants around town are making up for lost time. Here are a few options to help celebrate the sun and Colorado’s finest summer bounty. In Boulder, Blackbelly Market officially kicked off its…
Session Kitchen opened in late 2013 at 1518 South Pearl Street, after a complicated property swap between the Breckenridge-Wynkoop group and the Kizaki brothers. In that deal, Breck-Wynkoop acquired the building at 1518 South Pearl, built as the original home of Izakaya Den; meanwhile, the Kizakis gained the space at…
On a weekend with so much going on downtown – the Urban Slide, Denver Flea, the Urban Dare Scavenger Hunt, and the general mayhem of a Colorado summer day with no clouds in sight — the goal was a quick brunch to fuel our day somewhere close to the action…
Unlike at the original Boulder location, the Denver outpost of Zoe Ma Ma, a downhome Chinese-food concept that Gretchen Kurtz just reviewed, includes an optional 15 percent “Sustainability Initiative Fee” on all tabs. Owner Edwin Zoe says the fee helps him pay his employees a living wage. But the concept has been fodder…
This week Gretchen Kurtz reviewed the Union Station outpost of Zoe Ma Ma, the second home-style Taiwanese eatery from Edwin Zoe and his chef/mom Anna. And while she found deep flavors in a bowl of Sichuan braised-beef noodle soup, she also put some deep thought into the idea of service fees…
The hunger paradox has crippled us all from time to time—you’re hungry and don’t want to sacrifice taste or quality, but you’re in a hurry, don’t want to spend a fortune or rapidly approaching stages of hanger that make waiting an hour to get into a restaurant out of the…
You may have noticed the Taja Indian sign above the space that was until recently Bombay Bowl in the shopping center at Broadway and Sixth Avenue. While it may seem odd that one fast-casual Indian restaurant would take the place of another, Taja is under the same ownership as its…
Zoe Ma Ma, which Gretchen Kurtz reviews this week, gets compliments for the setup at its new Denver location, as well as for its downhome Chinese fare. But one thing isn’t drawing raves: a 15 percent sustainability initiative fee that’s added to all tabs unless a customer specifically opts out. Owner…
Oskar Blues founder Dale Katechis is no stranger to innovation, having kicked off the craft-beer-in-a-can revolution in 2002. Now he’s launching a similar concept, only with coffee. This week Hotbox Roasters started selling its first batch of fair-trade coffee beans, packaged in the brewery’s “crowlers” — the resealable growler cans…
In just over a year, the Ethniche column has covered more than fifty restaurants and the food of a dozen cultures and regional styles, from the starting point in Hawaii sampling fried Spam and tuna poke to this month’s tour of the city’s Peruvian cuisine. In that time, there have…
Cities from Los Angeles to Chicago are hiking the minimum wage. Here in Denver, Edwin Zoe of Zoe Ma Ma, which I review this week, has taken matters into his own hands with what he calls a “sustainability initiative fee.” The 15 percent fee, which is automatically added to the…
Rebel Restaurant is coming to RiNo — specifically 3763 Wynkoop Street, the former home of several dive bars, including Fat Bros, Wynkoop Grill and Hospoda. But owners Dan Lasiy and Bo Porytko are planning to put the focus on the kitchen. “We want to be food first, bar second,” says…
It was hot, one of the first truly hot days of summer, and the sun had an intensity that caught me off guard. Saner types might have taken a seat on the plaza, where throngs of people had kicked off their shoes — and, in the case of a few…
