A half-dozen years ago, there was a race to see which restaurateur would open the first hip noodle bar in the area. Frank Bonanno won when he opened Bones at the very end of 2008; soon after, Dave Query’s Big Red F group debuted Happy Noodle Houseat 835 Walnut Street…
A recent dinner at this long-standing neighborhood restaurant revealed a new menu full of vibrant dishes, including a Vietnamese-inspired, vegetable slaw-crowned rice crepe hugging fried duck meatballs. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to a Guess Where post — on the…
Pepper Asian Bistro has opened at 2831 East Colfax Avenue, in the former home of China Star. Owner Shi Bing Ke has given the space a facelift, and also introduced a smart menu that reflects the restaurant’s connection with Shiso Sushi in Edgewater. The spicy edamame is already getting rave…
The Five Star Burgers at 555 Broadway had a lot going for it, even on the restaurant-heavy corner of Sixth and Broadway. The green chile on that big, fat cheeseburger featured real Hatch chiles. If that and the hand-cut fries didn’t fill you up, you could order deep-fried banana bread…
Last summer Kitchen Nightmares came to metro Denver, and chef/host Gordon Ramsay gave makeovers to three long-time Colorado restaurants: The Old Neighborhood in Arvada, Mangia Mangia in Woodlawn Park and Pantaleone’s New York Pizza. Before she caught last month’s episode featuring Pantaleone’s, Gretchen Kurtz visited the Fafalios family’s almost-thirty-year-old pizzeria…
Park Hill is becoming less and less of a food desert these days. Last week Gretchen Kurtz saluted the Abbey Tavern, which turned a former florist shop on East Colfax into a neighborhood hangout, and yesterday chef/owner Jon Robbins, founder of Gypsy Kitchen, opened Bistro Barbès at 5021 East 28th…
Pete Fafalios of Pantaleone’s, which I review this week, isn’t the town’s only pizza-maker who’s been in the business a long time. Luke Loukopoulos, owner of Papou’s Pizzeria, has been slinging dough as long as he can remember. “I grew up making it back east,” says Loukopoulos, who learned to…
Red Robin has been getting schooled on how tough it can be to create a spin-off of a successful concept. The Red Robin’s Burger Works that opened in September 2012 on the Auraria Campus — then the sole restaurant option in the new, $45 million Hotel and Hospitality Learning Center,…
It’s been fourteen years since Matt Matros graduated from college, and he still has the “fat kid” graduation photo that encouraged him to kick the junk food to the curb. “I was heavy — 210 pounds heavy — when I graduated from college, and I remember looking at my graduation…
Back in 2011, a Yelper by the name of Alex B wrote an exclamation point-punctuated review of Snarf’s, a homegrown sandwich shop that got its start in Boulder. The sandos are really great, as evidenced by the fact that I’ve been three work days in a row!!” he gushes, but…
Chris Canales Volta Mediterranean Restaurant 2480 Canyon Boulevard, Boulder 303-938-8800 voltaboulder.com This is part two of my interview with Chris Canales, exec chef of Volta; part one of my chat with Canales ran yesterday. Most memorable meal you’ve ever had: I can’t remember a single most memorable meal, but all…
More than two dozen restaurants opened last month in metro Denver, ranging from ethnic eateries like A Taste of Haiti and Jamaican Grill to the Thirsty Lion, a bar/gastropub that’s the first place to open in the new developments around Union Station. But the area also lost several stalwarts, including…
Denver’s dining scene is exploding, with hot restaurant neighborhoods all over town. But there’s none hotter than the Ballpark neighborhood, which we named Best New Restaurant Neighborhood in the Best of Denver 2014. In addition to many impressive bars and restaurants in the area, Ballpark is also home to our…
During last summer’s Kitchen Nightmares makeover of Pantaleone’s pizzeria on South Holly Street, chef Gordon Ramsay made many recommendations to owners Pete and Paulette Fafalios. And while Pete rejected some of Ramsay’s suggestions, he took him up on others, and during the course of the show, Pantaleone’s underwent big changes…
The dreaded lime shortage is hitting home — and restaurateurs are starting to put the squeeze on customers. Not only are bartenders slicing limes thinner and thinner, but some spots are raising prices for anything that calls for the in-short-supply citrus. Benny’s Restaurante y Cantina, for example, has just added…
For the most part, the menu as this Mexican joint is a carbon copy of its competition — burritos, enchiladas, chile rellenos, tacos and combinations of all four — but there a few dishes that stand apart from the usual suspects, including a plate of shrimp bobbing in a garlic-scented…
Almost two years after they purchased the building at 2036 Broadway that had most recently housed the Rockaway Tavern and Triangle Denver before that, the owners of Wurstküche, a Los Angeles-based concept that combines exotic sausages with a beer hall, are slated to open their Denver location in July –…
Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with a spacious kitchen. They often bring some of their market’s best ingredients home with them and cook up a feast, and when they’re not…
Several bars and restaurants around town are planning parties for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby gallop, and while it’s the opportune time to dig out your frilly hat and dress the part, at least one bar — namely the Bar Car — is predicting that at least a handful of people will…
Chris Canales Volta Mediterranean Restaurant 2480 Canyon Boulevard, Boulder 303-938-8800 voltaboulder.com This is part one of my interview with Chris Canales; part two of my chat with Canales will run tomorrow. Volta, with its sophisticated menu, swank interior and elegant al fresco courtyard, is far from the world where executive…
When I decided to start writing A Federal Case, I did so out of sheer curiosity. I live in a neighborhood that borders Federal Boulevard, a street that has served as an occasional dining destination but also as a conduit to other areas of the city. At the time, I…
When Govinda’s Garden, the weekend-only vegetarian/vegan dinner buffet, re-opened last October, it quickly became insanely popular; within a half-hour of the restaurant openings its doors, the dining room was usually full. And now we’re going to get even more of a good thing: another dinner and three lunch shifts have…
