Mark Antonation has an ambitious resolution for 2013: He’s eating his way through Denver city limits along Federal Boulevard, from the southern border to the northern, and blogging about it for Cafe Society in “A Federal Case.” But he got off to a rough start, when he found that the…
Westword ho, ho, ho. Cafe Society will be busy in the kitchen through December 25, but we’ll be cooking up plenty of tasty stories for when we return early on December 26. And in the meantime, we’re leaving you some holiday food for thought in this post by Jenn Wohletz,…
After nearly four years on Seventeenth Avenue’s Restaurant Row, Olivea, the intimate Mediterranean restaurant owned by husband-and-wife duo Stephanie Bonin and Keith Arnold, who also oversee Duo in Highland, will close in mid-January. The couple, who opened Olivea in May 2009, are moving to the East Coast in June. See…
Some of the best holiday memories are made in the kitchen. The wafting aroma of ham and reheated Hawaiian rolls, the rush to make sure the cream of mushroom soup moistens that green bean casserole, the agonized sighs after reading the calorie count on the Sara Lee pie box. And,…
Gatsby’s has opened in the former home of the Wine Loft at 1527 Wazee Street. The speakeasy-style lounge is now offering a preliminary menu of “gourmet bites” and crafted cocktails — and that lineup will expand once the restaurant puts the finishing touches on its concept. See also: -Gatsby’s will…
Metro Denver lost some longtime institutions this year. Pagliacci’s.The Burnsley. Gabor’s. And now El Rancho, once a dining destination for tourists and Denver residents alike, a place so popular it had its own exit off I-70, is gone, too. See also: – Historic El Rancho Restaurant has new owners and…
Federal Boulevard is one of the most interesting stretches of pavement in the entire United States. The cultural and economic diversity represented in a few densely populated miles means that you can drive past looming Victorian mansions, the playground of the Denver Broncos, llanteros selling retread tires, Vietnamese seafood markets,…
Everyone and their brethren seemed to be celebrating the holidays at this culinary house of comedy, where the theatrics outshine the food. That said, there’s absolutely nothing with what these dynamic jokesters serve, although I’m especially sweet on the addictive fried rice, shaped in the form of heart. Can you…
In early February, Spuntino, the Highland restaurant and dessert palace overseen by betrothed couple John Broening (he’s the chef) and Yasmin Lozada-Hissom (she’s the pastry chef) will close for a week — maybe two — to undergo a major makeover, and when it reopens, guests will not only be treated…
This last year has brought us some terrible chain restaurant trends, including serving up sodium-soaked “healthy” meals; shrinking dessert sizes and charging the same prices; peddling fancy cocktails with more ingredients than a hair-relaxing solution; and restaurants labeling everything “natural.” But despite the obvious failures, 2012 also produced five trends…
Update, 4:50 p.m.: We heard from Carol Mrzlikar, one of the neighbors upset over the smoke emitted from Il Vicino’s wood-fired oven. Continue reading for her comments. Should the smoke emitted from a wood-burning pizza oven be considered air pollution? The neighbors of Il Vicino Wood Oven Pizza on South…
All this week, I’m featuring my favorite culinary stocking stuffers and presents for the fervent foodnik, cook and restaurant fiend in your life, including the indulgent hot chocolate and salted caramel marshmallows from Spuntino, and EatDenver’s gift that keeps on giving — the 2013 EatDenver dining deck. These are all…
No, I didn’t eat the gingerbread house, which is created from graham crackers by the chef, who spent more than forty hours on this project…but, like me, I betcha he was drinking margaritas and snacking on chips and salsa in between plastering his masterpiece with candy canes, icing and gumdrops…
Daniel Ramirez Gaetano’s 3760 Tejon Street 303-455-9852 www.gaetanositalian.com/ Part one of my interview with Daniel Ramirez, exec chef of Gaetano’s, ran yesterday; this is part two of our chat. Favorite food city in America: San Francisco is unrivaled when it comes to food diversity, and it’s also the home to…
This year has been an interesting and generally productive one for food trends, with global tastes well-established, house-made fruit and vegetable pickles all the rage, gourmet burgers and craft brews holding steady, and Peruvian and Thai fusion cuisine everywhere. But with the good comes the bad, and there are definitely…
Josh and Jen Wolkon and their talented crew put plenty of time and planning into Ace, the ping pong hall/bar/restaurant in a renovated 9,000 square foot garage next to Steuben’s, their second restaurant. (They opened the first, Vesta Dipping Grill, fifteen years ago.) And when Ace opened in August, it…
Cheers erupt from the back table. A thirty-something, slightly sweaty in dark jeans and collared shirt, pumps his fist, Tiger-style, celebrating a zinger that caught the corner and kept on going. High-fives are given, drinks are spilled — but in the rush of victory, no one cares, just as no…
Pottery and cuisine don’t have an obvious connection in American culture, but it’s common in Japan for people in the food business to also be interested in ceramics. It’s not as common for restaurant veterans to become fulltime artists — but that’s the course that Kazu Oba, a native of…
While restaurateurs in Denver are scrambling to open new spots before the end of the year — and the end of all that holiday business — the founders of 35-year-old Sweet Basil in Vail just opened Mountain Standard today. Mountain Standard — which is around the corner from Sweet Basil…
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 the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market’s choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast. “People, people, people:…
I like green chile as much as the next person — probably more — but this burrito, ordered with steak (non-existent), was swamped with the stuff, wasteful inches of it, and for all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding the green chile at this joint, it flat-out sucked, as did…
Daniel Ramirez Gaetano’s 3760 Tejon Street 303-455-9852 www.gaetanositalian.com/ This is part one of my interview with Daniel Ramirez, exec chef of Gaetano’s; part two of our chat will run tomorrow. Daniel Ramirez was just shy of twenty when he left Acapulco for Los Angeles to pursue a career in architecture…
