The popularity and success of last year’s community garden in Civic Center Park (check it out — it even garnered a Westword Best of award) led the non-profit “Go Local Colorado” to think even bigger. This year, the group, in conjunction with Denver Parks & Recreation, the Parks Stewardship Program…
It isn’t often that I think a non-alcoholic drink is deserving of praise. I mean, really, how good can it be? But this housemade vanilla-passionfruit soda, which I drank at an adorable cafe in the RiNo area, was the exception to the rule. Other soda flavors include cucumber, pineapple-ginger, cherry-lime…
Pho 95, which opened last weekend at the Streets of SouthGlenn, 6879 South Vine Street, has issued a challenge that will likely bowl over — literally — anyone who takes the plunge. Owner Aaron Le figures that inhaling two pounds of rice noodles, two pounds of meat (brisket, tendon, flank,…
I love family style community dinners, but there’s one communal feast, in particular, that’s held twice a month at a local restaurant, that tops them all, especially when it’s paired with blow-your-mind wines. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the…
In Britain, a rogue jelly baby was found in a particular state of euphoria amongst his rubbery pals. Lyz Parker, who lives in Middlesex (convenient) purchased some candy at a local store; when she opened the bag in her office, she noticed the gummy guy holding his micro-parts with his…
After more than a hundred years of supplying restaurants in the West with discount groceries, California-based Smart & Final has started SmartCo Foods, and is opening its first five stores in various Colorado locations. Smart & Final already owns the Henry’s, SunHarvest and Cash & Carry grocery stores.Two of the…
Technology has improved nearly every aspect of our lives, and now, at long last, it’s been applied to mankind’s greatest venture: the search for cheap drinks. Village Voice Media Holdings LLC, the parent company of this paper, and GoTime.com have partnered to bring you Happy Hours, the premier smart-phone application…
The economic downturn resulted in one welcome effect: an upswing in restaurants offering deals on drinks, deals on appetizers, and ever-happier happy hours. The list that follows, compiled by our Cafe Society staff (e-mail us at cafe@westword.com), includes our fifty favorite happy hours, ranging from A to Z and noteworthy…
I love headcheese, sweetbreads, escargot and foie gras as much as the next person, but there’s something about the comforting simplicity of a baked potato that I can’t resist, especially when it’s chock-full of BACON! Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer…
Last week it was a Mexican-themed patio party. This week, O’s Steak & Seafood, 10600 Westminster Boulevard, is doing it up with local beer. The restaurant, located in the Westin Hotel in Westminster, is inaugurating a “Colorado Beer Garden” on its patio this Friday. Executive sous chef Christoph Schoettle says…
Once upon a time, a man named Phil Anson, who enjoyed rock-climbing in Eldorado Canyon and made a killer burrito, stumbled upon a business idea: He packed his homemade burritos into a cooler to sell to his fellow climbers. And they were good. But Anson realized this wasn’t the best…
The economic downturn had one welcome effect: an upswing in restaurant offering deals on drinks, deals on appetizers, and ever happier happy hours. This week’s Westword features our fifty favorite happy hours, which run the gamut from A (Appaloosa Bar & Grill, which has very expansive happy hours with very…
What, so it’s our fault? Last week, I broke the news that Frank Bonanno was adding a fifth restaurant to his culinary kingdom, a French-American comfort-food joint that would be taking up residence later this summer in a “biker bar” that required “a huge transformation” — words that came directly…
The Armed Forces are fighting the battle of the bulge: 27 percent of all Americans aged 17 to 24 are too fat to join the military, according to a recent study titled “Too Fat to Fight.” And retired generals have fingered a steady school-lunch diet of fried foods and oil-slicked…
When I saw the bottle of Galliano, an Italian liqueur, on the bar, I had a flashback to college when my favorite drink was a Harvey Wallbanger. I asked Matt, the bartender, to make me an updated version of my old favorite and he came up with this beauty. Can…
Pinkberry, the international fro-yo chainlet with a frenzied cult following, is opening its first Colorado store on Thursday, May 27 at 1000 South Colorado Boulevard, in the small mall anchored by Barnes and Noble. “Colorado is an exciting new market for Pinkberry, and a strategic part of our marketing plans,”…
Faster than you can say “Spicy Pickle,” the Denver-based regional sandwich chain has lost its president. Less than a month after Marc Geman became president of Spicy Pickle Franchising Inc., he has resigned the position as well as his membership on the company’s board “to pursue other interests,” according to…
That bottomless bowl of bun, stockpiled with scraps of char-grilled meats, smoky shrimp, Vietnamese egg rolls, pickled ribbons of carrots and daikon, crushed peanuts and stretchy vermicelli noodles, proves, yet again, why the Vietnamese are responsible for some of the world’s most savagely good food. Can you guess where I’m…
As part of an upcoming photo essay project spotlighting Denver restaurant pros whose tatts are as prevalent as their dissections, burns, blisters, knife slashes and stabs, we promised that we’d post some of the best ink on the Cafe Society blog…
A restaurant that sounds like the motor sports centered version of a TGI Fridays is expanding into Colorado. The Sharon, Pennsylvania-based Quaker Steak & Lube has one of the most confusing and vaguely lewd names we’ve ever heard of, and its bringing its wings and ribs and steaks to Westminster…
Oh, brother! Jim and Angelo Karagas bought an old saloon at 2376 15th Street more than forty years ago, transforming it into My Brother’s Bar, an institution so beloved in Denver that it needs no sign. But for more than twenty years, it did have an actual sibling: While Jim…
If you’re in the mood for beauty without the beast, play like Lewis and Clark and head to the great northwest, where Portland is home to the first vegan restaurant/gentleman’s club. Johnny Diablo is the owner of Casa Diablo, and says it’s his mission to “save as many creatures from…
