From the moment that Mary and Lisa Rogers opened Common Grounds in 1992, the coffeehouse at 3484 West 32nd Avenue was a neighborhood gathering place — even if the Highland neighborhood was far from the hot spot it is today. Today the area is so hot, in fact, that the…
Cafe Society served up five Guess Where? contests last week, ranging from a fleet of fantastic beers from River North Brewery to a bowl of chili from the newly reopened Hawt Dog & Sausage Eatery to a burrito smothered with green chile from an iconic Mexican institution…
You’ll have to get your bacon and eggs elsewhere this morning: Johnny’s Diner has closed in Aurora. During a recent Aurora Fire Department inspection, the owner of the decades-old joint was told he needed to replace the fire suppression hood over the grill — a $3,000 repair. That was enough,…
When Trader Joe’s revealed that it would finally open a store in — one of three now slated to open in the metro area in 2014 — neighbors of the future TJ’s site at East Eighth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard rejoiced. They were not nearly as excited when they heard…
This week, Gretchen Kurtz went from nose to tail at Beast + Bottle, where brother-sister duo Paul and Aileen Reilly are becoming the talk of the town. And Mark Antonation brightened up a blurry Tuesday evening at T-Wa Inn; while exec chef Colin Mallet took a sec from extinguishing fires…
Suffice it to say that I eat out more than the general population, unless, of course, the general population can catalogue more than 450 restaurant meals in a year — which is about the number of breakfasts, lunches and dinners that I stomached in 2012. Pathetic, isn’t it? But all…
The legendary Dunkin’ Donuts chain is finally rolling into Colorado, with a dozen stores slated to open in the state by 2018. And this September, a Dunkin’ Donuts store will rise in the heart of Denver, at 470 Broadway. The franchise owners for that location will be conducting a job…
Native Foods Cafe, the fast-casual meatless (read: vegan) joint that proffers soy- and wheat-based meat substitutes (tempeh and seitan, for example) in lieu of dead animals, boasts more than fourteen stores in California, Chicago, Portland and Boulder — and now Denverites who embrace the ever-growing spread of the vegan movement…
Pho Real is set to open at 2399 West Main Street in Littleton, in the space that was previously home to Tres Jolie, which shuttered last summer, after winning Best Ladies Lunch in our 2012 Best of Denver issue. According to employees, Pho Real should be open for business within…
The Denver Burger Battle opened to a wet — very wet — start last night, when rain threatened to turn all that beef into a massive river of particles floating down Speer Boulevard. But while the first thirty minutes of the annual ode to burgers — which took place at…
The Stapleton Tap House opened earlier this month in the Shops at Northfield, offering shoppers and Stapleton residents an easy way to try out unusual beers from smaller breweries across Colorado. The 1,500-square-foot spot, located near Harkins Theatre, has thirty taps and a saying that “the easier it is for…
The “special” curry, billed as “spicy” on the menu, wasn’t particularly spicy at all, although the flavors were deep, but the service? That’s a whole different story. In between waiting fifteen minutes for a beer, even longer for water and a hurried server who managed to spill a bowl of…
Frank and Dina Berta stunned regulars when they announced that they’d sold Frank’s Kitchen, the neighborhood joint they’d opened two years earlier in the Whittier neighborhood. But they gave their customers a definite consolation prize: Joe Van Dyke, aka “Jammin’ Joe,” a blues guitarist and restaurateur from Virginia who found…
When last year it was revealed that Trader Joe’s had finally decided to open two stores in Colorado, the clouds parted, cherubs started playing shiny little harps, citizens long-deprived of TJ’s inexpensive branded products began rejoicing — and marked their calendars for those fateful days in late 2013 when the…
Jamba Juice just opened its second location at Denver International Airport, on the C Concourse, and is slated to open a third in the Jeppesen Terminal this fall. “Jamba Juice has proven itself to be popular with our passengers on the B Concourse, so we are delighted to see the…
The menu at Beast + Bottle, the ever-packed restaurant launched this spring by brother-and-sister duo Paul and Aileen Reilly, is surprising in many ways. For starters, the menu features an abundance of unfamiliar ingredients and cooking terms, as I note in this week’s review. Then there’s the fact that the…
Andrew Knowlton, the appointed “Foodest” at Bon Appetit magazine — and the guy who named Boulder America’s Foodiest Town in 2010 — has just released his listacle of the country’s fifty Best New Restaurant nominees, and two Denver restaurants — their names won’t surprise you — made the cut. See…
It wasn’t exactly cold yesterday, but it was chilly enough that I gravitated toward of bowl of chili smacked with chipotle peppers — and it was a damn good rendition, especially given the fact that the menu favors frankfurters. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives…
Denver is definitely in need of more good barbecue, so I was eager to visit Southern Hospitality BBQ, the upscale barbecue restaurant that opened last October in the very renovated old St. Elmo Hotel building. This joint came with a smoking back-story: The original was opened in Manhattan in 2007…
UPDATE: We have a winner of our Ballpark Plates contest, in which we asked Cafe Society readers to answer this question: How many “bites” of gazpacho did Trillium sell during last year’s Ballpark Plates? Congrats to Sinnney85, who guessed 284; the actual number is 299. Skinney85, we’ll send you an…
Colin Mallet Sassafras American Eatery 2637 West 26h Avenue 303-433-0080 sassafrasamericaneatery.com This is part two of my interview with Colin Mallet, chef of Sassafras; part one of our chat ran yesterday.. Describe the biggest challenges facing Denver chefs: The amount of competition is enormous. There are so many new restaurants…
News broke this week that a professor at Maastricht University in the Netherlands had created the world’s first test-tube burger. Tasters gave the burger — which was mixed with salt, egg powder, bread crumbs, beetroot juice and saffron for taste and visual enhancement — a big “meh, it’s okay.” But…
