Five reasons we can’t let Big Bird go on food stamps

At Wednesday’s debate, Mitt Romney casually said that if he’s elected president, he’ll cut funding to PBS — and he specifically mentioned Big Bird seconds later. Fowl play! That was a serious harsh to the eight-foot tall, loveable yellow bird that has spent his entire career on Sesame Street, educating…

Reader: Who leaked the Romney/Rosa Linda story to Westword?

I stopped by Rosa Linda’s Mexican Cafe last night, and the place was packed. Packed full of TV cameras, full of people who’d heard about the controversy that erupted after Cafe Society first reported that the family that owns the restaurant had declined to let Romney supporters use their place…

Roux the day: The light and dark sides of gumbo

A rose is a rose is a rose, right? Not so for gumbo, which happens to be Colin Mallet’s favorite dish from his home state of Louisiana. While there are probably as many versions of this soup/stew as there are families who make it, Mallet, executive chef of Sassafras American…

Vote in the 2012 Denver #WebAwards

It’s time for the 2012 edition of Westword’s Denver Web Awards, our annual celebration of Denver’s greatest digital minds. This time, we’re introducing new categories to recognize the area’s creative and forward-thinking app developers, but we’ve made sure to include a few favorites, like Best Shameless Self-Promoter and Most Viral…

Guess where I’m eating an all-American hot dog?

Barack Obama may wish that he’d bitten off a bit more of Mitt Romney’s noggin last night during the first presidential debate, but while he ponders that, the rest of us who are still flummoxed by what exactly happened last night, can take solace in wrapping our jaws around an…

Gatsby’s will open in the former Wine Loft space in LoDo

Both locations of the Wine Loft, a New Orleans-based chain that occupied storefronts in LoDo and and the Landmark Project, closed last month, but yesterday, I spotted a new sign plastered on the LoDo space inked with the words “Classified: Coming soon November 2012.” See also: The Wine Loft dries…

Round two with Matt Lewis, exec chef of Bones

Matt Lewis Bones 701 Grant Street 303-860-2929 www.bonesdenver.com Part one of my interview with Matt Lewis, exec chef of Bones, ran yesterday. This is part two of our conversation. Favorite restaurant in America: My experience at Bouchon was amazing, even more so because the chef de cuisine came out and…

Reader: Aguirre family at Rosa Linda’s are true Americans

An artist who lived in northwest Denver clued me in to the little storefront burrito joint that had just opened in his neighborhood in northwest Denver, a spot decades away from being tagged with the nickname “LoHi” or labeled a “hippest hipster neighborhood” by Forbes. I’ve been eating at Rosa…

Colin Mallet brings Southern cooking to northwest Denver

After my first child was born, a friend brought over the best spaghetti Bolognese I’d ever eaten. When I asked for the recipe, she shyly admitted it contained Vegemite, the salty, dark-brown yeast paste that Australians adore. “Try it on toast,” she later urged, presenting me with a small, yellow-lidded…

Barry’s@Highlands moves into former Arabian Bar space

Nine years ago, Barry Zadikoff took over the old Skylark Lounge space at 58 Broadway and transformed the address into Barry’s on Broadway. Now he plans to basically clone Barry’s in Highland. He’s taken over the former Arabian Bar, which had been in business since the ’20s at 3360 Navajo…

Guess where I’m eating tacos at a burger joint?

Moral of the story: Do not order tacos — at least these tacos — at a joint renowned for its burgers. Lesson learned. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Guess Where posts is entered into a pool –…

Matt Lewis, exec chef of Bones, on pop-ups, burgers and women

Matt Lewis Bones 701 Grant Street 303-860-2929 www.bonesdenver.com This is part one of my interview with Matt Lewis, exec chef of Bones. Part two of our conversation will run tomorrow. “Every time I walked through the door of my Italian grandmother’s house, even if it was after dinner, the first…

Reader: Romney visits Chipotle to support Latinos? Gotcha

Campaigning in Colorado yesterday in advance of his appearance at tonight’s debate at the University of Denver, Mitt Romney stopped at the Chipotle in Stapleton — where he ordered extra guac with his burrito. He also got a side of sarcasm from our readers. – See also: Photo: Mitt Romney…

Six restaurants where Obama should eat near the University of Denver

Independent of his wife’s stance on healthy eating, here’s what we know about President Obama’s food preferences: He likes pizza, as evidenced by his recent jaunt to the Sink in Boulder; he has a special fondness for burgers, a fact that’s been documented in just about every city he’s graced,…

Guess where I’m eating a heap of awful crab legs?

The kid wanted crab legs; my dad wanted somewhere quiet. We settled, mistakenly, on this shrine to shitty seafood and fish, which was definitely quiet, presumably because everyone but us realized how much it well and truly sucks. And those crab legs? $28 of sea garbage. #canihavemymoneyback? Can you guess…