Three years ago, designer Tran Wills took a trip to Chicago and was inspired by some of the cute stores she saw there — so inspired that she decided to open the Shoppe on East Colfax. “The concept was always going to be cupcakes, cereal and coffee, open till two…
A national publication is working on a list of the best pasta spots in the country; we got an e-mail this morning asking for a few of our favorite pasta plates in Denver. Early contenders:…
If you hurry, you can still grab yourself a nice, big Italian breakfast — with some eye-opening Italian/American/Mexican green chile on the side. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I drinking/eating posts is entered into a…
After the fourteen-day eating orgy of Denver Restaurant Week, Cafe Society has finally had time to digest all the entries in our best and worst stories from Denver Restaurant Week contest. And here they are:…
Cafe Society was already giving EatDenver decks to the best/worst Denver Restaurant Week stories (read the entries here), but our bonus offer of an EatDenver deck for the server who serves up the best story about surviving Denver Restaurant Week set off warning bells for SmokingLoon: Oh-oh, here comes the…
The best curry I’ve ever tasted was at a pop-up beer garden near the banks of the Mekong River on the border between Thailand and Laos. The proprietors had pieced together a kitchen from a series of elaborate camp stoves, and they used it to feed a huge crowd, waiters…
i-Fish, a new Pan-Asian restaurant, opens tonight at 2200 Market Street, in a completely redesigned space that was formerly occupied by Saucy’s, a short-lived barbecue joint. The kitchen, helmed by Jake Rand, who used to be the head sushi chef at Elway’s Downtown, is turning out what he calls “Pan-Asian…
Last night on America’s Next Great Restaurant, fast-casual restaurateur hopefuls designed their logos, hired chefs and cooked for a crowd of 1,000, competing against each other in a challenge that mimicked a fast-casual lunch rush. And hometown investor Steve Ells, along with cohorts Lorena Garcia, Curtis Stone and Bobby Flay,…
Ryan Hickey has cooked in several restaurants around town, but it was while manning the stoves at Colt & Gray, his current gig, that he really started thinking about perfectly good food that goes to waste in kitchens. “We throw a lot of stuff away because it doesn’t look good…
Late last week, Brian Laird, the executive chef of Russo’s Kitchen + Tavern, which opens on Thursday at Vallagio at Inverness, trotted out a non-stop medley of dishes during a staff tasting and orientation — and we were lucky enough to share in the food coma. And Laird, the former…
As Sartre wrote, “Hell is other people.” While you vegans and carnivores have been making plenty of noise, there is a population of omnivores silently creeping among you, ducking behind buildings and mailboxes, getting shot at by meat-mongers for ordering tofu on our noodles, and getting gently but firmly chided…
“This one is really important to me,” says Bobby Stuckey, co-owner of Frasca Food & Wine. “I’ve wanted to get these guys out here since we opened, but I never thought I’d really be able to do it.” He’s talking about Stanko Radikon and his son, Sasa, who make wine…
Tonight, at 5 p.m., the crew of FIVE, a bumper crop of local chefs who cook their hearts out in Denver, at the James Beard House in New York and at the FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen, are gathering at Il Mondo Vecchio for their second collaborative dinner of…
For my last meal of Denver Restaurant Week, which ended on Friday, I hit up a joint that did everything right — a joint that turned out a terrific menu stockpiled with all of my favorite things, including a dish with gnocchi, carrots, brisket and cabbage. Can you guess where…
Cafe Society served up five Guess where contests last week, ranging from Lori Midson’s favorite watering hole to a $52.80 foie gras sandwich with duck egg, caviar and black truffles at Beatrice & Woodsley, to a terrific pizza at a just-opened joint. For correctly identifying that joint as Stingray, which…
On Friday, Cafe Society writers and commenters alike were all at your service, talking about what makes a great server — and what servers should watch for during Denver Restaurant Week from stingy diners, and every day from potential check-skippers. In response to Jenn Wohletz’s list of the top five…
Six weeks. That’s how long, optimistically, Bryan Dayton expects it will take to rebuild Oak at Fourteenth after fire ravaged the space, causing damage everywhere from the attic to the basement…
Denver Restaurant Week kicked off on February 26, and while tonight is the last official opportunity to take advantage of DRW (some restaurants are extending the offer through the weekend), it’s still not too late to snag a seat at one of the 300 food temples offering multi-course feasts. As…
A week after Virgilio’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar caught some dine-and-ditchers on video, the town is still buzzing about how these ditch-bitches managed to get away with hogging and jogging. But while the now-notorious YouTubed “meatball gang” from Virgilio’s may have scored some free eats, they’re paying for them with…
Talk about bitter irony. A mere two days after Oak at Fourteenth, one of Boulder’s best new restaurants and bars, erupted in blazes after a “false” ceiling of the restaurant caught on fire, Food & Wine magazine released its listage of the country’s best new bars — and Oak at…
It’s been many, many months since floor leaks forced the closure of Samba Room in Larimer Square, but as late as December of 2010, the company, along with Larimer Associates, the group that owns the space, were optimistic that the place would eventually reopen. It wasn’t to be. E Brands,…
My recent review of Carmine’s on Penn, wherein I wrote about being egregiously upsold by a server who’d initially gained my trust, garnered this question from reader Matt: I was just hired as a server a few nights a week, and I’ve never done it before. I wondered if you…
