Cafe Society: Week in review

Lori Midson got a sneak peak of Sean Yontz's new restaurant space during a sit-down with the Sketch, Mezcal and Tambien executive chef, who's also the subject of this week's Chef and Tell interview.

We discussed bars, bars and more bars, including ten TV bars where we'd like to hang with friends and get drunk, drunker and drunkest and dive bars, specifically our favorite dive bars, about which our readers have strong opinions. (We like that.)

And speaking of bars, Nancy Levine got up close and personal with mix master Ken Kodys, the bartender at Bacaro in Boulder.

Meanwhile, in New York, Gourmet magazine , the glossy food title, lost its print battle after nearly seventy years of page-turning recipes, travelogues and wish-I-was-there photography.

And if that weren't bad enough, Travel + Leisure, the upscale getaway 'zine that pimps vacation hot spots that cost more than your average luxury car, released the results of its 2009 America's Favorite Cities poll, which included an ethnic food category, in which Denver was ranked...way the hell at the bottom. We got smoked, big time, and we're not happy about it.

Sadly, we also lost some big names in the restaurant business, including Frank Finn of the Gold Hill Inn, who passed away last month; pitman Mike McCrea of Big Mike's BBQ, who died from injuries suffered during a propane tank accident; and Ben Ali, co-founder and namesake of Ben's Chili Bowl in Washington, D.C.

RIP.