The future home of Squeaky Bean...and the site of last night's LoDo residents meeting.

​Chefs are Denver's rock stars, and lower downtown is one hell of a stage. Last night I was lucky enough to moderate a panel of four LoDo chefs -- Jen Jasinski, Matt Selby, Tom Coohill and Max MacKissock -- who dished out restaurant tidbits (both literal and figurative) before an appreciative crowd of 200-plus lower downtown residents.

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​Denver has long proclaimed itself the home of the cheeseburger, and even has a monument to that invention on Speer Boulevard -- though several other cities have tried to claim the burger-king crown.

But we were also the undisputed home of the Hot Pocket, which brothers David and Paul Merage invented in the late '70s, creating a frozen-food empire, Chef America, out of the red-hot Hot Pockets product they started selling in 1983. Now, however, comes news that Nestle, which bought the company in 2002 for a reported $2.6 billion, is moving Hot Pockets headquarters out of Colorado.

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Ryan Leinonen at Trillium.

​Although they may disagree with his definition of pasties, readers appreciated the Chef and Tell interview with Ryan Leinonen, the chef who opened Trillium, a Scandinavian restaurant, last month. And Leinonen appreciates chefs, particularly Escoffier. "Le Guide Culinaire was the first book I read when I decided to take my culinary career seriously," he says. "Even if you've read it before, read it again, because it humbles you. Here's this chef, in the late nineteenth and twentieth century, cooking amazing things -- and thinking up amazing things -- without any of the modern conveniences that we have today.... He was the inspiration for every stellar chef today like Thomas Keller and Ferran Adrià, and should be a big part of every chef's inspiration."

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Pizzeria Basta, our Best of Denver winner in 2011. Who will win this year?

​Cafe Society is off celebrating Martin Luther King Day, and will be back on duty early tomorrow. If you're hungry for food news in the meantime, try a second helping of some of these entrees from last week:

-- Denver Restaurant Week is less than six weeks away, and the $52.80 menus that will be served at 300 restaurants in the metro area starting February 25 will be posted on Friday. In the meantime, we're collecting DRW tips from diners and restaurant workers alike -- and the author of the best idea in each division will win $52.80. Read the current list of Denver Restaurant Week advice and post your own here.

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​Denver International Airport has always been sadly lacking a real taste of Colorado cuisine (witness the cup of Nobel Sysco green chile I downed on Concourse A last Friday). And that makes the presentation before Denver City Council's Business, Workforce and Sustainability Committee yesterday particularly heartening: Seven new vendors have applied to join the 140 already at DIA, including several local restaurants -- Elway's among them.

The committee voted unanimously to send the agreements to the full council and Mayor Michael B. Hancock for final approval this month.

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​Union Station was once a bustling spot, but as fewer people decided to "travel by train," as its neon sign advises, more and more businesses pulled out of the station. By the early '80s, the only refreshment options were a soda fountain in the lobby, the classic Caboose Lounge and, for two glorious years, the Union Station Restaurant, a Cajun/Creole place run by Sarah and Bill Morgan, who also managed the bar and a sparkly space behind the Caboose, the site of some legendary parties. But when the restaurant closed, the Caboose derailed and the party space was turned into sober offices.

In the early '90s, as the construction of Coors Field brought a spate of new restaurants to LoDo and the future Ballpark neighborhood, some of that enthusiasm spilled into the wings of Union Station. On the side above 17th Street was Flat Pennies, followed by Walker's Sports Grill, A Bar and Citrus. On the other, there was T.G.I. Friday's, which was replaced by Redfish Seafood Kitchen, then Lotus. But that spot poured its last drink years ago, and any business ventures inside the station dried up entirely early this year, when the building was closed in anticipation of becoming the hub of a multi-modal system that is transforming the Platte Valley.

With the redevelopment of Union Station by the Union Station Alliance finally getting the green light, though, look for plenty of new spots to hop on board by the time the building reopens in 2014.

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​The late Christopher Hitchens was not only a great writer, he had a great appreciation for alcohol. And he got a lot of mileage from an incident that occurred in Aspen back in 1990.

Here's his account from a 1994 Vanity Fair:

"At a bar at the top of a ski lift at Aspen, Colorado, I was denied a gin and tonic because, 'at this altitude, it would be twice as strong.' Hot dog, bring it over."

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​Visit Denver just announced the people who will be inducted into the Tourism Hall of Fame at the thirteenth annual celebration set for March 14, 2012, and the list includes two key people from the Colorado drinking/dining scene: Great American Beer Festival president Charlie Papazian and Pete Meersman, president and CEO of the Colorado Restaurant Association.

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Ho ho ho: the wreath at Laughing Latte.

​The businesses of Lower Highland have been decking the halls -- or at least their doors -- for the holiday season, and the Laughing Latte, the coffee shop at 2001 West 32nd Avenue, just took top prize in the LoHi Merchant Wreath Contest with a wreath made of coffee filters.

But other area eateries got into the holiday spirit, too: Pasquini's, at 2400 West 32nd Avenue, took first runner-up with its wreath made of breadsticks (it's displayed on an interior wall, since its components don't hold up well in inclement weather), and Vita, at 1575 Boulder Street, rated an honorable mention for its more traditional wreath festooned with an ornamental tree...and a beer. The decorations will stay up through the holidays in the area we named the "Best Restaurant Neighborhood" in the Best of Denver 2011.

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Locanda del Borgo

​Inspired by her visit to Mama Sannino's, Laura Shunk served up a list of Denver's five best neighborhood Italian restaurants. Which inspired fond memories of Fratelli's and Valente's from some readers, as well as a slap from another for skipping Cafe Jordano.

And then there was this rave from Barslinger for Locanda del Borgo, which did make the cut:

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