Denver Food Blog

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They may all be independent restaurants, but the members of the Denver Independent Network of Restaurants know how to work together. Close to fifty of them have joined to create DINR decks, which could be just the thing to stuff a food-lover's stocking this Christmas. Every deck holds 52 cards, each offering $10 off a food order of $25 or more at a local restaurant - with a couple of jokers thrown in that explain DINR and this new program.

"Since the inception of DINR, we've been trying to figure out a gift-card program," explains David Zahradnik, the founding president of DINR who's also the GM of Steuben's, one of its members. But since the member restaurants were independent, it wasn't easy - few of them use the same accounting system, and some don't even use computers. The solution was the DINR deck, "a great stepping stone to a full-on gift card."

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​Tomorrow night, Mayor John Hickenlooper will give Anthony Bourdain a fork to the city when he introduces the travelin' man at "An Evening with Anthony Bourdain" at the Buell Theatre. Of course, Bourdain has already forked this city: After visiting Denver on a book tour in 2002, he said he saw no reason to return, because the food here was so bad.

That inspired our first ticket giveaway contest, in which we asked readers to list the three restaurants that Bourdain should visit, restaurants guaranteed to change his mind about the Denver food scene. Nathan won that round (with Ian a runner-up), but taken together, the collected answers create an excellent guide to dining in Denver, as you can see here.

Yesterday, when we got our greedy bhands on two more sets of tickets, we introduced a second giveaway, which involves putting a caption to the picture at right. We're accepting entries on that until noon today (the winner will be announced at the end of the day). And you won't want to miss the entries thus far, which you can read here -- where you can also enter the contest.

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Although Nathan and Ian are the technical victors in our Tony Bourdain ticket giveaway, the real winners are diners in Denver, because the contest entries posted by readers serve as a terrific cheat sheet for the very best places to eat in town (and proof that Denver did not deserve Bourdain's earlier derision).

And because you came up with such great answers to that question -- which asked you to list the three places Bourdain should visit while in Denver -- we have another one. We've managed to snag another set of tickets to the Anthony Bourdain appearance at the Buell Theatre Wednesday night: How should we give them away?

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The last time Anthony Bourdain came to Denver, on a book tour in 2002, he wasn't impressed with the town -- and said so. So he'll have a lot to answer for during his Q&A at the Buell Theatre next Wednesday night.

Helping to grill Bourdain:: Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, the geologist turned restaurateur turned politician who'll introduce the author.

Hick will no doubt give Bourdain a taste of what this city has to offer. For more ideas, see these suggestions from our readers who entered a contest to win tickets to see Bourdain. The winner of that contest will be announced later today.

​Anthony Bourdain wasn't impressed with Denver when he came through town in 2002, touting A Cook's Tour. He'll be back for a talk at the Buell Theatre on November 18, and we've got a pair of tickets that we're giving to the reader who comes up with the best three-stop culinary itinerary for Bourdain, one guaranteed to make him eat his words.

We've already received more than forty submissions, which you can read here -- and then post your own answer in the comments section. Deadline for entering the contest: 5 p.m. today.

We'll announce the winner tomorrow.

​Ten years ago this month Westword left LoDo -- where the paper had been housed, in an assortment of offices, for more than twenty years, since long before lower downtown even had a hip nickname. Moving to the edge of the Golden Triangle, we found the space and parking we needed -- but we left behind the watering holes where we'd conducted so much of our business. The Wazee Lounge & Supper Club. My Brother's Bar. McCormick's. And the Wynkoop Brewing Co., where we first became acquainted with bespectacled geologist-turned-brewer John Hickenlooper.

When we left the neighborhood to move to 969 Broadway, Hickenlooper promised to open a bar in the area. Instead, he became mayor of Denver. Fortunately, others stepped in to fill the void.

We've poured out a lot of conversation and cash at 846 Broadway, a space that housed the legendary Parlour when Westword first started, but has gone through a string of different identities over the past decade. Last November, it turned into the Fainting Goat -- and tonight, the day before the bar's official first birthday, we're going to celebrate its survival.

Join the scribes of Cafe Society from 5 to 7 p.m. today at the Goat, where we'll be toasting our go-to bar -- and you, the readers of this blog. In the meantime, keep those comments coming.

​The nights get quiet in Northfield Stapleton. Driving along 29th Avenue Sunday night, I spotted a hardy crew in the Berkshire, one of the only homegrown spots in the neighborhood, but the chains surrounding that restaurant, and to the north in Northfield, were just about empty.

But the area should be much livelier on Friday, when the Twisted Olive finally holds its grand-opening -- after a month-long delay -- at 8270 East Northfield Boulevard.

And the Twisted Olive is no twist on the nearby Olive Garden.

The Lowenstein could soon gain a tenant.

​The Tavern Hospitality Group is ready to take over the space in the Lowenstein project at 2510 East Colfax Avenue that was previously occupied by Neighborhood Flix, where it plans to open an event center (think the Soiled Dove in Lowry) and a Tavern (think Wash Park, Uptown, etc). But first, it will take on opponents in the Congress Park neighborhood.

Congress Park Neighbors will be meeting at 7 p.m. today to discuss the Tavern's application to switch the former Flix liquor license to an all-ages, dance cabaret license. And yes, that's during the Broncos game -- but the opponents published their game plan more than a month ago at www.nodancecabaret.com, where its garnered precisely five comments. and since the site appeared, THG's Frank Schultz has amended his application with the city to reduce capacity far below his early guestimate of 790; current plans call for an events center that would hold a maximum of 450.

Other neighborhood groups, who met with Schultz back in September, are looking at the THG plan a great deal more favorably -- as are the tenants inside the Lowenstein, who are eager for the customers that the project could bring to the project.

The city's liquor license hearing is set for 6 p.m. Monday, November 23 at the Wellington E. Webb Building.

​We were at Table 6 last night, at a Samuel Adams beer dinner, testing the Winter Lager, the Holiday Porter, the new Samuel Adams Barrel Aged Collection of three special brews that will only be offered in select cities, including Denver.

We were testing all kinds of beer, with one notable exception.

"Who'll be the first to brew marijuana beer?" asked one diner from Boulder, whose planning board was contemplating a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries even as we spooned into the pork belly confit in white pear soup (and whoever came up with that combo had to be high).

A fast google came up with a partial answer: Plenty of people are already home-brewing beer with dope, and there are many, many recipes available online -- including this Cannabis beer from the Garden's Cure.

So it won't be long before some dispensary decides to combine two of Colorado's favorite recreational activities, which go together better than chocolate and peanut butter. But where will it be?

We're betting on Boulder, since after two hours of debate last night, the planning board decided to suggest only the loosest of regulations on dispensaries.

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How do you know you're in a classic dive? It helps if the owner stands up and welcomes you to his place -- the place he's had for 58 years, and bought before he was old enough to own it legally.

Jerry Feld bought the bar at 404 Broadway back in 1951, and he's run Club 404 ever since -- even though, as he told the crowd assembled for the launch of Drew Bixby's Denver's Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the Mile High City, he initially thought he'd sell it for big bucks after a few years. Instead, it remains a family operation that's supported four children and now six grandchildren, and Jerry and his wife continue to come in every day to work the place and greet the regulars.

​First, Hapa Sushi owner Mark Van Grack offered free orange undies to participants in last week's Naked Pumpkin Run, urging them to "Run Responsibly."

Now he's fired up an ad that includes a map of metro Denver with the four Hapa Sushi locations marked in red -- and 59 local medical marijuana dispensaries marked in blue. "We're just kind of saying, 'Look, these dispensaries exist and they're becoming part of our community, so let's welcome them in and have some fun,'" Van Grack told the New York Times for a story published today. "If you're going to smoke pot, you're going to get the munchies, so come to Hapa to eat."

​Happy birthday to Twelve, which brought fine dining to a less-than-fine location at 2233 Larimer Street last fall, but has survived that first tough year.

And tonight, chef/owner Jeff Osaka will celebrate his restaurant's first birthday by gifting diners with a complimentary glass of sparkling wine and an amuse-bouche to "toast the special evening." After that, diners are on their own, choosing from the new November menu (the board changes every month, giving the restaurant twelve menus a year -- and an explanation for its name). Entrees this round include Colorado striped bass with fennel, pearl onion and Manila clams in a saffron broth; butternut squash ravioli with pinenuts, spinach and sage-brown butter; and slow-braised beef shoulder "a la Coq au Vin."

Since this is Wednesday, there's also a $35 prix fixe dinner option, offered Tuesday-Thursday at Twelve.

A toast to Twelve, for staying the course and making that stretch of Larimer a much finer place.

The former Flix cafe could become a Tavern.

​ It's been a year since Neighborhood Flix, the ambitious movie theater/café in the Lowenstein project, pulled the plug -- but with any luck, the lights will soon be back on at 2510 East Colfax Avenue. That's because Frank Schultz, who runs Tavern Hospitality Group (owner of the Cowboy Lounge, the Soiled Dove and all those Taverns -- including LoDo, the one-year-old Wash Park, Uptown, Tech Center and Lowry), already has a contract with the bank doing the deal and a November 25 closing date on the property, which he plans to turn into an events center with a restaurant and patio.

But before that, Schultz has a November 23 liquor license hearing with the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses, where he'll request that the current license be extended to an all-ages cabaret license, which would allow for performances and private events. And before that, Schultz has a Capitol Hill neighborhood meeting on November 19, and a South City Park meeting on November 18. And then there's the November 9 date with neighbors in Congress Park, who've been posting signs protesting the project.

​Hapa Sushi takes public -- and pubic -- service seriously. Stop by the popular sushi bar at 1117 Pearl Street in Boulder to pick up your free pair of orange underpants -- briefs or thongs, featuring the Hapa logo and the words "Run Responsibly" -- and you'll be covered against any possible legal action that the prudey-pants City of Boulder decides to take against participants in tomorrow's Naked Pumpkin run.

Last year, a dozen runners -- naked but for the pumpkins on their heads -- were ticketed for indecent exposure, and ran the risk of being labeled sex offenders. And while those charges were dropped after a hefty amount of lawyering, Boulder officials have said they'll step up enforcement at all public Halloween events this year.

We salute Hapa owner Mark Van Grack, who clearly knows when to serve things raw -- and when to take cover.

​For sunny days, Argyll Gastropub, at 2700 East Third Avenue, has a great patio. On snowy days, it has the "Snow Days Deal." At any time when it's snowing, Argyll will sell you a 20-ounce Imperial Pint of Murphy's Stout for half price -- 50 percent off the usual $5.25.

That's handy news for today. And mark your calendar: Robert Thompson's six-month-old Cherry Creek restaurant, which already serves weekend brunch and dinner seven nights a week, will be opening for lunch on Monday, November 9.

​Cherry Creek was slow last night, without the usual crowds at Little Ollie's and Houston's. But just down the street at 201 Columbine Street, in the former home of Jim Sullivan's Ocean (and Mao before that), there are signs of life: The sign is up announcing that Earls is on its way.

And if this Earls build-out is completed as quickly as the interior of Houston's was finished off this past spring at 303 Josephine Street, look for this third Denver link in the Canadian-based chain to be open -- and packing in the Creekers -- before the holidays.

The other two metro Earls are located on the 16th Street Mall, where the upstairs windows offer great people-watching, and down in Park Meadows.

​KJ's Coffee Bar, the Whittier neighborhood watering hole at 1710 East 25th Avenue that Kenny and Kristin Johnson opened last year, adds music to the mix tonight, when DJ LHD and friends start spinning at 7 p.m. But don't come to KJ's empty-handed: It's running a food drive to benefit Food Bank of the Rockies, and accepting non-perishable food items as donations through November 14.

KJ's plans to offer music every Friday from here on out; it's looking for musicians and bands to add to the line-up. To offer up your talents, e-mail kjscoffeebar@hotmail.com.

Nancy Levine

Roberto Solis's deer with ashes sauce

​ Outside, the temperature was dropping -- but inside Lola, we might as well have been on a beach in Mexico. That's because chef Jamey Fader and guest chef Roberto Solis were hosting a Yucatan dinner, full of the tastes of that region

Solis's liquid codzito

​. "We're all just chefs," Fader said as he introduced Solis, owner of Nectar in Merida -- but not every chef will garnish sweetbreads with fish scales, as Solis did. (Lola didn't have the equipment he needed to make the promised "beer fluid gel," though.

Or follow Fader's amuse of "spicy cucumber water" -- essentially a bay scallop ceviche -- with a liquid codzito appetizer, with tomato jelly and a tortilla mousse that looked like melted ice cream and tasted like a fried pork rind milkshake.

Jamey Fader, your host at Lola

​I was at Lola, 1575 Boulder Street, twice on Sunday -- for brunch (the chicken-fried pork special) and dinner (the Sunday paella special). And you'd think I might have had my fill of Lola for a while -- but you'd be wrong.

Because tonight, Lola is hosting a Yucatan Dinner, at which chef Jamey Fader will be backed by special guest chef Roberto Solis. The $45 dinner (not including tax or tip) starts at 6:30 p.m., and includes....

​Aurora was slated to get its very own Smashburger on Wednesday, October 21, but the opening of the store at 2630 South Parker Road has been delayed -- "a permitting issue that the landlord is working through," according to Julie Noyes, spokeswoman for the homegrown chain.

When the Aurora outlet does open, it will be the ninth in the Denver area. Three more -- including a downtown Denver location -- are on tap for 2010. And in the meantime, Smashburger continues its march toward worldwide domination, with smashing gear (right) offered on the company website and a dozen states now serving the Colorado-born burger, with more signing up every day.

​Even as the area north of downtown gentrifies, certain problematic pockets remain. The area around 22nd and Arapahoe streets, for example, where the manager of the brand-new (and beautiful) Lobby American Grille, located in the space in the historic Paris Hotel at 2191 Arapahoe Street that was once occupied by La Coupole, was beaten earlier this week during an altercation near the restaurant.

That's near the restaurant, not at the restaurant.

The owners of the Lobby are also the folks behind the Whiskey Bar, at 2203 Larimer Street, so they know the challenges of emerging neighborhoods. And they also know that, if you leave the more downtrodden denizens alone, they'll probably leave you alone.

And if you challenge them during a smoke break off the property, back by the alley, as the Lobby manager and a bartender did Tuesday night, you might get roughed up.

CY Steak has its own entrance next to the Diamond Cabaret.

​Cliff Young, whose eponymously named restaurant transformed the Denver dining scene, is back in business at the Diamond Cabaret, where his CY Steak opened this week at 1222 Glenarm Place. It was a soft opening -- in a room full of hard bodies.

While strip clubs across the country are dumping down their offerings -- "catering to a thriftier clientele," according to a recent Wall Street Journal piece -- VCG Holding Corp., the Denver-based company that owns clubs across the country, including the Diamond, is taking a different tack. "There are not changes contemplated in our company," VCG's Troy Lowrie said when I asked about the Journal piece. "That article lumped our name with a competitor's comments." And true, it's impossible to imagine Lowrie doing what that competitor, Rick's Cabaret International, has done with one of its Dallas clubs: turned it into an "all-nude, bring-own-beer venue."

Instead, Cliff Young is bringing sophisticated French fare to the restaurant at the Diamond, where he's redesigned both the dining room and the menu. And entertainment opportunities, since girls will be coming in after 8:30 p.m. -- in the very best French tradition, he promises.

(For a look at the steakhouse as it was more than a decade ago, read Kyle Wagner's review here.)

​In an industry when a restaurant reaching its first birthday is considered noteworthy, the run of the Brook Forest Inn is nothing short of remarkable.

Edwin and Marie Welz, immigrants who arrived in this country in 1910 and took over a homestead near Evergreen, worked on transforming the place into a hotel, and in 1919 opened the Brook Forest Inn. The mountain getaway that became legendary across the country, hosting such guests as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Mrs. Margaret Brown (The Unsinkable Molly) and Liberace. After Edwin died, Marie sold the 350-acre property in 1956, and pieces were chopped off in the decades that followed. In 1996, Rubel and Betty Atencio bought the parcel that included the inn. A failed sale and two restorations later, the Atencios's daughter and her husband are running the Brook Forest Inn, now returned to its early grandeur and just added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The family will be celebrating that and the building's hundredth anniversary on Saturday, October 17, with a dinner featuring a menu that Edwin Welz originally served in the '30s. And on Sunday, the inn will host a brunch for those who've donated historic artifacts -- or have their own historic ties to the Brook Forest Inn.

Although the one-time mountain getaway is now just a quick drive from downtown Denver, it's also a fast trip back to the past. Find out more about the Centennial Celebration at www.thebrookforestinn.com.

​Hospoda, the restaurant that billed itself as "friendly beer house," has closed after a good effort in a bad location, at 3763 Wynkoop Street (right off Brighton Boulevard), the former home of the Wynkoop Grill. Jason Sheehan loved Hospoda it when I dragged him there -- the ambience was a crazy mix of West (cowhide bar stools) meets Eastern European fare, and you could order a side of green chile with your potato pancakes.

The place is now locked up tight, although a sign in the window notes that you can book it for private parties.

​"Olives date back to before the invention of the written language," notes the web page for the Twisted Olive. "We're here to add a new chapter in Olive history, a fun and tasteful one. It starts with redefining and twisting the Olive's role in entertainment, cuisine, nightlife and most importantly...you!"

That's an ambitious agenda, but then, it won't take much to offer a twist on nightlife in Northfield Stapleton -- because there really isn't one. Twisted Olive, which will open this month (if there are no more construction delays) at 8270 East Northfield Boulevard, bills itself as an "ultra lounge" with a full service bar (72 specialty cocktails) and Mediterranean fare by executive chef Tom Willis, aka Cat Daddy. He's also promising artists and disc jockeys performing on "a world-class stage," as well as olive oil tastings and cooking classes.

Dinner will be served nightly Tuesday-Sunday, with brunch Saturday and Sunday; the official grand opening (private) party had been slated for Thursday, October 15, but is now postponed. For more information, call 303-375-8100.

Club 404, one of Denver's top-ten dives.

​What's your favorite dive bar in Denver? Drew Bixby, our Drunk of the Week columnist, features nearly a hundred great lounges, taverns and saloons in his book Denver's Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the Mile-High City, due out November 3. But while Bixby includes a list of the city's ten best dives, he doesn't pick a favorite.

That's up to you!

Post your nomination for the very best dive bar in the metro area below, and we'll count the votes and reveal the winner in a few weeks. In the meantime, watch for our dive bar essay contest next week; prizes include a copy of Bixby's book and a chance to read at a weekend's worth of release events in November.

​The Tilted Kilt has been called a Celtic Hooters -- a label that its Arizona-based owners don't appreciate, we hear. They prefer "The Best Looking Sports Pub You've Ever Seen," the slogan on the web site. A sports pub with waitresses who wear naughty school-girl skirts.

There are already 22 Tilted Kilts around the country; one just opened in Birmingham, Alabama, and locations are in the pipeline for Atlanta, Orlando and Denver, among other cities. Our Tilted Kilt is taking over the space in the Tabor Center left vacant by the departure of ESPN Zone -- coincidentally, right around the corner from the first Hooters location in town (where the Palm is today).

Fans of kilts can head to the Wellington E. Webb building at 9 a.m. today, to voice their support at the Tilted Kilt liquor-license hearing. Or they can just wait until October 19, when the 2010 Kilt Girl Calendar will become available.