Denver Food Blog

Shauna Ahern

​One in eight Coloradoans will struggle to put food on the table this holiday season, and 99 percent of food banks in the state have reported an enormous surge in the need for emergency assistance.

Kudos, then, to the Colorado Egg Producers, whose Good Egg Project is lending a helping hand to Food Bank of the Rockies and the Weld Food Bank. This Saturday, November 21, the CEP will donate over 100,000 eggs to people scheduled to receive USDA food boxes at both food banks. Howard Helmer, the Guinness World Record Books' fastest omelet maker ever, will also be teaching omelet workshops to those interested in learning how easy omelet cooking can be. And homeboy knows what he's talking about: He made 427 omelets in thirty minutes to claim his record.

​Time to toast a dozen students at the University of Denver School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Management, who have organized the first-ever DU Vin Festival Grand Tasting.

The Grand Tasting runs from 2 to 6 p.m. today, in the HRTM Building at 2044 East Evans on the DU campus. Tickets are a deal at $52.80, since the proceeds go to a scholarship program. For more information, click here -- or just head to DU at 2 p.m.

​Tonight, the Colorado Chapter of the March of Dimes will host its annual Signature Chefs Auction at 6 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Denver, 650 15th Street.

Tickets to the event are $150 per person and include small plates from many of Denver's top chefs, as well as live music and an auction that includes some terrific food-related items: a wine dinner at Barolo Grill with seven friends; an afternoon of cooking classes at Root Down; a chef's table for six at Lola; a chef's table for eight at Elway's Cherry Creek; and a three-hour cooking class with Panzano chef Elise Wiggins.

Featured chefs include Daniel Asher--Root Down; Brandon Biederman--Steuben's Food Service; Jacob Conover--Pizza Republica; Andrea Frizzi--Il Posto; Dan Grunwald--NoRTH; Jose Guerrero--XO Noodle Bar; Kathleen Kenny-Davia and Brad High--Gateaux Bakery; Wade Kirwan--Vesta Dipping Grill; Sheila Lucero--Jax Fish House; Kevin Marquet--the 9th Door; Matt Mine--Oceanaire Seafood Room; Cynthia Motta--Altitude; Joseph Ramirez--McCormick's Fish House & Bar; Marco Ramirez--The Palm; James Rugile--Venue; Enrique Socarras--Cuba Cuba; Duane Walker--Lola; Micah Watkins--Black Pearl; Paul Reilly--Encore; and Tyler Wiard--Elway's Cherry Creek.

For tickets, click marchofdimes.com/colorado or call 303-692-0011.

​There won't be food at the Empty Bowls Project open house rescheduled (because of snow) for Monday, November 2, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. But you won't come away empty-handed.

That's because students from Betty Adams Elementary, Lukas Elementary, Meiklejohn Elementary, Ryan Elementary, Semper Elementary, Sheridan Green Elementary, Witt Elementary, Lincoln Academy Charter School, Mandalay Middle, Wayne Carle Middle and Standley Lake High have created clay bowls that will be sold at the open house, for a suggested donation of $10 per bowl.

All proceeds will go to the Arvada Community Food Bank; last year, the Empty Bowls Project poured more than $2,000 into that charity.

The open house is set for Standley Lake High School, 9300 West 104th Avenue in Westminster; for more on the food bank, click here.

​Westword staffers who grew up in the northern 'burbs are great fans of Great Scotts Eatery, the red-and-white-striped, '50s-style diner at 7510 Highway 287 in Broomfield.

They speak fondly of the burgers, the fries, the shakes. And today, Great Scotts was supposed to be serving up its good food for a good cause: CASA, the Adams County/Broomfield non-profit that supplies court-appointed special advocates for children. The benefit has been cancelled because of snow -- but Great Scotts is still serving.

For more information, call 303-654-3378.

​Bluepoint Bakery is donating more than 3,000 pies to Project Angel Heart next month -- and with every $25 pie the non-profit sells, it will be able to deliver five more meals to a client battling a life-threatening illness.

You can order pies -- cherry, apple, pecan and pumpkin -- from now through November 15 through Project Angel Heart; the pies will be available for pick-up on Tuesday, November 24 at the Project Angel Heart office or Sunflower Farmers Market locations in the area.

Although proceeds from this Pie in the Sky campaign all go to Project Angel Heart, everyone in metro Denver will benefit from it. Especially if you get a piece of pie.

Bananas kick off the Gorilla Run.

​Halloween is always a big day at the Wynkoop Brewing Co., because the pub celebrates its birthday that day (it's 21 years old this year) and because of the annual Denver Gorilla Run, a 5.6K race in which everyone dresses up as a gorilla and raises money to support the Denver-based Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund.

But this year's celebration will have a couple of added benefits.

​For the next two months, if you drop off a new or gently worn winter coat at either of Gunther Mueller's Abo's NY Pizza locations -- in Centennial at 7475 East Arapahoe Road, and in Littleton at 8440 Kipling Parkway -- you'll get a free slice of cheese pizza as thanks.

"I want to give back to the community that has been loyal to me during the last several years," says Mueller, who bought his first Abo's franchise eight years ago (the original Abo's, and the corporate office is in Boulder). "We are a locally-owned pizzeria, and what happens in Colorado is important to us."

And so is free pizza. The do-good deal runs through November 30.

​Jax Boulder exec chef and Top Chef New York winner Hosea Rosenberg isn't hanging out a whole lot in the People's Republic of Boulder these days.

His Facebook page says he's "heading into San Fran to find the city's best Bloody Mary," but presumably he'll accomplish that goal before 6:30 p.m. tonight, because that's the first seating (a second is scheduled for 8 p.m.) of the Colorado harvest dinner at Jax, which Rosenberg is hosting.

The five-course menu features local harvest from a cornucopia of farms, including Red Wagon Farms heirloom and watermelon salad with Haystack queso de mano; rainbow trout with corn macque chous from Munson Farms; baby striped bass with smoked pork belly, Red Wagon greens and Ela Farms peaches; lamb loin with Haystack gnudi, Hazen Dell mushrooms and fresh rosemary; and warm bittersweet chocolate cake with stewed cherries and mint chip gelato.

The dinner, which also includes ten specialty beers from Avery Brewing, is $85 per person, excluding tax and gratuity. Reservations are highly suggested; call 303-444-1811 to get an autograph hold your seat.

​From 6 to 8 p.m. tonight, you can join honorary hosts Mayor John Hickenlooper and his wife, Helen Thorpe, at the D & F Tower, 1601 Arapahoe Street, for the Platteforum wine and tequila event to benefit ArtLab, an after school youth development program for high school students. The benefit, which includes Mexican grub from Mezcal and Tambien, dessert from Little Man Ice Cream and plenty of wine and tequila, is $100 per person (suggested donation); to make reservations, call 303-893-0791.

​Today, at 11 a.m. at the Safeway located at 2150 South Downing, nearly a dozen local farmers from across Colorado will join the state's Agriculture Commissioner to encourage consumers to buy local produce and boost Colorado's economy. As part of "Colorado Proud" month, the growers will sample their locally grown produce and talk to consumers about the importance and freshness of buying Colorado fruits and vegetables. Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp will kick off the program with an outlook of Colorado's growing season, and local farmer Robert Sakata will talk about the 2009 crops and the impact of Colorado's unpredictable weather this year.

"Our carbon footprint is reduced when we buy locally and all of our dollars stay in this area making all of our jobs and resources sustainable," says Jamey Fader, corporate chef for Big Red F, the local restaurant group that operates Jax Boulder and Denver, Lola, West End Tavern and Centro.

For more about Colorado growers, check out Joel Warner's "Urbavore's Dilemma" web series.

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Sometimes hitting a ball with a stick is just hitting a ball with a stick; sometimes it is more. On Sunday, August 23, the Lake Valley Golf Club (located at 4400 Lake Valley Drive in Longmont) is hosting the Danan Schufman Open, a benefit for The Danan Schufman Fund.

Schufman was a practicing professional in Boulder (he was working at Frasca when he passed away), and those closest to him decided to create a fund dedicated to furthering culinary and oenological studies in his honor.

"We want to support future mavericks of the industry," reads the mission statement on the website, "to try to help someone along the way we think Danan would have; and to hopefully bolster the hospitality industry a little bit, because the clogs that he left to fill are huge."

This will be the third year of the charity golf event, which is still accepting golfers. It's $150 per person; $600 per team, and you can sign up here. The shotgun start is at 1 p.m., there will be a lot more than golfing going on.

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Many restaurants will be offering specials tonight to coincide with First Friday, and the Infinite Monkey Theorem winery, at the edge of the Santa Fe Arts District at Fifth and Santa Fe, is even hosting a wine-tasting at 5 p.m. with light bites from Masterpiece Delicatessen. For info, call 970-260-0710 or go to www.theinfinitemonkeytheorem.com.

From 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, August 8, WEN Chocolates, 1541 Platte Street, the crack house for chocoholics, is hosting a book-signing with Mollie Cox Bryan, whose recently released cookbook, Mrs. Rowe's Southern Pies, includes recipes tested by WEN sous chef Kate Antea. There will be pie samples, of course, many of which will no doubt feature chocolate; for more info, call 720-891-4622.

After you've gotten your chocolate fix on Saturday, you can head to Memorial Park in Woodland Park for the mountain town's annual Jazz, Food and Wine Festival, which combines local music, Colorado wines and bites from area restaurants for $20 per person. Go to www.vinoandnotes.com for additional information.

​And if that weren't enough excitement for one weekend, there's also the Craft Lager Festival, which goes from 1 to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at Memorial Park in downtown Manitou Springs. Aside from being America's first solar-powered beer gathering, the suds fest will showcase craft brews from more than twenty states, including, of course, Colorado. Tickets start at $35 each and all proceeds go toward the greening of Manitou and Colorado Springs. Drink a beer, save a tree!

Lori Midson

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Tonight, from 6 to 10 p.m., TAG, Troy Guard's jet-setting Larimer Square storefront at 1441 Larimer Street, is hosting a benefit for the Love Hope Strength Foundation, an international cancer charity that provides support for cancer centers. The three-course dinner, which doesn't include tax, gratuity or libations (although the TAG mixologists are planning to pour a new cocktail for the cause, with 100 percent of sales going directly to Love Hope Strength), is $40 per person, and reservations are definitely recommended; call 303-996-9985 to book your seat.

Lori Midson

Caesar salad from Opus

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Last night I witnessed the Greatest Caesar Salad competition, an annual battle of the romaine hosted by the Colorado Chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food, that pitted seven local restaurants -- Squeaky Bean, Root Down, Campo de Fiori, Marco's Coal-Fired Pizza, Opus, Black Pearl and Izakaya Den -- against one another in a spirited duel to see which chef would walk away wearing the leafy crown.

A few hundred guests turned out to sample the salads and vote for their favorite, while three judges -- me, Penny Parker from the Denver Post and Pat Miller (Gabby Gourmet) -- cast our own ballots.

The final results?

The first day of the four-day Crested Butte Land Trust Food and Wine Festival uncorks today. And unlike some local food and wine festivals where our homegrown chefs are snubbed, the Crested Butte powwow, which includes wine seminars, wine walks, chef dinners, grand tastings and gourmet picnics, parades four of Denver's top culinary chiefs: Keegan Gerhard (D Bar Desserts); Troy Guard (TAG); Tyler Wiard (Elway's Cherry Creek); and Frank Bonanno (Mizuna, Luca D'Italia, Osteria Marco and Bones). Individual event tickets can be purchased at www.crestedbuttewine.com or by calling 303-809-0404.

Closer to home, Opus, Michael Long's Littleton restaurant at 2575 West Main Street, is hosting a "movie interpretation" wine pairing dinner at 6:30 p.m. The multi-course meal, a collection of film-inspired dishes from Ratatouille, Fried Green Tomatoes, Forrest Gump, Blues Brothers, Goodfellas and The Wizard of Oz -- is $79 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity. Reservations are recommended; call 303-703-6787 to get a front row seat.

Lori Midson

Honey smoked peach cocktail from TAG's Jared Boller

At last night's Taste of the Nation event at Mile High Station, nine Colorado mixologists muddled, shook, stirred, poured, begged, stole and offered bribes to the throngs of charitable party-goers who voted with dollar bills and tokens to determine which mixologist had whipped up the top cocktail.

The contenders -- Amanda Olig (Vesta Dipping Grill); Bryan Dayton (Frasca Food & Wine); Anika Zappe (Root Down); Randy Layman (Avenue Grill); Nate Windham (Blondie's, Colorado Springs); Jared Boller (TAG); Robert Leavy (The Broadmoor Hotel); Rachel Hendrix (Jonesy's EatBar); and Krista Rayne Spencer (Beatrice and Woodsley) -- were spurred on by host Sean Kenyon, the bar manager and mixology wizard at Steuben's, 523 East 17th Avenue.

Which concoctions came out on top? The three winning cocktails and their recipes follow after the jump.

Photo by Lori Midson

Sean Yontz and Matt Selby

One of Denver's best annual culinary celebrations comes down on Sunday, July 19, at Mile High Station (2027 West Lower Colfax Avenue), this site of this year's Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation, a fantastic food-centric event that raises funds to eradicate childhood hunger in Denver and across America.

Denver's top cookers -- Matt Selby (Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben's), Mark Dym (Marco's Coal-Fired Pizzeria), Sean Yontz (Mezcal), Keegan Gerhard (D Bar Desserts), Sean Huggard (Encore and Black Pearl), Troy Guard (TAG), Tyler Wiard (Elway's Cherry Creek), Scott Parker (Table 6), Jamey Fader (Lola), Goose Sorensen (Solera) and many, many more Denver chefs --- will hand out food samples, joining master mixologists, several Colorado-based breweries, wineries and distilleries in an effort to promote gluttony all in the name of charity. The event also includes a cocktail competition, silent auction and live entertainment.

One hundred percent of ticket sales will be divided among five local non-profits: Weld Food Bank, Food Bank of the Rockies, Colorado Anti-Hunger Network, Volunteers of America and Share Our Strength's Operation Frontline Denver. The event starts at 3 p.m. for VIP ticket holders ($100) and 4 p.m. for general admission ticket holders ($75). Get tickets and more info at www.denvertaste.org.

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, 191 Inverness Drive West in Englewood, is hosting its second summer Friday Night Flights fundraiser at 6 p.m. tonight to benefit the Excelsior Youth Center, a local non-profit.

The cow palace will serve a selection of appetizers paired with three wines for $25 per person, the proceeds of which will go directly to the charity. The event will be held on the patio (unless it pours rain, which it won't, at least according to perky weather spotter Kathy Sabine) and tickets are available at the door or by calling 303-768-0827.

See more of Lori Midson's photos at westword.com/slideshow.

While I didn't buy the shirt straight off the bartender's back at last night's feel-good Share Our Strength-Taste of the Nation fundraiser at Jonesy's EatBar, the rowdy (in all the good ways) gastropub at 400 East 20th Avenue, I did purchase a fresh-from-the-pile T-shirt, which was designed by local tattoo inker Josh Ford, who happens to be the guy that tats Matt Selby, exec chef at Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben's, and the chef chair for this year's Taste of the Nation event, which takes place this Sunday, July 19 at Mile High Station.

Last night's pre-party at Jonesy's was two solid hours of good, clean fun, of slamming shots, of sharing lamby Joe sliders and big bowls of ruffled fries and of watching the nonpulsed staff standing in a chorus line and lifting their Taste of the Nation T-shirts to bear their cleavage (which was ample) all in the name of a good cause.

If you missed all the hot action, do yourself a favor and buy a ticket to Sunday's main event. Aside from the more than 30 Denver restaurants that'll be there serving some amazing food, there's also a mixology competition emceed by Sean Kenyon, the master mixologist at Steuben's and a fantastic silent action where one incredibly lucky SOB is going to walk away with a Food Network package, inclusive of six round trip tickets to New York City, lunch in the Food Network kitchen and a behind-the-scenes tour of the Food Network empire. "Having chef Selby on board has really put the oomph back into this event, and it's going to be one of the funnest parties of the year," says Leigh Jones, owner of Jonesy's. To partake in all that fun, go to www.denvertaste.org for tickets.

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, 191 Inverness Drive West, is kicking off its series of summer fundraisers, named Friday Night Flights, at 6 p.m. tonight, when the testosterone-charged meatery rolls out a selection of appetizers paired with three wines for $25 per person, the proceeds of which will benefit the Gathering Place, a local non-profit. Tickets are available at the door or by calling 303-768-0827.

On Saturday, July 11, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Marczyk Fine Foods, the gourmet food market and wine shop at 770 East 17th Avenue, is hosting the Great American Bake Sale, a nationwide community event to benefit Share our Strength, a non-profit dedicated to eradicating childhood hunger in America. The sugar frenzy includes housemade cookies, cakes and pies from the women organizing the bake sale, plus a few treats from Marczyk, but it's cash only, so bring a wad of bills.

July, as if you didn't already know, is National Hot Dog Month (RIP Oscar G Mayer), and Steve's Snappin' Dogs, 3525 East Colfax Avenue, is doggone excited about the fact that it's holding the Chow Down for Charity Hot Dog Eating Contest on Sunday, July 26, to benefit Project Angel Heart. But before then, on Saturday, July 11, Steve's is hosting a preliminary qualifying event from 1 - 3 p.m. If you think you've got what it takes to down dogs faster than, well, the next wiener, then go to www.stevessnappindogs.com to register. Keep in mind that only the top seven qualifiers will advance to the finals, where the grand prize is a $300 gift certificate to Sam's Club...so you can buy more hot dogs.

The scene from last year's Chow Down for Charity hot dog eating contest.

Who do you think can eat more hot dogs in a short period of time: the chefs and volunteers from Project Angel Heart, which feeds over 800 meals to sick and housebound patients every day, or the Glendale Raptors rugby team?

Project Angel Heart Executive Chef Jon Emanuel wasn't too optimistic about his side's chances. When Lakeasha Jones, the group's community relations coordinator told him they'd be eating against the Raptors, his immediate thought was, "We're going to get killed."

Get a taste of history when the Original Snoball Shack parks outside the Black American West Museum at 3091 California Street from11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The New Orleans-based franchise will be serving up a hundred flavors from its Snoball tent, and all for the benefit of the museum. For more info, contact the museum or call 303-482-2242.

One of the best food events of the year, Plates for the Peak, a small plates fundraiser and silent auction to benefit Urban Peak, a non-profit that saves kids from the jaws of homelessness, returns for a sixth year to Vesta Dipping Grill, 1822 Blake Street, tonight from 6 to 10 p.m.

The star-studded cast includes some of Denver's best chefs, including Vesta exec Matt Selby, Jamey Fader (Lola); Tyler Wiard (Elway's); James Rugile (Venue); Keegan Gerhard (D Bar Desserts); Goose Sorensen (Solera); Troy Guard (TAG) and Sean Yontz (Mezcal, Tambien and Sketch).

Tickets are $65 per person, which includes food and cocktails, and can be purchased at www.urbanpeak.org/newsevents.html or at the door.

Lori Midson

All the rain in Spain couldn't have dampened the spirits at last night's Hot Rocks Griller Challenge at Elway's Cherry Creek (2500 East First Avenue), a benefit for the Denver Heath Foundation that brought together eleven Denver chefs, chaperoned by Denver Bronco cheerleaders, who coerced and sweet-talked patrons into "voting" for their mini burgers, or sliders, with different dollar value poker chips that were then added up at the end of the evening to determine which restaurant won the slider challenge.

Lori Midson

While reports of competitively friendly chip shenanigans -- chefs pilfering from each other's pots, other chefs molding cheese to resemble poker chips and putting them in their own pots -- surfaced, Candice Jones, special events coordinator at the Denver Health Foundation, was able to determine that Bistro Vendome and Rioja exec chef Jennifer Jasinski's sliders won by a shrimp. Which is perfectly appropriate because Jasinski actually served shrimp sliders on pâte à choux, which she paired with an insanely good black truffle fingerling potato salad.

The staff at Jonesy's EatBar and the Horseshoe Lounge are taking it all off (well, most of it, anyway ...), and we've got the pictures to prove it!  Check out the slideshow for pics from the 2009 pin-up calendar.  And when you're done with that, get down to Jonesy's at 400 East 20th Avenue (or the Horseshoe Lounge next door) and pick one up for yourself.  The calender goes for just $10 and a portion of the proceeds will benefit Metro Denver Partners.