There's more to Denver food culture than the Denver omelet. The city is home to some of the country's best Mexican food, microbreweries galore, and a handful of fast-casual chains (cough, Chipotle) got their start here. While Denverites have jumped on board many of the popular national trends like gastropubs, noodle bars, and using more locally sourced ingredients, they've also held onto some uniquely Denver foodisms. Fast-Casual Chipotle. [Flickr: LinksmanJD] Denver is kind of the motherland of fast-casual food concepts. Chipotle started here, and the burrito chain continues to expand and challenge the idea of "fast-food," installing solar panels and sourcing sustainably-raised beef and vegetables from farmers. Bacon cheeseburger with barbecue sauce from Smashburger. [Flickr: paulswansen] Smashburger is another Colorado...
Continue reading »
Grand Junction Free Press Straight from Colorado comes a cookie with a bang. The Grand Junction Free Press was first to hip us onto these 9-mm-shaped sugar cookie made by Mary Lincoln, owner of the Slice O' Life Bakery in Palisade. Though Lincoln informed me I was behind the times and she was doing turkey-shaped cookies when I called her earlier this week, she promised that next week the guns would be loaded with butter and sugar and ready to go for $2 a pop. Signs in Lincoln's store read, "No background checks" and “No waiting period." While Lincoln shaped a piece of cardboard to make her cookie cutter, we found an actual cookie cutter for sale ($12.95, from...
Continue reading »
Last weekend, a couple in Platteville, Colorado, opened up their farm to anyone who wanted free vegetable remnants from the harvest. 40,000 people showed up....
Continue reading »
The chef's table—where you sit in or very near the kitchen to get a bird's eye view of the proceedings while a special meal is cooked for you—is a concept many serious food lovers find appealing. ForbesTraveler.com gives its list of the nine best examples in the U.S....
Continue reading »
After two days of nonstop eating, drinking, and food-schmoozing in Aspen, Colorado, I have to say that the 25th annual Food & Wine Classic (it's been around as long as my wife and I have been married) is the ultimate serious eater's hang. My wife said it best: "The Food & Wine classic is the Sundance of food."...
Continue reading »
According to Ellen Sweets of the Denver Post, Colorado's lamb is a culinary star—the best lamb you can find anywhere. Pat Donahue of Memphis's Rendezvous, which serves barbecued lamb ribs, agrees; he says, "the flavor and texture are so much better than anything else we could find. No matter how you cook a piece of meat, the quality of the meat itself is where you start. We had to take lamb ribs off the menu for a while because we couldn't get Colorado lamb, but our customers had a fit, so we found someone who could deliver them and (the ribs) are back." But why is it so good? "From a culinary standpoint, local lamb is important because we...
Continue reading »
From PRNewswire.com: Denver area pizza lovers have a 'hole' lot [Groan —Ed.] to be excited about as Einstein Bros. Bagels cooks up new pizza bagels for its hometown customers.... Einstein Bros. is now offering five Pizza Bagel flavors in 28 Front Range restaurants. When I was a kid, my sister (who was around 7 at the time) came up with this idea—using Lender's frozen bagels, some Chef Boyardee pizza sauce, and whatever mozzarella we had on hand. She submitted the idea to a local TV station's "create an afterschool snack" contest. And never heard from the station. Hey, I thought it was a great idea at the time. These days, you couldn't get me near a hybrid pizza bagel. It...
Continue reading »
