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 Denverians have jumped on board many of the popular national trends like gastropubs, noodle bars, and local-souring, 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 chain that has spread...
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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...
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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....
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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....
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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."...
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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...
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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...
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