File photo

Comedian Lewis Black ate well during his recent stop in Denver.

Comedian Lewis Black makes a great living out of living at a slow boil — or even a Vesuvian eruption — but during his recent gig in the Mile High City he apparently loved what he ate.

He even gave a Twitter shout-out to a handful of local restaurants, to wit:

“Well fed in Denver. Sam’s Number 3. Bistro Vendome. Russell’s Smokehouse. Market. All stupidly good for different reasons.”

Hooray for us — and the folks behind these establishments.

Black brought his World’s Angriest Man act — this one’s dubbed “The Rant is Due” tour — to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House on Jan. 18.

Guy Fieri filming his intro. (Kristen Browning-Blas/The Denver Post)

Before the crew fills the local joint with lights, microphones and cameras, TV food show producers find their locations by calling local writers and picking their brains until there’s nothing left. They make deals about allowing us on the set when the crew gets here. They ask us to sit on the information so that the celebrity host isn’t accosted by fans.

Guy Fieri getting miked. (Kristen Browning-Blas/The Denver Post)

We play along, trusting that we’ll have a good story as soon as the production wraps. That’s what happened when Bobby Flay shot here, same for Andrew Zimmern. But for some reason, The Food Network vetoed the invitation to meet Guy Fieri, the backwards-sunglass-wearing host of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” while they were shooting yesterday at the Denver Biscuit Company. “Closed set.” What a way to say thanks to the locals.
Read more…

Courtesy Aspen Chamber of Commerce

Mike Goldman, Jesse Wey and Tom Slanga hoist the much-coveted copper kettle after their spicy “jackalope” gumbo-style soup won at the 10th annual Soupskol in Aspen Jan. 11.

It’s hard to imagine that Aspen has room for more new restaurants, but many places were full during my visit over the 62nd annual Winterskol weekend (Jan. 10-13), and that was nothing compared to what it will be like for the X Games starting Thursday.

Still, more eateries are planned, such as the Square Grouper, a Cajun-focused spot that on May 10 will take over the space currently occupied by Elevation Restaurant and Bar (whose employees insist is moving to another location after it closes on March 31).

Square Grouper won the much-coveted copper kettle and bragging rights for a year at Soupskol, the soup-cooking contest that has been apart of Winterskol for ten years. Pretty impressive for an eatery that doesn’t even exist yet.

As one of the judges (dirty job, yes), I was impressed with the caliber of the soups. Fellow evaluator Susan Cross and I were tasked with slurping more than 20 entries during this event held outdoors in single-digit temperatures that Friday night, and hundreds of locals, as well as one rather inebriated Irishman looking for love, came out to judge, as well.

Read more…

Tag Burger Bar (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

Reader Fred Fisher took issue with my review of TAG Burger Bar Wednesday morning. I had a middling experience, but the service and most of the food was decent enough to give it 1 1/2 stars, which in the Post’s rating system means the restaurant, in total, was good to very good.

Fisher had a far less pleasant experience, to wit:

“I have to say that the review was way too kind for 1.5 stars. My wife and I just moved into the neighborhood and were pleasantly surprised to find what seemed like a nice place close by. We tried it about a week ago and made a vow almost as soon as our food was served that we would never go back. The burger was okay, the pickle was dried out and shriveled, the french fries were lukewarm and soggy, the music was too loud for conversation, and the whole deal was expensive. NO one is paying attention to quality at this place. The only strength was the nice young waitperson who did not have a clue about how bad the food really was– but was sweet. Food stinks and we will never go back or recommend it to anyone.”

My reply, in part:

Read more…

Gail Simmons (Photo by Huge Galdones)

When “Top Chef” judge Gail Simmons comes to Colorado Jan. 24-27, she plans to ski, cook and hang out with friends.

As one of the celebrity hosts of the second annual Beaver Creek Food & Wine Weekend, Simmons will join chefs John Besh, Alex Seidel and Spike Mendelsohn for a more intimate, and snowy, version of the Aspen Food & Wine Classic, held in June.

A lifelong skier, she’s a sure bet to win the Celebrity Chef Ski Race fundraiser/brunch Jan. 27. You can bid ($175 to start) for a spot on her team and a place at the table afterwards in the Beaver Creek Chophouse.

“I have been missing Colorado in the wintertime,” said Simmons, who started at Food & Wine magazine in 2004 and oversaw the Aspen event until 2009. (Now she appears as a speaker.) In a phone interview, the author of “Talking With My Mouth Full” (Hyperion, 2012) offered some insight into her seemingly glamorous gourmet lifestyle.

Q: How do you balance eating for a living and looking good on TV?
A: Tom Colicchio never gets that question. (He’s a fellow judge on “Top Chef.”)
Read more…

Trillium restaurant in Denver hosts a Denmark-themed dinner Tuesday night. (Denver Post file photo)

Trillium restaurant in Denver is hosting its latest Scandanavian-themed dinner Tuesday night — this one serves up Danish food prepared by guest chef Jenna Johansen. Johansen has worn the toque at Ventura Grille and Ocotillo, but TV viewers know her from Bravo’s “Around the World in 80 Plates,” which aired in 2012.

The menu reads like a fine repast for a cold January night. To wit:

An amuse-bouche of chicken liver and bacon mousse on rye beer bread, accompanied by a Lips of Faith beer from Brewery Vivant.

A crab and cabbage salad (!) with kale, horseradish vinaigrette and a goat gouda crouton, with “Old Vines” Riesling Hohenrain from Germay.

Mashed potatoes with bacon, apple and onion chutney with a Marsanne-Roussanne wine from the Rhone region.

An intermezzo of rosemary, juniper and citrus sorbet with candied lemon.
Read more…

These potato chips were made with Rooster potatoes, a variety of spud grown in the UK for decades, and sold under the brand Albert Bartlett. (Douglas Brown)

I’m with Daniel Asher, the chef at the Highland restaurants Root Down and Linger: Potatoes can be exciting.

Spuds are especially thrilling, for me, when somebody like Asher is the one transforming the knobs of starch into other things: fries and chips, gnocchi, soup.

Right now, Asher is using a new variety of potato, called Rooster, in his dishes at Linger and Root Down (they are the first restaurants in the state to use them). The taters, popular in the UK for decades (they are the No. 1 potato in the Great Vortex of Potato Love – Ireland) and sold under the Albert Bartlett brand, are for the first time available in the United States, at WalMart stores in Colorado and Georgia. And Colorado farmers in the San Luis Valley are growing them.

Read more…

It was the right kind of bagel – chewy, dense, misshapen. Josh Pollack’s bagels at Gather, a new spot in Denver, are winners. (Douglas Brown)

Bravo to Josh Pollack, the baking wizard behind the bagels at Lon Symensma‘s new joint, called Gather, in the Golden Triangle neighborhood.

Very good bagels.

Read more…

Upcoming events at Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder involve great chefs, sommeliers from CA and Italy. (Frasca Food and Wine)

Frasca Food and Wine does a good job booking top-notch chefs and sommeliers for dinners – such a good job, it’s hard not to plug the events. So here comes more Frasca plugging.

Wednesday, January 30: Frasca welcomes Matthew Accarrino and Shelly Lindgren, from San Francisco’s much-touted restaurant SPQR. Among other things, this Frasca event commemorates the pair’s cookbook, called SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine. At SPQR, Lindgren is the sommelier and wine director, and Accarrino is the chef. The event will involve four courses prepared by Accarrino and Frasca’s Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, and much wine and wine talk, compliments of Lindgren and Frasca’s Bobby Stuckey. It costs $150 a head, plus taxes and tip.

Another Wednesday, another heady evening. On February 6 the Frasca people welcome the Sirk family, owners of La Subida, a restaurant in Friuli, Italy (Frasca’s cuisine revolves around the cuisine of Friuli; when the Frasca people travel to Friuli, the Sirk family hosts the crew). This one is five courses, with wine (naturally). It’s limited to 200 people, and will set you back $200 each, plus the tax and tip.

For reservations or more information, call: 303.442.6966.

This is the first entry in Marczyk’s spice contest. Be afraid. Be very afraid. (Photo courtesy Barbara MacFarland)

Marczyk Fine Foods is holding an old spice contest, and no, it doesn’t involve the irritatingly buff shirtless guy on the white horse.

This is a search for ancient condiments: dusty tins of Colman’s mustard lurking in your cupboard, that decade-old jar of tarragon flakes in your rack, the container of dried cilantro that you never opened because, well, why would you when you can use the fresh stuff?

Here’s the deal. As a promo for its new spice purveyor, Spicely Organic Spices, Marczyk is holding a spice contest, to wit: Bring your entries in their original containers with a “use by” or “sell by” date clearly marked. (Oh, and there must be some seasonings still in the container.) The deadline is Jan. 7, with a Jan. 9 announcement of the winner who brought the oldest spice.

The winner gets a pack of 12 spices from Spicely Organics, plus a $10 gift card. So off to the cupboard, and may the stalest spice win. Marczyk has locations at 770 E. 17th Ave. and 5100 E. Colfax Ave.