Billy Joel is always a sport when he’s in Denver. His crew and bandmates stayed at the Magnolia for Thursday night’s Pepsi Center gigand handed out 12 free tix (second row!) to the hotel’s staff. They occupied 31 rooms. Joel bunked at the swankier Teatro.
You had to be a big shot, dincha?
When Joel was in town in 2001, he also stayed at the Teatro — and somewhat famously locked lips with Amy Venturi (then Amy Greenberger), a marketing wiz sitting in the front row with her fiance, Ken Venturi. Amy said at the time, “All of a sudden (Joel) grabs my face and dips me into a swoon and sticks his tongue down my throat. I was stunned more than anything else. And no, I did not kiss back. I’m an engaged woman.”
Joel later partied that night in 2001 at Jou Jou, which is now Prima in the Teatro, kissing Uptown Girls between bottle of red, bottle of white. We need this guy in town more often.
Food issues.
5280 is out with its first 100,000-copy best-restaurant edition — raving about 77 local joints.
Instead of kicking some restaurants in the butt, an old favorite of the city- zine, this outing is all positive.
“The restaurant scene here is really on its game,” says food editor Amanda Faison. “There really wasn’t a lot to complain about.”
She lists 20 restaurants that’ll cost you under $30 and 20 restaurants that’ll cost you more than $30 — some of them a whole lot more than $30.
Unders include Bang!, Big Hoss, Taco de Mexico, Mateo and Radda (try these two Boulder joints), Osteria Marco, Parallel 17, Shells and Sauce, Smashburger, Steuben’s and Tamayo (hard to keep it cheap there).
The overs include Barolo, Bistro Vendome, Cap Grille, Deluxe, Duo, Frasca, Fruition, The Kitchen, Luca D’Italia, Mizuna, Kevin Taylor, Rioja and Sushi Den.
No glaring omissions, no obvious missteps. You can eat at these joints all year and go home happy every night.
Get the burger.
My favorite ad running on Colorado Public Radio: “Support comes from the Cherry Cricket . . . where one needs neither reservations nor ascot nor oversized handbag to eat and imbibe.”
City spirit.
At the $52.80 Denver Restaurant Week deal at Barolo Wednesday night, 195 of the 196 diners ordered the four-course deal. One guy had the duck. The restaurant closes April 6-16 for the staff’s annual Italy trip, which will be its most expensive, says owner Blair Taylor, with the euro at $1.51 . . . Denver’s Jim Leonard, a journalism major at the University of Missouri, is advancing toward the finals of RooftopComedy’s National College Comedy Competition, which comes down in Aspen May 30-31 . . . A Denver man is a finalist for PETA’s Sexiest Vegetarian. Nope, it’s not restaurant consultant John Imbergamo; it’s Austin Woods, a 25-year-old student at Regis University . . . Sez who: “Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that’s bad for you!” Tommy Smothers
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Husted also appears Tuesdays and Fridays on “Good Day Colorado” on Fox 31. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com. Take a peek at Husted’s next column at blogs. .
