When Biker Jim (Pettenger) turned his gourmet hot-dog cart into a building, he put in two TVs. One for sports (at 2148 Larimer St., he’s just a few blocks from Coors Field). And one for viewing parties. Biker Jim and his weiners are on TV more than Geico commercials — food shows adore his dogs and take over his kitchen.
Biker Jim’s stars in Tuesday night’s episode of “Ludo Bites America,” a traveling pop-up restaurant show starring Chef Ludo Lefebvre and his business partner/wife, Krissy (who’s a Playboy cover girl and an alum of Denver’s Hooters).
The show, on the Sundance Channel, airs at 10 p.m. Tuesday with a viewing party, of course, at Biker Jim’s. The show was shot in April, right after Biker Jim’s opened. Ludo turned the joint into a gourmet buffalo restaurant; the waitstaff was recruited from Hooters by Krissy.
“It was a trip, man,” says Biker Jim. Ludo yelled more than Chef Ramsay, Biker Jim tried to be a line cook, and the Hooters girls were dealing the plates.
On Aug. 15, Biker Jim’s is featured on the Food Network’s “Best Thing I Ever Ate,” again with a viewing party. The Cooking Channel’s “Unique Eats” is coming in to shoot Aug. 19.
Anthony Bourdain, the Dickens of TV food, has been a Biker Jim’s fan from the first sausage. He even wore a Biker Jim T-shirt when he spoke at the Buell a few years ago.
“I have no idea why this is happening,” says Biker Jim, “but this is really fun.”
Hello, Central?
Central City’s No. 1 citizen, Lew Cady, decided that too many people were driving through town on their way to Black Hawk without stopping to enjoy the numerous pleasures of Central. So he slapped up a sign at the entrance to town giving the numbers on Central City: founded 1859; elevation 8,496 feet; miles high 1.6; area (rich square miles) 2.5; population 663; average IQ 101; houses of worship 3; gambling houses 7; bears 4; faces on barroom floors 1; museums and galleries 5; newspapers 1; breweries 1; troublemakers 3; big shots 0; total 11,168.1.
The sign is 3 feet by 6 feet, and Cady put it up without permission. But the City Council met Thursday night and approved it.
Ding-dong.
Former 9News shooter Don Brookins made a video called “Doorbell” for a contest at . It addresses the federal debt crisis, but I won’t be the spoiler. It’s funny and spot-on. Brookins is good at this. His company makes videos for small businesses at .
“Doorbell” has gone viral in the past few days, viewed more than 150,000 by Friday. Go to to watch the video.
City spirit.
Boulder’s best chefs (Dave Query, Eric Skokan, Hugo Matheson, Bradford Heap, Bobby Stuckey, Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson and Janos Wilder) come together at the Gold Hill Inn on Sept. 7 to raise money for victims of the Fourmile Canyon fire. $200 at 303-895-3418 . . . Sez who: “The noblest of all dogs is the hot-dog; it feeds the hand that bites it.” Lawrence J. Peter
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com. Take a peek at Husted’s next column at .
