When renowned New York City chef Charlie Palmer opens a restaurant in a new town, he digs right into the local cuisine.
While Palmer’s new Denver space inside the historic building at 1631 Wazee St. undergoes renovation, the seasoned chef has dined at Denver gems including Colt & Gray, Linger, Euclid Hall, Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza and ChoLon.
“I need to get out to (Boulder’s) Frasca,” Palmer said during an interview Thursday in the lobby of the Oxford Hotel, which he calls home during frequent Denver visits. “When you go to a city like Denver, you want to go in and become part of the restaurant community. There are a lot of neat things going on here.”
For Palmer’s part, he’s opening two new concepts in the cavernous LoDo space, former home of Big Game and Il Fornaio.
The bar will reopen as Wazee Wood-Fired Pizza, an area with its own personality and entrance separate from the main dining room. District Meats, with a meat-centric menu, will inhabit the dining area.
Both concepts are new additions to the Palmer restaurant group, which includes the fine dining Aureole in Manhattan and Charlie Palmer Steak in Reno, Nev., Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.
The pizza place will function New York-style by selling slices as well as whole pies. Delivery will be available for area residents.
Different from Charlie Palmer Steak houses, District Meats will offer lower-priced beef cuts such as hangar and flat-iron steaks, chops, lamb, bison, rotisserie chicken and suckling pig in a casual atmosphere.
Palmer will open District Meats first, in early November, serving dinner only. After the pizzeria opens, lunch will be added at both places.
“Denver has a really percolating food movement going on,” Palmer said. “If we can be part of that, that’s fantastic.”
Designer deals.
New York jewelry designer Judith Ripka is bringing her collection to the metro area for five sample sales — where her baubles are discounted up to 70 percent — from Wednesday through Oct. 16.
Ripka’s business model is part of a growing trend for luxury-goods designers in New York City. Designers set up shop and use social media — typically through Facebook — to alert shoppers about flash sample sales.
Sale schedule: Denver Marriott South at Park Meadows, 10345 Park Meadows Drive, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday; The Curtis Hotel, 1405 Curtis St., from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday; J.W. Marriott, 150 Clayton Lane, from 10 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; Westin Westminster, 10600 Westminster Blvd., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 16.
Sportscaster staying.
Award-winning sports director and anchor Vic Lombardi has re-upped with CBS4 after signing a multiyear contract.
He will continue to fill the sports seat during the weekday evening newscasts alongside anchors Jim Benemann and Karen Leigh and weatherman Ed Greene.
Lombardi has been named the Associated Press Sportscaster of the Year, along with snagging 24 Emmys — 13 for best sports anchor.
Shake it.
Boulder’s master mixologist Bryan Dayton competed against 1,200 bartenders in the U.S. and Canada to earn the title “most inspired bartender” by The United States Bartenders’ Guild.
Dayton and 45 other finalists traveled last month to Las Vegas to shake their shakers during the two-day contest sponsored by Bombay Sapphire and GQ magazine.
As the winner, Dayton will be featured in GQ magazine’s December Men of the Year issue alongside his signature cocktail the East Aspen Heights.
The cocktail ingredients include gin, yellow chartreuse, herb-infused simple syrup, pear and lime juice and muddled berries.
Eavesdropping
on two women at Park Meadows mall: “I need to get a birthday card at that store, Platypus.”
“You mean Papyrus.”
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com.
