The 2013 edition is out, and so is a new, very different book that looks at the Denver and Boulder food scene, called ,” by Ruth Tobias.
First, Gabby, a.k.a. Pat Miller. She’s been printing the guide for nearly 30 years. It is exhaustive, almost 500 pages, and covers the state. The big winners, what she calls “To Die For” restaurants: (Denver), (Denver), Cherry Creek (Denver), (Denver), (Boulder).
Tobias, who among other things lords over the cool food blog , gives us less of the state, but more listings than restaurants and delis: farmers markets, food festivals, recipes, Colorado products. It is cleverly organized, with categories like “Foodie Faves” and “Landmarks,” and breakouts on topics like pizza, chile and the Middle East. And the book is packed with voice.
. Soon after, he started farming on the land. Then he began raising pigs and chickens. This weekend, he is hosting a two-day butchery workshop at the farm, with . Brunson and Filkowski will kill two pigs on Friday night, and turn them into bacon, ham and sausage on Saturday. Students go home with the meat. On Saturday, the guys and their students slaughter chickens, too, and students bring home the plucked birds.
“It’s so important to see this from animal to carcass, especially if you are going to have a little farm, and do this,” said Filkowski. “For 10 minutes, it’s a bummer. It’s fairly emotional. It’s not about eating good meat. it’s about a relationship with an animal and this is how you end it.”
For all of you DIY, wannabe farmers out there, a few spots remain for the weekend, which includes dinner on Friday, breakfast and lunch on Saturday, and a pig roast Saturday night (the roasted pig is not one of those slaughtered for the class). Go to for details.
Summertime is when truffles are most plentiful, and cheapest. But summery dishes don’t scream for the rare fungi. Fall and winter dishes, on the other hand, nearly go hoarse from yelling for truffle shavings. Area chefs have been scouring Europe for truffles, and the knobs of goodness are showing up in gourmet shops and restaurants. We won’t come close to covering everything, truffle-wise, but here are a few options. in Denver doesn’t have any right now, but shop owner Rob Lawler said shipments of winter truffles should be begin arriving in the next few weeks. , staffers are taking orders by Wednesdays of each week, and customers can pick up their treasures by Friday, for the next eight weeks or so. hosts an eight-course truffle dinner Monday, and for the rest of the week through Saturday it holds five-course truffle dinners every night.
Crazy for , the LoDo pan-Asian restaurant? The joint’s triumph rests, in part, on the shoulders of its chef, Lon Symensma. Now he and his partners plan to open Gather, a cafe where the emphasis will be on more breakfast sandwiches, lunchtime soups, happy-hour small plates and coffee rather than Singapore-style lobster and roasted venison chops. The cafe, at 1082 Delaware St., is slated to open in December in the old Rocky Mountain Bank Note Building, in the Golden Triangle neighborhood.
Douglas Brown: 303-954-1395, djbrown@denverpost.com or twitter.com/douglasjbrown
