Eatery update: 'Top Chef' tour

Rocky Mountain News

Published July 3, 2008 at 6 p.m.

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Bravo's Top Chef competitors - winners and losers from all four seasons of the deliciously addictive reality competition - have embarked on a 20-city journey, which hits Denver on July 19.

The four-month tour, which kicked off June 21 on Long Island, motors the "chef- testants" around the U.S. in an 18-wheel semi-truck equipped with a state-of-the- art kitchen and 38 seats.

The tour stops in each of the 20 cities to host four live interactive shows, complete with cooking demonstrations and tips, food tastings and behind-the-scene secrets from the show.

The Denver meet-and-greets take place at the Cherry Creek farmers' market at 10:30 a.m., noon and 1:30 p.m.

Admission is free, but you'll need to register for a seat at bravotv.com/top_chef/season/4/thetour. Registration has filled up early at other stops so don't wait for a commercial break to log on and sign up.

* One of my favorite restaurants in Colorado, Mina's Latin Kitchen (605 Briggs St., Erie), abruptly closed its doors back in January, leaving lovers of Latin food in the lurch, while in Littleton Michael's Italian Bistro (5798 S. Rapp St.), a restaurant I loathed and took to task earlier this year, has also given up the ghost.

Mina's is now El Paso Cantina, a straight-up Mexican restaurant (gone, unfortunately, are the magnificent salsas that made Mina's a major find), while the Old Mill Brewery has taken over the former Michael's space.

Meanwhile, Swimclub 32 (3628 W. 32nd Ave.) will shutter its doors early this month to make way for a new pizza palace.

* When Parents magazine named Greenwood Village-based Red Robin one of the 10 best family chains in the U.S., I grabbed my 8-year-old son, hopped in the car and headed straight to the Red Robin closest to my house, which, frankly, isn't close at all.

My child, a certified burger freak, was woefully unimpressed by the grey matter slid between a soggy bun, which got me thinking, "What are the best kid-friendly restaurants in Denver where the food rises above marginal?"

For the best burgers, Dino's Soda Bar (2217 E. Mississippi Ave.) is the clear winner, with its thick, juicy, hand-formed and well-seasoned patties slapped inside a soft and chewy roll.

At Big Bill's New York Pizzeria (600 S. Holly St.), not only do kids run the joint (more or less), but owner (and New York native) Bill Ficke valiantly caters to rug rats, hoisting them up on teetering stools to face the open kitchen, home to a lively crew that hands out pizza dough for play while tossing some of the best Big Apple- style pies in the city.

When Annie's Cafe (3100 E. Colfax Ave.) recently moved to the space that previously occupied Goodfriends, it brought all its groovy 1950s memorabilia - tin lunch boxes strewn from the ceilings, vintage posters and black-and- white movies - along with nostalgic candies and kid-friendly fare like chocolate chip pancakes, French toast and blueberry crumble.

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