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Piccolo, an Italian-Mexican institution, will close at the end of April

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

Piccolo, a family-owned restaurant that has served both lasagna and enchiladas to three generations of Coloradans, will close its doors on April 30 after 50 years.The neighborhood staple, at 3563 S. Monaco Parkway, was the site of countless family get-togethers, dates and other milestones over the decades.But the past few years have made it difficult to run a restaurant, said Piccolo manager Robert Desrosiers, who pointed to inflation coupled with a lack of workers and Denver’s minimum wage increase as part of the problem. The building is also in need of repairs.In addition, owner Vince Canino, who is part of a large family of restaurateurs, is ready to retire, Desrosiers said. “Vince has five grandkids and has been semi-retired for about a year.”Related ArticlesRestaurants, Food and Drink | Was Casa Bonita’s food really that bad? Not according to these locals. Restaurants, Food and Drink | What is Roman pizza? Find out at new spot on the...

This restaurant’s Spotify playlist is as fiery as its Sichuan chicken

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we offer our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems).It has never been easy to get a table at Hop Alley, and for good reason.The restaurant, located on a food-friendly corner at 3500 Larimer St. in the River North neighborhood, serves traditional Chinese dishes that have been gleefully dosed with as much fine-dining flavor as they are with soy sauce. Think egg fried rice with bone marrow, smoked duck rolled into a scallion pancake, roasted beets tossed in char siu sauce and cashew relish and, of course, its signature: tongue-numbing La Zi Ji, chicken drenched in Sichuan chile.Michelangelo Lepore, left, works at the kitchen of Hop Alley restaurant in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday, November 1, 2022. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)Thankfully, it will be a little easier now that Hop Alley...

900 kids between age 10 and 12 are arrested in Colorado every year. Is that too young to be criminally prosecuted?

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

The 12-year-old lay in a bed in the intensive care unit, gasping for breath during a severe asthmatic reaction.While deciding whether to intubate him, Dr. Carly Muller couldn’t take her eyes away from the handcuffs chaining the boy to the hospital bed. Or the guard standing above him. The boy was in the custody of the juvenile justice system and hadn’t been receiving his medications.“It really seemed unnecessary when this boy literally couldn’t catch his breath, let alone run away,” the Children’s Hospital Colorado pediatrician said, describing the scene to state legislators last week.How young is too young for handcuffs, arrest and prosecution? Colorado lawmakers will decide this year whether to ban the criminal prosecution of kids ages 10 through 12 for any crimes other than homicide, and instead handle criminal behavior among that age group outside of the juvenile court system.Instead of the juvenile courts, the bipartisan bill, HB23-1249, woul...

Was Casa Bonita’s food really that bad? Not according to these locals.

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

This story is one in a series featuring trips down memory lane with longtime Casa Bonita fans and former employees who shared their fondest tales with The Denver Post. The restaurant and entertainment venue in Lakewood is expected to reopen in May.The inescapable narrative about Casa Bonita is that the food was terrible. Well, every menu item except for its famous sopapillas, which appeared tableside warm and drizzled in honey whenever a customer would raise the little red table flag.This bit of local folklore has been repeated so much over the last 49 years since Casa Bonita opened that it’s practically a statutory truth. That’s why many longtime patrons were excited when the beloved eatertainment venue’s new owners, “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, hired James Beard-nominated chef Dana “Loca” Rodriguez to helm the kitchen.As the days tick down to the restaurant’s highly anticipated reopening in May, however, several people are blowing the whistle...

Misery loves company at Denver’s Rule Gallery

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

It is fashionable these days to put your pain on the table and dish it out to others in heaping helpings. “Soft Mirror” and “Rupture,” two exhibitions currently at Rule Gallery, serve up a feast.The shows indulge in victimhood, no matter how you come to suffer it. One artist explores what happened years ago when he was bullied in school. Another rehashes the inter-generational trauma that resulted when his grandfather survived the nuclear bombing at Hiroshima.  Another delves into the psychological damage that results from viewing too much violence in the media.It’s a lot, as they say.There’s a part of me that wants to respond coldly to the excess, partly because the notion that we are all damaged goods is delivered so casually. If everybody hurts in their own way, and at the same volume, do we really need to share? Maybe self-care is something you should do on your own. If television violence disturbs you, for example, just turn off the TV.But curator Britland Tracy gives us some c...

Inside Denver’s 5280 High, one of the country’s few recovery high schools

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

By Stephanie Daniel, KUNC via Kaiser Health NewsEvery weekday at 5280 High School in Denver starts the same way.Students in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction gather on the steps of the school’s indoor auditorium to discuss a topic chosen by staff members. One recent morning, they talked about mental health and sobriety. A teenage boy dressed in tan corduroys, a black hoodie, and sneakers went first.“I didn’t want to have, like, any emotion,” he said. “So I thought, like, the best way to, like, put it down would be to do more and more and more drugs.”A classmate said she started doing drugs for fun and then got hooked. Another student said his addiction negatively impacts his mental health. A third announced an upcoming milestone.“In, like, two days, I’ll be six months sober,” she said, as her classmates cheered.The students attend Colorado’s only recovery high school — one of 43 nationwide. These secondary schools are designed for students who are recovering from substa...

Audit criticizes CDOT’s handling of contracts that abandon low-bid approach for some major projects

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

The Colorado Department of Transportation’s increasing use of untraditional contracting approaches for large highway projects has been hampered by problems with how the deals are awarded, negotiated and managed, state auditors found in a recent report.Awarding construction work to the lowest bidder for a set design is no longer the rule of thumb for large or complex projects designated for so-called “alternative delivery” contract methods. Instead, CDOT and transportation officials in several other states have opted for setups in which construction companies bid before the full design is complete and, once selected, work with CDOT or engineering contractors to finish it.Critics contend these newer forms of contracting — used for work including the $1.3 billion Central 70 project in Denver and major widening projects on Interstate 25 south and north of metro Denver — favor larger companies, often from out of state, and risk costing taxpayers more.But CDO...

A Russian trace is likely to undermine the head of the Ukrainian Central Bank Andriy Pyshnyy's future

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

EU Reporter already published an investigation about the new head of the Ukrainian National Bank, where we quoted famous Ukrainian journalist Serhyi Lyamets. After the publication, S.Lyamets submitted to us his separate article - published below - about suspicions of some banking malpractices, which are important as we talk about the head of the central bank and the family of Ukrainian businessmen strongly associated with former Russian president Medvedev.A Russian trace is likely to undermine the head of the Ukrainian Central Bank Andriy Pyshnyy's future, writes Serhyi Lyamets."In times of Russian invasion and European sanctions, these moments hardly can be left unnoticed. There was an episode in the activities of the current head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), which was once widely reported by the Ukrainian mass media. In 2020, while Andriy Pishny headed the state-owned Oschadbank, he carried out a rather suspicious financial transaction. Several years have passed, and th...

2 people critically injured in Highland fire

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

Two people were critically injured in a house fire in Highland early Monday, officials said.The incident was first reported as being medical-related around 12:45 a.m., but when San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department deputies arrived they saw smoke coming from a home in the 7700 block of Chanticleer Road.Neighbors told responding deputies that there might be people trapped inside and they were able to pull one victim out of the burning house.Firefighters from Cal Fire San Bernardino then rescued a second victim, Chief Grant Malinowski told KTLA.Both victims were taken to a hospital in critical condition. Their ages and genders have not been released.Firefighters were battling heavy smoke and fire conditions, and even though the blaze was knocked down, they remained on scene for several hours to make sure the rest of the house was cleared.The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Iress is in Heaven with the Cocteau Twins

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

Cocteau TwinsHeaven or Las Vegas (4AD)Iress is in Heaven with the Cocteau Twins: Michelle Malley of L.A, dreamy doom-rockers Iress told us about her love for a Cocteau Twins gem.(4AD)Michelle Malley: There are so many influential albums that have been monumental in my life. My music taste definitely is diverse but ultimately, I am drawn to music that moves me, that makes me feel something. Heart-wrenching, dreamy, heavy and dark. Instead of choosing my favorite album of all time, which feels impossible, I decided to choose an album that has been extra special to me over this past year.Heaven or Las Vegas by Cocteau Twins. I have been listening to it on repeat all of 2022 and then some. It’s just so good from beginning to end. I feel like you can listen to this album alone and in your feels when it’s raining outside,  and when you’re driving to the beach with friends loving life—it just always feels right. It’s inspiring and beautiful. If you haven’t heard it yet, I encourage you to ...