Hold Please Productions delivers another comedy showcase with “Jokes, Frivolity & Stand Up: March Madness” at Jake’s Food & Spirits at 3800 Walnut St. on March 8.

March Madness stars headliner Stephanie McHugh, who is a regular in the Denver comedy scene; feature performer Brent Gill. Guest sets by comedian Rubi Nicholas who is a first generation Muslim woman of Pakistani descent, comedian Leah Mansfield, comedian Christine Lederman, and comedian Jeff Albright who started doing stand-up comedy on Feb. 20, 2013 (his 39th birthday) and has not looked back since.  The night’s emcee will be Terri Barton Gregg, AKA “The Hebrew Hairdresser” with host Gary Washington who blames everything on his manager.

Tickets are $5 at the door or in advance with priority seating at www.JakesDenver.com.  There is a two-drink minimum with an optional dinner package for four available with purchase of a ticket. The show starts at 8 p.m. For general admission reservations, call 303 295-3500.

Denver’s reputation for the thinnest residents in the nation may go on hold for seven days, when more than 300 of the city’s top eateries offer an astonishing array of steaks, fish, pasta, sushi, desserts, drinks, and more for Denver Restaurant Week.

Organized by Visit Denver, the 10^th annual Denver Restaurant Week will run from Feb. 22-28.  During DRW, some 313 participating restaurants will offer multi-course dinners for the fixed price of $30 per person, tax and tip not included.

“The fun of restaurant week is to grab some friends, go to the website, and go out on the town,” said Richard Scharf, president and CEO of Visit Denver. “You’ll get a great deal and a bill that is very easy to split.”

Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock wore chef’s “whites” and joined 50 of the participating chefs at a kick-off event, stating, “Denver Restaurant Week is a gift from restaurants to their most loyal patrons, the people who live, work and play in Denver.  In great cities, the chefs are as popular as the sports heroes, and we encourage everyone in the city to get out this week and be a restaurant fan,” he said.

DRW was created by Visit Denver in 2005 to elevate Denver’s dining reputation both locally and nationally.

Here are some tips to make Denver Restaurant Week be your best experience. Speakers at the press event stressed proper etiquette for DRW including:

• Never make more than one reservation for each night;
• If you cannot honor your reservation, cancel as soon as possible;
• Remember to tip your server on what the meal would cost without the Restaurant Week discount;
• Consider getting a bottle of wine with dinner (under Colorado law, you can take any unfinished wine with you.

All year long, but particularly during DRW, restaurants and diners alike are encouraged to use the new #denverYUM hashtag when posting photos of delicious food on all social media platforms, including Instagram.

Denver Restaurant Week is not possible without the support of sponsors including: Lexus, Alamos Winery, Edna Valley Vineyard, Mirassou Winery, Louis M. Martini Winery, William Hill Winery, US Foods, Frontier Airlines Johnson & Wales University, Open Table, the Colorado Restaurant Association and the Downtown Denver Partnership Business Improvement District. Media partners include Westword/Westword.com, 5280 The Denver Magazine, the Denver Post and Comcast.

For more information, visit: www.DenverRestaurantWeek.com, or www.EatDrinkDenver.com.

Ever wondered which cocktail to pair with your Korean takeout or European comfort food? Chef Rich Byers and beverage director Ben Anderson at The Corner Office Restaurant + Martini Bar in The Curtis Hotel in downtown Denver, have the answers.

Byers, Anderson and the rest of the culinary team regularly take guests on a multi-cultural journey with dishes and drinks inspired by various countries around the globe. Now, they are helping guests choose the best sips to wash down each regional cuisine:

• Mexican – Byers recommends pairing his Baja Fish Tacos with the “Just Another Goat Rodeo” cocktail (Milagro silver tequila, Liquor 43, blackberry, pepper, honey and lime).
• Korean – The restaurant’s Bibimbap pairs well with the” Starlight” cocktail (St. Germain, Leopold’s Absinthe, lime, mint + ginger beer).
• France – A dish as hearty as The Corner Office’s Steak Frites will complement the masculine elements of the TCO Manhattan (Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Carpano Antica Formula and Campari; aged in-house in 10 liter barrels for three weeks).
• Southern USA – The Templeton Sazerac (Templeton Rye, Demerara, Peychaud’s bitters and absinthe) with an order of a southern classic, shrimp and grits.

For more information, go to www.thecornerofficedenver.com.

Tom Coohill, chef/owner of Coohills  at 1400 Wewatta St. has been invited to compete in Iceland’s Food and Fun Festival. He has accepted and will attend.

The festival takes place in Reykjavik from Feb. 26 through March 2, and includes 13 guest chefs and finest restaurants.

Coohill is paired with Rub 23, a restaurant that specializes in ingredients from Icelandic fishermen and farmers and serves a wide selection of sushi.

The other food element of the festival is the chef competition, which takes place on the last day. The chefs compete by creating three courses from Icelandic-only ingredients.

Fellow chef, Jennifer Jasinski, a “Top Chef Masters” contender and chef/owner of Rioja and other restaurants, will be serving as a judge at the festival, adding another Denver connection to the event.

Chef Coohill said he is elated about being asked to compete in the Food and Fun Festival, partly because he and his wife and business partner, Diane, have made strong bonds with the Icelandic chefs who have come to collaborate in the Coohills’ kitchen.

In the two years since Coohills opened, the restaurant has been selected to host Icelandic chefs for the national “A Taste of Iceland” event, part of a promotional campaign sponsored by Iceland Naturally.  In Denver, the Taste of Iceland dinners are culinary collaborations between Coohill and an Icelandic chef.  In 2012, Coohills welcomed Hakon Mar Orvarsson and in 2013, chef Thrainn Freyr Vigfússon, captain of the Icelandic Culinary Team.

“Working with both chefs Hakon and Thrainn over the past two years has been an amazing experience.” Tom said, adding, “Joining forces with other chefs in the kitchen is one of the great joys of being in this business and now, to be invited to Iceland to compete with 12 extremely talented chefs, is humbling and extremely exciting. I can’t wait to cook and create.”

Chef Coohill studied under masters of French cuisine and opened the famed Ciboulette restaurant in Atlanta in 1992. Ciboulette was praised for its modern French fare, featured in “Gourmet” and named to “Esquire Magazine’s” list of Top 25 Restaurants in the country. Chef Coohill was invited to be a guest chef at Cordon Bleu in Paris and The James Beard House in New York City.

Tom Coohill, owner and chef of Coohills, is headed to Iceland to compete in a cooking challenge.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock will join dozens of Denver’s top chefs during a press conference at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Cook Street School of Culinary Arts, 1937 Market St., to officially announce Denver Restaurant Week, Denver’s largest annual culinary celebration.

Hancock will learn how to open a champagne bottle with a sword and offer a toast to the chefs. There also will be instruction in the proper way to open, decant and pour wine, as well as foods to serve with wine to draw out the taste.

Denver Restaurant Week runs from Feb. 22-28 at more than 300 eateries throughout the Mile High City offer a multi-course dinner for just $30. The full list of participating restaurants can be found at: www.DenverRestaurantWeek.com.

The Mayor will offer a toast to participating chefs in the kitchen classroom at Cook Street with wine supplied by sponsors Alamos Winery, Mirassou Winery, Louis M. Martini and William Hill Estates Wines.

Denver Restaurant Week is not possible without the support of sponsors including: Lexus, Alamos Winery, Edna Valley Vineyard, Mirassou Winery, Louis M. Martini Winery, William Hill Winery, US Foods, Johnson & Wales University, the Colorado Restaurant Association and the Downtown Denver Partnership Business Improvement District. Media partners include Westword/Westword.com, 5280 The Denver Magazine, The Denver Post, Comcast and Open Table.

For 29 years, Rosey’s has been a regional fashion destination which started at Eighth and Colorado before moving to Tamarac Square and then on to Park Meadows Mall with a customer base that has made the store a perennial success.

Now, Rosey is opening a second store at Aspen Grove, which will open on March 1. The new store, owned by Rosey Shaw‘s protege, Diane Lagerborg, will be a new spin-off concept, Rosey’s By Diane.

Rosey’s by Diane is a new one-stop shop where a woman can buy an entire outfit of unique clothing at a reasonable, midlevel price point.  Sourcing boutique fashions from the United States and Canada in addition to local designers, Rosey’s by Diane will offer a selection of clothing, accessories, and footwear that cannot be found anywhere else in Denver and can be worn by women of all body types.

Many of her pieces will be one-of-a-kind designs, all hand-selected by Lagerborg. The target customer, a chic, sophisticated woman 30 years and older, seeking affordable, cutting-edge fashions of a higher quality than can be purchased at vintage/resale shops but without the mass-produced feel and budget-busting prices of high-end fashion chains

Lagerborg has grown up in the retail clothing industry, having apprenticed under Shaw for more than 10 years.

In that time, she has gained an understanding of the retail fashion industry. Now, she’s ready to embark on her own concept, bringing fresh ideas and a new wave of style to Denver.

For more information, go to http://loveroseysstore.com/.

Modmarket’s newest location on 16th and Champa in downtown Denver opens this month.

Every item on the menu is made from scratch from simple ingredients. The menu changes throughout the year to take advantage of seasonal items.

Denver-based Modmarket, which operates six restaurants throughout the metro-Denver area.  The Company expects to open at least six locations in Colorado and Texas during 2014, totaling 12 at the end of the year.

Modmarket delivers farm-to-table food in a fast, affordable format that fits with today’s modern lifestyle.  Modmarket, named a “Hot Concept” by “Nation’s Restaurant News” in 2013, is changing customer expectations of what a $10 dining experience can offer.

To see a menu and to view locations, go to www.modmarket.com.

CU Denver associate dean at the business school and marketing professor Cliff Young weighs in on the significance of Trader Joe’s first store opening at Eighth and Colorado today. Here’s what he had to say:

“For many years, the area around Eighth and Colorado was a medical center area. I remember back in 1962 when the hospital was called Colorado General. I remember because I accidently slashed a finger and went there for emergency treatment. The area was fairly stable and grew to be a primary medical area with Rose Medical Hospital and the Veterans Hospital. Because of the large number of staff, of course, there arose a substantial support retail group of restaurants and associated services. I still patronize O’Briens Tonsorial Parlor East of Bellaire on Eighth.

“In the 1990s University of Colorado Medical Center needed to expand to meet its needs. Attempts to expand the campus at Eighth and Colorado were met with opposition by the local residents with Mayor (Wellington) Webb siding with the residents. In 1995, Fitzsimons Army base was closed and negotiations began to move the medical school out to Aurora. University of Colorado Medical School has since moved completely to Fitzsimons and was renamed the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus. By the end of 2008, academic and research operations of all Anschutz Medical Campus health sciences schools and colleges were relocated to the new campus.

“With the move of the hospital, schools and colleges, the area around Eighth and Colorado has seen a dramatic drop in retail business. Restaurants (Annie’s) moved to Colfax from its original location at Eighth and Colorado. Development efforts included a proposal to build a Walmart neighborhood market. This proposal was strongly opposed by the local inhabitants feeling it was further add to the deterioration and ambience of the area. Arguments included increased traffic and congestion.

“Then along came the proposal from Trader Joe’s. The response was completely different. Now, it was viewed as an enhancement to the area. Concerns about traffic congestion seemed to go away. Whereas the draw for the Walmart Neighborhood Marketing would have been local, the draw for Trader Joe’s will be much broader. I think the appeal is due to the difference in the target markets.

“Traffic will be impacted. Trader Joe’s parking is not on Colorado Boulevard. It’s off the next street East on Albion. Draw for the store will come from several upper middle class neighborhoods including Capitol Hill, Washington Park, Congress Park, Mayfair, Crestmoor, Montclair, etc. Within the close area around Eighth and Colorado are several local supermarkets. King Soopers on 14^th and Krameria historically has had the highest sales per square foot. I don’t think it will be affected. It targets more of the Park Hill area. A new King Soopers in Glendale targets the local population there and has the exclusive liquor license for Colorado. There might be some small effect as Trader Joe’s on Eighth and Colorado will also have the exclusive liquor license for Trader Joe’s in Colorado. Target Market in Glendale should not be affected. The only store I see being affected to any extent would be the Sprouts on Colfax west of Colorado. Its market is more similar.”

Fans of luxury home goods and lifestyle purveyor Restoration Hardware  – now rebranded as RH – are in store for an unprecedented shopping experience at Cherry Creek Shopping Center.

Next year, RH will open a four-story, full-line design gallery in the space formerly occupied by Saks Fifth Avenue.

“The intent of this larger footprint, full line design gallery is to showcase the depth of our growing product assortment,” said Gary Friedman, RH chairman and CEO. “Cherry Creek has been a successful location for our existing store and will be the first Rocky Mountain venue for this new broader expression of our brand.”

Serving as curator of the historical designs, California-based RH offers home and garden collections of timeless, updated classics, authentic reproductions and artisan works that combine inspired design and high quality.

At 53,000 square feet – more than four times the size of the existing Cherry Creek store – the new, four-level RH full line design gallery will feature a multi-story atrium, outdoor garden and rooftop park, plus dedicated galleries for the brand’s numerous product lines such as Living, Dining, Bed, Bath, Lighting, Tableware, Baby & Child, Small Spaces, Rugs, Outdoor and among others – many of which could previously only be found in the brand’s Source Books.

“RH’s new flagship store will be a breathtaking addition to our newly renovated center,” said Nick LeMasters, general manager at Cherry Creek. “We look forward to its debut by fourth quarter 2015, along with additional tenants in that wing, to be announced at a later date.”

The existing Restoration Hardware will remain open during construction of the flagship store.