Restaurant Rumblings

Cool Off with Some Fine Wine
June marks the start of summer, and there’s hardly a more fitting way to start a hot culinary season than with the Boulder Food & Wine Festival. In its second year, the festival features 26 wineries and food from the city’s best eateries. Be prepared to sample from more than 60 vintages paired with great food. For sheer entertainment, check out the kick off event, the Waiters Race at 6 p.m. on June 25 at the Boulder Farmers’ Market—it will feature Boulder’s finest testing their skill, talent and agility. The festival runs 4-8 p.m. June 28 at Central Park in Boulder. For info and tickets, which run $35 for wine and $60 for food and wine, visit boulderwinefest.com.

If Beer is More Your Style
If wine is not your style, there’s a beer-lover’s dream come true the same weekend: The Fort Collins Brewers’ Festival. Save the date to help drink through more than 400 kegs. Featured brewers will include Big Horn, Coopermsith’s, New Belgium, Odell’s, and of course, Fort Collins Brewery. The festival is 11 a.m. June 28 and 6 p.m. June 29 in downtown Fort Collins. For tickets ($10) and information, visit downtownfortcollins.com/festivals.php

Master of Sci-Fi Cooking and Activism
Ian Kleinman is the region’s master of molecular gastronomy. If you’re not sure what the O’s Restaurant chef is all about, take a look at our May issue when he responded to the Cuisine Scene challenge by turning sour cream into noodle form. He dabbles in all kinds of cutting-edge techniques like sous-vide cooking, liquid nitrogen freezing, and gelatinization of ingredients such oyster juice. It’s all featured on a tasting menu at O’s (Thursdays through Sundays). He’s also taken an environmental stance recently, bouncing tuna from the menu since that particular fish has been plucked from the ocean at an alarming rate. Check it out at O’s, 10600 Westminster Blvd. For info call 303.410.5066 and check out his blog.