Author: reporter

This week’s opening of the 2024 Colorado Music Festival comes with the announcement that music director Peter Oundjian has signed a new, five-year contract, extending a collaboration with the Boulder-based concert presenter that dates back to 2018. It is very big news indeed; perhaps historic.Remember that Oundjian is also the principal conductor with the Colorado Symphony in Denver where he takes up the baton for key performances and helps guide the programs that the ensemble plays over the course of its entire season. The maestro has been there full-time since 2022 and it is, by nearly all accounts, such a…

Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share their mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email bellis@denverpost.com.“Salt Houses,” by Hala Alyan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017)“Salt Houses,” by Hala Alyan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017)The story is about the fictional Yacoub Family from March 1963 in Nablus in the West Bank of Palestine to September 2014 in Jaffa, Israel.  Each chapter highlights a family member, from…

When Dana Rodriguez invited Governor Jared Polis to the opening of her new restaurant, she said he replied with a text that read, “Loca, now I know why they call you ‘Loca.’ You don’t have enough of Casa Bonita that you want to open another restaurant?” Rodriguez, the culinary director of the famous Casa Bonita, is opening Carne, a steakhouse at 2601 Larimer St. in Denver’s River North Art District on July 3. Last week, she wore her chef Loca nickname with beaming pride during a preview of the restaurant as she walked around hand-in-hand with her new beau and…

The restaurant: Onefold, 5960 S. Holly St., Greenwood Village About: Mark and Terese Nery opened Onefold’s first location in Uptown in 2015 and added a second in Union Station in 2021. But as downtown Denver’s office vacancy rate continues to rise, the Nerys were eager to “branch outside of Denver a little bit,” Mark said. “There’s more traffic and fuller offices down south since more people are making their way out to the suburbs,” he added. “I also heard construction and getting permits is a lot easier.”Onefold’s new location will be next to King Soopers and Venice Ristorante in a center called…

Colorado, along with much of the country, is experiencing a summer bump in COVID-19 infections, showing the virus has yet to fall into a seasonal pattern.Flu, respiratory syncytial virus and other common respiratory bugs typically start spreading in the fall and peter out by spring. In Colorado, the worst points of the pandemic fell in the fall and winter, but COVID-19 hasn’t disappeared in the warmer months, as flu does.Four years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, scientists expected the virus would be well on its way to settling into a seasonal pattern by now, said Talia Quandelacy, an…

A Denver Police Department officer arrested on suspicion of domestic violence-related charges pleaded guilty on Friday to misdemeanor harassment, according to court records.Ramone “Razor” Young, 53, was arrested by Aurora police March 21 on suspicion of two counts of misdemeanor harassment.Aurora police accused Young of harassing his ex-girlfriend by following her around, implying he could interfere with her Child Protective Services case and threatening to file anonymous reports about her boyfriend, according to an arrest affidavit.Young was already under investigation by the Denver Police Department internal affairs for harassing and possibly stalking the woman when he was arrested, Aurora police…

Sandwiches served at Mendocino Farms (Provided by Mendocino Farms via BusinessDen) Mendocino Farms is planting its first Colorado location in Cherry Creek’s newest office building. The El Segundo, California-based restaurant chain signed a lease for the remaining 3,000 retail square feet at 320 N. Fillmore St., the company confirmed to BusinessDen. “We look forward to bringing our fresh, flavorful, chef-driven sandwiches, salads and more to the residents and visitors of this fantastic neighborhood,” Mendocino CEO Kevin Miles said in a statement. There is no opening date for the restaurant yet, a company spokeswoman said. The chain’s menu consists primarily of…

Lori Graves has welcomed a seemingly endless stream of people at her Morning Fresh Dairy Farm in Bellvue, Colorado since a shiny monolith mysteriously appeared there more than a week ago. At first, she was amused by the curiosity of locals stopping by to catch a glimpse of the structure and ponder theories about its origins.But the onslaught of visitors has also exhausted Graves and her staff — emblematic of why similar monoliths have been quickly removed from other locations where they popped up.“We had easily 800 people yesterday,” Graves said Monday by phone, “and yesterday wasn’t as busy as…

The Nuggets’ offseason is not sexy, their path forward now defined by efficiency.That is the reality clobbering this franchise over the head as an expensive team dealing with a suffocating new collective bargaining agreement.It sounds like an excuse to return to a time when Denver was always a free agent’s second choice. It is becoming a reason for what is happening at Ball Arena.So as Paul George heads to the 76ers and Klay Thompson joins the Mavericks, the Nuggets are left to sell the idea that adding a former most valuable player and backup center can keep their championship window…

Nearly $2 billion in federal aid flowed into Colorado school districts’ coffers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and, with that money, they expanded tutoring for children, started after-school and summer programs and increased mental health services. But that temporary funding is drying up and if districts haven’t already spent the money, they must do so by a Sept. 30 deadline. Colorado received $1.8 billion in federal pandemic aid through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund to help schools respond to the pandemic, including the move to remote learning in 2020, and to help children recover learning…