I’m rooting for the owners of Chile Poblano as much as for the delectable food they serve in their cheerful and quaint restaurant on Montview Boulevard in Aurora.

After years of cooking for popular chains, including Macaroni Grill, P.F. Chang’s and Texas Roadhouse, owner Francisco Vergara decided to strike out on his own. Chile Poblano, which opened in November, is his first restaurant. He and his wife, Mildred, and their smiley teens, Samuel and Rebecca, are working hard to make it a success…

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Yes, City ‘O City is as warm and cozy as this picture makes it look. Photo from Denver Dirtbagger.

Valentine’s Day tends to mend broken hearts (or, alternately, harden the lonely ones), but whatever you did on Thursday, chances are you need a drink — and one that won’t flog your wallet, at least anymore than it’s already been flogged. We feel your pain here at Get Real Denver, which is why we’ve prepared this short list of Capitol Hill-area watering holes that offer affordable drinks, chill atmosphere and just enough edge to snap you out of whatever swooning or cynicism you’ve pickled yourself into…

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What’s better than beer and pizza? Besides, you know, nothing?

Kimberly Johnson checks in with this review of Wyman’s No. 5 near Cheesman Park:

There’s nothing like pizza and a beer on a Friday night to melt away the blues of a long, cold week. But there’s something a bit unusual — yet nice — about heading to a nondescript pub nestled between Cheesman and Congress parks for a good Chicago-style pie.
Wyman’s No. 5, which describes itself as a “neighborhood pub,” serves up a hodgepodge of pizzas in a homey setting. The menu separates “Chicago-style deep dish” and “thin crust” pizzas.

The seat-yourself joint doesn’t try to be fancy. Low lighting, booths and high tables lead the way. There’s also a pool table and a Nintendo Wii setup for group play…

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The ukulele: It’s not just for your weirdo cousin anymore.

We all know the ukulele — that cute, guitar-ish instrument (that’s right, we said “ish”) that has played a pivotal role in everything from “The Jerk” to a billion Hawaiian music pieces. But the instrument is much more than that, as Saturday’s first-ever Colorado UkeFest intends to prove.

The small but rabid national following that has recently evolved around the traditional instrument will be on display in a series of workshops and performances throughout the day at Swallow Hill Music Association. We recently spoke with Swallow Hill school director Michael Schenkelberg and musician/co-producer Aaron Keim (bass player for Boulder Acoustic Society), about the unique appeal of the instrument and why its time has come yet again…

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Think you’ve got what it takes? You probably don’t. And that’s OK.

Most karaoke nights are about as groundbreaking and bursting with quality as a bag of off-brand potato chips — and equally as plentiful. But good karaoke nights (the kind where you don’t have to fight through reams of drunken, painfully oblivious morons to warble off-key) are a rarer breed. Sure, stand-bys like Charlie Brown’s and Mori Sushi Restaurant are fine if you want to take your performance lumps shoulder-to-shoulder with popped collars and boob shirts, but for a rawer experience, try Bender’s Tavern’s “Balls Deep Karaoke.”

With ladies’ specials ($1 PBR and $2 well, wine, and domestic draft 10 p.m.-close, and $2 Lonestars for everyone all night) and a more rock and punk-oriented selection of songs, you can feel like you’re actually at a sweet ‘n dirty dive bar, instead of a Larimer Square club that’s simply slumming it by offering “Don’t Stop Believin’” and some crappy Tears for Fears song. Though, we do love Tears for Fears. Tonight from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., 314 E. 13th Ave. 303-861-7070 or BendersTavern.com.