Some of Oregon’s best breweries — including Breakside, Oakshire, Gigantic and Cascade — have invaded Colorado over the past year, delighting beer fans here and further crowding bulging tap menus and store shelves. But the newest Oregon arrival is likely to cause a little more controversy. Earlier this month, Bend-based…
Good news for fans of sunshine, happy hours and Lower48 Kitchen: Our pick for Best New Restaurant of 2014 just completed a renovation of its outdoor patio in time for summer to finally arrive. The restaurant at the corner of 21st and Lawrence streets is celebrating the opening by expanding its…
River North Brewery is growing fast — and is currently looking for a new location to expand its production — but it continues to keep a focus on experimentation. For the past three years, the brewery has channeled that experimentation into its series of Wayward Wednesday tappings, which typically put…
Bars are a common venue for Denver comedy shows, and they’re definitely a birthplace for great ideas. One night this past February, local comedians Meghan DePonceau and Anthony Crawford went for a drink after performing at a bar on South Broadway. They headed for a speakeasy in Five Points; DePonceau,…
One third of the small businesses that opened across the country in 2010 closed by 2012. Half of them will be gone by the end of this year. Those numbers, which are kept by the U.S. Department of Labor, stay roughly the same year in and year out. So when…
The Life Necrotic at Ste. Ellie Sometimes, one rum is not enough. This is especially the case when it comes to tiki drinks, where up to three completely different rums might be blended in the same cocktail. This way, a bartender can virtually create a rum that contains flavors such…
Like Highland Tap & Burger, the happy hour at Angelo’s Taverna has been freshly crowned as a neighborhood sensation. In this densely residential area that condo builders insist on calling Governor’s Park, it’s not hard to see why residents are treating the two-year-old Angelo’s as a default hangout. And by…
“When a distiller gets married, you want to bring some special things,” says Todd Leopold, “because that’s what your family and friends are going to expect.” The wedding he’s referring to was actually his own, and the special thing that he brought was a bitter, scarlet-colored aperitif that he distilled…
American Craft Beer Week plows forward over the next few days, and while the designation is hardly needed anymore in Colorado where every week is essentially an American Craft Beer Week, the nationwide festival — which celebrates small and independent brewers — is certainly important in other states. Which is…
Chain Reaction Brewing, which will celebrate its one-year anniversary next month, gave itself an early present last week when it installed a seven-barrel system that it bought from friends at Lone Tree Brewing. The twenty-year-old system has no bells or whistles and has been used by at least three other…
I’m Not a Pirate, at Euclid Hall Bar & Kitchen It’s no surprise that beer cocktails make up a fair chunk of the drink menu at Euclid Hall, known for its extensive and eclectic beer program. The bar staff collaborates on drink recipes, contributing seasonally inspired combinations of beer and…
One of the best rums in the world is produced right here in Colorado. Montanya Distillers was notified in April that its Platino Light Rum, produced in Crested Butte, had been selected as ‘Best White Rum’ at this year’s World Rum Awards. “It’s probably the coolest award we’ve won so…
Colorado’s independently-owned breweries and liquor stores love the fact that supermarkets and convenience stores here aren’t allowed to sell full-strength beer at most of their locations: the decades-old system, they say, protects small and medium-sized businesses and allows for a much wider selection of beers on store shelves. It’s a…
From cosplayers to opthamologists, when the Colorado Convention Center fills up with one convention or another, so does Stout Street Social. Right across from the Big Blue Bear on the ground floor of the Embassy Suites, it’s the closest place to get a beer and a decent meal for the many…
Golden City Brewery — which was founded in 1993 as Golden’s “2nd Largest Brewery,” has been slowly changing and expanding over the last year, eliminating the kitchen, renovating the taproom, adding new fermentation and serving tanks and walk-in cooler capacity, expanding its distribution and ramping up its packaging with a…
River North Brewery, which opened at 24th and Blake streets in February 2012 as the first new beer maker in the district, may become a victim of the neighborhood it is named after. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Brewery founder Matthew Hess says that the owners of his…
TRVE Brewing (2015 winner of Westword’s Best Brewery Tap Room — Beer) cranked up its new production facility for the first time last week, brewing a saison that will be released later this month. Until now, TRVE, which was founded in June 2012, has made all of its beer at…
The Human Fly at Central Bistro & Bar Anika Zappe got heavily into punk rock way back in the day when she was bouncing around the halls at Evergreen High School. One of her favorite bands was the Cramps, a garage-punk outfit that became part of the emerging punk rock…
While all kinds of craft distilleries are popping up in Colorado, none of them manufactures actual tequila. That’s because in order to qualify as tequila, the spirit must be made in Mexico, from Mexican agave. But there are Colorado-based companies that sell tequila, most notably Arta Tequila, which Denverite Tony…
The homegrown Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant chain Rio, founded in Fort Collins 29 years ago, is kicking off an entire month of Cinco de Mayo specials starting on Friday, May 1, at all seven of its cantinas around the state (Rio on the Rocks at Coors Field is not included…
The happy hour at Highland Tap & Burger is unstoppable, garnering Reader’s Choice awards in our Best of Denver section for Best Late-Afternoon Happy Hour two years running, as well as a host of other awards. Newer and more exotic happy hours pop up all the time, yet HTB enjoys…
When a wall of water surged through downtown Denver at around 8 p.m. on June 16, 1965, it destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses and changed the course of the city’s history. One of the businesses that was wrecked in the flood (the subject of this week’s Westword cover story,…
