All Colorado Beer Festival in Colorado Springs Saturday

Denver is still recovering from the Great American Beer Festival, but for those who’re thirsty again — and willing to take a road trip — the sixth annual All Colorado Beer Festival gets tapped tomorrow at Freedom Financial Expo Center, 3650 North Nevada Avenue in Colorado Springs. The festival features…

Denver and Boulder bartenders to battle it out at the Cognac Ferrand Master of Hospitality & Mountain Mixology competition at Colt & Gray

On Monday, November 5, Colt & Gray will be the stamping ground for a bartender’s dream, especially those who have an affinity for cognac — very good cognac. Six local cocktail magicians — Melissa Durant (Green Russell); Carla Chang Sandoval (Hillstone Group); Anthony Giovanni (Gaetano’s); Jason Patz (Williams & Graham);…

The Boulder Burgundy Festival delivered the juice

“The first duty of wine is to be red; the second is to be a Burgundy.” So say many hard-core oenophiles around the world, for whom the sun rises and sets according to the vintage charts, weather forecasts and harvest projections associated with a relatively tiny (we’re talking roughly 200…

Kona Grill: Not really our cup of vodka

Happy Place: Kona Grill, 3000 East First Avenue, 720-974-1300. The Hours: Monday through Friday from 3 to 7 p.m. and Monday through Thursday from 9 to 11 p.m. The Deals: $3-$4 beer speials; $4-$5 cocktail specials; $5 wines by the glass; $7.50 sake bombers; $4-$6 food specials. Were we happy?…

Small is big on New Belgium Brewing’s new pilot system

New Belgium Brewing started small in 1991, but in the 21 years since, the Fort Collins beer maker has grown into the third-largest craft brewer in the county — and it will get even bigger in 2014 when it opens a second major brewery in North Carolina. But New Belgium…

Five stellar South African wines

Wine drinkers typically skew into two categories: those who love the taste of dirt, and those who are all about big fruit flavors. Put another way, the first group consists of peeps who worship at the altar of everything old world, including wines from across the pond (read: Europe), usually…

Getting sauced with spicy snacks at Phat Thai

Happy Place: Phat Thai, 2900 East Second Avenue, 303-388-7428. The Hours: Monday through Saturday from 4 to 7 p.m. The Deals: $3 draft beers; $5 specialty cocktails and wines by the glass; $1-$5 small plates. Were we happy? Flip the page to find out…

Squeaky Bean starts pouring Sean Kenyon’s new cocktail menu tonight

Fall means many things to people: pumpkins, football, piles of leaves. But to nationally-recognized bartender Sean Kenyon, designer of the cocktail menu at Squeaky Bean (which I review this week), it means something else: aromatics. “When I think of fall and winter, I think aromatics right away,” says Kenyon, whose…

Three incredibly cool wine concepts to try in 2012

After reading last week’s column, you may have correctly deduced that we were less than thrilled by a set of half-witted wine branding ideas designed to insult the intelligence of women everywhere. Lest you think we were unduly harsh in our assessment, trust that we understand that it’s gotta be…