I’m the first one to bitch and moan about how all the great dives in Denver are disappearing — but then when someone like Frank Bonanno (Mizuna, Luca D’Italia, Osteria Marco, Bones and Green Russell) comes in and gentrifies the hell out of one of those dives, I can’t wait…
A coalition of fourteen Colorado brewers are getting ready to release Buddha Nuvo, one of the most expensive, most unusual beers ever made in Colorado. A Belgian-style saison, the beer was designed around the brightly-colored and exotically-shaped Buddha’s Hand fruit, along with grains of paradise, 175 pounds of pumpkin and…
Happy Place: The Irish Snug, 1201 East Colfax Avenue, 303-839-1394 The Hours: Daily from 3 to 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. to midnight. The Deals: Two-for-one draft beers, well drinks, and house wines by the glass; $3.95-$4.95 appetizer specials. Were we happy? Flip the page to find out…
Williams & Graham, a new speakeasy that’s the vision of Todd Colehour, a former head honcho at Kona Grill, was slated to open in June with cocktail-tender Sean Kenyon. Until recently, Kenyon had been the star-tender at the now-closed Squeaky Bean, spearheading the beverage program. He was set to oversee…
It was late last year when we started spying beer cocktails in bars. There were just a few at first, and most of them were basic twists on micheladas or other fizzy drinks — experimental and not always tasty. But lately, the beer cocktail has become a veritable trend, with…
There are only a dozen or so bars or restaurants in Denver that have been around for four decades under the same ownership. It’s an exclusive club, and those who have been inducted are a testament to hard work — and in some cases to hard drinking. The Bull &…
The Cook Street School of Fine Cooking has educated many aspiring chefs — and now the school wants to do the same for aspiring sommeliers, as well as those who simply want to learn more about wine. On July 26, Cook Street will open its Wine Annex, a space within…
Adam Dunbar was only at Encore for seven months, but during his time there he made sweeping changes to the cocktail program, helping the restaurant transform into a serious spot for libations. Pre-Prohibition classics and innovative concoctions filled the beverage board, which included the best martini in town. But now…
Sean Kenyon knows how to pour out both drinks and advice. A third-generation bar man with 25 years behind the bar, including at some of this town’s most liquid assets, he is a student of cocktail history, a United States Bartenders Guild-certified Spirits Professional and a BAR Ready graduate of…
Star-tender Sean Kenyon had all of his cocktail recipes ready to go for the late July opening of the Occidental, a cocktail bar that would have taken over the Squeaky Bean, which closed last month when owner Johnny Ballen and his landlord — ARV Holdings, the entity run by the…
I’m hitting the highway soon for a little Colorado summer road trip. But before I pack the tent, the beef jerky, the CDs or even the cooler, I’m stashing my copy of The Beer Drinker’s Guide to Colorado map (fifth edition!) above the sun visor…
Scott Witsoe loves beer. He loves to brew it, to drink it and think about it. Talk with him just once, and his enthusiasm for hops, barley and yeast foams over like a beer poured too quickly. “I love the process of brewing,” he says. “It’s like a Zen moment…
Last month we attended the first annual Colorado Winefest – Denver, and for the first time tasted a number of truly delicious, locally produced wines we could recommend to you without pause. So you can certainly understand how we were legitimately fired up about an already scheduled wine-tasting trip to…
New Belgium Brewing announced this week that it will add a massive new canning line to its fifty-acre Fort Collins compound. When construction is complete, the brewery will have the ability to can around thirty percent of its total output. But just because it can doesn’t mean it will, says…
The Great American Beer Festival sold out — all 55,000 or so tickets — in an amazing seven days this year, or roughly twelve weeks before the world’s biggest beerapalooza begins on September 29. Last year’s fest sold out about five weeks before the event, while the 2009 festival didn’t…
Wild yeast strains can produce delightfully funky and oddly delicious beers. But they can also be a pain in the ass — which Odell Brewing discovered last week when customers reported that some bottles of Hiveranno New American Wild Ale, the latest one-off from the brewery’s’ Single Serve Series, were…
Every time I think that there can’t possibly be enough room in the market for another brewery in Denver, I step into a packed tap room and I change my mind. In fact, it’s so difficult to get a seat sometimes at places like Great Divide and Dry Dock, that…
True story: We recently made the acquaintance of the creator of a local website dedicated to all things male. After we inquired about the topics typically featured on the site, the author responded with something along the order of “You know…guy stuff. Bars, sports, beer, things like that.” Intrigued, we…
Happy Place: The Corner Office, 1401 Curtis Street, 303-825-6500 The Hours: Daily from 4 to 6 p.m.; Sunday through Thursday from 9 p.m. to close The Deals: $3-5 small plates; $1 PBR; $3 draft beers; $5 martinis and wines by the glass Were we happy? Flip the page to find…
The canned craft beer revolution started in Lyons in 2002 with Oskar Blues, and although Colorado is still the leader, we don’t yet have metal to match our mountains. That will change in late July or early August when the Eddyline Brewery in Buena Vista becomes the first craft beer…
Great American Beer Festival tickets went on sale today (here), and although they are $5 more this year, $60 is still worth the price of admission. After all, there will be 450 breweries serving 2,200 different beers at the fest, which runs September 29 through October 1. What else is…
When Jess Graber and George Stranahan founded Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey back in 2004, it was a micro-distillery crafting a very small run of the spirit culled entirely from Rocky Mountain barley and local water. But Stranahan’s has grown, and grown fast. Two years ago, it relocated from the Ballpark neighborhood…
