A recent trip to Elitch Lanes, at 3825 Tennyson, for a friend’s surprise birthday party turned up another (totally awesome) surprise: bowling pin-shaped Budweiser bottles. They’re appropriate, curvaceous and refreshing, three things you may or may not expect to find at a bowling alley. Manager Frank Rangel says Elitch Lanes…
It’s American Craft Beer Week – seven days that even the United States Congress felt should be set aside for one purpose and one purpose only: drinking micro brews. (To find out about tappings, food pairings and other events, click here or here.) But Colorado’s beer culture is worth a…
Did you miss this weekend’s Cinco de Mayo festivities in Civic Center Park? You can still get a taste of them by picking up a bottle of Coyote Gold Premium Margarita — the margarita that former U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer’s wife, Maureen, is marketing along with her Fort Collins…
Stranahan’s has become Colorado’s best-known distilled spirit – a favorite of locals and national whiskey connoisseurs alike. And now the micro-distillery will be able to meet that demand, even if it means leaving the neighborhood where it was born. On May 6, the company bought the old Heavenly Daze Brewery…
Who knew? Who knew that on the first warm Thursday of spring, the hot place in Cherry Creek would be Second Home? I started the evening with what was supposed to be one drink at Cucina Colore. That turned into appetizers at Elway’s and more drinks at North. And then…
Maybe you know Old Chub because you’ve had it on tap at Oskar Blues or bought a six-pack of this canned Scottish Ale at the liquor store. Or maybe you’ve heard the name because you took a momentary leave of your senses and purchased a tube of Old Chub chapstick,…
For nearly 35 years, Arap’s Old Gun Shop (3866 South Broadway in Englewood) — better known to passersby as Eatin’ Drinkin’ Darts, thanks to its signature red-and-yellow sign — has been an old-timey saloon for billiards and dart enthusiasts. For many decades (some say a century or more), it was…
The Colorado Bartenders Guild (COBG) hosted its first-ever cocktail contest on Sunday night at Trios Entoneca, and Mark Stoddard (above), of Boulder’s Bitter Bar, took first place with his “Swedish Fish” — a tasty blend of Absolut, Orgeat Syrup, Maraschino Cherry liquid Regan’s Orange Bitter’s, orange wedges and mint. The…
As we reported in March, New Belgium Brewing has rolled out its second canned beer – Sunshine Wheat — in Colorado only (the trucks hit the road on Friday on their way to liquor stores). But if sales are strong – as they were when the Fort Collins brewery introduced…
I love a challenge, and as soon as I saw the “limit 3 per customer” advisory on the menu for the Bar Sketch White Sangria ($7.50), I knew what I had to do. From the first sip, I knew I would not be taking on a traditional “sangria” made from…
The state’s best mixologists will be pouring it on — and pouring out the drinks — Sunday, April 26, at the first Colorado Cocktail Classic competition, sponsored by the Colorado Bartenders Guild. Go to Trios Enoteca,1730 Wynkoop Street, at 6 p.m. to cheer on your favorite bartenders and enjoy some…
I hate windows during the summer. I hate them because when I’m at work, I can see the sky and the sun and the birds and all the people who aren’t at work strolling merrily by. Thankfully, I don’t work near Coors Field anymore, because the smell of food and…
While two totally separate establishments, Roslyn Grill (504 East Colfax Avenue) and Nob Hill Inn (420 East Colfax) nonetheless comprise a flaming binary star of degeneracy around which many of Denver’s down-and-out orbit. Because they’re less than a block apart and both cheap as hell, they attract the same crowd…
Buchi Café Cubano (2651 West 38th Avenue, 303-458-1328), which has already made a name for itself with stellar coffee drinks and sandwiches, is hoping to add beer, wine and speciality drinks to its menu this summer – pending approval of a liquor license application. Owner Emmett Barr doesn’t plan on…
Since we reported last month that Denver would be among the many cities to host a Snuggie Pub Crawl — in which proud owners of the awesomely popular sleeved blanket slip into their Snuggies and get hammered — we’ve been counting the days until the event. We’d heard it was…
The Leopold Bros. distillery in Denver got a shout-out in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. Columnist Eric Felten, author of the weekly column “How’s Your Drink?”, called its gin the best of the new, craft-distilled American gins trying to give well-established British gins a run for their money. Here’s an excerpt…
Does your pale ale go down better with some Poe, your stout with some Silverstein and your lager with some Longfellow? If so, then you and your favorite iambic pentameters might want to try Liquid Poetry, a special beer that goes on tap today at the Wynkoop Brewing Company in…
Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey celebrated the corking of its 1,000th barrel on Wednesday, April 8 — which means that the five-year-old micro-distillery has produced 52,800 gallons of whiskey at its facility in the Ballpark neighborhood. And who was on hand to drive home the cork, or “bung,” as it is apparently…
Although I’m not normally a fan of national chains, I’d been waiting with bated breath for Houston’s to open in Cherry Creek, because I have fond memories of long, delicious lunches at its siblings in Arizona and California. But those lunches were a long time ago, and either I’ve changed…
Baseball season is on tap, and so is the seasonal reappearance of Denver’s oddest brewpub, Blue Moon Brewing Co. @ the Sandlot, inside Coors Field. Why is it odd? Although the brewery itself – owned by a division of Coors — cranks out Blue Moon and some of the other…
A Westword informant recently reported that Watson’s Liquor and Grocery, the recent Best of Denver winner right around the corner from our office, wraps your booze in a donut bag. “So the bums outside don’t bother you for beer,” the guy behind the counter told him. Makes sense. Unless, of…
For Colorado bartenders, taxes aren’t the only thing due on April 15. That’s also the deadline for submitting recipes to the first cocktail competition of the year organized by the Colorado Bartenders Guild (COBG). And I’ll be helping to judge the results at 6 p.m. April 26 at Trios Enoteca,…
