I am not a cigar smoker, and neither is my friend who invited me on my first expedition to Devon’s Pub, a modest-looking bar and cigar store in the Happy Canyon shopping center in University Hills. She just likes to smoke clove cigarettes indoors and watch free comedy shows. I…
A Boulder-based company making liquid cacao has scored some sweet deals recently with craft brewers around Colorado and in other states, too. Cholaca mixes up its own beverages from the organic cacao, coconut sugar and water, but the product also works well for breweries making chocolate beers. Breweries that have…
You can get just about anything at the drive-thru these days, from tacos, burgers and shakes to hotdogs, custard, coffee and paninisSo why not craft beer, made on site? In January, a Boulder County family plans to open Uturn BBQ, a brewery and barbecue joint that will serve up six-packs…
Once upon a time (a few years ago), craft beer lovers looked forward to Black Friday, not because of the sales and Christmas shopping, but because it was the day that Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Company released its Bourbon County Brand Stout — one of the most delicious, most sought-after…
On a strip of Colorado Boulevard across from the Trader Joe’s, if you look hard enough, you’ll find the Bar Car, an unassuming little local spot in a sea of strip-mall neon signs. Step into the Bar Car reveals a classic neighborhood bar decked out as a fancy railroad car, a relaxing…
Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, Denver: Have you picked up your heritage, free-range, hand-fed, lovingly nurtured turkey? Baked your from-scratch, orchard-to-table pies? Decorated your table with festive decorative gourds? Worked out how to avoid conversation with your slightly sloppy, mildly offensive uncle? No? Well, saddle up and pour yourself a…
Colorado’s beer cellars and basement refrigerators will be a little more forlorn in coming years, as Avery Brewing has decided to discontinue seven of its pioneering mainstays, including some much-loved beers that are particularly valued because of how well they age. The Boulder brewery said last week that it will…
Although the ownership has changed a few times since it’s inception as a bar in 1933, Billy’s Inn at 4403 Lowell Boulevard remains a long-standing drinking institution in northwest Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood. It’s been serving the area since the neighborhood was called only North Denver, or the North Side, long before…
When it comes to believing or not believing this time of year, Santa Claus is the mythical character who gets the most play. But there is another seldom-seen creature who stirs debate: the Yeti. As a result, Great Divide Brewing, which makes a line of Yeti beers, has declared November…
Construction on the outside of the Stanley Marketplace still isn’t finished, but on the inside at least one business is already bubbling away. Cheluna Brewing Company has made six batches of beer over the past few weeks — beer that is just waiting to be poured into glasses. Owned by…
I live just south of Stapleton, Denver’s premier planned community, designed perfectly for having babies. Similar to areas like Jefferson Park and Sunnyside, it’s a place where people I know who are committed to starting families, but are also simultaneously committed to short commutes and a somewhat urban feel, look…
Denver’s Chain Reaction Brewing has been quietly growing by leaps and bounds over the past year. The brewery signed a distributor and is planning to expand distribution. To help do that, Chain Reaction got a some shiny new equipment last week, including two twenty-barrel fermentation tanks, one twenty-barrel brite tank…
The nation made its choice yesterday, but Colorado’s craft breweries have also been casting ballots of a different nature — voting last week in favor of reconciliation between two craft beer groups that had been at odds with one another since June. The outcome of the votes is that the Colorado…
With the closing of the Squeeze Inn, the sale of the Kentucky Inn, and Rocky Flats Lounge still in limbo, it seemed high time to update our list of metro Denver’s ten best dive bars, adding the White Horse to a roster that includes the Hangar, Bar Bar, Lakeview Lounge…
Tim “Barrel Man” McKernan, who died in 2009, was probably the most famous super fan that the Denver Broncos ever had; bearded and somewhat heavy-set, he attended every home game (missing only four) for thirty years. Banded Oak Brewing, which also has a love of barrels, had decided to honor…
As the Baker neighborhood has grown over the years, few things have stayed the same in the area. In fact, Dougherty’s owner Wes Ingram counts 22 new bars and restaurants that have opened in the immediate vicinity of his own establishment (technically on the West Washington Park side of the…
“Are you tired of this election? Have you had to block friends on Facebook? Are the polls, ‘rigged’?” asks Boulder’s Fate Brewing. Then it’s time to vote — with your beer. The brewery has concocted two choices and will use sales of the beers to predict the winner of the…
Naming a beer these days is the kind of thing that keeps brewers up at night. Should they just call their latest creation by its style — Odell IPA, for example — or should they try to give it a name that will stand out? If they do, will the…
“Park Hill is probably one of the most tightly knit neighborhoods in Denver,” says Chris Cunningham. But unlike the west side of town, where there are plenty of small business strips woven into the neighborhoods, Denver’s east-side is mostly just houses. So when Cunningham and his businesses partners found a…
Sarah McGill has been stopping in at neighborhood bars all over town for the past three months because, yes, she likes a good drink, but also to help Denverites new and old navigate their way to some fine establishments — many of which have served their neighbors good cheer for…
Denver’s dive bars are an endangered species. As developments continue to move into formerly forbidden territory, many lowbrow watering holes have dried up – or been cleaned up into welcoming neighborhood joints, and sometimes even renovated beyond recognition.
Colorado is so chock full of breweries that it seems like a beer drinker could head in any direction and find a few of them without even trying. Almost any direction, anyway. Head east out of Greeley or Aurora or the area around Colorado Springs, and you won’t find a…
