Ototo Follows a Tradition of Good Happy Hours on South Pearl

It’s hard to get a second chance in a business where, statistically speaking, close to half of your peers are doomed to failure. But everybody loves a good comeback story, especially one about a good restaurant. Ototo closed on South Pearl Street in 2012, but the Den Family held on…

Is Denver’s Brewery Boom Slowing Down?

Over the past five years, Denver has seen a brewery boom that took our collective breath away. In 2010, when Strange Brewing (not Strange Craft Beer) opened, there were only about eight beer-makers in town. By the end of 2015, there will be more than sixty. But the pace of…

Victoria Errio Puts Autumn in a Glass at the Nickel

Spice Pumpkin at The Nickel You know it’s autumn when pumpkin spice lattes appear. It’s a perennial event, like the changing colors of the leaves, that reflects the transition of seasons. As the delicate flavors of summer fade away, we turn to those nostalgic, warming hints of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon…

Scott Bauer Mixes a Smokey Bandito at Butcher’s Bistro

Smokey Bandito at Butcher’s Bistro “I look at cocktails as cooking,” says Scott Bauer, co-owner of Butcher’s Bistro on Larimer Street. “It is cooking. You’re taking many different things and putting them together to make the palate play.” Bauer opened Butcher’s Bistro last year as a meat-centric restaurant with a…

Crazy Mountain Brewery Gets Trippy With New Animal-Hybrid Labels

Bar menus and liquor-stores shelves have gotten crowded in recent years as the number of breweries in Colorado soars past the 300 mark — which is why it’s important to stand out, with both beers and logos. Crazy Mountain, the Edwards-based brewery that took over the former Breckenridge Brewery space…

Alex Kady’s Cocktail at Bar Fausto Continues a Tradition of Hospitality

 #9 at Bar FaustoEverybody wants to feel special. At the Populist, that special feeling comes after you’ve enjoyed a great dinner at the bar. The hour you spent lingering over the kitchen’s delicious small plates most likely included some stimulating conversation with your bartender, adding a sense of camaraderie to…

Ice Cream, Jazz, and Booze: What’s to Lose?

Four years ago Chris Taub was sitting in his downtown Denver apartment with a bottle of Patron and a carton of key lime ice cream. He imagined a creamy Margarita dessert, mixed them together and put the concoction in the freezer. His first batch of alcoholic ice cream didn’t come…

Cho77 Carts a Street Food Happy Hour to Baker

Happy Days had Laverne & Shirley. JAG had NCIS. Perfect Strangers had Family Matters. Some of these spin-offs were better than others, but they keep on crawling across our TV screens. Cho77 is chef-restaurateur Lon Symensma’s second, more casual take on Asian cuisine,  which I guess makes his upscale ChoLon Modern Asian Bistro Balki Bartokomous…