Star power definitely influences our restaurant choices. Knowingly or not, names like Frank Bonanno and Jennifer Jasinski are big neon signs in our minds, flashing “Quality.” And there are few bigger stars in this town’s scene than Keegan Gerhard, by virtue of having appeared in millions of living rooms on…
Ryan Skeels pops the bung on an oak bourbon barrel and peers into the hole with a flashlight. “Oh, yeah, there’s a lot still in there,” he says. A half a bottle’s worth of whiskey sits at the bottom, having leached out of the wood in the days since Laws…
“To anyone who gives a shit” — that’s how Renegade Brewing founder Brian O’Connell began his open letter concerning Anheuser Busch’s now infamous craft-beer-bashing Super Bowl commercial and its recent purchase of two craft breweries. “Buyouts have been a hot topic lately with the recent purchase of 10 Barrel Brewing…
As always, there was plenty to talk about before, during and after the Super Bowl, from football to the halftime show to the commercials. But one of this year’s Budweiser ads drew special attention from the 3,200 craft breweries across the country — and the people who drink their beer…
Black Walnut Apple Manhattan Tables 2267 Kearney Street 303-388-0299 Sometimes you just have to come back to the basics: jeans and a t-shirt, steak and potatoes, wine and cheese. If you depart from time-tested templates, it’s best to have a good understanding of the solid base that serves as your…
John Fiorilli expects to host a lot of guests in February — so many, in fact, that the head brewer for Mountain Sun’s string of pubs and breweries has prepared 590 kegs of beer for the company’s 22nd annual Stout Month. “That’s about 100 more than last year,” he says…
Denver has lost touch with its grungy roots. The city’s pre-boom years may not have seen as many amazing eating experiences as we have now, but what we had was character, damn it! At least, that’s what the old timers tell me. City, O’ City, the unofficial vegan capital of…
Dad & Dude’s Breweria in Aurora/Parker has been growing and changing quickly. The brewery said this week that it produced 1,016 barrels in 2014, a 116 percent increase over the previous year. The majority of that was Dad & Dude’s three canned flagship beers, Leaves of Lemongrass Wit and Ryeot…
Great Divide Brewing will bring back a new version of a very old beer this summer when it begins bottling and canning Whitewater Wheat, a hoppy wheat ale that will replace Heydey in its lineup. But the rollout will also speak as a quiet testament to how craft breweries can…
Golden has always been good to its beer makers, and Mountain Toad Brewing, which opened less than two years ago, is no exception. The brewery will build a new production facility this year with a thirty-barrel brewhouse, room for a canning line, and small taproom to complement its downtown location…
South Of The Butta TAG 1441 Larimer Street 303-996-9985 Just about any South American dictator would love the new butter-infused cocktail on the menu at TAG. It’s rich and unctuous and refreshing, and perfect for sipping on the veranda after an insurrection. When thinking about cocktails for her winter drink…
Matthew Fuerst is a collector. Last week he took a trip down Broadway to Angelo’s CDs, where he bought 120 8-track cartridges to play on the vintage 8-track stereo at Grandma’s House, the brewery that Fuerst opened last October. Filled with retro appliances, knick-knacks, games and decorations, Grandma’s House looks…
With the holiday season long gone, you may be hoping that everyone soon forgets how you behaved at your office holiday party. But, there’s still one group of people that might not have partied as much as you last month: Denver bartenders. In keeping with the industry tradition of putting…
It’s not easy to find a happy hour that doesn’t just make you feel full and happy — but one that challenges your palate. Leña, the new spot on the block on South Broadway, manages just this feat. Exploring the cuisine of Central and South America through a hipster-friendly glass,…
Falling Rock Taphouse will hold its annual Vintage Beer Sale this Saturday, January 24, starting at 5 p.m., unloading bottles for on-premise consumption only. “Going through the cellar and cooler we have found some lonely bottles. The last of their kind, the last of that year, some really special ones…
Matthew Osterman plans to open one of Denver’s largest breweries this month — but he won’t be making a single beer there for himself. Rather, Sleeping Giant will contract to brew beers for about a dozen craft breweries in Colorado and other western states. The brewery, which doesn’t have a…
Simple Complex and Clever Satchel’s On 6th 1710 E. 6th Avenue 303-399-2560 While it’s easy to see Prohibition as a golden age of American cocktails, the history of mixing booze dates back much farther. Before the eighteenth amendment to the Constitution outlawed the production and sale of booze in 1920…
I’ve passed by LoDo’s Venice Ristorante and Wine Bar many, many times over the years, writing it off as a generic expense account Italian restaurant — or hardly noticing it at all. It took the retro-chic revival of Union Station across the street and the promise of a great happy…
Food & Wine just offered a list of seven “breweries to watch” in 2015, and included Longmont’s Oskar Blues, along with a few other big names. And while the magazine focused on the brewery’s recent East Coast expansion, as well as a planned addition in Colorado, there’s another reason to…
Bartender Allison Widdecombe of Williams & Graham just took first place at the Woodford Reserve Manhattan Experience, a nationwide competition held at the Bowery Hotel in New York City on Monday. “I’ve been so close to winning a national cocktail competition,” says Widdecombe. “It was just a matter of time.”…
The Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Fetival celebrated its fifteenth anniversary in Vail last weekend with a series of seminars, tastings, dinners and a commercial tasting event that brings together some of the biggest, most rare beers in the country. But even as the three-day fest has grown, it has…
The Ward Cleaver Mercantile Dining & Provision 1701 Wynkoop Street 720-460-3733 You may have tasted Stuart Jensen’s cooking; he has worked in kitchens at Cholon Modern Asian Bistro, TAG and a few Boulder eateries. But he’s since transitioned to his current role behind the bar and is now bar manager…
