Breckenridge Brewery: Yes they can

Cans of Breckenridge Brewery’s Avalanche Ale began rolling out of the plant this week and into liquor stores, just in time to catch the heart of the summer season. Breckenridge, which is borrowing its canning line from Ska Brewing Company in Durango, will also supply concert venues, golf courses and…

Where am I drinking?

I rarely drink rum, but during a recent dinner at an unnamed Denver restaurant whose food happens to pair very well with rum, I broke off my commitment to wine and beer and sipped several sniffers of the potent stuff, which seemed like a smart idea at the time, but…

Il Posto adds more hours to its happy time

Il Posto, the Italian trattoria at 2011 East 17th Street, already has expanded hours (at least, by Denver standards), offering dinner Sunday through Thursday until 11:30 p.m. and until midnight on Friday and Saturday, and now, the buzzy Uptown restaurant has stretched its daily happy hour to include an extra…

The Rackhouse Pub to open in former Heavenly Daze

Denver will get a new tap house later this summer when Eric Warner opens the Rackhouse Pub in the building recently purchased by Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey. Warner, the former head of Flying Dog Brewery (which moved from Denver to Maryland in 2008), says the place will have fifty beer handles…

Where am I drinking?

While some people are enjoying the great outdoors this weekend, others of us are enjoying the greatest of the indoors: dark, dissolute bars. Where am I drinking?…

Ginger Gimlet at LoHi SteakBar

The minute LoHi SteakBar opened its doors in the transformed North Star Brewery space last week, I was there to try a few of the cocktails that bar manager Dan Guaydacan has concocted. And no sooner had I sat down than Joe Vostrejs, the COO of Larimer Associates who’s behind…

Where are we drinking, redux

This hunka hunka burning love got his sunburn in the line of duty: Standing in the sun on the 16th Street Mall, hawking the very venue where we are now drinking…and gambling through the night, thanks to the passage of Amendment 50…

Stranahan’s gets ready to toast its new building

After two months of moving – and twelve- to fifteen-hour work days – Jess Graber, Jake Norris and the rest of the Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey crew are just about up and running in their new digs inside the former Heavenly Daze Brewery at 200 South Kalamath Street. And they’ve leased…

What a week: We need wine

Tonight, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.,Morton’s in the Denver Tech Center, 8480 East Belleview Avenue, is uncorking five different Argentinian Malbec wines for oenophiles willing to fork over $45 for plenty of sips, plus hors d’oeuvres, including cheeses, sliced tenderloin with chimichurri sauce, broiled sea scallops and miniature hot chocolate…

Denver’s Ritz-Carlton is puttin’ on a happy hour!

It was just a matter of time before the Ritz-Carlton, Denver’s swankiest slumbering pad at 1881 Curtis Street, realized that you’re only as good as your happy hour, which has never been one of the Ritz’s gazillion amenities – until now, anyway. Now, if you’re a guest at the hotel,…

The White Horse Bar is a genuine dive

“This here’s an Indian hangout,” Gary reveals to me and three friends just a few minutes after we’ve bellied up to the bar he’s tending. Although there are no Native Americans present right now, he says that during the March PowWow, the owner brings in three bouncers at night just…

Get sloshed at the Wynkoop’s single malt scotch tasting dinner

It’s not too late to make reservations for the single malt scotch tasting at the Wynkoop Brewing Company, 1634 18th Street, slated for Thursday, June 25 at 6:30 p.m. But if you want to sample the slew of Britain’s best single malts — MaCallan, Famous Grouse and Highland Park Scotch,…

Stirring victory for Anika Zappe

Members of the Colorado Bartenders Guild took first, second and third at the Bombay Sapphire regional cocktail competition on Tuesday night. Coming in third, Mike Henderson of TAG; second, Sean Kenyon of Steuben’s and Vesta Dipping Grill. And in first place? Anika Zappe, the musician/mixologist at Root Down. Zappe won…

Free beer still flowing for Coors employees

I know you’ve been worried. Or worried-ish. But rest assured that, unlike their peers up at Molson Coors in Canada, the approximately 2,800 employees at MillerCoors in Golden will continue to get their 864 free beers a year … for now. Last week, I read that Molson Coors — the…

Bijou Cocktail at Vesta Dipping Grill

A number of Denver restaurants have bars that just do everything right. The restaurateurs recognize the importance of a comfortable bar setting. The bartenders are professionals who understand the complexity of a cocktail — and the simple value of a substantial pour. And the chefs realize that it’s important to…

The Rustic Tavern

Eighty-two year-old JoAnn Turner, who bought the Rustic Tavern (5126 West 29th Avenue) with her husband 52 years ago and continues to oversee its daily operations, is showing me her photo albums. There’s so-and-so: His dog got hit by a car and we buried it out back. There’s Uncle Fred:…

Tequila twins take on California

Twins Will and Dave Elger, who were born in Mexico but are very much Denverites, worked in the tequila business for a decade before creating their own five years ago: Muchote Tequila. Nancy Levine first caught up with it last September at Lime XS, where she discovered it made a…

The Beer Buckle gets Twisted

The Beer Clothing Company, the Central City firm that graced the world with its (patent-pending) Beer Buckle, has landed a contract with Boston Beer (the maker of Sam Adams) to manufacture Beer Buckles branded with the Twisted Tea logo. The Beer Buckle is a genius creation: a belt buckle that…

Vesta Dipping Grill gets happy with its Colorado cocktails

For two hours last Friday, I was happy, happy, happy. The reason for my happiness? Vesta Dipping Grill, more specifically, the happy hour at Vesta Dipping Grill (1822 Blake Street), which runs Monday through Friday, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., and may very well be the happiest deal in Denver,…

Falling Rock Taphouse makes it a dozen

Falling Rock Taphouse, Westword’s Best Beer List winner three years in a row, celebrates its twelfth anniversary tonight with a party starting at 6 p.m. Enjoy free barbeque while it lasts, and try a couple pints of beer from Elysian Brewing, a Seattle-area brewery that is entering the Colorado market…