Arriving midway through a restaurant’s posted happy hour presents a 5:30 quandary: limit yourself to eating off the discounted menu or forsake the deals and indulge in a real dinner. Not everyone wants to cobble together a meal, Carl Weathers-style, but smart restaurateurs know how to satisfy everyone for a…
Big things can come in small packages, and Will Curtin and Chris Kirk plan to deliver some big things this Saturday when they open Banded Oak Brewing, one of the smaller taprooms in Denver. Located in a tiny former auto-body shop on Broadway, Banded Oak has room for just 38…
To celebrate New Belgium’s 25th anniversary, the Fort Collins brewery has collaborated with five other breweries around the country — Allagash, Firestone Walker, Hopworks Urban Brewery, Rhinegeist and Avery — to make several different versions of the iconic Fat Tire Amber Ale. For the all-Colorado Avery collaboration, the two breweries…
Next time you’re trying to get off the couch to burn some calories, try reaching for a beer — or get yourself nice and hung over to motivate a trip to the gym. The doctors agree; according to a national survey, drinking is associated with a ten-percent increase in “exercising…
Depending on how you think about it, Solitaire on West 32nd Avenue could be a stormy portent of new Denver or a warm reminder of the old. Owners Andrea Faulisi Ferguson and Mark Ferguson bought the space that housed neighborhood standard Highland Garden Cafe since 1994 and transformed it into…
Ska Brewing in Durango has added a new seven-barrel pilot brewing system at its World Headquarters, where it will be able to focus on experimental and one-off beers. The new system will free up the brewery’s primary system for its mainline beers, like Modus Hoperendi and Mexican Logger. Ska says…
The Hawthorne at LoHi SteakBar When he worked at a tequila bar, Stephen Malling enjoyed pairing tequila with blood-orange juice. But LoHi SteakBar, where he’s been running the bar for nearly a year, leans more toward whiskey than tequila. And that’s just fine with Malling. “I wanted to have a…
Chris Black’s passion for craft beer and the people who make, sell and drink it dates back for more than thirty years to his time as a salesman and later as the founder of Falling Rock Taphouse, which serves not just as Denver’s pre-eminent beer bar, but also as the…
What are the most romantic spots in the city? Visit Denver’s list of the top ten romantic places in the Mile High City features several restaurants, including Barolo Grill, Vesta Dipping Grill and perennial favorite Bistro Vendome, a sweet French spot tucked in the back of Larimer Square. Lindsey agrees…
Like The Post in Lafayette, Longmont’s Comida changed restaurant culture in it’s city for good. It’s success was based on the revolutionary idea that the thousands who moved to midsize cities to raise families and toil in the high-tech sector might like somewhere nice to eat. It was far from…
To celebrate American Craft Beer Week, which runs May 16 through may 22, the Boulder-based Brewers Association led a project called the the Biggest Small Beer Ever Made, in which brewers from all fifty states each made the same beer, using the same ingredients. At least two local breweries, Declaration Brewing…
Golden’s beer scene will head in a new direction late this summer when two of the former owners at Mountain Toad Brewing open their own spot, New Terrain Brewing, at the base of Table Mountain. The location, a vacant parcel next to a dog park and a bike trail, was…
After several years of searching, Colorado’s second largest craft brewery has finally found the right location in Denver for a major operation. Longmont-based Oskar Blues Brewery said Tuesday that it is planning to open a two-level restaurant, beer bar and music venue at 1624 Market Street, in the space formerly…
A new bar with an old theme is coming to historic downtown Golden. Miners Saloon, a project from partners Dean and Aimee Valdez and Noah Heaney, will open in mid-June at 1109 Miners Alley. The partners explain that the new bar and restaurant will aim to reflect Golden’s history as…
Restaurateur Brian Rossi opened Adelitas Cocina y Cantina at 1294 South Broadway three years ago, giving the Platt Park neighborhood a taste of Mexican eats and great margaritas. After the first year, Rossi attempted to open El Guapo in the space behind the cantina, where a big patio and a…
The French Bulldog at Mercantile Dining & Provision “When I taste this cocktail, I want to be out on a patio,” says Daryl Prior, bartender at Mercantile Dining & Provision. “Preferably if I could get it in pitcher form, that would be the best way to go.” He’s referring to…
Denver has grown a lot in the twenty years since Great Divide Brewing began making a pale ale named for the city, and next month the beer will change with the times as well. Great Divide, which first brewed Denver Pale Ale in 1996, has completely revamped the recipe, updating…
If you’ve been to a Colorado beer festival or party recently, then you’ve probably seen him behind his camera. If you follow Colorado breweries on Facebook or Twitter, then you’ve probably seen his work. For the past three years, Dustin Hall has been meticulously chronicling the state’s craft brewers with…
As Winston Churchill probably said, “Plan ahead, dingus.” I like to do my research on the happy hours I hit up, but I was drawn to Milk & Honey Bar-Kitchen despite my lack of happy hour recon or recent scuttlebutt from friends. The subterranean Larimer Square eatery certainly has never…
The annual Craft Brewers Conference wrapped up last weekend in Philadelphia: the roving annual event, hosted by the Boulder-based Brewers Association, is the biggest craft beer trade conference in the nation. This year’s CBC also included the World Beer Cup, a competition held every other year, and numerous Colorado breweries…
La Lumiere at Cafe Marmotte Sometimes it takes a cocktail to bring everything together. When Cafe Marmotte opened at South Downing Street and Alameda Avenue last September, general manager Rachel McQueeney sought to create a cocktail menu that bridged the gap between France and Colorado. After tasting the whiskey at…
I expected a lot from Osaka Ramen’s new happy hour. Jeff Osaka’s twin ramen-yas (in LoDo and Cherry Creek) claim to be “Denver’s best ramen shop(s).” A bold claim, but it’s no hyperbole; the steaming soups landed the duo on our list of the city’s superior noodle houses. A previous…
