On Saturday I was in Globeville looking for the White Owl, a bar that took over a sixty-year-old Slavic speakeasy named the Portulaca Cafe in 2008. The Owl had a reputation as a super-friendly, cash-only bar without food but with PBR on tap. As it turns out, the White Owl…
When I was growing up in the suburbs southeast of Denver, my favorite restaurant was Mr. Steak — which sounds less pathetic when you realize that this was the best chain restaurant in the area at the time. Sadly, the southern ‘burbs continue to be an independent restaurant wasteland. If…
If you can’t make it to Paris, this sweet little wine bar will do in a pinch. Can you guess where I’m drinking? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I drinking/eating posts is entered into a pool — and every Monday, we…
I stopped by Row 14 Bistro & Wine Bar, the stylish new restaurant in the Spire whose bar is stashed behind floor-to-ceiling, chain-link drapes, just before the Kentucky Derby — which was why the bartender’s suggestion of a Green Tea Mint Julep ($10) seemed like a sacrilege. Some things, like…
In Colorado, if you advertise that something is hot, it should be hot. Back east, hot may translate as tepid – but in Colorado, we’re tough, dammit. When we order something hot, we expect it to be frickin’ hot — especially at a Mexican restaurant. Last week I dropped by…
Driving to the mountains, I’d passed Kermitts Roadhouse, located on exit 244 off I-70, hundreds of times. But I’d never stopped off there — and then, after a fire broke out in the bar on New Year’s Eve and shut down the place, I thought I might have missed my…
This is one of my favorite spots to grab a classic cocktail — largely because this venue has been serving up those cocktails since shortly after they were invented. Can you guess where I’m drinking? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I…
Just outside of Denver, a restaurant/bar now occupies a former warehouse by the railroad tracks. And it made tracks with our Bloody Marys, which were extremely tasty, loaded with spice and booze, just the way I like them. All aboard! Can you guess where I’m drinking? Special bonus: Anyone who…
Smashburger is hoping that its milkshakes bring all the boys, and girls, to the yard. While Smashburger has had beer on its menu since the Denver-based chain got its start, the store that opened last fall in the Tabor Center also serves alcohol-spiked shakes and floats ($5.99) that are the…
Once the Stock Show leaves town, there are only a few places where a bartender wearing a cowboy hat doesn’t look ridiculous. But here — ka-ching! Can you guess where I’m drinking? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I drinking/eating posts is…
Want to feel like a big fish in a little pond? Grab a seat at one of the two (!) bars at Ocean Prime, which docked last month in a prime piece of real estate, right on the corner of Larimer Square. The downstairs bar alone is several times the…
They say that Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog, did not see his shadow in Pennsylvania this morning, which means it will be an early spring. For those of us who’ve suffered through Denver’s sub-zero temperatures these last few days, that’s hopeful news — but we also know from years past that…
As a kid, I loved almost everything about the Fort. The scale replica of Bent’s Fort — a trading post, army garrison and freight stop along the Santa Fe Trail — seemed like a completely awesome adult version of the couch-cushion forts we built when playing now-politically-incorrect Cowboys and Indians…
I love the pineapple-infused vodka served at a certain Denver steakhouse, love it so much that I’ve stopped in at every outpost of this chain I’ve found across the country. But recently, I discovered pineapple-infused vodka in a surprising location. Can you guess where I’m drinking? Special bonus: Anyone who…
Last weekend I booked a table at a new restaurant and got there early so that I could check out the bar. I asked for the cocktail menu and ordered a Rusty Nail from the bartender. He happily took my order, then took another woman’s order and got her beer…
When I was at Urban Outfitters the other day, I spotted a book called Looks Like a Cock, with photos of different items that look like, well, a cock. The sake holder pictured above was not in that book, but it could have been. Can you guess where I was…
My mom loves a good Old-Fashioned — and this was the best I’ve ever tasted. It was so good I couldn’t help but wonder if the altitude helps make this drink so special. Can you guess where I’m drinking? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the…
Taking flash photos in bars will often piss people off — and the drunk guy next to me definitely lost his patience as I tried to take the perfect shot of this bar. Which, in fact, made it the perfect shot. Needless to say, when you’re drinking here, you’re in…
We’re heading toward the shortest day of the year, and the light hitting this Bloody Mary is the sun coming up over Denver just after 7 a.m. — when the bar that poured it opens. Can you guess where I’m drinking? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer…
The Christmas tree of rosemary almost pushed me over the edge — but after I removed the greenery, I found this cocktail both festive and delicious. Can you guess where I’m drinking? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to the week’s Where am I drinking/eating posts is…
The Prohibition-style bar trend, which started in 2000 with Sasha Petraske’s Milk & Honey, finally reached Denver last month, when restaurateur Frank Bonanno (Mizuna, Bones, Luca d’Italia, Osteria Marco) and partner Adam Hodak opened Green Russell. The name’s inspiration is even older than Prohibition: William Greeneberry “Green” Russell came to…
I often wonder how my political science major and Spanish minor have played into my career. But Alexandra Parks, a bartender who’s now splitting her time between Lala’s Wine Bar and Frank Bonanno’s Green Russell, has no such concerns about her biochemistry degree. Although Parks looks more like head cheerleader…
