Quick question: What’s more fun than a couple thousand members of the traveling press getting tanked on free beer and then shoved on a rollercoaster? Answer: Almost anything. Yeah, I get it: This wasn’t supposed to be work. This was just supposed to be fun — a chance for the…
Restaurants across Denver have been booked for real political parties during the DNC. All the usual suspects — the Capital Grille, the Buckhorn Exchange, Dixons — have been contracted, and in some cases closed, for private events. And then there are the unusual suspects. Yesterday, I was stunned to see…
Cindy Adams. Sure, I heard rumors that Oprah was in the crowd at last night’s Celebration with Altitude welcoming party, and also Jon Stewart. But the only verified, bona fide celebrity sighting was of New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams — being turned away from the VIP party! The…
I thought I’d seen everything just before midnight on Friday, when suddenly there were swarms of available cabs around 15th and Platte streets. Denver is many things, but it’s never been a town where you can hail a cab…until now. On Saturday, August 23, the only thing more plentiful than…
Quick shout-out to Biker Jim Pittenger. who’ll be manning the hot dog cart down in Skyline Park during the inevitable clusterfuck of the DNC. Though he did put things off ‘til the last minute, even he has gotten in on the spirit of the thing and come up with a…
Quench your thirst on the way to Invesco. First things first: No beer. But all other concessions will be open for business at Invesco Field at Mile High on Thursday, August 28, as documented in this Rocky Mountain News piece — and they’ll be the only option for people who…
The Sugar House Lounge, at 1395 West Alameda Avenue, marks its first birthday this weekend, with a family and friends party Friday, August 23, and a more, well, adult party on Saturday night — “a huge, crazy, crowded scene,” owner Scottie Ewing promises. And there’s more sugar in store for…
“The West is not a place,” Jack A. Weil would say. “It’s a state of mind.” Jack A. entered that state for good in 1928, when the then-27-year-old salesman for Paris Garters drove his brand-new Chrysler Roadster across the plains to Denver. Born in Evansville, Indiana, the son of a…
Back in 1908, when Jack A. Weil was just seven and Denver was less than fifty years old, this city hosted its first Democratic National Convention. Town boosters brought snow down from the mountains for a snowball fight, other enterprising businessmen printed a booklet outlining the city’s more risqué enterprises,…
When the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee decided to display The American Presidential Experience: A Non-Partisan Tribute to Presidential History in a parking lot at Invesco Field at Mile High, they didn’t realize Invesco would be making some history of its own as the site of Barack Obama’s acceptance speech…
Ten things you should know before you step out into one of this city’s 300 annual days of sunshine. 1) John Denver is not from Denver — so don’t blame us for “Rocky Mountain High.” In fact, the former Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. never even lived in Denver, although he…
Marilee Utter. Although Denver would seem to be all DNC, all the time, it appears that the city will carry on after August 28. Evidence of this came in an August 19 Rocky Mountain News story, which reported that the Urban Land Institute has recommended the DPS facility in the…
The Wine Loft, a link in a Louisiana-based chain that may have the most irritating web site in the world (unless you like a lot of techno music and little information – see for yourself here), just opened last week at 1527 Wazee Street, in the former home of Pharmaca…
A Cote has all the quirky, dream-of-Paris charms of Z, and when it opened this past January, it quickly became a destination in its own right. Now the two restaurants fill in tandem — generally within an hour of opening – and stay that way. For hours. In the meantime,…
John Hickenlooper finally reveals his secret identity at DIA. Finally! That mysterious, third voice on the DIA trains — the one that doesn’t belong to blustery Alan Roach (now the voice of the Broncos rather than the Rockies) or sultry Adele Arakawa — has been officially identified. Mayor John Hickenlooper…
Peach Street bourbon’s secret ingredient is Olathe sweet corn. Peach Street Distillers, a company based in Palisade, has just released the first bourbon — legal, that is — ever made in Colorado. Peach Street already makes Goat Vodka and Jackelope Gin, and its Peach Street Distillers’ Straight Bourbon Whiskey had…
Gaetano’s opens its new patio with a party
You’d think that one Brazilian steakhouse might be enough for all of LoDo — much less a three- block stretch of Wynkoop Street. But then you wouldn’t be thinking like Hines, the international real estate firm that just announced that Fogo de Chão Churrascaria has signed a lease for 12,610…
An image from The Mother’s Bones. Before all the political theater comes to town, we have some real theater. At the Boulder International Fringe Festival, now under way at several Boulder venues, at any moment you might find yourself trapped watching a miserably amateurish performance — or stunned and delighted…
Land here, Dems. I just made a fast trip out of DIA, which has been spruced up in anticipation of the hordes of politicos and pundits heading to town this weekend. Acres of carpet have been replaced (and recycled in the greenest way possible), the gift stores are stocked with…
Tony’s, Tony’s, Tony’s! The sign is up across the street: Tony’s Market opening early 2009. It’s a sight for sore eyes at Westword, where for a month now we’ve been staring across the street at 950 Broadway, with its boarded-up broken glass and the remains of the Planned Parenthood sign,…
Welcome to Mel’s. July’s heat dried up the outdoor patios, but now that temperatures have cooled off, patios are heating up again. Promising to be among the hottest in town: Mel’s Anti-Bistro at 1120 East Sixth Avenue. Charlie Master reports that the new patio opened this week, and it’s already…
