No Turf Wars at Invesco Field

Eighty grand. Obama on the mic. Think there might be a goosebump or two? While we waited for Howard Dean and other Democrats to finish their tour of Invesco Field at Mile High, standing under an incredibly blue sky on the green, green turf, several of us took off our…

Week Three in Hell’s Kitchen: Drunk and Disorderly

Jason Sheehan is no fan of Hell’s Kitchen, but he watches it. And now he’s playing it, as he describes here and here. Now on to week three: At a certain point in my career, working drunk (or worse) became a job skill rather than a liability. True, it was…

The Sorrow and the PETA

How do you like your summer internships, kids? The jobs have to be better than the one assigned to Cassandra Callaghan, who’s apparently acting as a piece of meat all summer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. A piece of meat who can write, as Cassandra proves with…

Racines: A Fallback to Fall in Love With

It is not yet noon, and already we’re thinking about escaping for the day. But not just escaping from the office — escaping to a very specific spot, our go-to spot when we know we want to meet friends, and don’t want to bother negotiating where that meet might be…

Bloody Hell! Get This Man a Bloody Mary!

Rarely have we received a more maudlin missive than this napkin, on which Drinking Guy outlined his need for a decent Bloody Mary. He needs your help! Anyone know of a great Bloody Mary bar — preferably where Drinking Guy can make his own Mary?…

Gaslamp Grill Goes Dark

It’s lights out, nobody home at Scott Tallman’s Gaslamp Grill. After eighteen months in business, Tallman decided last week that he just couldn’t keep his restaurant at 9199 West Alameda Avenue open any longer. (He’d been paying some of the bills out of his own pocket for the past several…

In With the Inn Crowd at Panzano

Yes, Panzano is a hotel restaurant (it’s tucked into the Hotel Monaco), but chef Elise Wiggins has also made this a favorite go-to spot for locals, who rely on it both fast business lunches and long, leisurely special occasion meals. But the daily happy hour (from 3-6 p.m.) featured in…

Ten Things Possibly Found in the McCain Party Box

Last week, the Republican National Committee offered a sneak peek of the “party boxes” that will be for sale at the convention in St. Paul. The boxes, which are 2”x3”, tops, look too small to include actual “party” items like noisemakers or hard liquor. Chances are that they’re just full…

Jay Leno Reaps the Whirlwind

So the date of Jay Leno’s termination — and a termination is what this is, make no mistake—has now been set. On May 29, 2009, Jay Leno will sign off for his last Tonight Show, and Conan O’Brien will take over the following Monday, June 1. And so the crown…

There’s Something About Mary’s

One of the most awesome things about this job is that I never have to worry about who’s buying the cheeseburgers. I just have to worry about finding new cheeseburgers for my boss to buy. That’s no knock against Denver — God knows, this city has more burger joints than…

Jared Polis and Me

“I love the things you say. I love the way you are a part of my life every day.” Every day, I think about Jared Polis, one of three Democratic candidates for Congress in the second district. I think about him not because of the myriad political missives that his…

Moon Time Chills Out

Moon Time, at 846 Broadway, is the second office of Westword’s editorial department, the nearby bar where we go when we need peace and quiet and…um…beer. But while the beer is cold, the air there rarely is — and so we had mixed feelings when we stopped by at 5:30…

Cheap, and Chilly: Brandon’s to the Rescue

It was hot, really hot, and heading to a nearby patio for some nice, cold beers and maybe a margarita on the rocks, or two or three, seemed like the only reasonable course of action. But our go-to spot by the office was unexpectedly closed — for air-conditioning work, ironically…

Join the Lunch Bunch at Billy’s

While other restaurants are cutting back on hours, Billy’s Inn is expanding. Open just over two weeks (that’s reopened — the original Billy’s opened more than 75 years ago, and just shut down earlier this year for a change in ownership and a massive renovation), Billy’s will add lunch to…

We All Scream for Little Man Ice Cream

Sign of the times: The hot evening of July 6, that fateful day when Colorado liquor stores could finally open on Sunday, the lines were much longer outside Little Man Ice Cream than they were at Tejon Liquors, just a block away. And with temperatures slated to hit triple digits…

Cool to Colorado Green Chile

The new issue of Westword includes excerpts of a letter from one R. Rubio of Phoenix, which offers a flavor of a visitor’s view of the city — as well as a taste of what bad service can do for a town’s reputation. Here’s the entire letter: I am visiting…

Welcome Back to Billy’s Inn!

Billy’s Inn is now open, and looks to become as popular with this generation of northwest Denver dwellers as it was with seven decades of previous regulars (you can find their mugs here). But unlike the last incarnation of Billy’s, this one has a kitchen (the last one closed in…

Flipping the Bird at the Army

How convenient! Even as Representative Wes McKinley and southeastern Colorado ranchers were complaining about the Army’s revised plans to take part of Pinon Canyon for a training facility, a ranch family was revealing that they had had found a rare, albino eagle on their Pinon Canyon property. After KOA radio…

Chef and Tell!

TV or not TV? Top Chef season four contestants Antonia Lofaso and Ryan Scott will be in Cherry Creek tomorrow as the seventh stop on “Top Chef: The Tour,” a nationwide promotional trip featuring a customized traveling “Top Chef” 18-wheeler semi-truck with a state-of-the-art kitchen. The former chef/contestants will offer…

Animal Instincts

My daughter is into animals. Especially the cute ones infesting the kingdom of YouTube (and in particular the ones found on the YouTube serial, Ultra Kawaii, which she robs off the Internet and e-mails to everyone she knows in the whole entire world. And why should I mention this, bringing…