At 8 p.m. tonight, Suite Two Hundred, the upscale club up in in Larimer Square, will be the site of a bartender competition hosted by Hpnotiq — you know, the blue, 35-proof liqueur made from vodka, cognac and fruit juices. ‘Tenders will compete for their drink to become the official…
El Grito — the day when Mexicans across the world commemorate that country’s independence from Spanish rule — isn’t until September 16, but Richard Sandoval, chef-owner of Tamayo, La Sandia and Zengo, is getting an early start on all the celebrations. Beginning today and continuing though Sunday, September 20, all…
For proof that summer’s scorch is coming to a screeching halt, all you have to do is look to Tambien, the Cherry Creek Mex in the city at 250 Steele Street that’s been turning out rockabilly and ribs to the faithful every Sunday since April 26. This was one of…
Judge Nancy Levine, at your service. The bartending competition will come to order! Bartending competitions are one of the many things I love about the spirit industry (you don’t see busboy competitions, do you?). And I particularly love judging them, watching bartenders perform their magic within the limitations of the…
It may be in the mid ’80s today, but it will be winter before we know it. So guess which patio I’m sitting on, enjoying the last of summer and a delightful peach, plum and nectarine infused martini?…
“Oh, we have to leave,” Brian says, not thirty seconds after stumbling into Swanky’s and finding me alone at the bar. “Immediately.” Brian is wearing a vintage Chicago Bears sweater, the white version of the blue one Mike Ditka sports in the now-infamous middle-finger photo. Swanky’s is a Green Pay…
Late last night, after hitting up a party where the only beverage being poured was vodka (a poison I avoid at all costs), I stopped for a glass of wine at one of my favorite neighborhood bars, a spot with a fantastic late-night happy hour and more than one rose…
Anika Zappe is on a tear. Yes, she still has her band, Hemi Cuda, although its last show is coming sometime this year. “Had to make more time for cocktology,” she says. Zappe has been Root Down’s bar manager since the restaurant opened in December 2008, and the bar is…
The cocktails that the original Mad Men drank are back. Classic cocktails are the new, new thing — and the fact is, these old standards generally taste better than all those contemporary cocktails. They taste more like alcohol and less like bananas, pomegranates and apples; they taste more sophisticated. Depending…
This is part two of Nancy Levine’s interview with Sean Kenyon, the bar manager at Steuben’s. You can read the first part of Levine’s interview with Kenyon here. What do you think of bartending school? I am not a believer in generic bartending school as a way to get into…
At 6 p.m. tonight, the original Cru Wine Bar, 1442 Larimer Street, is hosting an Australian wine tasting with grape guru Stephen Chambers, whose collection of fortified Australian wines will be paired with dishes from Cru exec chef, Erasmo Casiano. The four-course dinner, priced at $65 per person, excluding tax…
What famous Wyoming bar is serving me a Jack and Coke — amidst all the brands and dead heads?…
It seems oxymoronic to call a guy covered in tattoos a geek, but when it comes to cocktails, Sean Kenyon is the biggest geek in town. He has taken his engineering coursework and applied it to the engineering of cocktails, with infusion experimentation and enhancements behind the bar a daily…
What’s geekier than having a fantasy football draft party at your house? Having it at a bar! And we’ve got three great suggestions for places to go to get your fantasy football geekosity on bigtime. For starters, there’s any one of the Tavern Hospitality Group’s five Denver restaurants (Tavern Uptown,…
Stomp Them Grapes, central Denver’s only brew-at-home beer-and- wine store, is moving this week from 2563 15th Street to 4731 Lipan Street, near I-70. But the added driving distance will pay off in added inventory. “We’ve outgrown the space. We’re going from a miserable 860 square feet to 4,800 square…
While it’s still a few weeks before we bid a formal farewell to summer, the wine geeks at Lala’s Wine Bar + Pizzeria, 410 East Seventh Avenue, see no reason to wait, which, in part, explains why the restaurant and watering hole is hosting an end-of-summer pinot party tonight from…
The combination of liquor licenses and life’s errands has always struck me as clever. In college, I used to frequent a laundromat with a full bar; while grocery shopping, I’ve been known to crack open a near beer while slugging down the aisles. If I wanted to drink during a…
Padded bubble chairs, mild-mannered bartenders, cool crowds and an Enomatic Wine Serving System that allows oenophiles to taste eighteen wines by the ounce simply by swiping a card and pressing a button: say hello to the Living Room, the latest bar and restaurant to pop on Broadway — 1055 Broadway,…
Ky Belk doesn’t judge who’s coming in the door at Elway’s in Cherry Creek. His best tip was a thousand bucks one night from a guy wearing a Green Bay Packers jersey. And while he won’t say it, I’m sure that some of the flashiest people at the bar have…
Small plates, big flavors. Where am I drinking — and eating — and drinking?…
Tonight, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., the Wynkoop Brewery, 1634 18th Street, is hosting a beer and tequila tasting dinner with tequila honcho Modesta Catagena, an agave expert with Brown Forman, one of the largest wine and spirit companies in the country. To complement those half dozen tequilas and craft…
Who doesn’t love an occasional gin and tonic? During the summer in landlocked Denver, a gin and tonic makes me feel like part of the yachting set, like I should be wearing Docksiders and screaming, “Hoist the mainsail! Batten down the hatches!” The gin and tonic is an invention of…
