Many people tell me they dislike sake. When I mention sake to neophytes, they complain that it’s just hot turpentine served in small, white vases — or, worse, that concoction of bad sake and Chambord called Purple Haze. But saying you don’t like sake based on this dreck is like…
Watching Chine inspect wine glasses — the way he delicately scoops each stem from the counter, elevating it high above his head and rotating it below the track lights at the recently reopened Gelman’s Restaurant & Bar (2911 West 38th Avenue) — is like watching poetry emerge from the page…
With the Great American Beer Festival opening the taps tomorrow, the time is right to clear up some lexiconic confusion we’re having with Drunk of the Week columnist Drew Bixby. Says he: “Shitcanned is just one of many adjectives I use for drunk.” Says we: “Shitcanned” means cut off –…
More beer! Tickets for the 27th annual Great America Beer Festival – which starts this Thursday – are sold out, but you can still get in on some beer-drinkin’ action. Falling Rock Taphouse, 1919 Blake Street, will host a series of spillover events all week long for anyone who is…
Out of Hibernation. Yes, it’s only October 2, but unlike Christmas decorations and glossy newspaper ads, holiday beers never…NEVER…come too early. This is my favorite time of the year for hops, barley and malt, and one Colorado brewery has already tapped special seasonal releases, with more on the way. Yesterday,…
Some locations seem jinxed, most notably 410 East Seventh Avenue. Just a block away from such neighborhood powerhouses as Benny’s and Govnr’s Park, this spot would seem like a gimme for any restaurateur. At one point, it was home to the infamous Sacre Bleu, where I spent far too many…
Daniel’s mad because he can’t bring booze into the green room. “I mean, what the fuck?” he whisper-screams into my left ear as local singer-songwriter Ryan.Mad.son channels Howie Day to a half-dozen people standing by the stage of the Walnut Room (3131 Walnut Street). “The whole hallway of rehearsal spaces…
Wonder twin powers activate! Shape of an agave plant. Form of a hangover. At Lime XS, I recently met up with Dave Elger, who’s launched MuchoTE Tequila with his brother, Will. Born in Mexico City but now based in Denver, the twins have taken on the super-heroic task of making…
They’re everywhere, the foot soldiers of the political process — clipboards and pens in hand, earnest fervor oozing from their eyes and dripping from every “Are you registered to vote, man?” The answer, from me and almost everyone, it seems, is a piqued-though-not-pissed “Yep.” Not so from an off-balanced gentleman…
I’d actually forgotten how much I both love and hate election years. Hate: I’ve been tasting my shoelaces a lot these days, since I keep putting my feet in my mouth. I’d just assumed that most of my friends would find Sarah Palin’s ultra-religious, conservative social views as despicable as…
My buddy Darren will never be featured on a televised episode of American Idol — not because he’s a lousy singer, but because he’s not lousy enough. Granted, he won’t be charting on Billboard or CMJ anytime soon, either, but that doesn’t say shit about his ability to nail Bowie’s…
In the bizarro world of corporate coolness that is Maloney’s Tavern (1432 Market Street), packs of Marlboro Lights cost $9, all finger food arrives in wax-paper-lined metal buckets on strangely shaped porcelain plates and accompanied by perfectly portioned sides, policy allows Top 40 songs to make only one appearance every…
It’s not the volume of the screams that’s so troubling; it’s the pitch. “Shrill” is the first adjective that comes to mind, then “piercing.” We’re sitting on the back patio of Sengers on the Fax (3014 East Colfax Avenue), trying not to stare as a table of sequined tank tops…
Although I’m an aficionado of almost every kind of alcohol, I’m not much of a beer drinker. There are only a few circumstances when I enjoy a cold beer: while watching a baseball game, after a really hard day of skiing, on a boat, paired with sake, and when I’m…
Obamanator gets all political. Maibock lagers are a German-style beer, traditionally brewed in the spring and early summer and given a name that ends in “ator.” So even though it’s closer to fall, the folks at Wynkoop Brewing Company decided to make the beer now because they really wanted to…
The Berkshire is pretty direct about its love of pork products. The brunch menu includes the quote “I put bacon on my bacon,” and a brilliant yet unintelligible line from Elvis written between the men’s and women’s bathrooms reads, “I like pork chops and country ham, creamed potatoes, stuff like…
I’m playing beer pong against a pirate, and it’s not going very well. Aim is an issue, certainly, but trajectory is what’s causing me the most trouble: My ping-pong balls are either missing the table altogether or rolling around the rims of the red plastic cups before plummeting off the…
Rock Bottom should stay out of politics. Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery was bumpin’ on Monday, August 25, at lunchtime, full of business crowd regulars, gawking Denver-tourists-in-their-own-town, and credential-clad delegate/journalist/politician types. And although it wasn’t the beer of the day, Rock Bottom, at 1001 16th Street, was pouring its Political…
Here’s to what ales you! I’ve heard of at least four Colorado beers that have been brewed specifically for the Democratic National Convention and the election season in general – something that took a lot of forethought, since brewing beer is a lengthy process. As a sucker for politics, seasonal…
Jump on the bandwagon! Others may bitch about the traffic and inconvenience, but I’m incredibly enthusiastic about the Democratic National Convention coming to town, almost apoplectic at the idea of Denver being the center of the country. Maybe this is a holdover from my time living in New York City;…
I am not one of the forty or fifty proud sporting “TEACHERS Make the Difference” or “Ask a Teacher!” stickers on their blouses and button-ups, trading in blue tickets for draft beers and tall cocktails, grazing around a spread of meat and cheese and veggies while carrying conference materials under…
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…
