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…
I grew up in Denver and remember seeing the Billy’s Inn sign at the corner of 44th and Lowell forever — but somehow, I’d never made it inside this iconic bar. The building got its start as a service station in the ’20s; in 1933, Billy and Judy Smith turned…
One of the first things I notice about Lodo’s Bar & Grill (1946 Market Street) is that many of the female employees have curves, and I don’t mean the humps made by a pair of 34Ds over a size-two waist. I mean hips, and asses that explain themselves. This actually…
When I was a teenager looking for trouble, my friends and I would head down to Larimer Square, then the only thing happening at night downtown, and sometimes even venture past the 1400 block of Larimer Street. A naïve suburbanite still in braces, I was always shaken at how quickly…
A favorite bar band of mine from the Midwest sings an audience-participation song about Leinenkugel’s beer that has just four lines: “I like my Leinenkugel’s beer (Woo-hoo!)/So does everybody here (Woo-hoo!)/If you don’t like it, you’re kind of queer (Woo-hoo!)/I like my Leinenkugel’s beer (Woo-hoo!).” I’m typically so drunk by…
My heart goes out to multi-billion-dollar brewing giants MillerCoors (which recently completed its merger) and Anheuser-Busch (which is about to be taken over by Belgium’s InBev). No, really, it’s hard to look small when you are that big. Not that it has kept the beer companies from trying. The Coors…
Tucked into a booth at Benny’s Restaurante y Tequila Bar, we were a couple of beers into our late brunch Saturday when we spotted Benny Armas, whose namesake restaurant has become such an integral part of Denver’s dining scene. Benny’s recently opened a new patio on the Grant Street side…
We card under 40. Did you hear about Washington governor Chris Gregoire? She and her staff went to a bar in downtown Olympia called Hannah’s, and the man checking the door said that the 61-year-old couldn’t get in without an ID. Even after Gregoire’s staff told the bouncer that she…
I didn’t technically jump into a swimming pool full of whiskey Wednesday afternoon, although I drank from one – and my head hurts almost as much as if I had cannonballed off the diving board. No, what I did was attend a little party thrown by Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey (2405…
No OGs, new Gs or dirtballs allowed. No sluts, sports fanatics or dudes who love the sight of their own pectorals. Definitely no one coming straight from the gym. You clowns are not welcome at Lucky Strike Lanes (500 16th Street), at least not according to the dress code —…
