Bars & Breweries

Here are the fifty Denver bars we can’t live without, our chaser to Eat Here, our list of 100 favorite restaurants.

Let’s all acknowledge that the only drawback to happy hour is its timing: sure, you can score rounds of food and drinks for cheap for a couple of hours a day, but that’s assuming you can cut out of work during what’s really still the afternoon. Moreover, if happy hour…

Not everyone likes to have their picture taken. Some people — grumpy brewers in particular — would rather toil away in peace or solitude, and not as the subject of a photographer. Others enjoy the spotlight, even trying to pose for pictures instead of being themselves in front of the…

I used to frequent the Atomic Cowboy (the original one, at 3237 East Colfax Avenue) when I first moved to Denver more than ten years ago — and so did nearly everyone else in my Congress Park neighborhood. Back then, the Atomic Cowboy was just a simple but hip bar for…

A flight of wine presents three or more glasses of wine that share common characteristics served together for comparison and enjoyment. What constitutes a great flight? That’s the question I posed to Logan Silbert, wine director at Boulder’s Black Cat Bistro (1964 13th Street). There are several ways to assemble…

The Colorado Brewers Guild has elected four new members to its eleven-member board of directors — all of whom will get a lesson in civics as the legislative session begins at the state capitol this month. They are Carrie Knose of Living the Dream Brewing, Mike Lawinski of Fate Brewing,…

At some point in working-life trajectory, happy-hour transitions from being mostly an excuse to get sloshed and fed on the cheap to being mostly an excuse to take the last meeting of the day over a couple of drinks (or skip out on the last meeting entirely, especially on a…

Nothing gives us a warmer, fuzzier feeling than the thought of trying brand-new beers from some of Colorado’s 350-plus craft breweries — especially when the weather is cold and the nation’s mood is stormy. From coffee beers to hazy, New England-style IPAs to even a sake beer, there is a…

Since founding Casey Brewing & Blending in 2014, owner Troy Casey has focused primarily on the “Blending” part of his company’s name. Casey makes his wort — unfermented beer — at other mountain breweries, including Bonfire, Roaring Fork and Capital Creek, and then trucks it back to Glenwood Springs, where…

In Aurora’s Mission Viejo neighborhood, if you look hard enough in the back corner of a nondescript shopping center off South Chambers Road and East Hampden Avenue (across the street from the Jumpoline Family Fun Center), you just might find the hidden gem that is G’Ducks Bar. The sign for…

Crazy Mountain Brewery, which opened its pioneering Vail Valley taproom in 2010, closed the Edwards taproom suddenly over the weekend, saying it has plans to open a new location nearby. “Crazy Mountain’s location in Edwards, Colorado is now permanently closed. We are relocating our brewing production and will be opening…

It’s hard to remember a time when Colorado didn’t have dozens of options when it comes to canned craft beers, but that time wasn’t really very long ago. And the rest of the country? Well, other states are still catching up. But things are changing quickly, according to economist Bart…

After some logistical hiccups and growing pains during its first year in Breckenridge in 2017, the Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival, which took place January 4 through 6 at the Beaver Run Resort, has clearly re-settled itself in its new home, and the event — one of the nation’s…

Brrr, it’s cold out there — a cozy wine bar is just the place to take the edge off winter. Metro Denver has several wine bars with a warm, inviting ambiance and plenty of interesting vino. Here are five of our favorite cozy wine bars. BookBar 4280 Tennyson Street 303-284-0194…

Welcome to 2018. It’s time to fulfill some of those New Beers Resolutions, and it never hurts to get an early start. This month, you can get your fill of barrel-aged beery goodness at three different festivals focused on the style, or you can marvel at a brand new venue…

On the second-to-last day of 2017, I found myself at Sam’s Bar & Lounge (6801 Leetsdale Drive) with my roommate, celebrating my return to Denver after a holiday trip to the East Coast to visit my family. The day before New Year’s Eve is not known as a big bar-going day,…

If the Tweeter-In-Chief’s latest musings on North Korea have you thinking that the apocalypse could come sooner rather than later, then Lost Highway Brewing in Centennial has the beer for you. Although the message laid out on the back of the can of Mountain Coast IPA (and the map on…

Zephyr Brewing, which closed its River North brewery and taproom last July, will rise from the ashes on Friday at 4 p.m. when it reopens with a small new taproom and production facility at 1609 East 58th Avenue, Unit G. The new location features Zephyr’s original Colorado-made seven-barrel brewhouse, a butcher-block…

A year after moving away from its longtime home in Vail, the Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival is still adapting to new digs in Breckenridge. But the second iteration of the renewed festival, taking place January 4-6, at the Beaver Run Resort, should reflect some of what the festival’s…

No one every reads the introductions to lists like this. So, I could write just about anything here and no one will read it. And that’s okay — I don’t generally read the intros either. But just in case: here is how I came up with my list of thirty…

Earlier this month, the owner of Twenty Brew Taphouse in Westminster posted a plaintive note on Facebook stating the business was no longer sustainable and could close in early 2018. Part of the reason: a break-in last fall that resulted in the theft of rare beer, new furniture, a pool table…

Generally presented as a decadent dessert or a sugary treat with coffee, the éclair goes savory, sweet and multi-textured with Le Méridien’s LM Éclair program. Executive chef Tobias Burkhalter, who oversees all on-site kitchen operations at the new downtown hotel at 1475 California Street, in addition to the hotel’s full-service restaurant,…