La Lumiere at Cafe Marmotte Sometimes it takes a cocktail to bring everything together. When Cafe Marmotte opened at South Downing Street and Alameda Avenue last September, general manager Rachel McQueeney sought to create a cocktail menu that bridged the gap between France and Colorado. After tasting the whiskey at…
I expected a lot from Osaka Ramen’s new happy hour. Jeff Osaka’s twin ramen-yas (in LoDo and Cherry Creek) claim to be “Denver’s best ramen shop(s).” A bold claim, but it’s no hyperbole; the steaming soups landed the duo on our list of the city’s superior noodle houses. A previous…
The owners of Eddyline Brewery in Buena Vista have opened a new brewery and pizzeria in Nelson, New Zealand. “Molley and I have a vision for the Eddyline brand to grow internationally with individual Eddyline brewpubs serving as gateways to incredible places around the world,” co-founder Mic Heynekamp wrote in…
Wooden barrels look pretty on the outside, but it’s on the inside where the action happens. And it’s those chemical reactions where Zach Nichols has found an attraction. Nichols is in the process of creating Cellar West Artisan Ales, a Boulder brewery that will focus solely on oak barrel-fermented beers…
Passion Fruit Sunrise at Root Down Root Down’s bar manager, Nick Feely, has been looking back lately. When he and his bar team began to come up with recipes for Root Down’s latest cocktail menu, Feely directed their focus to a past era of cocktails. Classic recipes were broken down,…
After school, my friends and I used to run to the convenience store for the candy and sodas we were denied at home. When the lunch bell rang, we’d pile into a friend’s SUV and try to get a few Double Stacks before class started up again. A plea to…
Laura Lodge needs a beer. A big beer. After several months of stress and of searching for a new location for one of Colorado’s marquis beer festivals, Lodge and her brother, Bill, have found a new home at the Beaver Run Resort and Conference Center in Breckenridge. That means that…
Joyride Brewing in Edgewater has hired Chris Marchio, formerly of Fiction Beer Company, as its new head brewer. Marchio, who was featured in a recent Westword story about hazy, New England-style IPAs, will be tasked with helping to expand the already large lineup of beers at Joyride. “We are thrilled to…
When Rob Kevwitch opened Grist Brewing in late 2013, he picked Highlands Ranch for one reason: “I grew up here,” he says, and “this neighborhood needed a brewery, dammit. I was so tired of driving to Denver.” But even after two successful years, an expansion and the implementation of rigorous…
Indian Summer at Adrift Last Autumn, Paul Larkin was playing around with cocktail recipes for a new drink menu at Adrift, experimenting with flavors in the South Broadway bar’s tiny kitchen as the line cooks were setting up for dinner service. They told him to make a drink out of…
We’re hungry for validation here in the Queen City of the Plains, and when someone from either coast bestows it on a local institution, we flock to be part of the conversation. With a James Beard award, national plaudits, and a Ruth Reichl bump, Rioja and its owners Jennifer Jasinski and Beth Gruitch…
Brewery lawn games have taken on a whole new meaning at Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora, which recently completed a nine-hole disc golf course outside of its North Dock taproom and production facility. For help in building the nautical-themed course, which has alternate tee boxes for eighteen holes, the brewery…
The Jalapeno Rally at Bellwether At Bellwether, you can get a haircut, a cappuccino, a cocktail and a motorcycle all at the same time. The masculine vibe of the collaborative space centers around whiskey; in fact, Bulleit bourbon flows straight from a tap behind the bar. Bar manager Demi Deherrera…
The history of rail travel in Denver goes back a long way, to the 1860s, when the first trains began pulling into town. But the history of beer goes back even further, to 1859, when thirsty gold miners flooded the area and German brewmeisters followed. The two just seem to…
When Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project got its start in Denver in 2012, the brewery raised money with a members-only Cellar Reserve club: to belong, fans coughed up $300 in exchange for guaranteed access to some of the brewery’s limited-release projects. Although most of the beers were excellent and helped…
Denver is losing some of its great dive bars, as development gobbles up the buildings that have long housed these down-and-dirty saloons. Some of the city’s classic watering holes have dried up altogether; others have been renovated out of true dive status, although they remain excellent bars (for examples, see…
Third-generation Colorado native Sean Smiley founded State 38 Distilling in 2013 with the goal of being the only all-agave distillery in the United States. And for the past three years, that’s been true; State 38 currently offers a lineup of three agave spirits — blanco, reposado and añejo — as…
Just about every brewery in Colorado makes an IPA, or two, or ten. Most are decent. Many are outstanding. But recently, the definition of what makes a good IPA has gotten a little murky. A couple of events this week, including one tonight at Jake’s Brew Bar in Littleton, will…
It’s often best to keep it casual, whether you’re on a second date or introducing your parents to your polyamorous anarchist collective. There’s no point in getting dressed up and worked up when you can take it easy. Since 1933, Billy’s Inn has existed as a living invitation to low-stakes…
As part of its 25th anniversary celebration this year, New Belgium Brewing “is going back to its roots” by teaming up with four breweries from “old” Belgium to make four Lips of Faith collaboration beers — one of which will be released during each quarter of 2016. The beers are…
Flor de Mayo at El Chingon Valintina Panic loves foam. While attending bartending school in 2010 in her native Serbia, she was particularly fascinated by a class on making foams out of spirits. Shortly after arriving in Denver in 2013, she got a job as a bartender when El Chingon…
Coors Field is surrounded by independent craft breweries — there are more than a dozen within a one-mile radius of the ballpark. But inside, the story has been very different. Although Coors Field is home to the only working brewery at a Major League stadium, Blue Moon Brewing at the…
