The Fiffitini at the Palm “I’ve been doing this drink for about eight years now,” says Chad Skrbina of a drink that isn’t even on a menu at The Palm. Nearly a decade ago, a group of people wandered into his bar and requested that he make a drink just…
For the bartenders who worked everyone else’s holiday party, it’s time to celebrate the season. On Monday, the Colorado Bartenders’ Guild hosts its fourth annual Holiday Hangover, a yearly fundraiser and membership drive — and a chance to mingle and de-stress after a busy holiday season. “It’s a great opportunity…
The stars came out to shine, as they do every year, at the Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival, which took place earlier this month at the Cascade Resort in Vail. Some were established super giants like Lost Abbey, Avery Brewing and Great Divide. Others were rising stars, like Casey…
With the acrylic barely dry from its 2015 opening, the Art Hotel has a bit of swagger in 2016, managing to offer the kind of moneyed, cosmopolitan experience that you’d expect from a hotel in one of America’s urban centers. It’s a kind of feeling rarely attempted and a potential…
Longmont’s Oskar Blues Brewery, which was partially purchased by an East Coast private equity firm last year, revealed this week that it has experienced yet another year of double-digit sales growth, surpassing 30 percent over the previous year. Part of that growth came about as a result of the fact…
Before he became the governor of Colorado, before he became the mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper was a publican and a craft brewer. So it came as no surprise when the Colorado Governor’s Mansion became the first gubernatorial residence in the nation to boast a draft-beer system, back in March 1994. Since…
Winter in Trinidad at Finn’s Manor “A lot of people don’t associate Denver as a rum market,” says Robert Sickler, “but I am damn determined to make it one.” As co-owner of Finn’s Manor, Sickler has embedded his love of rum deep into his cocktail menu. Apparently, it’s catching on…
I love double-decker restaurants. Along with the pubs and bistros of London, often nested below street level (not to mention the cantinas of Cloud City, peacefully hovering above the gas giant Bespin), two-level joints add a unique dimension to the urban dining experience. And if 1515 Restaurant’s moniker had a…
When it comes to the public’s perception of beer branding and tasting, hops is usually the big star, while malt often takes on more of a supporting role. And yeast – well, yeast is often relegated to doing the dirty work behind the scenes. But yeast has the most important job…
Crazy Mountain Brewing said this week that it plans to open its own importation company in the United Kingdom so that it can better manage and control how it sends beer to Europe. “Establishing an importing company headquartered in the UK will allow the brewery to increase their global presence…
Dave Thibodeau is skeptical. The co-founder of Ska Brewing in Durango has been drinking beer and helping to create unusual beer recipes for a long time. He’s tried everything from barrel-aged barleywines to sours to milk stouts and double IPAs, but there’s a certain style that has never really worked…
Arvada Beer Company, which was founded by husband-and-wife homebrewers Cary and Kelly Floyd in 2011, has closed its doors. If the closure is permanent, it would be one of the first times an independent craft brewer has gone out of business in the Denver metro area since Denver’s Del Norte…
Peyton Manning got good news last week when Denver Broncos coach Gary Kubiak named him the starter for the playoff game coming up on January 17. But there’s even better news coming: On Monday, Denver’s Factotum Brewing and Tow Yard Brewing, from Indianapolis, got together in the Mile High City…
Beet Root at Honor Society Handcrafted Eatery When KT Ward walks into the kitchen at Honor Society, he sees piles of possibilities: limes, celery, apples — whatever he thinks might be fused into a stunning cocktail. “We’ve got a lot of cool, fresh ingredients to play with,” Ward says. It…
If you’re a dessert skipper, you’re in good company. In a food-service system designed to satisfy diners with an entree and fatten them with small plates and sides, it’s just overkill to drop a dessert menu at the end of all that. Especially for nickel-counting happy-hour goers — and we…
The Brewability Lab, a startup brewery with the novel idea of providing jobs in the brewing industry for adults with developmental disabilities, will take over Caution Brewing’s original location in east Denver sometime later this year. Caution, which was founded in 2011 by Danny and Betty Wang, is consolidating its…
10 Barrel Brewing, a popular Bend, Oregon-based brewery, has confirmed that it plans to open a brewery and pub in Denver within the next six months. The brewery, founded in 2006 by brothers Chris and Jeremy Cox and Garrett Wales, is notable because of the acclaim and awards that it…
It’s getting more and more difficult for Colorado beer lovers to wrap their arms — and their taste buds — around the depth and breadth of our brewery scene. With more than 300 breweries, all of them pumping out dozens of brews over the course of a year, it would…
The Superhero at Carbon Beverage Cafe When Habit Doughnut Dispensary and Carbon Beverage Cafe opened five months ago on Platte Street, the plan was to sell lots of coffee and doughnuts. But beverage coordinator Matthew Spicer took it a step further by coming up with a way to add booze,…
Boulder Beer Company will raise a toast today to one of its founders, a pioneer of the craft-brewing industry in not just Colorado, but the country. David Hummer died December 17 at Boulder Community Health at the age of 81. “David received his B.S. and masters from Carnegie Tech before moving on…
In 2015, our resident expert on all things shaken and stirred, Kevin Galaba, went on a weekly mission to uncover cocktail recipes from Denver’s top bartenders. He tasted his way through, tequila, gin, bourbon and spirits ever more esoteric and exotic and chatted with the women and men behind the…
Colorado soared past the 300 brewery mark in 2015, helping it remain one of the biggest, most important states in the nation for the craft brewing industry. But it isn’t the numbers so much as the variety and quality of our beer that makes Colorado shine. In the meantime, bottling…
