Al Laws is passionate about what he loves. As the owner and founder of Laws Whiskey House, it’s obvious that what he loves is whiskey. “I really, really like rye whiskey,” he says. “I think it’s the most sensual whiskey.” This week Laws and head distiller Jake Norris released the…
On the NBC show Hannibal, the titular Dr. Lecter dazzles his dinner guests with an parade of effortless, elegantly crafted dishes made with, ahem, distinctive ingredients. The two-month old Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox doesn’t offer “long pig” on the menu, but it shares the show’s atmosphere of haute cuisine, lust, and music. It’s…
New Belgium Brewing is a great place for twenty- and early-thirty-somethings to find a job. The Fort Collins brewery — Colorado’s largest craft beer maker — was named one of the best places to work for millennial employees in America. To create the list, the Center for Generational Kinetics partnered…
With hundreds of craft breweries already pouring beer in Colorado and dozens of new operations planning to open, it’s important for each one to find a way to stand out. “Everybody is always trying to do something different,” says attorney Robert Runco, who specializes in liquor laws. But “something different” can…
Bonnie Lass at Adrift Tiki Bar Every bartender has a go-to drink — the drink they order when they get off work and slide into the solace of the quiet corner of a darkened bar somewhere. They wouldn’t think of burdening their bartender with a high-maintenance cocktail consisting of six…
“Cinq a sept” is a winking French idiom for the happiest hours in a day — the evening time just after work and before dinner, to be filled with drinks, food and conversation…and maybe even a rendezvous with your lover. Happy hour is a little bit different in this country,…
The happy hour at Govnr’s Park Restaurant & Tavern cements its legend as a place of good times since 1976. A two-for-one drink special is the main draw here, much like at another long-running haunt, Charlie Brown’s. But while that Capitol Hill spot trades on a sort of bygone elegance,…
There’s been a rumble rising from deep inside the Oskar Blues headquarters in Longmont over the past few months, but it’s been difficult to figure out what, exactly, is making all of that noise. It’s certainly not the beer. The answer may lie in a financial arrangement between the craft…
“There’s plenty of money out there. They print more every day. But this ticket, there’s only five of them in the whole world, and that’s all there’s ever going to be,” Grandpa George said in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. “Only a dummy would give this up for something as…
Pug Ryan’s has been a Summit County favorite for four decades, evolving slowly, ever so slowly, from a restaurant and bar into a brewpub in 1996. In 2004, Pug’s became one of the first Colorado breweries to begin canning beer, and this month, the spot began distributing its first-ever canned…
Alice In Watermeland at Angelo’s Taverna “Everybody that walks in the door is either an old friend or a new one,” says Kyle Nickerson, bar manager at Angelo’s Taverna. His keen sense of hospitality is fitting at this relaxed neighborhood Italian restaurant and bar, where his new cocktail menu treats…
Negroni Week, a seven-day celebration of the classic cocktail, begins today and runs through Sunday, June 7, at various venues across the city. Across the world, over a thousand bars and restaurants are also participating in the program, stirring classic and contemporary versions of the iconic cocktail. Ten Denver bars…
Lenka Juchelkova wasn’t trying to open a bar — she was just looking for a dishwasher. She heard that a dishwashing machine was available at 1543 Champa St., and stopped by to take a look. A wine events space occupied that address and it was going out of business. Juchelkova,…
As we reported last week, the historic El Rancho restaurant and conference center, which closed in 2012, is set to reopen later this year under new ownership as a brewpub; the iconic log-cabin building, which sits just off of I-70 at the exit for Evergreen, has a storied history. The original…
Los Chingones is a restaurant made for happy hour: A big, beautiful rooftop patio, a location amidst the creative agencies and cultural hot spots around Ballpark and RiNo, and enough tequila to knock out a boutique ad shop for days. And as a Troy Guard venture, the food has proven…
Denver Beer Co wants you to get outside. When the brewery began canning last year, it kicked off an unusual program in which a variety of GPS coordinates were printed on its cans. The coordinates corresponded to locations throughout the state. Whoever found them, took pictures there and then turned…
On Fleek at Williams & Graham In March, most of the staff at Williams & Graham took a group trip to Southern Spain, which served as part vacation and part immersion into the wine and spirits of the region. As the group was sitting around talking one evening, conversation drifted…
Some of Oregon’s best breweries — including Breakside, Oakshire, Gigantic and Cascade — have invaded Colorado over the past year, delighting beer fans here and further crowding bulging tap menus and store shelves. But the newest Oregon arrival is likely to cause a little more controversy. Earlier this month, Bend-based…
Good news for fans of sunshine, happy hours and Lower48 Kitchen: Our pick for Best New Restaurant of 2014 just completed a renovation of its outdoor patio in time for summer to finally arrive. The restaurant at the corner of 21st and Lawrence streets is celebrating the opening by expanding its…
River North Brewery is growing fast — and is currently looking for a new location to expand its production — but it continues to keep a focus on experimentation. For the past three years, the brewery has channeled that experimentation into its series of Wayward Wednesday tappings, which typically put…
Bars are a common venue for Denver comedy shows, and they’re definitely a birthplace for great ideas. One night this past February, local comedians Meghan DePonceau and Anthony Crawford went for a drink after performing at a bar on South Broadway. They headed for a speakeasy in Five Points; DePonceau,…
One third of the small businesses that opened across the country in 2010 closed by 2012. Half of them will be gone by the end of this year. Those numbers, which are kept by the U.S. Department of Labor, stay roughly the same year in and year out. So when…
