Of all the inaugural balls taking place next month around the country, Colorado’s has to have the best beer list. And why not? The new governor, John Hickenlooper, is a brewer and the co-founder of the iconic Wynkoop Brewing Company. In addition to Hickenlooper’s InaugurAle — which is being brewed…
Saving the world from wine ignorance, one glass at a time: That’s Paul Giese, executive sommelier, certified wine educator and instructor at last Saturday’s chocolate, wine and cheese tasting class held at D’Vine Wine. Giese teaches wine-tasting workshops ideal for beginners on select Saturdays every month, using D’Vine’s own Wild…
As we report in this week’s Off Limits, there’s a good explanation why you can’t buy growlers of craft beer at Denver International Airport (as you can at the Portland airport, as Jonathan Shikes recently discovered): Colorado law limits the sale of growlers — those 64-ounce containers that can be…
We knew rap had gone mainstream when Will Smith’s The Fresh Prince of Bel Air began airing in 1990, and we know craft beer has done the same now that T.G.I. Friday’s is pairing its new menu items with selected beers from New Belgium Brewing. On December 21, the casual…
Have you ever found yourself pondering the notion that if your goal was to drink a bottle of wine every day from today until your last day on this earth, you’d never have to try the same wine twice? A nobler task may never present itself to you, so what…
The Prohibition-style bar trend, which started in 2000 with Sasha Petraske’s Milk & Honey, finally reached Denver last month, when restaurateur Frank Bonanno (Mizuna, Bones, Luca d’Italia, Osteria Marco) and partner Adam Hodak opened Green Russell. The name’s inspiration is even older than Prohibition: William Greeneberry “Green” Russell came to…
Sean Kenyon knows how to pour out both drinks and advice. A third-generation bar man with almost 25 years behind the bar, he is a student of cocktail history, a United States Bartenders Guild-certified Spirits Professional and a BAR Ready graduate of the prestigious Beverage Alcohol Resource Program. You can…
I love holiday beers. But that’s not all that Colorado’s breweries are putting out right now. Here are five beers that have just been released — or are about to be — that were brewed simply because, well, because Colorado is awesome. Double Rainbow Trinity Brewing, Colorado Springs Black Fox…
Happy Place: R Bar, 3209 East Colfax Avenue, 303-320-8635 The Hours: Daily from 5 to 7 p.m. and 10 to 11 p.m. The Deals: $6 house wines; $3.50-$4.50 draft beers; $6 cocktails; $5-7 food specials Were we happy? Flip the page…
Jonathan Shikes, Westword’s Beer Man, recently visited Portland — and was amazed at what he found. “Portland is a better beer town than Denver,” he confessed. “As a Denver native, it pains me to say that, but after having visited Beervana for the first, time, there is no getting around…
I usually prefer to let my bartender do the work for me, but when I reviewed Salt the Bistro, 1047 Pearl Street in Boulder, my dining companion’s greatest delight there was the Cocktail Element, a choose-your-own-adventure guide that let him craft his perfect libation from a list of spirits and…
In case you haven’t noticed, 2010 is most definitely going to go down as the Year of the Cocktail. Seems like dozens of swanky, speakeasy-type establishments (complete with throwback-era barkeeps) opened their doors in and around Denver this year, proffering edgy concoctions designed to entice even the pickiest drinker. So…
Portland is a better beer town than Denver. As a Denver native, it pains me to say that, but after having visited Beervana for the first, time, there is no getting around it. While Denver brewers consistently make better beer than those in Portland, there are more than three times…
Liquor licenses for restaurants, bars and coffee shops often are not cheap or easy to get, but Ryan Cobbins, owner of Coffee at the Point, found a way to serve wine in his Five Points coffee shop: He partnered with Cottonwood Cellars…
The over/under time on me passing out at the bar or simply disappearing and cabbing home without saying goodbye to anyone (a favorite move of mine that one buddy calls “smokebombing”) is apparently 7:30 p.m. Currently, it’s 5:30 p.m., and I’ve only been bellied up at Lola with pints of…
Happy Place: Steuben’s, 523 East Seventeenth Avenue, 303-830-1001 The Hours: Monday through Friday from 2 to 6 p.m. The Deals: $5 specialty cocktails; $12-$20 shareable cocktails; $1 sliders; $3 gravy fries; $0.50 deviled eggs Were we happy? Flip the page…
Yes, the Buckhorn Exchange boasts liquor license number 1 — but that’s because the venerable restaurant was first in line after Prohibition ended in 1933, when new liquor licenses were issued. The oldest saloon in town is My Brother’s Bar — city registries indicate that 2376 15th Street was a…
As if the Wynkoop Brewing Company didn’t have enough going on today — it announced that it will join with Breckenridge Brewing — it has also named (tentatively) the beer it plans to brew in honor of brewery co-founder and Governor-elect John Hickenlooper. Hickenlooper’s InaugurAle will be brewed on Saturday,…
The owners of the proposed Cold Comfort Tavern will host the powerful Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods on Thursday to talk about plans for their Seventh Avenue craft beer bar and restaurant. Cold Comfort would be located inside the mostly vacant Colorado Lace building at 200 East Seventh Avenue, at the…
Sean Kenyon knows how to pour out both drinks and advice. A third-generation bar man with almost 25 years behind the bar, he is a student of cocktail history, a United States Bartenders Guild-certified Spirits Professional and a BAR Ready graduate of the prestigious Beverage Alcohol Resource Program. You can…
On November 15, a shipment of Maui Brewing Company’s canned beers left Hawaii by boat, bound for one of the ports in Southern California — and eventually for Colorado. It hasn’t arrived yet. But it might soon, and when it does, says Dave Watson of the CR Goodman liquor distributorship…
Sink the Bismarck, the highest-alcohol beer in the world, has finally made it to Colorado. The “quadruple IPA,” at 41 percent alcohol by volume, is made by Scotland’s controversial and attention-seeking BrewDog brewery, the spot also responsible for Tactical Nuclear Penguin, a 32 percent ABV beer, which held the record…
