Kokopelli’s may have been my least favorite bar in Denver. The service was awful and the space so dark and dirty, you couldn’t have paid me to eat anything coming out of the kitchen. So I was glad to know that something, anything, had replaced it — even if I…
“Rita, I’m sick of this shit,” Tom says of his Beck’s bottle, then orders a Smirnoff screwdriver. His friends and acquaintances smirk at the switch. “This guy ain’t fucking around,” Rex exclaims. “You know,” Tom responds with mock irritation, “I’ve spent so much time learning how to drink, I oughta…
The only thing this menu is missing is a “Dust Bowl” soup du jour. If life gives you grapes of wrath, make some wine. That’s the idea behind the “Recession Menu” at Paris Wine Bar, 1549 Platte Street, a selection of all-day and all-night specials designed for gloomy economic days…
A hidden curse on beer drinkers. If the economy has driven you to drink, you might as well get your money’s worth. That’s the philosophy behind the Beer Gauge, a Boulder scientist’s invention to avoid getting ripped off on his microbrews and to address a problem that has long plagued…
I learned the joy of eating at the bar at Cafe des Artistes on the upper west side of Manhattan. I was in my early twenties, and Doug, an older colleague, insisted on buying me dinner every two to three weeks because he said he loved my stories of poverty,…
When the It’ll Do Lounge closed its doors last year after 27 years in business, regulars wondered what would happen to the small structure at 2001 West 48th Avenue. Two months ago, JD’s Neighborhood Bar happened, and if Deb the bartendress’s word is as good as her Bloody Marys, business…
Oxymoron, or just moron? I’m trying to adopt a Great Dane that I want to rename Tiny — or, if I’m willing to spend the rest of his life explaining his name, Chopine (that’s a bottle of Bordeaux containing a third the volume of a standard bottle of wine). I’ve…
The Hill-Top Tavern (4907 Lowell Boulevard) will not run a tab for anyone. I know this because a sign taped behind the bar says so. Other signs, some written in Sharpie on scraps of cardboard and paper, some typed but so yellow they look like they were hunted, pecked and…
All the food groups. All I want for Christmas this year are some delicious, warming Christmas beers, and all I want for Hanukah is a place to find out which ones are available in Colorado. What’s that you say? Hanukah Claus has answered both of my wishes already? Oh, merry…
I went to the original Brooklyn’s at 2644 West Colfax Avenue after the Broncos game yesterday, and ordered a Manhattan. Not only was it served in the smallest plastic cup I have ever seen, it was a whopping $6.25 for well liquor. I guess when you have a captive audience…
What would Chelsea Handler do? I’m a huge fan of Chelsea, and recently saw her at a benefit performance for NewGenesis, a wonderful organization that provides a transitional community for the homeless (www.panhandlingsucks.com). Although I’m not nearly as funny as Chelsea, we have other things in common. For example, we…
The cops are everywhere by the time we roll up to the Squire Lounge (1800 East Colfax Avenue) just after 8 p.m. — two squads blocking (and facing) eastbound traffic, another pulled halfway onto the sidewalk, all of them screaming red and blue, all of it a familiar and strangely…
It all starts with a graying Latino gentleman wearing a jean jacket and a straw cowboy hat being told he can’t have a beer. “I’ll give you a bottle of water or a Coke, sir,” the bartender pronounces, “but I can’t serve you another alcoholic beverage tonight.” Poor bastard, we’re…
It was always a desperation drink, what you grabbed when you just couldn’t look at another beer, something you could pretend was a gin-and-tonic in a bottle if you used enough limes. Coors Brewing Company, then the nation’s number-three brewer, devoted one and a half years–and a reported $3.5 million–to…
After reading Adam Cayton-Holland’s hilarious (and quite principled!) column, “How Adam Cayton-Holland survived a cougar attack!,” which chronicles his fending off a cougar at a recent comedy event, I found myself Googling “cougar.” I came across a hilarious web site devoted to the subject. Among other features, the site, urbancougar.com,…
Fall is my favorite season. I love the warm, sunny days and the cool, crisp nights, the quintessential autumn-in-Colorado experience of experiencing all four seasons — heat, cold, rain, snow — in one day. But most of all, I love Indian summer, when I can sit on one of my…
In sum, I’ve consumed seventeen and a half cold beers by the time I fall through the doors of the Wazee Supper Club (1600 15th Street) just after midnight. The first eight went down between 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., while I was watching college football. The half a beer…
See the slide show here. Forget the grooming routine from vines to wine. Forget the proper way to hold a wine glass — and which glass to use, for that matter. And that sniffing, swirling, what-have-you, forget that, too. It’s all important, of course, and was taught in one of…
The audacity of hops. It’s been faked, photo-copied, duplicated and replicated, mocked and knocked off. But Shepard Fairey’s now-iconic blue-and-red print of Barack Obama’s hopeful face never gave us reason to drink – until the folks at Oskar Blues got a hold of it. The Lyons-based brewery, makers of Dale’s…
Drink up! I went to the Great American Beer Festival last Thursday, October 9, and concluded that craft beers made West of the Mississippi River are, with a couple of notable exceptions, better than those created on the Eastern side. Many of you offered suggestions as to where I could…
Jealous? Let’s face it. For all of its prestige, for all of its variety, for all of its cachet, it’s hard work to have fun at the Great American Beer Festival. There are lines to get in, lines at many of the beer stands, and masses of people every way…
Calling all bar chefs! Finlandia is looking for Denver’s best bartenders to compete in the eleventh annual Finlandia Vodka Cup regionals at Martinia Ranch on October 20. This is a fabulous opportunity to show your creativity, as the contest emphasizes crafting delicious, original cocktails, not just bartending skills. I judged…
