Berkshire Bacon Bloody at the Berkshire

The Berkshire is pretty direct about its love of pork products. The brunch menu includes the quote “I put bacon on my bacon,” and a brilliant yet unintelligible line from Elvis written between the men’s and women’s bathrooms reads, “I like pork chops and country ham, creamed potatoes, stuff like…

Hit the deck at Pour House Pub

I’m playing beer pong against a pirate, and it’s not going very well. Aim is an issue, certainly, but trajectory is what’s causing me the most trouble: My ping-pong balls are either missing the table altogether or rolling around the rims of the red plastic cups before plummeting off the…

Rock Bottom’s Political Ale

Rock Bottom should stay out of politics. Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery was bumpin’ on Monday, August 25, at lunchtime, full of business crowd regulars, gawking Denver-tourists-in-their-own-town, and credential-clad delegate/journalist/politician types. And although it wasn’t the beer of the day, Rock Bottom, at 1001 16th Street, was pouring its Political…

Ale to the Chief belongs in the Oval Office

Here’s to what ales you! I’ve heard of at least four Colorado beers that have been brewed specifically for the Democratic National Convention and the election season in general – something that took a lot of forethought, since brewing beer is a lengthy process. As a sucker for politics, seasonal…

Margaritter at Dixons Downtown Grill

Jump on the bandwagon! Others may bitch about the traffic and inconvenience, but I’m incredibly enthusiastic about the Democratic National Convention coming to town, almost apoplectic at the idea of Denver being the center of the country. Maybe this is a holdover from my time living in New York City;…

Things are looking rosy at the revived Red Room

I am not one of the forty or fifty proud sporting “TEACHERS Make the Difference” or “Ask a Teacher!” stickers on their blouses and button-ups, trading in blue tickets for draft beers and tall cocktails, grazing around a spread of meat and cheese and veggies while carrying conference materials under…

A peach of a bourbon, made in Colorado

Peach Street bourbon’s secret ingredient is Olathe sweet corn. Peach Street Distillers, a company based in Palisade, has just released the first bourbon — legal, that is — ever made in Colorado. Peach Street already makes Goat Vodka and Jackelope Gin, and its Peach Street Distillers’ Straight Bourbon Whiskey had…

Flight of Blanco Tequila at Billy’s Inn

I grew up in Denver and remember seeing the Billy’s Inn sign at the corner of 44th and Lowell forever — but somehow, I’d never made it inside this iconic bar. The building got its start as a service station in the ’20s; in 1933, Billy and Judy Smith turned…

Lodo’s Bar & Grill raises the roof

One of the first things I notice about Lodo’s Bar & Grill (1946 Market Street) is that many of the female employees have curves, and I don’t mean the humps made by a pair of 34Ds over a size-two waist. I mean hips, and asses that explain themselves. This actually…

Grateful, indeed, for the Ginn Mill’s Grateful Dead

When I was a teenager looking for trouble, my friends and I would head down to Larimer Square, then the only thing happening at night downtown, and sometimes even venture past the 1400 block of Larimer Street. A naïve suburbanite still in braces, I was always shaken at how quickly…

At Jax Fish House, dropping a line for some Leinie’s

A favorite bar band of mine from the Midwest sings an audience-participation song about Leinenkugel’s beer that has just four lines: “I like my Leinenkugel’s beer (Woo-hoo!)/So does everybody here (Woo-hoo!)/If you don’t like it, you’re kind of queer (Woo-hoo!)/I like my Leinenkugel’s beer (Woo-hoo!).” I’m typically so drunk by…

Miller, Coors, Bud are Aleing

My heart goes out to multi-billion-dollar brewing giants MillerCoors (which recently completed its merger) and Anheuser-Busch (which is about to be taken over by Belgium’s InBev). No, really, it’s hard to look small when you are that big. Not that it has kept the beer companies from trying. The Coors…

Benny’s Opens New Patio

Tucked into a booth at Benny’s Restaurante y Tequila Bar, we were a couple of beers into our late brunch Saturday when we spotted Benny Armas, whose namesake restaurant has become such an integral part of Denver’s dining scene. Benny’s recently opened a new patio on the Grant Street side…

I Drink, Therefore I Am….Pissed Off

We card under 40. Did you hear about Washington governor Chris Gregoire? She and her staff went to a bar in downtown Olympia called Hannah’s, and the man checking the door said that the 61-year-old couldn’t get in without an ID. Even after Gregoire’s staff told the bouncer that she…

Into the Drink With Stranahan’s and Oskar Blues

I didn’t technically jump into a swimming pool full of whiskey Wednesday afternoon, although I drank from one – and my head hurts almost as much as if I had cannonballed off the diving board. No, what I did was attend a little party thrown by Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey (2405…

Lucky Strike Lanes

No OGs, new Gs or dirtballs allowed. No sluts, sports fanatics or dudes who love the sight of their own pectorals. Definitely no one coming straight from the gym. You clowns are not welcome at Lucky Strike Lanes (500 16th Street), at least not according to the dress code —…

Fire When Ready: Carelli’s Ristorante Italiano

Greg Carelli, the owner of Carelli’s Ristorante Italiano, is an architectural artist as well as a restaurateur, and every few years he adds a new “wing” to his place in Boulder. And the most recent, dubbed the Osteria and unveiled this month, is a doozy: a bigger and better bar…

LoDo’s Bar & Grill Takes Patios to New Heights

Whether or not the Rockies are in town, the patio at Lodo’s Bar and Grill is always a hit. And unlike the Rockies, the Lodo’s patio is better than ever this summer. Over the winter, the restaurant expanded into the Mattie’s House of Mirrors space next door, and that almost…

Sushi & Chopsticks

Sushi-and-Sapporo Quest 2008 begins when I suggest to Noel that we go to Parallel 17, since I’d scootered by there a few hours earlier and noticed that all the umbrellas on the patio bore the welcoming Sapporo insignia. But I’d been duped. Despite those casual umbrellas, Parallel 17 is a…

Racines: A Fallback to Fall in Love With

It is not yet noon, and already we’re thinking about escaping for the day. But not just escaping from the office — escaping to a very specific spot, our go-to spot when we know we want to meet friends, and don’t want to bother negotiating where that meet might be…

Bloody Hell! Get This Man a Bloody Mary!

Rarely have we received a more maudlin missive than this napkin, on which Drinking Guy outlined his need for a decent Bloody Mary. He needs your help! Anyone know of a great Bloody Mary bar — preferably where Drinking Guy can make his own Mary?…

In With the Inn Crowd at Panzano

Yes, Panzano is a hotel restaurant (it’s tucked into the Hotel Monaco), but chef Elise Wiggins has also made this a favorite go-to spot for locals, who rely on it both fast business lunches and long, leisurely special occasion meals. But the daily happy hour (from 3-6 p.m.) featured in…