Bite Me

Which is great if you're looking for a cheap cheeseburger and a quiet place to sober up, or just an interesting foray into Denver history. Back at the turn of the last century, Denver was a major processing center for radium -- and some of the tailings were used to pave the city's streets. This fact was apparently forgotten until the late '70s, when the Environmental Protection Agency brought it to Denver's attention by lumping about thirty spots in the city into one Superfund site...with the International House of Pancakesthat then stood in Mama's space right at ground zero. But we here at Bite Me World Headquarters have been assured that any contamination requiring the EPA's attention received it, and in the years since, the police haven't logged one radioactive-zombie sighting at either the IHOP or Mama's, which took up residency last November. Still, maybe it's just a matter of time....

Okay, so my Denver fish-fry adventure wasn't exactly Proust and his madeleines. Still, one bite at Royal Hilltop (18581 East Hampden Avenue in Aurora) was all it took for a whole section of my childhood to come unstuck from wherever it was hiding and send me out across the city looking for similar thrills in other places. A good Friday fry spoke to me then (just as it does now) of the reality you never see on TV or in the movies. The real kind of reality where not much about life is certain except that Friday is payday, when Mom and Dad will be a little happier and a little more relaxed, and there will always be fish fry on the table.