BEST OF DENVER® 2007

The day started at the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, site of this year's Best Souvenirs by a Gravesite, where the view is so spectacular you can easily believe the story that world traveler William Cody pronounced it precisely the spot where he'd like to be laid to rest for all eternity.

Fourteen hours later, the day ended with another spectacular view from the patios of two more award winners, Vita and Lola, restaurants that didn't even exist at this time last year but are now such a part of the Denver dining scene that it's hard to imagine the town without them. They also happen to be located in the old Olinger Mortuary, where Buffalo Bill's body was stored — on the rocks, as it were — for a few months in the winter of 1917, until the ground on top of Lookout Mountain had thawed enough to dig a grave.

Synchronicity. It's everywhere in this city. But at the same time links to the past are tugging at the present, you can see the future of Denver around the next corner, over the next hill, up in the next block.

The city is changing, changing rapidly, which means there are always discoveries to be made, old standbys to say goodbye to, new superlatives to be lavished, more Best of Denver awards to be given. And after months of snacking and shopping, drinking and dialing, our top-secret Best of Denver 2007 team produced the paper now in your hands, our 24th annual celebration of the city. We all love Denver for different reasons — from the town's buffalo herd to its buffalo chicken wings — and there are more than 500 of them in this issue.

Enjoy.