Best Beer Bargain, If You Can Find It 2004 | Western Beverage | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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One of northeast Denver's most closely guarded secrets, Western Beverage is home to truckloads of beers, malted beverages and wine coolers handled by the Miller Brewing Company, including imports, microbrews and premium domestics. Every Saturday, the surplus is offered to the public at bargain-basement rates, usually as much as 50 percent off retail. A dolly-wielding public shows up at the crack of dawn, and the scene always has a sporting air, with elbows flying and tempers flaring over primo cases of Tecate and Sam Adams. So just where is this nirvana of the hops? We took a blood vow we would reveal it only in riddle form, so here goes: If you were a train following tracks into the industrial district near 50th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, you would ramble past a complex of warehouses to the east. Therein lurks beer, delicious beer. Good luck.
Jubilation and joy spread through Glendale last fall when a Super Target finally opened on Colorado Boulevard and Alameda Avenue, at a site that had formerly held a plain old Target. But this wasn't just any superstore. In addition to the usual Super Target merch, like appliances (love that Michael Graves stuff), clothing, housewares and groceries, the vast retail outlet sells beer, liquor and 248 types of wine six days a week -- and it's the real stuff, not 3.2 grocery-store swill. State law allows the super chain to operate one liquor-selling establishment within the state, thanks to a loophole related to a pharmacy license. The Glendale store is the only Super Target in Colorado to offer boozy goods. So when the spirit moves you -- or you want to be moved by spirits while picking up detergent and new sheets -- head to Super Target.
Who moved the cheese? Blame Rich Priest, who a few months ago took over the Cheese Company, a little neighborhood cheese shop, and decided it could be moving a lot more. Not just more cheese -- the store stocks about seventy kinds -- but also gourmet to-go items, including prepared entrees, salads and soups from a menu that changes daily. Although the to-go concept has killed off bigger outfits, Priest has managed to make a go of it. Change is good. Deliciously good.

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