Le De Luxe Martini

Popular, you’re gonna be popular! In Wicked, when the male lead asks, “So — what’s the most swankified place in town?,” good witch Galinda answers, “That would be the Ozdust Ballroom.” If the Broadway show were set in Denver, she definitely would have named Bar Luxe (goofily pronounced bar lukes in faux French) the most swankified new place in town. As I walked in, I felt as if a tornado had swept me up and set me down in a completely different space than the disastrously decorated (think wicker chairs and palm trees) Steak Au Poivre, its former incarnation. Now the unwieldy downstairs space is beautifully appointed with fabulous, creamy white alligator booths, an elegant red alligator bar, beautiful crystals hanging from chrome lighting fixtures and framed photos of Manolo Blahnik shoes; the supermodel waitresses, with their never-ending legs and barely starting short skirts, seem as exotic and dreamlike as Oz’s flying monkeys. I headed straight for the bar and ordered an otherworldly Le De Luxe Martini ($14), made with the most swankified, ultra-luxury vodka Stolichnaya elit (which retails for about double of most premium vodkas) and a hint of vermouth. Bar Luxe also offers the increasingly fashionable bottle service, and a bottle of Stoli elit ($250) would guarantee that you’re gonna be very popular.

“Dancing through life, down at the Ozdust, if only because dust is what we come to! And the strange thing: Your life could end up changing, while you’re dancing…through!”