Finding the perfect place to get up-close and personal with Santa Claus becomes a priority as Christmas gets closer. Shopping centers are a convenient option, since Santa is usually available for a photo anytime during mall hours through Christmas Eve. The Cherry Creek mall, 3000 East First Avenue (www.shopcherrycreek.com), has…
What do you get when you add alternative rock music to a controversial 1891 German play? In the case of Spring Awakening, which injected Duncan Sheik’s score and Steven Sater’s lyrics into Frank Wedekind’s original script, you get eleven Tony Award nominations and eight awards, including top honors for Best…
People around the world today are celebrating the official release of the 2009 Beaujolais Nouveau, and local food and wine lovers are no exception. “Historically, Beaujolais is made with the first grapes of the season,” says Angela Bruns, assistant director and event coordinator for the French American Chamber of Commerce,…
“Most people have come to realize that it doesn’t matter where you come from — everyone can honor their ancestors,” says Longmont Museum education curator Jill Overlie, who believes that the museum’s traditional Día de los Muertos Celebration has mass appeal. The family-friendly event centers around the museum’s current art…
Sleuths, grab your magnifying glass and a beer and get ready to solve Denver’s latest murder mystery. At today’s Murder on Broadway mystery scavenger hunt, you can bar-crawl on South Broadway while deducing whodunit. The interactive mystery begins with registration from 2 to 2:30 p.m. at 3 Kings Tavern, 60…
Cool fall weather always makes me want to sit by the fireplace sipping cocoa and knitting. Unfortunately, I don’t have a fireplace and I’m no good at knitting, but luckily for me and other lovers of handmade crafts, the Denver Handmade Alliance is presenting the Art by Craft market today…
In Colorado, we’re lucky to get to dine on posole, tamales and sopaipillas as often as pizza, burgers and pie. Thanks to our neighbor to the south, it’s not hard to find spicy New Mexican green or red chile on the menu. But the Spanish Colonial influence on our town…
We’re suckers for a beautiful sucker. We can appreciate the way that candy on a stick is both form and function — a stylish way to eat a favorite treat while keeping your hands free from stickiness. Sadly, this Hello Kitty marshmallow pop, while strangely beautiful with its shimmering sugar…
Sure, you know all about Homer and Marge, Bart and Lisa and Selma and Patty, but how much do you know about Amber Simpson? Lurleen Lupkin? Tonight you can test the depths of your Simpsons knowledge at the Yellow Fever Quiz, an all-Simpsons pub trivia game at Moe’s Original Barbecue,…
In our families, grandma usually does all the holiday candy-making to create our yearly dose of buttery toffee, peanut clusters and peanut brittle. But grandma never made peanut brittle like this. The Fluffy Gourmet Peanut Brittle made locally by “Grampa” Michael Apodaca at Grampas Candy is “injected with air to…
My first “fringe” festival experience involved KKK members, Satan, transsexuals and adults in diapers singing and dancing in Jerry Springer: The Opera. I learned that anything can, and probably will, happen when actors, dancers and musicians are allowed to perform completely uncensored. So expect the unexpected at the Boulder International…
May brings spring flowers and the start of Denver’s growing season, but you won’t find the delicate orchids used for traditional Hawaiian leis growing anywhere around these parts. For a true tropical experience, head to the Second Annual Lei Day Celebration this evening at the Denver Police Protective Association Event…
I love to have new dining experiences — but while being vegetarian creates some limitations, I’ve discovered that pregnancy really makes eating out challenging. Soft cheeses are a no-no nowadays and undercooked eggs will have to wait a few more days, until the baby is born. So will wine and…
If sampling artisan chocolates while sipping a chocolate martini and sniffing a chocolate-scented candle sounds like almost enough chocolate to satisfy your craving, then you need to check out the Colorado Chocolate Festival. According to show organizer Dana Cain, tonight’s preview celebration is “a good date night or ladies’ night…
Sputnik is one of the hippest hipster spots in town, and while you might think of it as a late-night hang-out, good for grabbing a cold PBR while playing trivia or bingo, Sputnik also happens to serve some of the best sweet potato fries in Denver. The few other menu…
As a child, I was fascinated by rocks and beads and all things small and shiny. As an adult, I’ve outgrown my old habit of filling my pockets with found stones every time I go for a walk, but I still find handmade artisan beads enchanting. If you, too, delight…
Aubrey’s expecting her first baby any day now, and at a recent shower her friends presented her and other shower-goers with the following challenge: Identify the chocolate bar that has been melted down in a diaper to look like really disgusting poo. While we certainly all hope that her baby’s…
When the weather starts to heat up, all I want is a nice patio, a great happy hour and some friends with which to enjoy the day. On a recent sunny afternoon, the patio at Lala’s Wine Bar + Pizzeria fit the bill perfectly. Since I’m eight-and-a-half months pregnant, happy…
The first time I tried Ethiopian food, I was visiting my friend, Mat, in Montreal. We’d met the previous summer on a train headed to Berlin, and since we were both backpacking solo around Europe and trying to get to Prague, which had just suffered a flood, we found ourselves…
The Candy Girls were systematically working our way around the chocolate shops, bakeries and specialty candy makers of Denver when we stumbled upon Big Fat Cupcake, 129 Adams Street. While the uniquely flavored, award-winning cupcakes drew us in, it was shop-owner Kathleen Nevin’s mission to donate 10 percent of her…
When I was growing up, my dad would make dozens and dozens of pork tamales and big vats of rich, beefy red chile and pork posole for Christmas. We’d feast on these New Mexican staples at our family Christmas party and then continue eating everything while it lasted, sometimes through…
If noshing on some gluten-based seitan buffalo wings or sipping a vegan chocolate shake sounds nutritious, delicious and earth-friendly, then head down to today’s Denver VegFest and Health Expo presented by the Vegetarian Society of Colorado. “The Society’s focus is on three areas: health, sustainability and compassion,” says CJ Eliassen,…
