It doesn’t take much to get thirsty Denverites out to happy hour after the 5 p.m. whistle blows. But for the next few months, bright sun and rising temperatures will bring many more out to crowd the patios and partake in drink and dish discounts. But a good summer happy…

Arriving midway through a restaurant’s posted happy hour presents a 5:30 quandary: limit yourself to eating off the discounted menu or forsake the deals and indulge in a real dinner. Not everyone wants to cobble together a meal, Carl Weathers-style, but smart restaurateurs know how to satisfy everyone for a…

Depending on how you think about it, Solitaire on West 32nd Avenue could be a stormy portent of new Denver or a warm reminder of the old. Owners Andrea Faulisi Ferguson and Mark Ferguson bought the space that housed neighborhood standard Highland Garden Cafe since 1994 and transformed it into…

Like The Post in Lafayette, Longmont’s Comida changed restaurant culture in it’s city for good. It’s success was based on the revolutionary idea that the thousands who moved to midsize cities to raise families and toil in the high-tech sector might like somewhere nice to eat. It was far from…

As Winston Churchill probably said, “Plan ahead, dingus.” I like to do my research on the happy hours I hit up, but I was drawn to Milk & Honey Bar-Kitchen despite my lack of happy hour recon or recent scuttlebutt from friends. The subterranean Larimer Square eatery certainly has never…

I expected a lot from Osaka Ramen’s new happy hour. Jeff Osaka’s twin ramen-yas (in LoDo and Cherry Creek) claim to be “Denver’s best ramen shop(s).” A bold claim, but it’s no hyperbole; the steaming soups landed the duo on our list of the city’s superior noodle houses. A previous…

After school, my friends and I used to run to the convenience store for the candy and sodas we were denied at home. When the lunch bell rang, we’d pile into a friend’s SUV and try to get a few Double Stacks before class started up again. A plea to…

We’re hungry for validation here in the Queen City of the Plains, and when someone from either coast bestows it on a local institution, we flock to be part of the conversation. With a James Beard award, national plaudits, and a Ruth Reichl bump, Rioja and its owners Jennifer Jasinski and Beth Gruitch…

It’s often best to keep it casual, whether you’re on a second date or introducing your parents to your polyamorous anarchist collective. There’s no point in getting dressed up and worked up when you can take it easy. Since 1933, Billy’s Inn has existed as a living invitation to low-stakes…

Nocturne puts on a show every night, so it’s the least I could do to get into character. Just over a year old in a storied space on 27th Street, Nocturne is realized in such a classy way that it begs you to rise to the occasion, even if the…

Denver restaurants can live or die on the strength of their happy hours, and three of the city’s buzziest new eateries have finally revealed what they’re up to in the late afternoon hours. Brider, the fine-casual outfit from Steve Redzikowski and Bryan Dayton of Acorn, plus Jeff Osaka’s Sushi-Rama and twin…

I just can’t help it, y’all. Just when I thought I had enough of these slick, modern pizza bars after my visit to Gozo, I find myself at Bar Dough, which is floating on a wave of good buzz and steady business. BD lost out on our Best of Denver…

Picture a neighborhood hangout, the place ’round the corner and down the street where you feel more at home than home. Maybe it exists in your memory, a Cheers-esque den of comfort and familiar characters. Maybe it really is just down your block. Bonnano Concepts, a restaurant group gifted with…

While Kobe An Shabu Shabu in Lower Highland dazzles with  tabletop cooking and fashionable fare, its forebear, Kobe An, has beem serving more typical Japanese cuisine in Denver for decades. Now below ground in a Cherry Creek spot, where it moved last year, the venerable eatery puts out a surprisingly up-to-date $5 happy…

One of the best parts of happy hour is matching and mixing dishes into strange table spreads that would have a Cordon Bleu instructor in tears. At happy hour, no one’s going to tell you not to order a sandwich, arancini and a pizza all at the same time. This…

Denver Restaurant Week can change the heart of a kitchen: For ten days, eateries in the city steel themselves for big crowds and plate after plate of risotto, roasted chicken and flourless chocolate cake. You can tell a lot about a restaurant from how well it handles the event and…

2010, the year we all felt so fly “Like a G6,” incessantly tooted our vuvuzelas, and pretended to be outraged at many a natural and man-made disaster. Harnessing our nostalgia for the end of the aughts, Hollywood has already made the Wikileaks and Deepwater Horizon movies, but has yet to…

If it weren’t for the noise and the uncomfortable closeness to other human beings, a meal at Cart-Driver could be perfect stoner food. Not that that you have to be dabbed, twisted, or otherwise turnt to enjoy bites and sips at this pizza mini-parlor, but Cart-Driver is an Alice in…

If you’ve noticed a pattern in my happy hour wanderings, you’re not alone. I’ve covered more late-afternoon discounts on 17th Avenue than any other street — deliberately so. To stroll down the Avenue is to witness Denver in full form: merriment, drinking, fine food — and the leaching of gentrification…

Restaurants on Market between 14th and 15th Streets have always had the challenge of creating an identity to stand out above the evening chaos on the loudest, busiest block in the city — sexy, infuriating, dangerous. Some, like Dorchester Social Eatery, combined dining and dancing in one space and offered…

A Hurricane cocktail carries a lot of cultural baggage. There’s that unfortunate name, of course, when associated with the recent history of its birthplace, New Orleans. There’s the popular conception of the Hurricane as a Bourbon Street party drink, festooned with crazy straws and neon garnishes in a flimsy plastic…