The White Whale Room opened last Thursday, offering coffee, food and cocktails in a bright, arty space less than 100 feet from the Alameda Station light rail platform at 415 South Cherokee Street. The restaurant and coffee shop is part of the redevelpment of the area behind the Kmart at…

Mondegreen Lime at Pon Pon Bar If Paul Garcia isn’t making cocktails at Pon Pon, he’s on the other side of the bar, spinning records. Garcia opened the arty cocktail lounge two months ago at 2528 Walnut Street, where you can listen to him play selections from his vinyl collection…

No Sleep Till Denver at Amethyst Coffee Amethyst Coffee cranked up the coffee pots for the first time last February, serving cups of espresso and pastries at 1111 Broadway in the Metlo complex. And two months ago, owner Elle Taylor secured a liquor license, adding a hand-picked assortment of spirits…

Spanish Gin-Tonic at Linger The menu at Linger touches almost every continent on Earth, bringing regional dishes from all over the world to the mortuary-turned-restaurant in the LoHi neighborhood. And that globally inspired mission is not lost on Ky Belk, who manages the bar and oversees Linger’s diverse cocktail program…

Austin James Carson, bar manager at Mizuna, won the regional Woodford Reserve Manhattan Experience cocktail competition Wednesday night. Carson beat out six other Denver-area bartenders with his unique version of the classic Manhattan cocktail and will take that recipe to New York City in April to compete for the national…

Sonic Reducer at the Occidental Cranberries always remind barman Jason Patz of his great-aunt Muriel. When Patz wrote the drink menu for the Occidental, the more casual sibling of Williams & Graham next door, a cranberry liqueur from Denver’s own Leopold Bros. Distillery reminded him of his childhood Thanksgivings; apparently…

Fawkes and the Hound at Rebel Restaurant “I will usually tweak older recipes,” says bartender Jason Randall. “I look at recipes that existed a hundred years ago, or the turn of the century, and basically put my own spin on it.” But Randall is moving away from that formula in…

Arandano Frizzante at Bittersweet When Nicholas Wermaling was putting together his new winter drink menu at Bittersweet, he found that it was lacking one thing: tequila. “There seems to be a lack of tequila-based winter drinks,” he says, “so I wanted to get that in there. I like to have…

The Fiffitini at the Palm “I’ve been doing this drink for about eight years now,” says Chad Skrbina of a drink that isn’t even on a menu at The Palm. Nearly a decade ago, a group of people wandered into his bar and requested that he make a drink just…

For the bartenders who worked everyone else’s holiday party, it’s time to celebrate the season. On Monday, the Colorado Bartenders’ Guild hosts its fourth annual Holiday Hangover, a yearly fundraiser and membership drive — and a chance to mingle and de-stress after a busy holiday season. “It’s a great opportunity…

Winter in Trinidad at Finn’s Manor “A lot of people don’t associate Denver as a rum market,” says Robert Sickler, “but I am damn determined to make it one.” As co-owner of Finn’s Manor, Sickler has embedded his love of rum deep into his cocktail menu. Apparently, it’s catching on…

Beet Root at Honor Society Handcrafted Eatery When KT Ward walks into the kitchen at Honor Society, he sees piles of possibilities: limes, celery, apples — whatever he thinks might be fused into a stunning cocktail. “We’ve got a lot of cool, fresh ingredients to play with,” Ward says. It…

The Superhero at Carbon Beverage Cafe When Habit Doughnut Dispensary and Carbon Beverage Cafe opened five months ago on Platte Street, the plan was to sell lots of coffee and doughnuts. But beverage coordinator Matthew Spicer took it a step further by coming up with a way to add booze,…

The Smoking Barrel at Adelitas Cocina Y Cantina Just one look at the drink menu at Adelitas and you quickly come to this realization: It’s not just margaritas anymore. At this Platt Park Mexican restaurant and bar, Nathan Schmit is taking tequila — and especially the increasingly popular mezcal —…

The Right Dose at RooseveltWhen Isaac Smith needs a name for a new cocktail, he steps into his library, located only a few steps away from his bar at Roosevelt, where floor-ceiling bookshelves span the entire length of the space. He jots down titles of books that he thinks might…

Death Star at The Infinite Monkey Theorem Urban Winery Here we are between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s that wonderful holiday season, but it also feels like Star Wars season, with the latest installation of the Sci-Fi classic hitting cinemas later this week. Star Wars fandom is at an all-time high,…

Noble Experiment at AcornThe Noble Experiment at AcornIt’s ironic that the flavors often associated with the winter holidays actually come from tropical climates. Nutmeg, for example, is a seed plucked from trees indigenous to Indonesia. Allspice hails from Mexico and Central America. And cloves are flower buds that grow on…

In June, Denver firefighter John Whelan died after falling through a skylight on the roof of a building while fighting a fire. The night he died, a group of fellow firefighters had a drink in his honor at Tooey’s Off Colfax, a bar just a block away from Fire Station…

The Groni at Dos Santos Taqueria de Mexico “I think this has been a little bit of a dark horse compared to our other cocktails,” says Raul Ramos, bartender at Dos Santos Taqueria de Mexico. Most of the cocktails he serves at the Uptown taco shop are tequila-heavy, but the…

Green Girls of Paris at Black Eye CoffeeWhen bartenders love an ingredient — the way it tastes, the way it smells, the way it’s made, the story behind it — they find a way to create a cocktail centered on that ingredient. When the the first drops of the cocktail…

Spice Pumpkin at The Nickel You know it’s autumn when pumpkin spice lattes appear. It’s a perennial event, like the changing colors of the leaves, that reflects the transition of seasons. As the delicate flavors of summer fade away, we turn to those nostalgic, warming hints of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon…