Smokey Bandito at Butcher’s Bistro “I look at cocktails as cooking,” says Scott Bauer, co-owner of Butcher’s Bistro on Larimer Street. “It is cooking. You’re taking many different things and putting them together to make the palate play.” Bauer opened Butcher’s Bistro last year as a meat-centric restaurant with a…
#9 at Bar FaustoEverybody wants to feel special. At the Populist, that special feeling comes after you’ve enjoyed a great dinner at the bar. The hour you spent lingering over the kitchen’s delicious small plates most likely included some stimulating conversation with your bartender, adding a sense of camaraderie to…
Snooze Fashioned at Snooze It’s not just Mimosas anymore. If you’re putting down some pancakes with friends at brunch these days in Denver, there are a lot more day-drinking options than just the usual orange juice mixed with sparkling wine. At Snooze, the barons of brunch have created a slew…
Crown Manhattan at the Crown Social If you were going to make a cocktail using only spirits made in Colorado, what would you make? A vodka and soda might be easy, but what about a more complex cocktail such as, say, a Manhattan? Well, that’s a question that bartender Chelsea…
Pop Skull at Syntax Physic Opera At Syntax Physic Opera, everything is entertainment. The South Broadway bar and restaurant is also a venue, drawing crowds for stand-up comedy, opera, live local music and burlesque. A stage sits front and center in the dining room, where live performance is woven into the…
400 Rabbits at MezcalLast May, Mezcal went dark, but the closing of the venerated East Colfax restaurant wasn’t a permanent one. After a three-month remodel, a new incarnation of Mezcal re-opened with a few tweaks to the decor, a few splashes of fresh paint and a revamped menu. When the…
Swagger Mai Tai at Metroboom As summer starts to slowly fade away, and the chilly evenings evoke thoughts of colder nights to come, we’re hastily quaffing our last glasses of rose before it’s time to switch to something more suitable to the snowy season. But at Metroboom, an innovative new…
Gardener’s Collins at Spuntino If you order a drink at the bar at Spuntino, and the bartender disappears, that’s a good thing. Chances are, you’ve ordered bartender Jason Randall’s garden-to-glass cocktail. Filling your order requires him to walk past you and right out the front door — to his street-side…
Moulin Rouge at Highland Tap and Burger When Mike Kelly crafted the recipe for what has become the most popular cocktail on Highland Tap and Burger’s drink menu, he didn’t find his inspiration behind the bar. He found it in the kitchen. “It’s just like going into your kitchen and…
Chile Vodka Avocado at The Terminal Bar “It’s really important to pair cocktails with the season,” says Rae Raymond, bar manager at The Terminal Bar, located inside the newly renovated Union Station. “That’s what people want to drink at the time, and our bodies just sort of crave certain things…
The Heart Beet at the MCA Cafe Visitors to MCA Denver are greeted by a striking work of art, even before entering the building. An enormous, sparkling heart, stuck through with a silver sword, rotates atop a pole jutting up from the sidewalk in front of the building’s main entrance. The heart,…
Peak 9 at the Crimson Room Many bartenders, upon dialing in a new cocktail recipe, name their drinks after things they love, with music and movies being the most common inspirations. Like many Colorado bartenders, A.J. Snowhite makes cocktails on busy weekend nights while slipping away to the mountains for mid-week…
The Ramos Gin Fizz at Union Lodge No. 1.Vintage cocktails like the Manhattan and Old Fashioned get a lot of attention these days. They allow barroom patrons to enjoy an archetype from the early days of America’s cocktail culture — along with modern adaptations by creative bartenders. But when Union Lodge…
The Ama-zingh at Baur’s Restaurant & Listening Lounge As bar manager at Baur’s Restaurant and Listening Lounge, Brittany Wangsness (who we last encountered mixing up a buttery cocktail at TAG) enjoys challenging guests with unique flavors in her cocktails. “I want guests to leave here, having their questions answered and…
Thai Mai Tai at Nocturne “I had very little exposure to music growing up,” says Topher Hartfield, lead bartender at Nocturne, a new jazz venue and supper club that opened in March in the Ballpark neighborhood. But when he opened Nocturne with owners Scott and Nicole Mattson and chef Dustin…
The Phuket at Fuel Inspiration often comes from the unlikeliest of places. For Jaci Hernandez, it happened on a vacation to Mexico. In early June, the bar manager at Fuel Cafe left Denver for a friend’s wedding in Puerto Morales, near Cancun. The idea for her newest cocktail didn’t actually…
For the second year in a row, McLain Hedges has won the Viva Sangrita cocktail competition, held on Tuesday afternoon at Linger. A group of 150 cocktail fans packed Linger’s rooftop patio for the annual event, which tasked all nine competitors with creating a sangrita, a non-alcoholic accompaniment to a…
The Bourbon Renewal Project at Dunbar Kitchen & Taphouse Becky Alter, bar manager at Dunbar Kitchen & Taphouse, has a saying that she instills into all the bartenders that work with her: When in doubt, go the classic route. That mixological mantra is a rule she lives by, too; her…
Al Laws is passionate about what he loves. As the owner and founder of Laws Whiskey House, it’s obvious that what he loves is whiskey. “I really, really like rye whiskey,” he says. “I think it’s the most sensual whiskey.” This week Laws and head distiller Jake Norris released the…
Bonnie Lass at Adrift Tiki Bar Every bartender has a go-to drink — the drink they order when they get off work and slide into the solace of the quiet corner of a darkened bar somewhere. They wouldn’t think of burdening their bartender with a high-maintenance cocktail consisting of six…
Alice In Watermeland at Angelo’s Taverna “Everybody that walks in the door is either an old friend or a new one,” says Kyle Nickerson, bar manager at Angelo’s Taverna. His keen sense of hospitality is fitting at this relaxed neighborhood Italian restaurant and bar, where his new cocktail menu treats…
Negroni Week, a seven-day celebration of the classic cocktail, begins today and runs through Sunday, June 7, at various venues across the city. Across the world, over a thousand bars and restaurants are also participating in the program, stirring classic and contemporary versions of the iconic cocktail. Ten Denver bars…
