Winter Cocktail – A Arvada Tavern 5707 Olde Wadsworth Boulevard 303-690-6269 It’s all about balance. When you’re making cocktails, it’s best not to let harsh ingredients overpower a drink, or worse, serve a syrupy sugar bomb. At the Arvada Tavern, Adam Douglas is doing just that: crafting cocktails the way…

Black Walnut Apple Manhattan Tables 2267 Kearney Street 303-388-0299 Sometimes you just have to come back to the basics: jeans and a t-shirt, steak and potatoes, wine and cheese. If you depart from time-tested templates, it’s best to have a good understanding of the solid base that serves as your…

South Of The Butta TAG 1441 Larimer Street 303-996-9985 Just about any South American dictator would love the new butter-infused cocktail on the menu at TAG. It’s rich and unctuous and refreshing, and perfect for sipping on the veranda after an insurrection. When thinking about cocktails for her winter drink…

With the holiday season long gone, you may be hoping that everyone soon forgets how you behaved at your office holiday party. But, there’s still one group of people that might not have partied as much as you last month: Denver bartenders. In keeping with the industry tradition of putting…

Simple Complex and Clever Satchel’s On 6th 1710 E. 6th Avenue 303-399-2560 While it’s easy to see Prohibition as a golden age of American cocktails, the history of mixing booze dates back much farther. Before the eighteenth amendment to the Constitution outlawed the production and sale of booze in 1920…

Bartender Allison Widdecombe of Williams & Graham just took first place at the Woodford Reserve Manhattan Experience, a nationwide competition held at the Bowery Hotel in New York City on Monday. “I’ve been so close to winning a national cocktail competition,” says Widdecombe. “It was just a matter of time.”…

The Ward Cleaver Mercantile Dining & Provision 1701 Wynkoop Street 720-460-3733 You may have tasted Stuart Jensen’s cooking; he has worked in kitchens at Cholon Modern Asian Bistro, TAG and a few Boulder eateries. But he’s since transitioned to his current role behind the bar and is now bar manager…

Colt & Gray 1553 Platte Street 303-477-1447 At 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning, Colt & Gray is closed, but bar manager Kevin Burke comes to the door and lets me into the darkened restaurant. We sit down at the empty bar, which was crazy busy for New Year’s Eve…

Beast + Bottle 719 East 17th Avenue 303-623-3223 The staff at Beast + Bottle regularly visits local farms and breweries to taste fresh products, which eventually find their way on to the farm-to-table restaurant’s dinner and drink menus. One of those farms supplies watercress, which fell into the hands of…

RiNo Yacht Club 3350 Brighton Boulevard 720-443-1135 Much of what we perceive as flavor, say scientists who study such things, is actually aroma. We’ve all had that experience of being sucked back into a memory where we first caught the scent of a lemon, fresh-baked bread, the ocean. For McLain…

When Marcel Templet left the Capital Grille last August to become bar manager at the Cooper Lounge, he established a bar program designed to feature products sourced from Colorado. This core value was easy to stick to until it came time to add a brandy cocktail to the menu, since…

If you’re stressed about traveling this holiday season, try this: head to Ace for a ticket to a remote Pacific island. That ticket is a tiki-inspired cocktail created last week by bar manager Randy Layman, who calls it the Mount Fuji. It’s his latest addition to Ace’s cocktail menu, and…

In 1919, congress ratified the 18th Amendment, which outlawed the manufacture, distribution and sale of alcohol. Fourteen long, dry years later, congress repealed that amendment on December 5th, 1933, by passing the 21st Amendment, effectively making it legal to drink again. That day, now known as Repeal Day, is being…

Behind the bar at Vesta Dipping Grill, tucked away with several other books on mixology, sits a well-worn book titled Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. Bar manager Scott Ericson often thumbs through the (now) ragged book, searching for a bit of inspiration, which is exactly how he came up with…

On Monday night, RiNo Yacht Club hosted David Kaplan, owner of legendary craft cocktail bar Death & Co., who made Denver a stop on a 15-city tour to promote his new mixology how-to book. Kaplan’s book, named after his bar in Manhattan’s East Village, was published in October and, at…

The Kitchen 1530 16th Street 303-623-3127 “I’ve always been a huge fan of Manhattans. That was kind of the base for it.” That’s Dustin Lawlor, head bartender at the Kitchen in downtown Denver, talking about Lux & Ivy, his latest whiskey cocktail. He’s also a huge fan of punk rock…

Lower48 Kitchen 303-942-0262 Last week’s Arctic blast of snow and sub-zero temperatures got us all thinking that winter is finally here. At Lower48 Kitchen, bar manager Brandon Brough was a step ahead of the blast, crafting a winter cocktail menu that’s ready for you when you step in the front…

Golden Moon Distillery last week a added a new gin to it’s growing line of spirits. Their newest spirit starts with one of their oldest: Golden Moon’s citrusy, herbaceous gin is rested in barrels previously used to age port wine. The Port Cask Reserve gin takes on rich, red-wine flavors…

Captain Chunk at the Squeaky Bean 1500 Wynkoop Street 303-625-2665 Captain Chunk ($10) is a boozy, rum-based cocktail on Squeaky Bean’s Autumn drink menu. It’s no coincidence that the drink shares a name with a character in the 1985 Steven Spielberg movie The Goonies. “We name our drinks after old…