“Awesome, awesome, awesome.” That’s how chef Elijah Odell describes winning the seventh annual Pairsine food and beer pairing competition last night at the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield. Pairsine, which is a combination of the words “pair” and “cuisine,” challenged chefs to create beer-friendly dishes, and present them with the…
Don’t wash your jeans. When Levi’s CEO Chip Burgh dropped that piece of advice last May, he wasn’t just talking about preserving your denim. Lots of water is used in the production of your new 501s, a fact that brings home the day-to-day impact our choices have on how water…
Combining work and play is a good gig — if you can get it. Surprise guest bartenders James Estes and Jesse Estes, who are cousins, did just that Wednesday night at Williams & Graham. While visiting family in Colorado, the London- and Dubai-based bartenders slipped into work mode to deftly…
Denver bartenders, are you feeling inspired? If so, shake up your creative juices, because Bombay Sapphire’s Most Imaginative Bartender Competition is coming to town on Monday, August 4 — and the deadline to enter the contest is July 14. The yearly competition asks bartenders to craft their most compelling cocktails,…
“For the most part, Colorado knows an awful lot about beer,” said Todd Leopold, head distiller at Leopold Bros. distillery. “They can tell you about different styles, and what breweries they like and why, but when it comes to spirits, people are just starting to dip their toe in the…
“We bartended together, as one, and it was amazing,” says Chad Michael George, who shared the win at Deuces!, a synchronized bartending competition held Tuesday at Star Bar, with Nick Touch. Paired bartenders were tasked with making the same drink — simultaneously. Four teams fought it out behind the bar,…
In his first-ever bartending competition, Nick Snyder of the Corner Office punched out a win at Cochon 555’s annual Punch Kings competition on June 28 at the Curtis Hotel. Originally a carnival of all things pork, Cochon 555 has expanded to include bartenders in the food-and-drink competition. See also: The…
Denver bartenders Jason Patz and Allison Widdecombe, both of Williams & Graham, traveled to New York City last month for World Class U.S., a nationwide bartending competition. Considered the biggest and most celebrated mixology competition in America, World Class U.S. matched Patz and Widdecombe against thirteen other bartenders from across…
Oh, how time flies when you’re brewing fun. Three years ago, Renegade Brewing Company began brewing beer at 925 West Ninth Avenue, in the Arts District on Santa Fe. Renegade celebrated its third anniversary on Saturday, June 28, with an outdoor block party with live music, food trucks and plenty…
“We’re the biggest tequila bar in the city — we should be winning margarita contests,” saysLa Biblioteca bartender Ben Carrington of his double-win in the margarita category at Top Taco. The taco and margarita competition, which took place Thursday, June 26 at Sculpture Park, pitted area restaurants against each other…
“The idea was to make a sangrita that was traditional, and yet complemented the tequila — which was the most important thing,” says McLain Hedges, winner of the Viva Sangrita Cocktail Competition, held June 17 at Linger. Six bartenders competed in the event, which drew 200 people to Linger’s rooftop…
In hard times, people are often forced to find ways to make money. Sometimes those means of generating much-needed revenue aren’t always legal. Growing up in rural western Iowa in the 1930s, Keith Kerkhoff was the son of a farmer searching for ways to feed his family. The family had…
Sometimes, the journey is worth the reward. You want the destination to be like it is in the brochure. You want a return on your investment. You may find yourself in a remote part of town, thinking, “Where the heck am I?” What good thing could possibly be out here?…
You may not be familiar with Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, but in Wisconsin, he’s a big deal. In the early 1800s, the botanist, geographer and explorer traveled through the state in search of the source of the Mississippi River. He eventually found it in 1832 (it’s Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota);…
“I didn’t even know that Cinsault was grown in Colorado,” says Rob Corbari, bar manager at The Populist. But once he found out it was, he incorporated a wine made from the Cinsault grape into a drink that won the Colorado Wine Cocktail Competition last week at Green Russell. See…
If you were drinking a cocktail with the floral notes of a rainforest, the aroma of banana and lime flowers, the earthiness of sweet red peppers and the saltiness of oysters, you’d be drinking cachaca (pronounced ka-SHA-sa), a Brazilian spirit distilled from sugarcane juice. And while all of those rainforest-and-ocean…
With spring come changes — and those changes are popping up like little flowers on cocktail lists across town, especially as mixologists switch up menus to include seasonal ingredients. At Williams & Graham, bar manager Jason Patz took us on a tour of some of the new and exciting concoctions…
