Today was the original deadline for Jesse Morreale to make required repairs to the First Avenue Hotel in order to keep it open — a deadline set by the Board of Appeals on July 30, twenty days after the city had slapped the building with a notice to vacate, resulting…
Six months ago Gaylord Entertainment Co. made its case to Colorado, explaining why a proposed 1,500-room, $824 hotel/resort/convention complex in Aurora was a good deal — good enough to justify the state offering big tax incentives. Today, the company that made that pitch no longer exists…
A hipster neighborhood may have hip restaurants, but hip restaurants do not a hipster neighborhood make. And when Forbes recently included Lower Highland in its list of “America’s Hippest Hipster Neighborhoods,” the party as already over, one reader suggests:…
Every Friday, Robin Edwards offers a list of “10 things to do for $10 this weekend,” a roster that most recently included Running with the Gays, a vinyl swap and Occupy the Debates. But no thongs…
When Mayor Michael Hancock hosted his second “Cabinet in the Community” last month in northwest Denver, the officials on hand outnumbered the number of people in the audience. But that’s not likely to be the case tomorrow, when Hancock takes his show on the road to east Denver — where…
Since it opened six years ago, Rockbar has been a hipster hangout — the go-to place for Hollywood celebs during the Democratic National Convention, but also a regular stop for people out and about on the weekend, or who’re just looking for a place to park (the All-Inn that holds…
This week Jenn Wohletz lamented the closing of Lollipop Gift, the Hello Kitty store that had closed, without explanation, in the Denver Pavilions. Now we’ve heard from Kenneth Chan, the owner, who provides that explanation. While the store was doing “fine,” he also owns other companies and just didn’t have…
Liquor-license renewals are generally routine affairs in Denver — but for Jesse Morreale, nothing has been routine this year. He’s in a fight over his First Avenue Hotel, and has an October 1 deadline to satisfy the city’s demands — or face having the building closed. Again. And late yesterday,…
For days the discussion has focused on Cherry Creek North, once this town’s hottest restaurant neighborhood, which may — or may not — be making a comeback. But this morning we’re returning to Highland, the area that Forbes just declared one of “America’s Hippest Hipster Neighborhoods,” citing many of the…
The University of Denver isn’t all about political debates. The Lamont School of Music is offering 250 free concerts this year, for example. And in Now Showing, Westword’s fall arts guide, DU arts administrators gave particularly intriguing answers to questions about the city’s cultural scene…
The first edition of Westword hit the streets of Denver in September 1977. Over the past 35 years, Westword has gone through many changes — as has the publishing industry in general, and the alternative-newspaper industry in particular. But our basic mission has not changed: to cover (and sometimes uncover)…
Plutonium lasts forever. So does the saga of Rocky Flats. By U.S. District Judge John Kane’s count, the jurors had spent 69 days sifting through the evidence, then another seventeen deliberating. “Through this trial, I had a clipping from one of the newspapers that said — the headline was ‘Rocky…
For Now Showing, the fall arts guide inserted in the September 27 issue of Westword, we asked dozens of luminaries on the local arts scene — including winners of the Westword MasterMind awards — to answer three questions: – Aside from your organization (or yourself), who is doing the most…
Jesse Morreale has spent much of the summer in meetings with the city, which on July 10 slapped a “notice to vacate” on his First Avenue Hotel property – the circa 1906 building at 101 Broadway that holds Sketch and El Diablo, as well as Morreale’s offices. And those meetings…
For a while, it looked like Walmart had Denver in the bag. But now, developers are going back to the drawing board…or at least the calender. After Denver City Council reps Mary Beth Susman and Jeanne Robb announced they opposed tax-increment financing for the project, the Colorado Boulevard Healthcare District…
Before we move on to controversies in other restaurant neighborhoods, we’re taking one more turn around Cherry Creek. That’s where Rodney’s closed this weekend, prompting Denver Dave to say that Cherry Creek North is “just becoming another food court in any mall USA.” That rallied the CCN defenders, including JPL35,…
Jenn Wohletz first heard of Jeni Britton Bauer’s magical, frozen concoctions back in 2006, when Sophia Ford Coppola’s Marie Antoinette came out, and Jeni’s created a collection of whole-milk yogurt-based, specially-flavored ice creams inspired by the film. The Jeni’s flavors were almost as delicious as the movie that inspired them…
When Westword debuted in September 1977, pundits around town were predicting the demise of the paper. People gave it a month, a week, a year at most. After all, the only business more risky than starting a restaurant was starting a newspaper. And a free newspaper? Forget it…
Cherry Creek North is changing, and the most recent development is the closing of Rodney’s, after close to three decades in the neighborhood. That’s a sign, Denver Dave suggests, that CCN is “becoming another food court in any mall USA.” But other readers disagree. See also: – Big Easy Creole…
There’s still more than a month until Halloween, but at Skylab at the Denver Coliseum this past weekend, the costumes came out. See also: -Twenty-five best costumed ravers at Skylab 2012 -Twenty best vaguely German costumes of Oktoberfest Denver 2012 /twenty_best_pirate_costumes_of.php”>–Twenty best pirate costumes of BrethrenCon 2012 And came off…
Jack Kerouac visited Five Points when it was at its most vibrant, when it was the heart not just of Denver’s African American community, but of the entire Rocky Mountain West, when the Rossonian Hotel and other jazz clubs in the area were must-stops for black entertainers crossing the country…
The Denver dining scene lost two long-time restaurants this weekend. Longo’s Subway Tavern poured its last beer — for now — on West 38th Avenue; after 52 years, the Longo family sold the circa late 1800s building to Larimer Associates, and although COO Joe Vostrejs says they’re not yet sure…
