Best Place to Buy Curry Fixin's 2004 | Indus Imports | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Place to Buy Curry Fixin's

Indus Imports

The scent is the first thing to hit when you walk into Indus Imports, a nondescript market just off the multicultural South Federal strip. The odors of pungent masalas bouncing off a frenzy of saffron, fenugreek, cayenne, mustard, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, turmeric, amchoor powder and asafoetida make you want to lie down on the floor like Gandhi and never leave. But you will, eventually, loaded down with ghee, basmati rice, dal and dozens of mysterious spices all begging to jump together in a pot. There's a gastronomic world of discovery to be found once you get your groceries home.

Best Grocery Bargains

Sav-A-Lot Foods

Sticker shock is common at Sav-A-Lot Foods, a minimalist supermarket where generic and name-brand goods go for pennies. The chain store isn't fancy: There are no free samples, seasonal displays or credit cards accepted. But it's always well stocked with staples, and usually with fine, fresh produce, too. How about ten limes, two pounds of pasta or a boatload of white rice for a buck? A gift to frugal shoppers everywhere, Sav-A-Lot makes it easy to shop and eat well, even when you're busted.

Best-Looking Wine Store

Divino Wine and Spirits

Nearly a year ago, wine retailer Dave Moore opened his South Broadway house of spirits along a rapidly changing Antique Row. Like the other stores on the stretch, the place is a real browser's paradise: Dog-friendly and neat as a pin, Divino features tall, stacked shelves of great little wines, domestic and imported, inexpensive and spendy; each variety is handsomely marked with a round, stamped-metal price tag. Moore left the restaurant industry to try his hand at selling wine, and he's never looked back. "Here," he says, "I get to be surrounded by something I love, and that's booze." A world of it.

Best Beer Bargain, If You Can Find It

Western Beverage

One of northeast Denver's most closely guarded secrets, Western Beverage is home to truckloads of beers, malted beverages and wine coolers handled by the Miller Brewing Company, including imports, microbrews and premium domestics. Every Saturday, the surplus is offered to the public at bargain-basement rates, usually as much as 50 percent off retail. A dolly-wielding public shows up at the crack of dawn, and the scene always has a sporting air, with elbows flying and tempers flaring over primo cases of Tecate and Sam Adams. So just where is this nirvana of the hops? We took a blood vow we would reveal it only in riddle form, so here goes: If you were a train following tracks into the industrial district near 50th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, you would ramble past a complex of warehouses to the east. Therein lurks beer, delicious beer. Good luck.

Best Liquor in a Superstore

Super Target

Jubilation and joy spread through Glendale last fall when a Super Target finally opened on Colorado Boulevard and Alameda Avenue, at a site that had formerly held a plain old Target. But this wasn't just any superstore. In addition to the usual Super Target merch, like appliances (love that Michael Graves stuff), clothing, housewares and groceries, the vast retail outlet sells beer, liquor and 248 types of wine six days a week -- and it's the real stuff, not 3.2 grocery-store swill. State law allows the super chain to operate one liquor-selling establishment within the state, thanks to a loophole related to a pharmacy license. The Glendale store is the only Super Target in Colorado to offer boozy goods. So when the spirit moves you -- or you want to be moved by spirits while picking up detergent and new sheets -- head to Super Target.

Best Example of Moving the Cheese

The Cheese Company

Who moved the cheese? Blame Rich Priest, who a few months ago took over the Cheese Company, a little neighborhood cheese shop, and decided it could be moving a lot more. Not just more cheese -- the store stocks about seventy kinds -- but also gourmet to-go items, including prepared entrees, salads and soups from a menu that changes daily. Although the to-go concept has killed off bigger outfits, Priest has managed to make a go of it. Change is good. Deliciously good.

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