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For reasons we'll never understand, some people out there are afraid of eating pork belly. Maybe it's the name: The idea of eating anything's belly could be a little disturbing. But still, everyone with a tastebud left in their heads should immediately swallow all prejudices against this noble butcher's cut and get a taste of the wonderful pork-belly entree with smoked bacon, hedgehog mushrooms and apple chutney at Frasca. On a menu filled with nothing but winners by chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, this plate is singularly amazing. The fat cap of each thick slab of pork belly is rendered in the pan, seared crisp just at the end, and then the beautifully tender meat is sliced and fanned over a pale white smear of horseradish sauce for a real treat by a wickedly talented kitchen. So if the civilians out there continue to eschew the potential wonders of pork belly, that's fine with us. Frasca is a busy place, and that just means more belly for us.
For reasons we'll never understand, some people out there are afraid of eating pork belly. Maybe it's the name: The idea of eating anything's belly could be a little disturbing. But still, everyone with a tastebud left in their heads should immediately swallow all prejudices against this noble butcher's cut and get a taste of the wonderful pork-belly entree with smoked bacon, hedgehog mushrooms and apple chutney at Frasca. On a menu filled with nothing but winners by chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, this plate is singularly amazing. The fat cap of each thick slab of pork belly is rendered in the pan, seared crisp just at the end, and then the beautifully tender meat is sliced and fanned over a pale white smear of horseradish sauce for a real treat by a wickedly talented kitchen. So if the civilians out there continue to eschew the potential wonders of pork belly, that's fine with us. Frasca is a busy place, and that just means more belly for us.
She doesn't own a nearby liquor store, which is a major plus. But Ceal Barry, who bowed out this year as basketball coach of the Lady Buffs, does hold a winning record that would be hard for any other candidate for CU's next athletic director to beat. Through two-plus decades in Boulder, she's kept her eye on the ball. That means she knows her student athletes are students, first and foremost, and deserve to experience all the best that a CU education can bring (which is plenty -- not that you'd know it from the headlines these days). And if those student-athletes win some important titles along the way, so much the better. Barry recognizes that at CU, it's not whether you win or lose, but how the game is played -- with honor and integrity and honesty. Which makes us wonder: Why waste her on the AD job? There's that presidency open, too.


She doesn't own a nearby liquor store, which is a major plus. But Ceal Barry, who bowed out this year as basketball coach of the Lady Buffs, does hold a winning record that would be hard for any other candidate for CU's next athletic director to beat. Through two-plus decades in Boulder, she's kept her eye on the ball. That means she knows her student athletes are students, first and foremost, and deserve to experience all the best that a CU education can bring (which is plenty -- not that you'd know it from the headlines these days). And if those student-athletes win some important titles along the way, so much the better. Barry recognizes that at CU, it's not whether you win or lose, but how the game is played -- with honor and integrity and honesty. Which makes us wonder: Why waste her on the AD job? There's that presidency open, too.

The action can get pretty hot and heavy when LoDo's bars let out at 2 a.m. But from the cheap seats on the sidelines, watching the crowds pour out of the clubs and pour themselves into cars and cabs -- after some last-second attempts to hook up --can be mighty entertaining. And the vehicles parading slowly past offer a non-stop urban soundtrack.

You're at a hot concert, but you're running out of cash for cold beer. Bummer, dude. But wait -- it's the Fabulous Free ATMobile to the rescue! Last summer, Compass Bank rolled out a customized mobile van that visits fairs, festivals, concerts and sporting events (it made its debut at the Elephant Rock Cycling Festival in Castle Rock), dispensing fee-free cash from two NCR machines. There's no such thing as a totally free lunch, of course: While the service is free no matter where you bank, you'll have to work hard to avoid all the Compass marketing materials touting other services.
You're at a hot concert, but you're running out of cash for cold beer. Bummer, dude. But wait -- it's the Fabulous Free ATMobile to the rescue! Last summer, Compass Bank rolled out a customized mobile van that visits fairs, festivals, concerts and sporting events (it made its debut at the Elephant Rock Cycling Festival in Castle Rock), dispensing fee-free cash from two NCR machines. There's no such thing as a totally free lunch, of course: While the service is free no matter where you bank, you'll have to work hard to avoid all the Compass marketing materials touting other services.
We came, we saw, we stuffed our faces -- and we unstuffed the ballot boxes. After months of eating, shopping, drinking and dialing, our top-secret Best of Denver 2005 team produced the paper now in your hands, our 22nd annual celebration of the city. The Best of Denver edition is not for beginners. Within days of moving to Denver, you know the kick of browsing at the Tattered Cover Book Store (all three of them now), the thrill of seeing a concert at Red Rocks, the joy of yet another day of sunshine on your face (and your unshoveled sidewalk), and the welcome taste of that 1 a.m. burger at My Brother's Bar, Denver's oldest building dedicated to the non-stop dispensing of booze and camaraderie. (If you were lucky enough to be born here, you know all these things instinctively --- and you can also remember when you could actually see prairie on the drive from Denver to Boulder.) The Best of Denver begins with all those wonderful amenities we so often take for granted, and builds off them to capture all the unique people, places, services and shops that are continually redefining this city, making Denver the very best place in the country to live. Enjoy.

Best Place to Sit and Ponder the Vicissitudes of Existence

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

Sitting on the steps of the Immaculate Conception cathedral's gothic entryway, or on a bench inside the courtyard garden blessed by Pope John Paul II himself, you may voyeurize the entire teeming array of life on Colfax Avenue. Perps, pervs and priests by the paddy-wagon-full. Hookers enjoying fresh McDonald's Big Macs. Across the street, a space for lease, a temp agency, an Asian restaurant, a drug and liquor store. The cathedral's garden is surrounded by a high, black-metal fence tipped with crosses and dull spikes, but the gate is open, and it's filled with topiary and amiable vagrants. A sign near the gate maintains that drugs, alcohol and loitering are not tolerated in a place honored with the title of "basilica" by big J.P. 2 on Christmas Day, 1979. That lightning once struck the east spire is proof enough.

Best Place to Sit and Ponder the Vicissitudes of Existence

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

Sitting on the steps of the Immaculate Conception cathedral's gothic entryway, or on a bench inside the courtyard garden blessed by Pope John Paul II himself, you may voyeurize the entire teeming array of life on Colfax Avenue. Perps, pervs and priests by the paddy-wagon-full. Hookers enjoying fresh McDonald's Big Macs. Across the street, a space for lease, a temp agency, an Asian restaurant, a drug and liquor store. The cathedral's garden is surrounded by a high, black-metal fence tipped with crosses and dull spikes, but the gate is open, and it's filled with topiary and amiable vagrants. A sign near the gate maintains that drugs, alcohol and loitering are not tolerated in a place honored with the title of "basilica" by big J.P. 2 on Christmas Day, 1979. That lightning once struck the east spire is proof enough.


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