Hey, big guy, I know it’s been a long time since I’ve written, and for that, I apologize. You were pretty good to me back in the day — easy on the coal, no matter how bad a boy I’d been. You overlooked that unfortunate incident with the lawnmower and…
If you’re still wondering how to down your bubbles this New Year’s Eve, let me suggest the Champagne Mojito ($6) at Agave Underground, a concoction powerful enough to blast you into one hell of a 2004. Agave, which opened last month, makes this drink by combining Brut Champagne and Bacardi…
Merry Christmas. Only 24 hours left until some of you (all women) can run out to catch all those post-holiday steals. You’ll say you’re going so that you can get your shopping done early, but you’ll still be back at the malls come Halloween, checking out all the new fads…
I walk into the Cherry Creek Grill, and it just feels right. From the outside, from the inside, from the heavy front doors to the exhibition line in the back, everything about this restaurant oozes comfort. The smell of smoke from the wood-fired rotisserie oven catches me in the chest,…
Chili Cheese Fries Onion Rings Praise Jesus with thanksgiving Isaiah 12:2 That’s what the sign hanging on the door of the A&W in Frisco said last month. Today, it’s “Happy Birthday Jesus” and “Jesus is the reason for this season, Isaiah 7:14,” along with more exhortations for the faithful to…
Following Toby Tyler’s lead, Santa Claus is running away and joining the circus that will be at Mario’s Double Daughter’s Salotto this weekend. Named for Italian ringmaster Mario Guccio’s ax-juggling conjoined-twin daughters who died in 2001, Mario’s Double Daughter is truly one of the greatest shows in town. And in…
Knowing what I know now, I would never have voted for the sweeping change in attitude embodied by John Hickenlooper’s administration. While I wholly approve of reversing parking rates to a level that does not require a second mortgage or a successful second career in narcotics trafficking, I expected a…
It was the Christmas lights that messed me up. The tiny glass ornaments lit from within. The tinsel. The light-up motorized reindeer standing beneath the abbreviated spiral leading up to the rotunda — unused these days except under special circumstances, dark, the chairs all stacked and set aside. The decorations…
Remember Colorforms? I do. They were those reusable sticker sets that came with a slick cardboard background and sheets of thin, flimsy vinyl with shapes, characters, scenery — anything really — printed on them. Say you liked Superman. You bought the Superman set, punched out all the characters and stuff…
Do you remember your first experience with hard alcohol? For me, it was sneaking the liquor-soaked cherries out of the Manhattans that my grandparents drank each evening. As a child, I both hated and loved the bittersweet taste. Still, I’d never sat down and ordered a Manhattan until I bellied…
To any of you who were present at the Stout Pub (2052 Stout Street) the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I want to apologize on behalf of our entire group. I want to, but I won’t. Because the blame really belongs to bleary-eyed reader Andy Anderson, a fellow Minnesotan who suggested this…
I know how Thai food tastes when eaten with the fingers in the back seat of a Toyota Celica parked facing the wrong way down a one-way alley, windows up, lights out, the air thick with stale pot smoke. I know the smell of it — full and exotic –…
Under normal circumstances, news that a diner — a good diner, one with some age and enough funk and grunge to gladden my blackened little Rust Belt heart — had redecorated would really piss me off. Why? Because “redecorating” is often a code word for repackaging or repurposing, a polite…
Like a lot of kids in the ’70s, Erik Amundson collected and traded beer cans. And like his fellow collectors, he eventually lost interest and moved his cans to the attic. But unlike most kids, Amundson had a mother who didn’t trash his collection after it fell out of fashion…
I’ve always wanted to be the lead singer in a band. Not like Mick Jagger fronting a band rockin’ out large stadiums, but more of a Janis Joplin type, pouring my heart out on a small stage in a dark, smoky enclave. Sadly, I can’t carry a tune. My own…
Apparently the only Ted-free place in town is Denver International Airport. These days, you can’t turn on the television or open the paper without seeing that single word emblazoned on a blank field, or even go to a bar without having a cheap Frisbee proclaiming “Ted is fun” foisted on…
We were saying our goodbyes. Laura was inside with her mother, doing the last-minute traveler’s waltz of checking tickets and departure times, making sure everyone had their jackets, collecting books that had been shoved up on shelves, fussing with the cats — doing any and every little thing that could…
In Japan they’d say it’s otaku, or maybe a by-product of otaku — that passionate, blind obsession with something long gone, something that maybe never existed at all. At Brasserie Rouge (see review), Leigh and Robert Thompson have created a place more real than reality, a reproduction that’s not just…
At six months, Bistro Vendome still has the potential to be a great spot. It has all the necessary elements — a perfect little space with a garden patio tucked away off the street; a talented chef-owner, Eric Roeder, who comes with a pedigree full of names like Gray Kunz,…
If your houseguests have been in town for a full twelve hours and are already grating on your last nerve, impress them with a trip to Denver’s newest power center, the Capital Grille, where you can get them nice and sauced up with a few Stoli Dolis (a drink that…
Let’s have a show of hands: Who did something this past weekend that he or she regrets? Okay, me too. But despite my being “overserved” by the Hornet (76 Broadway), I’m pretty sure I have the same complement of friends that I went into the weekend with. And that’s no…
You know one thing that bugs me about the French? Their cigarettes. Gitanes, in particular. Their boxes are too big; they burn funny; and they taste like a pile of burning hair. But the Frogs love ’em and are absolutely convinced that Gitanes are the best smokes on earth. Know…
