DSTILL Pours Out Craft Spirits, Cocktails and Discussions in Denver This Week

Tomorrow marks the beginning of DSTILL, a week-long celebration of American spirits that showcases small-batch distillers and their products. DSTILL, now in its third year, focuses on artisan spirit producers, bartenders and beverage industry leaders who are influencing today’s resurgent craft-cocktail culture. While the week will peak with Thursday’s spirits…

Wynkoop Restructures Brewing Operations, Plans for Growth

Coors Field may be celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, but it’s still not as old and grizzled as the Wynkoop Brewing Company, which will turn 27 this fall. And although the famous brewery helped create both the vibrant Lower Downtown neighborhood and Denver’s craft-brewing scene, its age is beginning…

Tamayo’s Hot Space Serves Cool Drinks and Mild Eats at Happy Hour

Richard Sandoval is still making waves in Colorado after helping put our state on the national plate by opening Tamayo on Larimer Square in 2002. Sandoval’s restaurants can seem like they’re stuck in time, rarely shifting with times and trends. But Sandoval’s newest venture, La Biblioteca, offers a happy hour…

Spangalang Brewery Opens Thursday in Former Five Points DMV

Spangalang Brewery will jazz up the Five Points neighborhood on Thursday when it opens inside the high-profile former Denver Motor Vehicles office. Founded by former Great Divide head brewer Taylor Rees and journeyman beer makers Austin Wiley and Darren Boyd, the brewery takes its name from a jazz term that…

Drink of The week: The Art DeCo at The Molecule Effect

The Art DeCo at Molecule Effect “We try to take ‘locally-sourced’ to the extreme,” says Mark Landman, who opened Molecule Effect with partner Megan Rodgers in late 2014. “When we think of ingredients for anything, we start right here and we start to go outward from there.” The community-focused lounge, located…

Big Flavors With Small Prices at Luca’s Happy Hour

Even though it’s been one of Frank Bonnano’s longest running restaurants, serving solid Italian food since 2003, Luca only just launched an afternoon happy hour in March, meaning it’s the new flavor on the block once again — a block already held down by happy hour heavyweights  Vesper Lounge, Benny’s,…

Beer Calendar: New Beer From Crooked Stave; Old Beer From Great Divide

Call To Arms Brewing, which plans to open late this year at 4526 Tennyson Street, has launched an unusual crowdfunding progam that allows friends and fans to become financial supporters by sponsoring pieces of the brewery’s furniture. Altogether, there are about eighty pieces of furniture, including table chairs ($150), bar…

Six Colorado Craft Breweries Are Among the Largest in the Nation

Colorado continues to count six of its beer-makers among the fifty largest craft breweries in the country, but some of their positions on that list slid in 2014. thanks to a rule change from the Boulder-based Brewers Association: Breweries that use corn as a beer adjunct – but still produce fewer…

Six Breweries Opening This Year in the Denver Suburbs

While Denver is approaching the big fifty when it comes to the number of breweries in the city, the outlying brewing scene continues to boom as well, whether it’s new spots in the southern suburbs or those setting up shop just past our western border in Lakewood or the eastern…

Drink of the week: Butter Beer at Green Russell, by Alex Lerman

Butter Beer at Green Russell “People come here for the showmanship, and for all the touches we put on drinks,” says Alex Lerman, bar manager at Green Russell, Denver’s first speakeasy-style cocktail bar. Those touches made for some sophisticated sipping, but they took time, too. Guests loved the intricate potions poured…

The Five Best Happy Hours in Denver

When the clock strikes four, restaurants all over the city start slashing prices and bringing out drinks and snacks to those looking for some mid-afternoon or late-night comfort. The happy hours arms race in Denver means that whether you’re headed to a dive bar or a chef’s flagship restaurant, you’ll…

Oskar Blues Will Buy Perrin Brewing, a Small Michigan Beer Maker

Oskar Blues, which is one of the fast growing independent breweries in the country, said today that it has purchased Perrin Brewing, a medium-sized Michigan brewery that had been in business less than three years. Management of the two companies got to know each other late last year through their…

Gaetano’s Shows Old-School Love for Happy Hour

You can throw off the checkered tablecloths and add a fresh coat of varnish, but you can’t erase the spirit of a good old Italian restaurant. Gaetano’s Restaurant has been ladling red and pouring white in North Denver since 1947, but a change of ownership in 2005 (when the venerable…