Behind the bar at Vesta Dipping Grill, tucked away with several other books on mixology, sits a well-worn book titled Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. Bar manager Scott Ericson often thumbs through the (now) ragged book, searching for a bit of inspiration, which is exactly how he came up with…
Maybe you were done buying discount TVs before 6 a.m. or maybe you’ve just got better things to do today than join the masses at the mall. Whatever the case, there are some special beer tappings going on at a few local breweries in honor of the retail world’s big…
On Monday night, RiNo Yacht Club hosted David Kaplan, owner of legendary craft cocktail bar Death & Co., who made Denver a stop on a 15-city tour to promote his new mixology how-to book. Kaplan’s book, named after his bar in Manhattan’s East Village, was published in October and, at…
Renegade Brewing, which has spent the past five months renovating a 15,000-square-foot production facility in a development called the Yard near First Avenue and Santa Fe Drive, announced last week that it will begin distributing outside of Colorado for the first time next month. Kansas is the first state that…
The Corner Office shouldn’t work. It’s over-active, over-designed, over-achieving. Its menu covers dozens of different cuisines, from Greek htipiti dip to fish tacos. There are disco balls in the bathrooms. But rather than being a vile yuppie wonderland, the Corner Office is interesting and satisfying. Its happy hour, running from…
Every year at about this time, my email and text message in-boxes blow up with pleas for my picks on what to pour at Thanksgiving dinner. And every year, I struggle with how to respond. You see, trying to answer this question “correctly” is about as easy as finding a…
The Kitchen 1530 16th Street 303-623-3127 “I’ve always been a huge fan of Manhattans. That was kind of the base for it.” That’s Dustin Lawlor, head bartender at the Kitchen in downtown Denver, talking about Lux & Ivy, his latest whiskey cocktail. He’s also a huge fan of punk rock…
When Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project opened its showplace tap room inside the urban-chic Source market a year ago, owner Chad Yakobson planned to start brewing there right away. But for month after month, his shiny new equipment sat empty as he and Zeppelin Development, which owns the building, tried…
The 2014 baseball season didn’t work out so well for the Colorado Rockies, but it was a grand slam for Oskar Blues, which sold nearly 50,000 burgers at the CHUburger restaurant on the new rooftop deck at Coors Field. The location also poured 43,000 beers, although that total was split…
To a restaurant, happy hour is many things: a way to fill up the slow early afternoon hours, an effort to build a loyal following in the neighborhood, and a means of offloading cheap food and liquor stock. But how do places with a holistic approach to cooking and dining…
Wynkoop head brewer Andy Brown, who is credited with updating the beer recipes at Colorado’s oldest brewpub to fit the modern craft-beer market, said this week that he is leaving the job after six and a half years. Mike Hall, the head brewer at Phantom Canyon Brewing in Colorado Springs,…
Fate Brewing in Boulder announced this week that it has acquired an extra 2,500 square feet of space next door to its current facility, where it will begin renovations next month, adding a barrel-aging room and new bottling and canning equipment. In addition, Fate will double its fermentation capacity to…
Lower48 Kitchen 303-942-0262 Last week’s Arctic blast of snow and sub-zero temperatures got us all thinking that winter is finally here. At Lower48 Kitchen, bar manager Brandon Brough was a step ahead of the blast, crafting a winter cocktail menu that’s ready for you when you step in the front…
The owners of Ratio Beerworks had stopped looking for space in River North — a district that already boasts seven breweries with at least three more on the way — when they heard about the 5,500-square-foot warehouse that Mile High Spirits was leaving behind after finding newer digs downtown. “It…
Keeping it local. That’s the goal of Andy Nelson and Jason Reinhardt, who will open Locavore Beer Works on Saturday, November 15 in Littleton. “We use the concentric ring model and only go outside of that if certain goods or services aren’t available,” says Nelson, adding that the brewery is…
Golden Moon Distillery last week a added a new gin to it’s growing line of spirits. Their newest spirit starts with one of their oldest: Golden Moon’s citrusy, herbaceous gin is rested in barrels previously used to age port wine. The Port Cask Reserve gin takes on rich, red-wine flavors…
When people walk into Fermaentra, owners Brennan Mann and Spencer O’Bryan want them to know they’re in a brewery. “Otherwise, you’re just in a bar in LoDo,” Mann says. That’s why beer drinkers at Fermaentra, which opens its doors for the first time on Saturday, will be able to look…
The onset of winter sent me scurrying for a dark beer — and I wasn’t alone. Boulder’s FATE Brewing Company was packed to the rafters with everyone from high-fiving bros to families with little kids. Lots and lots of little kids. What secret sauce is FATE squirting to get a…
Gardiner Hammond has always been a fan of Capitol Hill — the bars, the music halls, the mix of people and styles. So when he began searching for a location for his brewery, Alpine Dog Brewing, he focused on this eclectic neighborhood. “It’s the densest part of Denver,” he says…
Ski resorts haven’t always made craft beer a priority, but that has changed a lot over the past two years. The latest pairing between local brews and winter sports is at the Base 9 bar inside Breckenridge’s Beaver Run Resort and Conference Center, which is introducing a new craft-beer program…
When Left Hand Brewing introduced its Nitro brand in 2011, the beer maker’s top brass wanted things to run smoothly — both in how the beers poured and with control of the brand itself. The former worked out perfectly. The latter, not so much. While the creamy beers, especially Milk…
Captain Chunk at the Squeaky Bean 1500 Wynkoop Street 303-625-2665 Captain Chunk ($10) is a boozy, rum-based cocktail on Squeaky Bean’s Autumn drink menu. It’s no coincidence that the drink shares a name with a character in the 1985 Steven Spielberg movie The Goonies. “We name our drinks after old…
