Vince Martinez of Maloney’s Tavern nabbed first place at the Hpnotiq bartender competition at Suite Two Hundred in September, beating out eight other local bartenders. Each had to create a drink that featured Hpnotiq, a liqueur made from a blend of vodka, cognac and tropical fruit juices. Martinez got top…
Drew Bixby, Westword Drunk of the Week columnist, has dedicated countless hours — and his liver — to researching the town’s true dives.The result is a new book, Denver’s Best Dive Bars: Drinking & Diving in the Mile High City, which will be toasted at a series of events this…
I headed out to one of usual hangs on Sunday to watch the Donkeys get dicked over my daily dose of football, but there were apparently far fewer hangovers from the night before than I had envisioned, because my choice bar was ridiculously, impossibly busy. I ended up less than…
Vine Street Pub’s Paul Nashak plans to raise a toast to Denver tonight if the city council approves his request for a zoning variance that would allow the brewery to make beer on-site. A part of the Boulder-based Mountain Sun string of pubs, Vine Street has been open in Denver…
For the past fifteen years, the original Jax Fish House, at 928 Pearl Street in Boulder, has been feeding fish heads to the finicky (and spawning a Top Chef victor, but you already know all about that), a feat that’s being marked through the week as part of a fifteenth…
Beerman-about-town Marty Jones has landed a new gig. The former Oskar Blues marketing whiz, Jones has taken a similar job at the Wynkoop Brewing Company, where he’ll be guiding the brewery’s fledgling canning project (the Wynkoop began canning its Railyard Ale last August and will follow up with Silverback Porter…
If you’re a tequila imbiber, boy do we have a dealio for you. Beginning Sunday, November 1, Zolo Southwestern Grill in Boulder, 2525 Arapahoe, is unleashing its love for tequila, a party that will continue for the next 151 days (until March 31), which is the same number of tequilas…
It’s billed as a Bloody Mary on the libations roster, but with the accompaniments of shrimp, blue cheese-stuffed olives, peperoncinis and a kick-ass, kick start mound of spices, it’s more like a snack before breakfast. Or a prelude to a long afternoon of snowbound restlessness. I’m on my way to…
When the lights come on, and the only thing separating you from Hammered Enough to Want Taco Bell is one last shot, it’s good to have a plan. Hesitate, and risk the bartender reneging on his gracious offer to tack fifty more dollars on your tab. But: Know what you…
The String Cheese Incident’s Kyle Hollingsworth is touring to push his new solo release, Then There’s Now, but the keyboardist/songwriter isn’t just an expert musician. He’s also a home brewer, and is teaming up with local breweries along his route for Kyle’s Beer Tour. Although the tour won’t hit Colorado…
My family wasn’t the Irish pub kind. Some of my earliest, fondest memories involve going with my dad to Trader Vic’s in the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Or the Brown Palace. Or Eddie Bohn’s Pig ‘N Whistle on West Colfax, where we’d sit in one of those red booths with his pals…
The good people at Mezcal (3230 East Colfax Avenue), Tambien (250 Steele Street) and Sketch (101 Broadway) have declared a state of happy hour emergency, which is often the case when the streets and sidewalks are canvasses of white. And so long as the snow continues to fall, all three…
The bad weather has put the Hendrick’s Gin competition hosted by the Colorado Bartenders Guild at Lola tonight on ice. I was slated to be a judge, so I’m both relieved and disappointed by the postponement. The contest has been tentatively rescheduled for November 16. In the meantime, you might…
On the first big snow day, restaurants and bars offer a flurry of cold-weather specials. But it’s hard to beat the standing deal at McCormick’s Fish House & Bar, the cozy spot tucked into the Oxford Hotel at 17th and Wazee streets. Whenever it’s snowing, this McCormick’s offers Irish coffee…
901 Silver Tequila, the ultra premium tequila brand that just launched this year, has sealed a multi-year deal with Live Nation that makes it the official tequila sponsor at Live Nation venues across the country. It’s Live Nation’s first spirits sponsorship on a national level. “We are thrilled to be…
Leigh Jones, the woman behind Jonesy’s EatBar and the Horseshoe Lounge (with partner Margaret Moore), was also the co-owner and designer of the Dish, B-52 Billiards, Brasserie Rouge, Atomic Cowboy and Buffalo Billiards in Nashville and Austin. But she really came into her own with the eponymous Jonesy’s, Denver’s first…
Any ol’ bar, from snazzy to seedy, can offer $2 cans of PBR and still make more than a 300 percent profit on even the most egregious retail thirty-pack price; in Denver, plenty do, though often just during happy hour. The Squeaky Bean, however, is different. In a lot of…
Chili Verde, the Mexican restaurant that opened this summer at 3700 Tejon Street, has a lot of things going for it. It has a lovely space, friendly service, and a menu that’s like a dream for anyone looking for a real taste of Southern Mexican and Pueblan cuisine. One thing…
You could once find the city’s best dive bars along Larimer Street, but gentrification has claimed most of those, leaving only the Star Bar at 2137 Larimer and now El Charrito, which has made a comeback at 2100 Larimer. This longtime Larimer haunt is only open after 7 p.m., and…
Osteria Marco bartender Michael McGill hates being whistled at when someone wants his attention. As he told Westword’s Nancy Levine in this week’s Behind the Bar column, “I’m not a dog.” Not every bartender is as cool as McGill. Still, no matter how he or she acts, that barkeep holds…
Michael McGill grew up in Kansas City and moved to Boulder for college, where he poured his first drinks. He has been behind a bar since 1998, and today can be found managing the bar at Osteria Marco in Larimer Square. Now serving: Michael McGill. How did you get into…
Hosea Rosenberg may have won last season’s Top Chef, but his luck didn’t hold for Big Red F colleague James Lee, the Boulder mixologist who placed fourth at this weekend’s Iron Bar Chef contest at the annual Santé Restaurant Symposium in New York. Which means Lee didn’t get the $1,000…
