My Brother’s Bar

Leave it to the Institute of Drinking Studies to host one of the biggest events in a very young man’s life in the oldest saloon in Denver: My Brother’s Bar (2376 15th Street). We here at the Institute feel that it is important to demystify drinking by showing our progeny…

Sicilian Breeze

If you’re like me (and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be), you yearn for a return to basic values. This means you think that pros playing in the Olympics (especially hockey) was the primary reason that TV ratings for the Winter Games hovered somewhere between those of Supernanny and Fox’s…

Ti Amo Ancora

If you’re like me (and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be), you yearn for a return to basic values. This means you think that pros playing in the Olympics (especially hockey) was the primary reason that TV ratings for the Winter Games hovered somewhere between those of Supernanny and Fox’s…

Grand Mal Margarita

I know I’m going to have my cool card taken away, but I love Lowry. As a girl from the Denver suburbs, I think it’s great that kids can grow up in a comfortable, new-urbanist environment without their parents having to deal with I-25 during rush hour in order to…

Nallen’s Irish Pub

It’s horrifying to admit, but the signs are all there: We are growing up. On my birthday, I’d denied the usual urge to overindulge in food and booze simply because it didn’t fit with my diet. JP just put down “earnest money” on a house, meaning that he earnestly wants…

Bloody Mary

I was in New Orleans a couple of years ago for Jazzfest. On that trip, beer with breakfast was not only acceptable, but encouraged. One day while we were walking, cocktails in hand, along the packed sidewalks of the French Quarter, we happened upon a ragtag band singing in the…

Braun’s Bar & Grill

If you’re still not convinced that men and women are totally incompatible, then you haven’t been out in the world for way too long. At least 30 percent of the GNP is dedicated to mitigating the constant conflict. How else to explain Dr. Phil and daytime TV and in general?…

Vodka and Cranberry

Is Kokopelli a fertility deity — or just a dick? When I stepped inside Kokopelli’s (formerly Manny’s Smokehouse), I instantly loved the look and feel of the place, right down to the wonderful oxblood banquettes and the fabulous blues singer playing on a tiny stage draped with red curtains. But…

Campo de Fiori

If not for all the evidence that I’ve had heterosexual intercourse, I’m pretty sure I could be a priest. As all you Catholics and everyone who makes fun of us know, we’re in the midst of Lent, when we get back to the “Judeo” part of our Judeo-Christian heritage and…

Mike’s Famous Tuaca Sunset

I’ve always loved the drinking aspect of sports. I think that half the reason I took up golf is that it’s officially the only “sport” that has cocktail waitresses (aka cart girls). My second favorite drinking sport is skiing. There’s nothing that compares to that first sip of a cocktail…

Racines

I had high hopes for the “Sex and So Much More Show” at the Colorado Convention Center two weeks ago. Since it was billed as a venue for the free exchange of ideas on healthy adult relationships and their sometimes frightening variations, we figured there would be lots of people…

Caipirinha

I’m suddenly totally into Brazilians — the country’s cocktails, not the new/old fad of hairless pubic areas. Last week at Rodizio Grill, I discovered the Caipirinha (pronounced kie-purr-REEN-yah, $7.50), consisting of muddled lime, fine sugar and Boca Loca Cachaça, a Brazilian alcohol that’s the third-most-consumed liquor in the world. Made…

Señor Rita’s

I’m considering having the health department launch an investigation into the margaritas at Señor Rita’s (5007 East Colfax Avenue). Recently, all of the Institute of Drinking Studies’ researchers plus several groupies descended on this new bar, which was brought to us by our heroes at the Elm next door, as…

Ruby Red Martini

When Jesse Morreale told me he was taking over the old Le Delice space in Cherry Creek and turning it into a restaurant named Sketch, I thought it was a huge stretch. When this spot was Le Delice, it looked like a bad deli — and I couldn’t imagine how…

Sparkling Blue Eyes

I grew up in the suburbs south of Denver, where the best restaurant was Mr. Steak — which I loved back then solely for its Texas toast. Today the Texas toast I like best is “Here’s to Texas, living single and drinking double — belly up!” And while I know…

Hat Dance

Think Hollywood doesn’t have an agenda? Brokeback Mountain, a more socially acceptable version of Deliverance, is now sweeping awards ceremonies at which celebrities say it’s great that this story is being told, then go out and pick up twenty-something groupies so they can spend the night in front of a…

Jack Twist

Remember going to the movies with a big group of friends, smuggling beers in your pockets and then rolling the empty bottles down the aisle during the film — much to the disgust of the “adults” in the audience? As an adult (at least in age), I now generally avoid…

Phantom Canyon Brewing Company

Do you ever get that feeling of impending doom? The one where the bottom drops out of your gut and you hear faint music that makes the Jaws theme sound like a lullaby? It’s the feeling you have when your significant other leaves you a hang-up message at work after…

A Night to Remember

You’d think that all sorts of things would go with beer — and you’d be right. But even the discerning beer connoisseur who swills Keystone Light recognizes that while a plethora of items and activities complement a brew, there’s still a right and a wrong way to consume the stuff…

Le De Luxe Martini

Popular, you’re gonna be popular! In Wicked, when the male lead asks, “So — what’s the most swankified place in town?,” good witch Galinda answers, “That would be the Ozdust Ballroom.” If the Broadway show were set in Denver, she definitely would have named Bar Luxe (goofily pronounced bar lukes…

Sushi Den

In honor of a visit from someone who will soon fill the post of Italian Representative to the Institute of Drinking Studies — should he actually get hired here in Denver after more than one representative burst into his interview to make drinking plans for the coming weekend — we…

Margarita de la Casa

One recent blustery night, suffering from my second cold of the season but feeling like I was coughing up bird feathers and had become the first North American victim of the bird-flu pandemic, I grabbed a few friends to test out this new proverb: “Drink a cold, feed a fever.”…