Most craft brewery owners thought Oskar Blues was idiotic back in 2002 when the company became the first to regularly package its beer in cans. They said it destroyed the image of good beer and that it wouldn’t work. But those brewers have all since come around to idea that…
A new restaurant can wow first-time visitors with flashy food; a chef can pull out all the stops for a one-time tasting menu. But can they keep it up over time? Quality and consistency over months and years are what separate the great eatery from the flash in the pan…
February comes pre-loaded with two beer-friendly holidays: Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day (or Anti-Valentine’s Day, as the case may be). But the shortest month of the year is also special in Colorado because of Stout Month, which was started by the Mountain Sun Pub 25 years ago and which is…
So complete was the transformation of Union Station that it’s hard to remember a time when it was once not much more than a forlorn depot for AmTrak and the Winter Park ski train. Today, thanks to a soup-to-nuts restoration of the building’s former glory — and a development plan…
The Beer Depot (4231 West 38th Avenue) is not, as I thought when I first heard the name, a liquor store. It is one of three bars that form part of the Berkeley neighborhood’s “Beermuda Triangle,” something I learned about at the Beer Depot itself. When a friend and I stopped…
With names like Cox’s Orange Pippin and Esopus Spitzenburg, the sparkling beverages pouring from Champagne-like bottles at a new Aurora tasting room might be hard to identify — unless you’re an apple aficionado. Both are the products of Haykin Family Cider, which opens to the public at 12001 East 33rd…
It’s often difficult to find a seat at 105 West Brewing in Castle Rock, which has been growing in popularity since it opened in late 2015. But that will change over the next few months as the brewery expands. Immediate plans call for moving the adjacent Castle Rock Homebrew Supply…
In the beginning, at the dawn of the craft-beer era in Colorado, there was free beer. And it was good. Anyone who was interested in checking out breweries like New Belgium, Odell and Great Divide could stop by, learn about the brewing process and sample the beer for free. If…
Westword writers just poured out a list of the fifty bars we can’t live without, and readers respond.
If you’re a recent transplant, you’re probably tired of longer-time Denver denizens remarking with wide-eyed wonder at the changes this city has undergone in the last decade. But forgive us the earnest indulgence, because whether we were born and raised here or just moved 10 years ago, we still can’t…
It’s been a while since Ron Tarver first announced plans to open Denver Distillery (244 South Broadway), but after almost six years, the time has finally come. “This is all my design from out of my head from over five years ago,” says Tarver, as he shows off the finished…
Next Door Lounge (not to be confused with Next Door American Eatery, which has several locations around town) is a small but mighty bar that you might just miss if you aren’t paying attention while driving along East 17th Avenue in Uptown. Sandwiched between sister restaurant Bread-N-Butter and Jack’s Uptown Grille,…
There have been big changes recently among the ranks of Denver’s brewers. Among them is the temporary departure of Little Machine Beer’s co-founder and head brewer Brett Williams, who is taking a leave to live in Mexico with his wife. Although Williams will work remotely on several aspects of Little…
Bars have played a big role in Westword‘s forty-year-history, too. In fact, our offices were once over the Wazee, which will soon close.
Charlie Papazian, the man whose energy and words inspired tens of thousands of homebrewers and helped create the craft brewing industry, has said he will step down from the Brewers Association in exactly one year, on January 23, 2019, his seventieth birthday. Papazian made Colorado the center of the world for…
Here are the fifty Denver bars we can’t live without, our chaser to Eat Here, our list of 100 favorite restaurants.
Let’s all acknowledge that the only drawback to happy hour is its timing: sure, you can score rounds of food and drinks for cheap for a couple of hours a day, but that’s assuming you can cut out of work during what’s really still the afternoon. Moreover, if happy hour…
Not everyone likes to have their picture taken. Some people — grumpy brewers in particular — would rather toil away in peace or solitude, and not as the subject of a photographer. Others enjoy the spotlight, even trying to pose for pictures instead of being themselves in front of the…
I used to frequent the Atomic Cowboy (the original one, at 3237 East Colfax Avenue) when I first moved to Denver more than ten years ago — and so did nearly everyone else in my Congress Park neighborhood. Back then, the Atomic Cowboy was just a simple but hip bar for…
A flight of wine presents three or more glasses of wine that share common characteristics served together for comparison and enjoyment. What constitutes a great flight? That’s the question I posed to Logan Silbert, wine director at Boulder’s Black Cat Bistro (1964 13th Street). There are several ways to assemble…
The Colorado Brewers Guild has elected four new members to its eleven-member board of directors — all of whom will get a lesson in civics as the legislative session begins at the state capitol this month. They are Carrie Knose of Living the Dream Brewing, Mike Lawinski of Fate Brewing,…
At some point in working-life trajectory, happy-hour transitions from being mostly an excuse to get sloshed and fed on the cheap to being mostly an excuse to take the last meeting of the day over a couple of drinks (or skip out on the last meeting entirely, especially on a…
