Knowing what I know now, I would never have voted for the sweeping change in attitude embodied by John Hickenlooper’s administration. While I wholly approve of reversing parking rates to a level that does not require a second mortgage or a successful second career in narcotics trafficking, I expected a…
It was the Christmas lights that messed me up. The tiny glass ornaments lit from within. The tinsel. The light-up motorized reindeer standing beneath the abbreviated spiral leading up to the rotunda — unused these days except under special circumstances, dark, the chairs all stacked and set aside. The decorations…
Remember Colorforms? I do. They were those reusable sticker sets that came with a slick cardboard background and sheets of thin, flimsy vinyl with shapes, characters, scenery — anything really — printed on them. Say you liked Superman. You bought the Superman set, punched out all the characters and stuff…
Do you remember your first experience with hard alcohol? For me, it was sneaking the liquor-soaked cherries out of the Manhattans that my grandparents drank each evening. As a child, I both hated and loved the bittersweet taste. Still, I’d never sat down and ordered a Manhattan until I bellied…
To any of you who were present at the Stout Pub (2052 Stout Street) the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I want to apologize on behalf of our entire group. I want to, but I won’t. Because the blame really belongs to bleary-eyed reader Andy Anderson, a fellow Minnesotan who suggested this…
I know how Thai food tastes when eaten with the fingers in the back seat of a Toyota Celica parked facing the wrong way down a one-way alley, windows up, lights out, the air thick with stale pot smoke. I know the smell of it — full and exotic –…
Under normal circumstances, news that a diner — a good diner, one with some age and enough funk and grunge to gladden my blackened little Rust Belt heart — had redecorated would really piss me off. Why? Because “redecorating” is often a code word for repackaging or repurposing, a polite…
Like a lot of kids in the ’70s, Erik Amundson collected and traded beer cans. And like his fellow collectors, he eventually lost interest and moved his cans to the attic. But unlike most kids, Amundson had a mother who didn’t trash his collection after it fell out of fashion…
I’ve always wanted to be the lead singer in a band. Not like Mick Jagger fronting a band rockin’ out large stadiums, but more of a Janis Joplin type, pouring my heart out on a small stage in a dark, smoky enclave. Sadly, I can’t carry a tune. My own…
Apparently the only Ted-free place in town is Denver International Airport. These days, you can’t turn on the television or open the paper without seeing that single word emblazoned on a blank field, or even go to a bar without having a cheap Frisbee proclaiming “Ted is fun” foisted on…
We were saying our goodbyes. Laura was inside with her mother, doing the last-minute traveler’s waltz of checking tickets and departure times, making sure everyone had their jackets, collecting books that had been shoved up on shelves, fussing with the cats — doing any and every little thing that could…
In Japan they’d say it’s otaku, or maybe a by-product of otaku — that passionate, blind obsession with something long gone, something that maybe never existed at all. At Brasserie Rouge (see review), Leigh and Robert Thompson have created a place more real than reality, a reproduction that’s not just…
At six months, Bistro Vendome still has the potential to be a great spot. It has all the necessary elements — a perfect little space with a garden patio tucked away off the street; a talented chef-owner, Eric Roeder, who comes with a pedigree full of names like Gray Kunz,…
If your houseguests have been in town for a full twelve hours and are already grating on your last nerve, impress them with a trip to Denver’s newest power center, the Capital Grille, where you can get them nice and sauced up with a few Stoli Dolis (a drink that…
Let’s have a show of hands: Who did something this past weekend that he or she regrets? Okay, me too. But despite my being “overserved” by the Hornet (76 Broadway), I’m pretty sure I have the same complement of friends that I went into the weekend with. And that’s no…
You know one thing that bugs me about the French? Their cigarettes. Gitanes, in particular. Their boxes are too big; they burn funny; and they taste like a pile of burning hair. But the Frogs love ’em and are absolutely convinced that Gitanes are the best smokes on earth. Know…
It started with cheese and ended with a chicken suit. In between, I decided to start a revolution, found myself in three different chain restaurants and almost took a swing at Jesus. It was a weird week, and here’s how it shook out… Friday –hearts and minds: By my second…
Most of us can picture the embattled alcoholic, staring down at a tempting glass of vodka and calling a fellow abstainer late at night: “I’m craving a drink and need your help.” But a person having the same struggles over a glazed doughnut? That’s a much harder image to swallow…
Let’s be honest: No one goes to the Diamond Cabaret & Steakhouse for its specialty cocktails and rare steaks — they go for the tits and ass. With its dark-red walls, leather chairs and neon chandeliers, the currently controversial Diamond was the perfect spot to pop my strip-club cherry. This…
The new SAT is the final step in the coddling of America’s children, which is ruining society. It started with allowing snowboarders at Vail and continued with the acceptance of ridiculous baggy pants — the ones with crotches hanging around the knees, making kids look like clown-school rejects or young…
By the third time I’d driven past the construction site, the workers were getting suspicious. The fourth time, they waved. I was beginning to wonder if mocking motorists was their job, if the building site at First and Josephine was really some sort of day-vacation spot for burned-out roughers and…
At Hapa Sushi (see review), you don’t have to worry much about rules. Don’t sneeze on your neighbor’s edamame, don’t lick the help, don’t stick two chopsticks in your top lip and pretend you’re a walrus (they’ve seen it before, Shecky, and no one thinks it’s funny). If you can…
