The Lowdown on LoHi

Although I haven’t moved in a decade, I now live in LoHi. The reason? The area of town where I live — right above I-25, at the very edge of Highland — is newly hip, and a newly hip area needs a hippish name. Enter lohi, as it’s referred to…

Denver’s Star-Spangled Bungle: Simmer in the City

It was a bad week for the city to turn down its air-conditioning and turn up the emphasis on Cool Biz, the energy-saving plan that Mayor John Hickenlooper had announced last Thursday. City Hall was already muggy on Tuesday, July 1, and the place really heated up after Rene Marie…

Best or Bust!

We were seated at our favorite table at the Buckhorn Exchange, right beneath the two-headed calf and not far from the whale’s penis, discussing the relative merits of elk and rattlesnake, when a cameraman came by. He was filming ten of Denver’s best places for the Democratic National Convention, he…

The State of This City

On Tuesday, John Hickenlooper delivered his fifth State of the City speech since the former geologist/brewpub owner/raconteur became the upset choice for mayor of Denver. That a man with that resumé could pull off such an upset is certainly one of the best things about this city: Anything seems possible…

Rene Marie’s Star-Spangled Bungle

The city’s abuzz over Rene Marie’s surprise decision to replace “The Star-Spangled Banner” with the Black National Anthem at yesterday’s State of the City speech at the Wellington E. Webb Building. A surprise to everyone else in the room, Mayor John Hickenlooper included, but not to the jazz singer. Marie’s…

The Return of the Denver Daisy

Last weekend, on day seven, my second attempt at raising a crop of Denver dailies took a tumble off the deck. Although the cause seemed lost, I swept up some of the dirt and tossed it back in the pot. And on June 30, lo and behold, a slender seedling…

Shooting From the Lip with Jon Caldara

Saturday, June 28, was a good day for the Independence Institute. Its sixth annual ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) Party attracted a record number of participants to the Kiowa Creek Sporting Club for the “most politically incorrect” event of the year. But while Jon Caldara’s group advertised the 2008 AFT…

Ritter Meets the Press

Talk about Cool Biz! Governor Bill Ritter was apparently very, very serious when he and Denver mayor John Hickenlooper whipped off their ties last Thursday to show how sincere they are about saving energy in government buildings this summer with their Cool Biz initiative. Because when he went on Meet…

From LoDo to NoDo

Twenty years ago, when this city was still dreaming of getting a baseball team, the area above the just-designated LoDo Historic District was fondly known as NoDough. There was simply no dough in the blocks past the last outposts of civilization at 20th Street: El Chapultepec and Mori, the Japanese…

Lowdown on LoDo

Clip and save: After the shootings early Sunday morning, June 22, there’s lots of talk about violence in LoDo — and if people can’t be clear about what they’re talking about (and judging from the conversation so far, they can’t), at least they can be clear about where they’re talking…

Denver Daisy, RIP Again

On day eight — a dozen short of the predicted germination date — my second pot of Denver daisies hit the dirt. As detailed in this report, the sole Denver daisy to emerge from my last attempt mysteriously disappeared into dust while I was out of town. This time, the…

Billy’s Inn Is Coming Back!

After 75 years of continuous operation, Billy’s Inn closed early this year — but now it’s coming back! The building at 4403 Lowell Boulevard started life as a service station in the ’20s, and then Billy and Judy Smith turned it into Billy’s Inn in 1933. The kitchen closed in…

Sunday Service for Russert

For so many of us, watching Meet the Press has been a Sunday ritual, a celebration of civic engagement and free speech that we observed religiously. With the passing of Tim Russert on Friday, our Sunday service is missing its leader — but his spirit lives on. Back in April,…

When It’s Swingtime in the Rockies

Just got copied on a form letter sent by one Bradley Guildner of Thornton to CBS regarding Swingtown. “The offensive content clearly violates our local community standards and does not reflect your license obligation ‘to serve the public interest,'” he writes. “I urge you to refuse to air future episodes…

Ted, RIP

A moment of silence, please, for Ted, the inanely named little brother of United Airlines. The low-cost, shuttle-like service to nearby destinations made sense when it was announced in late 1993; the name never did. It was the equivalent of renaming an economically challenged portion of this city “Ver.” Even…

The Final Frontier

I try to be faithful to Frontier, the homegrown airline that took off in 1994. And when I heard that it was adding flights to Missoula, Montana, where I frequently travel, it seemed that my longtime loyalty had paid off: I used to fly the old Frontier direct to Montana,…

Denver Daisy, Day Twenty

My Denver daisy got off to a fast start, but it’s been slow going — and growing — since then. By June 4, day twenty, from when I poured the seed packet into my scrounged pot of dirt — and the official date for germination — my packet had produced…

Mean, Lean ‘N Green

It’s not easy being green. Not much fun, either. Although restaurants specializing in good, healthy food abound in Denver, and many chefs focus on using local products whenever possible, the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee has a way of sucking all the flavor out of a concept with its bossy,…

The View

Denver is a city built on great neighborhoods, filled with characters and coffeehouses. I fell in love with Stoneman’s Row when I first moved to Denver and would take frequent trips to the original Muddy’s, just so I could detour past these eight ancient stone houses standing sentinel over the…

Drink Up!

On June 6, Denver will see its last Thirst Friday — because this summer, one of Colorado’s biggest cultural assets will also become a liquid asset. As of July 1, the state can start issuing art-gallery permits that allow galleries to serve (not sell) alcohol for four hours a day,…

Belly Up to the Bar

Celebrity-starved Denver has a new star — and he didn’t arrive empty-handed. Pastry chef and Food Network personality Keegan Gerhard and his wife, Lisa Bailey, moved to Denver earlier this year, and today they’ll unveil D Bar Desserts, their jewel-box of a bakery/dessert bar at 1475 East 17th Avenue, right…