But by the time Hick hit the podium last Saturday night, he was no longer an owner of the brewpub or the six other restaurants added to the Wynkoop family over the years; the company’s managers had bought out his shares from the blind trust managing Hickenlooper’s portfolio. But that didn’t stop the shirt-sleeved Hickenlooper from pouring it on for his former peeps during his half-hour address, which included a toast to Michael Jackson, the British beer expert who’d passed away earlier in the week after a career that did much to legitimize beer-lovers everywhere.
We'll drink to that. -- Patricia Calhoun
