Best Movie Theater -- Food 2008 | Neighborhood Flix Cinema & Cafe | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Movie Theater -- Food

Neighborhood Flix Cinema & Cafe

Neighborhood Flix Cinema & Cafe is such a welcome addition to the Lowenstein Theater complex, we can only wonder how we lived so long without it. Other places have mixed food and film, but never first-run movies with first-rate food. Neighborhood Flix combines a bar/bistro (with an initial menu designed by James Mazzio of 5 Degrees and Via fame) with progressive programming and intimate screening rooms for a powerful trifecta. Films cross the spectrum from Hollywood's latest to documentaries to international flicks and second-run indies — and the crowds that flock here prove there's always room for one more art house in a city filled with sophisticated cinephiles. The food selections are inventive (popcorn and popcorn shrimp!), the drinks are bountiful, and the price is right: $5 for matinees, and free for kids under five. The couch-style theater seating is so comfy, you'll want to stay through the credits.

Best Movie Theater — Comfort

Landmark Theatre Greenwood Village

Landmark's latest theater not only offers the same great first-run and art films you'll see at the Mayan, Chez Artiste and Esquire, but it has a lounge complete with a bar. And then there's the snack deal: free popcorn and fountain drinks for the cost of admission. Granted, the tickets are a few dollars more than the current standard, but cinephiles with big appetites and a powerful thirst will more than break even. The real way to enjoy a movie here in true creature comfort, however, is to shell out a couple of extra bucks for the VIP option, which nets you deluxe chairs and wait service from on-call staffers until the movie begins. It's a relatively small price to pay for celebrity treatment; the only thing missing is the red carpet.

Best Movie Theater — Drink

Aurora Movie Tavern

Movie theaters that offer food and drink service are becoming almost commonplace. But that's food and drink service in the lobby. The Aurora Movie Tavern is one of the Tavern chain's "premier" locations, which means that there's full waitstaff service in the theater itself. Press the call button at your seat during the film, and your server will bring the beverage of your choice — and what choices! There's the Blue Thing, the signature margarita, or the Big Blue Thing for 2 — forty ounces of that signature margarita for $15.99. The Movie Tavern also mixes up a mean margarita and sells not just a bucket o' beer, but the Tavern Tanker, which for $9.99, comes filled with your favorite brew — and then you get to take the Tanker home. Happy trailers to you!

Best Movie Theater — Programming

Starz FilmCenter

Programmed under the auspices of the Denver Film Society, Starz is not only a great place to see the latest in foreign and independent films, but it's also home to nearly a dozen ongoing series that cover all the cinematic bases. There's Cinema Q for the gay-centric crowd, DocNight for those who want an injection of reality into their film-going lives, and Rocky Mountain PBS Free Community Cinema, which offers a sneak peek of films to be aired later by the PBS series Independent Lens, to name a just few. For late-night fun, monthly Mile High Sci Fi nights combine comedy and B-movies, while Kids First! provides free Saturday screenings for the junior set. A recent addition, Seeing Double, even brings back the hallowed double feature on Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons. At Starz, variety and good taste go hand in hand.

Best Museum Exhibit

Color as Field
Denver Art Museum

Courtesy Denver Art Museum
Artists today want to tell stories, but a generation ago there was a group of artists who simply wanted to make beautiful paintings, and they were the subject of Color as Field, a magnificent exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. The traveling show was guest-curated by Karen Wilkin, for the American Federation of the Arts, and the DAM's able Gwen Chanzit. Wilkin included color-field compositions by Morris Louis, Helen Frankenthaler and Kenneth Noland, as well as work by the style's ancestors, like Mark Rothko, and creations by the movement's heirs, such as Frank Stella. Not just one of the best shows last year, it was one of the best in decades.

Best Music Evangelist

Jonathan Bitz
www.myspace.com/denversyntax

Jonathan Bitz has an unbridled passion for local music. The mastermind behind Syntax, the well-regarded literary-arts publication, his love for the scene has resulted in much-needed exposure for such vital Denver artists as Ian Cooke, Bela Karoli, Gregory Alan Isakov and Rachael Pollard. Last spring, Bitz and the Late Jack Redell created a three-day singer-songwriter confab titled A Moveable Feast, which spotlighted these acts and other emerging artists. That led to a traveling version of Feast, as well as the like-minded Living Room series at the Meadowlark, where Bitz currently handles booking duties. The scene would be nowhere near as vibrant without tireless evangelists like Bitz.

Best Musical — Local

Ragtime Boulder's Dinner Theatre

With Ragtime, it felt as if Boulder's Dinner Theatre had opened the doors and let in a great whoosh of invigorating air. This is one hell of a musical to stage, one based on an important book that marries a meaningful plot with a smart, perceptive script and terrific songs. To create a cast, artistic director Michael J. Duran teamed up with Jeffrey Nickelson of Denver's Shadow Theatre Company, and Nickelson himself played the enigmatic angel-devil Coalhouse Walker. The energy and discovery created by this fusion of talents from the two companies was palpable, and the production was a joy, buoyed by strong performances, filled with memorable moments and crammed with musical numbers that ranged from meltingly lovely to funny to wildly exhilarating.

Best Musical — Touring

The Light in the Piazza
Denver Center Attractions

Luscious and lyrical, a feast for the eyes, ears and mind, The Light in the Piazza reminded you of just how romantic a musical can be. Every performance was a gem. Katie Rose Clarke was a luminous Clara; David Burnham, too, sang like an angel. And at any point, if you happened to get bored watching superb actors carry an absorbing plot or listening to varied and heart-stirring music, you could study the exquisite architectural contours of Michael Yeargan's set, admire the vibrant colors of Catherine Zuber's costumes or take in the shifting play of light created by Christopher Akerlind. This play left you dizzy with pleasure.

Best New Band

Widowers

The current lineup of Widowers looks an awful lot like the now-in-limbo Constellations, with two-thirds of the same people, but Mike Marchant's tight songwriting — with just the right blend of pop smarts and psychedelic swirls — and Cory Brown's melodic drumming signal that this outfit is up to something very different. In just over a year of live shows, the act's sound has evolved into a sticky, infectious garage-pop hybrid that's accessible enough to draw a crowd, but just unique enough to stand out in that crowd. Guitarist Davey Hart flails and wails hypnotically at the edge of the stage while Marchant — all doe eyes and Julian Casablancas come-ons — purrs his abstruse lyrics and twists his guitar into new and interesting shapes. Meanwhile, Mark Shusterman's fractured, flickering Rhodes adds just the right amount of sparkle. Driven home by subtle, insistent and undeniably sexy rhythms, Widowers melodies linger long after the last string stops vibrating.

Best New Bar

Continental Club

Every once in a while, a bar opens that just feels like home — if your home had cheap drinks (we're talking dollar PBRs all the time) and a damn fine jukebox stocked with everything from old-school punk to classic country to jazz and everything in between. The Continental Club is a simple, unpretentious joint — a little on the small side, but it works. And it's a welcome addition not just to the Santa Fe arts district, but to all of Denver — particularly since it augments that jukebox by bringing in live bands like Whiskey Throttle and Lyin' Bitch & the Restraining Orders.

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