Best Snowsports Publication 2013 | Snowboard Colorado | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Snowsports Publication

Snowboard Colorado

Given the draw that Colorado has for extreme-sports enthusiasts, a magazine showcasing the talents of local and national celebrities (many of whom reside in our resort towns) was inevitable. Since Snowboard Colorado's first printing in fall of 2010, the magazine has continued to highlight the technological advancements in the industry, the strides that Colorado companies have made to push the sport, and, most important, the progressive talent coming out of the snow-covered hills of Colorado.

Best Sports Announcer

Mike Haynes

Mike Haynes honed his style on the radio, a medium in which his high-octane pronouncements were necessary. After all, he had to help listeners picture what was happening, and he managed to do so better than anyone in the market. But he's proved to be just as adept at calling the action on TV. He knows the game inside and out, and he manages to convey his loyalty to the Avs without conjuring up excuses for them when things are heading south. He makes each goal seem bigger, every check more crushing, and those glove-dropping fights the equivalent of championship bouts on blades.

Best Sports Bar for Food and Drink

Highland Tap & Burger

Highland Tap & Burger isn't just a sports bar — but you wouldn't know that on game day, when this LoHi spot is packed with hat boys and bros cheering and jeering whatever's playing on the many TVs, drinking beers, taking occasional smoke breaks on the patio, and stuffing their faces with the great food that comes out of the kitchen. When they opened the place three years ago, the owners applied a fine-dining sensibility to a pub-like menu, and they've held to those standards. The result is Denver's best burger, offered in a variety of styles with toppings both plain (white cheddar) and fancy (truffle aioli), as well as impressive root-beer pulled-pork sandwiches, meatball sliders and incredible homemade chips.

Best Sports Bar for Playing Games

Blake Street Tavern

Three years ago, the Blake Street Tavern moved from the modest warehouse spot it had occupied for almost seven years to a massive space a block south, with a great back patio, a big bar, an ambitious kitchen, an arcade area and plenty of room to watch games — or just the people around you. And now bigger is becoming even better. Blake Street is moving its arcade area to the basement — which is almost as huge as the first floor — where it will offer bocce, cornhole, shuffleboard, Skee-Ball, basketball, leagues and other fun activities, as well as a bar that can accommodate two dozen beers on draft. That will cement Blake Street's reputation as not only one of the town's best sports bars for watching games, but definitely the best sports bar for playing games.

Best Sports Bar for Watching Games

Chopper's Sports Grill

Chopper's/Instagram

If you're serious about watching the game, any game, head directly to Chopper's Sports Grill, which takes its sports very seriously. Chopper's, which has stood its ground in Cherry Creek for decades, is named for Bob "Chopper" Travaglini, the late, beloved Denver Nuggets trainer, and it's a real sports bar, with memorabilia and TVs hanging in every nook and cranny of the big space — bathrooms included. The menu includes not just bar chow, but big, manly steaks for those who are as serious about their meals as they are about their sports. This is not the place to go if your only mission is to get toasted — but if you want to toast the Nuggets' incredible winning streak, there's no better spot. Let the games begin!

Best Sports Team — College

Colorado State University men's basketball

The race for college basketball dominance in Colorado is on, and we're hoping it continues for years. This season, the CSU Rams lost their only head-to-head match-up with the University of Colorado, but on the whole, Colorado State had an excellent season, finishing second in the Mountain West conference and getting into the NCAA Tournament alongside their rivals from Boulder. And while some might point to the competition disparity between the Mountain West and the Pac-12, look again: Both conferences have five teams in the tournament, and the Mountain West had an average seed of eight, while the Pac-12 has an average seed of about nine. You decide which is more impressive.

Best Sports Team — Professional

Denver Broncos

Oh, what a sweet feeling it is to look forward to a Broncos season. It hasn't been that way for a while, either because of overt mediocrity or cosmic flukery of the Tim Tebow variety. Peyton Manning has changed all with his work ethic and his incredible skill set, not to mention durability (so far) that's surprised even some of those who were confident his neck wouldn't shatter after that first sack. And while the off-season has had its ups (acquiring Wes Welker) and downs (the Elvis Dumervil fax-gate debacle), the signs as a whole are more than positive. To put it another way, fans won't have to be wildly drunk to believe a long-delayed return to the Super Bowl is possible.

Best Terrain Park

Breckenridge

The Breckenridge Park & Pipe crew dug in early to roll out the white carpet for the Dew Tour's Ion Mountain Championships in December, then rocked it all season long with five different terrain parks and an Olympic-sized 22-foot superpipe. Some of the park's features are first-timer-friendly, offering a safe progression toward the bigger and burlier elements. The biggest and burliest of them were designed with the Breck Pro Team, a group of 26 top-tier sponsored athletes, in mind.

Best Tiny Diorama Animals

The cats in the Early Denver diorama

Earlier this year, History Colorado's sprawling diorama of circa-1860 Denver was brought up from the basement, where it underwent a thorough cleaning and restoration, and placed in the lobby under special glass that will hopefully protect its Lilliputian landscape for years to come. The best part of that landscape? Tiny cats the size of ants who are perched on the Early Denver diorama's tiny fences, keeping an eye on the even tinier chickens.

Best Train Trip

Rio Grande Scenic Railroad

Denverites are still mourning the loss of the Ski Train to Winter Park, but the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad is a hell of a consolation prize. Although the owners of this company weren't able to pick up where the Ski Train left off, they offer incredible trips across southern Colorado, where the vistas are scenic, indeed — through tunnels, around horseshoe curves and over mountain passes. Theme excursions range from Wine Tasting Trains to Rails and Ales to concert trips that stop at an outdoor amphitheatre. But any trek on this train, which runs between Alamosa and La Veta, is memorable, whether you're standing in front of the open observation car, right behind the hundred-year-old steam engine, or sipping wine in the comfort of the City of New Orleans club car in back. All aboard!

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