Monday, December 24
Treat yourself to the gift that keeps on giving (at least through January) at the Post Brewing Co. on Monday, December 24. All four locations (Denver, Boulder, Longmont and Lafayette) are offering Stouts and Steins to thirsty customers all day: $15 will get you a pour of Big Jim stout in a holiday stein, and if you come in wearing a flannel, you'll also snag a free whoopie pie — no word on whether flannel pajamas count. Return in January with your stein and you'll get happy-hour pricing on all dark beers for the month. Find details at postbrewing.com, and screw Oktoberfest: Get ready to hoist that stein in January.
Tuesday, December 25
Spend Christmas (and Boxing) Day with fellow Hogwarts students at the Occidental, 1950 West 32nd Avenue. Starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, December 25, and Wednesday, December 26, the bar will be transformed into everyone's favorite magical castle, with all eight Harry Potter movies and themed cocktails (including butterbeer!). Don't worry about making a reservation or buying tickets (it would take some magic to get a Christmas Day reservation anywhere at this point); just show up for the free event in your house colors. Be prepared to vote in the Quidditch World Cup o' Cocktails and to witness the startling evolution of Emma Watson's hair. Details are on the bar's Facebook page. Accio whiskey!
Wednesday, December 26
Boxing Day isn't the day you punch someone; it's the day you return all the lame gifts you got yesterday. So while you're out and about "giving back" on Wednesday, December 26, stop in at Denver Milk Market, 1800 Wazee Street, and indulge in Cheese Board Wednesday, where $25 will land you two glasses of wine from S & G's tap and some well-aged dairy products. The deal runs from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., making it a cheesy stop for lunch or dinner.
No, those aren't medical specimans; it's kombucha.
Flickr/Sterling College
You look the kind of person whose idea of fun is growing a living organism in a jar of tea on your kitchen counter. So you'll definitely want to take a class before you poison someone. Learn how to make kombucha on Thursday, December 27, at 2914 Coffee Bar, located at 2914 West 25th Avenue in Jefferson Park. Purchase $35 tickets on Eventbrite, then arrive at 6:30 p.m. for a scintillating hour and a half of kombucha history, science, demonstrations and tastings. The ticket entitles you to take home a jar with your own SCOBY (that's your new jellylike pet's name), some "starter" kombucha, and an instructional handout. Then toast 2019 with something healthy and homemade!
Don't give your dog beer — but if you do, make sure it's better than Miller Lite. But seriously: Don't give your dog beer.
Flickr/Andrew Bardwell
Spend the last Friday night of 2018 partying with friends who will never hook up with some loser at the bar and abandon you, get so drunk they puke in your car or steal your food without asking. Okay, they might do that last one, but it's a small price to pay for the unconditional love you get from your canine companion. Diebolt Brewing, 3855 Mariposa Street, is throwing a party for you and your pup on Friday, December 28, that will benefit Maxfund Animal Adoption Center. Tickets, $12, include pet caricature drawings, a ball thrower, dog food and treat samples (including a scoop of Sweet Action ice cream for humans), entry into the peanut-butter-licking contest (for your dog, not you), and the chance to hang out with your most reliable of buddies while drinking good beer. The party runs from 7 to 8:30 p.m.; snag your tickets on Eventbrite.
Keep reading for future food and drink events.
Il Porcellino Salumi is offering meat CSA boxes in 2019; the deadline to order is coming up.
Courtesy Il Porcellino Salumi
Il Porcellino Salumi, 4334 West 41st Avenue, expanded dramatically this year with the addition of a production facility in Basalt, and with its increased capacity, it's also bringing a slew of new products to market. One of those is the meat CSA the Berkeley shop is debuting in 2019. Just think of a typical summer produce CSA, but for carnivores. Each box comes with the makings for two meals for two people, such as polenta, shredded beef in chile sauce and a half-chicken marinated in white wine, butter and garlic. The program will run from January through March, with four boxes each month; customers for February (the first month of the CSA) must order by Sunday, January 27, and can pick up their goodies at the shop each Sunday, beginning February 3. A one-month commitment ($200) is required, so call 303-477-3206 to sign up, then say goodbye to hitting the grocery store and fretting about recalled ground beef for the next thirty days.
Friday, February 22, through Sunday, March 3, 2019
Denver Restaurant Week is coming, so clear your calendar from February 22 through March 3; you'll want to visit a different eatery every day. Hundreds of Denver’s top restaurants will offer multi-course dinners for three tasty prices ($25, $35 or $45) during the fifteenth year of the wildly popular week. Stay tuned to Visit Denver for a list of participants and menus, and book your first choices right away, before someone else nabs your table.
2018's Collaboration Fest was so successful, tickets are already on sale for 2019.
Nikki Rae Photography
Beer festivals in this town are serious business; there's at least one happening somewhere in the metro area every weekend, and many are long-running ventures with the attendee count growing each year. Some people (not us, of course) even plan their fests a year in advance. Collaboration Fest is hoping you're one of those people, as tickets for the Saturday, March 16, event are now on sale — even though the beers won't touch your lips until March. Early bird tickets are priced at $55 and $80 at collaborationfest.com, where you can get a few details about the festival, which will run from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Denver, 650 15th Street. The upside to snatching up those tickets now? By the time the fun rolls around, you'll have forgotten how much you spent to have it.
If you know of a date that should be on this calendar, send information to [email protected].
