5280 Magazine February 2020 by 5280magazine

THE DENVER MAGAZINE

 Station 26 Brewing Co.’s Juicy Banger IPA

HOW TO BE A PHILANTHROPIST EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT A BILLIONAIRE

PAGE 64

INSIDE THE MASSIVE ELITCH GARDENS REDEVELOPMENT

BY ROBERT SANCHEZ

Beer!

5 VALENTINE’S DAY DATES WORTHY OF THE BACHELOR

PAGE 30

161 Years Of History. 416 Craft Breweries. Countless Styles To Quench Your Thirst In Colorado. PAGE 54

FEBRUARY 2020 | 5280.com

#1 Producing Real Estate Team 2019 & 2018 DMAR Top 10 Team

Patti Helm

Libby Weaver

Pam Helm

720.201.6573 | patti@helmweaverhelm.com

303.870.9930 | libby@helmweaverhelm.com

303.548.1996 | pam@helmweaverhelm.com

Compass is a licensed real estate broker in Colorado and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. No statement is made as to accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate. This is not intended to solicit property already listed. Nothing herein shall be construed as legal, accounting or other professional advice outside the realm of real estate brokerage.

Over $85 Million In 2019 Salesâ€Ś. Helm Weaver Helm Sells Denver! 1 Haystack Row, Cherry Hills Village

$5,500,000

2821 E. Cedar Avenue, Lot 11, Cherry Creek

$1,400,000*

2 Carriage Brook Road, Cherry Hills Village

$3,800,000

3450 S. Cherry Street, University Hills

$1,380,000

155 Steele Street #1117, Cherry Creek

$3,578,817

5 Cherry Hills Park Drive, Cherry Hills Village

$1,350,000

4720 S. Ogden Street, Cherry Hills Village

$3,400,000

3941 S. Bellaire Street, Cherry Hills Village

$1,350,000

96 Glenmoor Lane, Cherry Hills Village

$2,800,000

60 Golden Eagle Road, Greenwood Village

$1,310,000

108 Glenmoor Drive, Cherry Hills Village

$2,750,000

5615 S. Colorado Boulevard, Greenwood Village

$1,175,000

8333 Sawgrass Drive, Lone Tree/Heritage Estates

$2,610,000

2573 Oak Vista Court, Castle Rock

$1,090,000

4733 S. Elizabeth Court, Cherry Hills Village

$2,500,000

8173 E. 24th, Stapleton

$989,500

2115 E. Grand Avenue, Cherry Hills Village

$2,400,000

2821 E. Cedar Avenue, Lot 2, Cherry Creek

$980,000

5940 S. Watson Lane, Columbine Valley

$2,395,000

2821 E. Cedar Avenue, Lot 20, Cherry Creek

$900,000

10299 Tradition Place, Lone Tree/Heritage Estates

$2,310,000

2800 S. University Boulevard, #22, Denver

$900,000

4550 S. University Boulevard, Cherry Hills Village

$2,307,000

2821 E. Cedar Avenue, Lot 19, Cherry Creek

$900,000

4061 E. Chestnut Court, Preserve/Greenwood Village

$2,300,000

4505 Carefree Trail, Parker/Pradera

$895,000

9405 Poundstone Place, Greenwood Village

$2,250,000

1992 Grant Street, Platte Park

$865,000

5703 S. Ivanhoe Street, Greenwood Village

$2,250,000

2821 E. Cedar Avenue, Lot 22, Cherry Creek

$850,000

5 Cherry Hills Park Drive, Cherry Hills Village U/C

$2,100,000

915 S. Clayton Avenue, Bonnie Brae

$849,000

5320 S. Race Court, Greenwood Village

$1,950,000

4930 S. Clarkson Street, Cherry Hills Village

$842,000

2821 E. Cedar Avenue, Lot 21, Cherry Creek

$1,850,000*

4736 E. Pinewood Circle, Centennial

$816,000

1514 Cottonwood Lane, Greenwood Village

$1,700,000

2821 E. Cedar Avenue, Lot 17, Cherry Creek

$775,000

2217 S. Clayton Street, Observatory Park

$1,700,000

2821 E. Cedar Avenue, Lot 12, Cherry Creek

$740,000

1295 S. Elizabeth Street, Cory-Merrill

$1,695,000

1760 S. Logan Street, Platte Park

$625,000

23 Glenmoor Drive, Cherry Hills Village

$1,650,000

9811 Venneford Ranch Road, Highlands Ranch

$615,000

61 Sommerset Circle, Greenwood Village

$1,640,000

4273 Osceola Street, Berkeley

$614,000

6456 E. Tufts Avenue, Cherry Hills Village

$1,585,000

4456 Clay Street, Highlands U/C

$535,000

2821 E. Cedar Avenue, Lot 14, Cherry Creek

$1,560,000*

5291 S. Shawnee Street, Aurora

$398,500

2821 E. Cedar Avenue, Lot 13, Cherry Creek

$1,480,000*

1176 E. Layton Avenue, Cherry Hills Village U/C

38 Royal Ann Drive, Greenwood Village

$1,450,000

* Double-sided Deals

compass.com

U/C - Under Contract

Not In MLS

FEATURES

F E B R U A RY 2020



On Tap Colorado’s craft brewers are innovating, collaborating, and filling kegs with more spectacular suds than ever before. Here, we explore how the Centennial State became the Napa Valley of Beer, what’s being poured right now, and where the industry is headed. BY PATRICIA KAOWTHUMRONG & DENISE MICKELSEN

The Everyday Philanthropist For the first time since the Great Recession, some indicators suggest charitable donations in Colorado—and across the country—are plateauing. Unfortunately, need is not. No matter how many hours or how much money you have to give, we explain the most practical, powerful, and feel-good ways to make a difference. BY LINDSEY B. KING

Down By The River Just now ramping up, the River Mile will be one of the largest, and most watched, redevelopments in Denver history. But who is behind this visionary project, and how might it shape our city’s future? Courtesy of Former Saint Craft Kitchen and Taps

BY ROBERT SANCHEZ

5280

F E B RUA RY 2 0 2 0

Former Saint Craft Kitchen and Taps pours a plethora of local brews.

DEPTS.

DIALOGUE 14



CALENDAR 80



DINING GUIDE 84

36 120

COMPASS 17 SPORTS

Meet Red Gerard, the busiest teenager in snowboarding.

18 CITY

Colorado’s workforce is aging, and companies are struggling to integrate seniors into their business models.

20 OUTDOORS

In 2019, Colorado saw a record number of mountain lion attacks. Some experts say hunting them could actually be increasing the likelihood of conflicts.

EAT & DRINK 33 TREND

22 SKIING

Burrito-sub hybrids have come to LoHi.

One Carbondale company is using plants—instead of chemicals—to help skiers enjoy a smoother ride.

34 TRAVEL

A long-running joke helped a Denver woman reach the U.S. Olympic marathon trials.

26 ARTS

Why it’s worth a little extra effort to eat well in the backcountry.

36 REVIEW

Does the now full-service Acreage by Stem Ciders in Lafayette live up to its haute aspirations?

Jump-start that gallery wall with affordable prints from Denver artists.

BY SCOTT MOWBRAY

28 ESSAY

COLUMN

How Denver’s doom metal scene helped one writer chill the f*ck out.

44 LEGAL AFFAIRS

30 ROMANCE

Five Valentine’s Day dates worthy of The Bachelor.

Court-appointed special advocates, who speak up for abused and neglected children, are an essential part of the child welfare system. Colorado has a severe shortage of these crucial volunteers. It’s time to change that.

BY HILARY MASELL OSWALD

BACKSTORY 120 TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE We rounded up Colorado hotels’ wildest perks—then made up some of our own. Can you spot the fakes?

ON THE COVER

Photograph by Matthew Stacey Station 26 Brewing Co.’s Juicy Banger IPA

17 5280 (ISSN 10826815) is published monthly by 5280 Publishing, Inc., 1675 Larimer St., Suite 675, Denver, CO 80202. Subscriptions are $16 for one year (12 issues). Back issues are available for $5.99 plus tax and shipping by visiting shop.5280.com. Periodical postage paid at Denver, CO, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS (see DMM 707.4.12.5). NONPOSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: Send address corrections to 5280 Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 37270, Boone, IA 50037-4270. Canadian Post Publications Mail Agreement No. #40065056 Canadian Return Address: DP Global Mail, 4960-2 Walker Road, Windsor, ON N9A 6J3. 5280® is a federally registered trademark owned by 5280 Publishing, Inc. 5280 also owns trademark registrations for TOP OF THE TOWN, DENVER’S TOP DOCTORS, DENVER MAGAZINE, COLORADO PARENT, and COUTURE COLORADO. © 2020 5280 Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.

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I SAID, DON’T TOUCH A HAIR ON MY HEAD UNLESS YOU’RE THE GUY WHO ACTUALLY INVENTED THE TECHNOLOGY.

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DIALOGUE people who commented on this story did not lend their signatures to the petition. “If the Front Range wants wolves, release them in the cities,” Doug Bruchez wrote. “The Western Slope

FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

In Style

We live in a world in which nothing is static: Software updates often tweak how we interact with our computers, and apps on our phones refresh themselves with an almost disturbing regularity. Magazines are a bit more measured in the ways they change, renew themselves, and reimagine the reader experience. By way of illustration, the last time we completely redesigned 5280 was three and a half years ago, back when a man named Barack Obama was president and the Broncos were actually a good football team. (I know, it seems so long ago.) The issue you’re holding in your hands does not represent a complete design overhaul, but we have modified a few things that you might have already noticed as you perused the table of contents. Some of our typefaces have changed to make the layouts feel more modern. “This design refresh is anchored by the display typeface Giorgio,” says 5280 art director Dave McKenna. “Giorgio balances legibility, which helps readers navigate the magazine’s sections, with a beauty that allows it to complement 5280’s dynamic photography and illustration.” We’ve also revised the organization of the front of the magazine so the pages fit under one header, Compass. The content—cultural coverage, mini profiles, adventure stories— remains the same, albeit delivered in a way we think you’ll find more reader-friendly. I hope you’ll like our new look as much as our team does, and we welcome your feedback at letters@5280.com.

doesn’t want them! Don’t force things on other people!”

Meanwhile, Kanani Gage questioned the intellectual capacities of the measure’s supporters: “These people are f$&@ing idiots. Sounds like a bunch of city pukes trying to tell the rural community just how good wolves are for the environment.” At least Korey Ann Troudt tried to find the bright side: “Rather have them than people.”

“Fast Times At Rocky Mountain High”

GEOFF VAN DYKE

December 2019

Midlift skiers might be the world’s most captive audience. As outlined in this story by 5280’s Maya Chiodo, Centennial startup Alpine Media Technology finally found a way to tap into that market by developing monitors

that can be installed in gondolas and chairlifts.

The screens are designed to benefit skiers

5280

F E B RUA RY 2 0 2 0

not enjoy the beautiful outdoors without being bombarded with ads!” Gwen Chris-

tensen wrote, adding a “Geesh!” for emphasis. “Chairlift rides are for peace and quiet, hearing the skiers swish below while gliding over the treetops,” Amy Arendt commented. “Not ads and screens.” But it wasn’t even the ads that got Twitter’s @CaseyLind

all riled up: “Great.

Add another $15 to my ticket price just so you can tell me more quickly that the wait time at the base is 55 minutes. Gee. Thanks.”

“Wolf Reintroduction Is One Step Closer to Becoming a Reality” December 10, 2019

More than 200,000 Coloradans signed a petition to reintroduce gray wolves to Colorado, according to this 5280. com article by engagement editor Victoria Carodine, and the issue will be on the 2020 statewide ballot. It’s safe to say most of the

“Chairlift rides are for peace and quiet, hearing the skiers swish below while gliding over the treetops. Not ads and screens.”

Our recent story bestowing high school stereotypes on Colorado ski resorts was fun but incomplete (we only did six). Fortunately, Tim Ramos came up with a few more. “ABasin: the drifter kid in high school who jumped around from clique to clique,” Ramos wrote. “Eldora: the stoner kid that dressed in ‘70s clothes, showed up late to class, but was always in a good mood because they didn’t have to drive on the hellhole that is I-70.” CO NTAC T US Send email to letters@5280.com or mail your feedback to Letters, 5280, 1675 Larimer St., Suite 675, Denver, CO 80202. Please include your name, address, and telephone number. Letters and posts may be edited for length and clarity. You can also follow us and join the conversation on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest (all @5280Magazine).

From top: Sarah Boyum; Jason Schneider; Courtesy of Alpine Media Technology

“Screen Time”

by delivering real-time information, including resort events and snow conditions, but will also feature advertisements. Readers weren’t thrilled about that last part. “Can we

EXPERIENCE MATTERS. YOURS + OURS.

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CIT Y

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Clive Rose/Getty Images

In Full Flight Red Gerard is the busiest teenager in snowboarding—and he won’t be grounded anytime soon.

CoMPASS

Red Gerard doesn’t have the luxury of missing his alarm these days. The 19-year-old—who slept through a wake-up call before taking gold in slopestyle at the 2018 Winter Olympics—barely has time for a Netflix binge. After a win at the 2019 U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships in March, he spent months flying to the world’s best backcountry destinations with other famous boarders to film the movie Joy, which premiered in October. He also helped design terrain parks for Copper Mountain, Utah’s Woodward Park City, and Killington Ski Resort in Vermont, all of which opened in December. The trick-friendly spaces, each dubbed Red’s Backyard, are modeled after the course he and his siblings created behind their Silverthorne home as kids. Despite the crazy schedule, Gerard says, “I’m going to try and do the same thing this year.” For Coloradans, that means a double dose of the teen this month, when he competes in the Dew Tour at Copper (February 6 to 9) and the U.S. Open at Vail Ski Resort (February 24 to 29). —JENNY MCCOY

F E B RUA RY 2 0 2 0

5280

CITY BE GOOD

UNDER MY UMBRELLA

Coming Of Age

Conventional wisdom holds that people retire at age 65 (hopefully to a mountainside chalet overlooking a picturesque valley). But whether they can’t afford to stop working or just don’t want to, Coloradans are increasingly postponing retirement. Currently, more than eight percent of workers here are 65 or older, up from fewer than four percent in 2010. That share will likely grow as residents live longer. Colorado businesses aren’t fully prepared for the maturing labor market, according to a study released this month by NextFifty Initiative, a Denver nonprofit. Most of the nearly 100 human resources employees who took the survey said their employers valued older workers. Appreciation, though, hasn’t translated into policies—such as part-time opportunities or phased retirement plans that decrease hours gradually—to accommodate them. That’s because the influx of young people to Colorado has made filling vacancies easier than adjusting. Due to the state’s low unemployment rate (2.6 percent as of October 2019), however, the well of millennial workers is drying up. The benefits of hiring seniors go beyond patching a talent shortage. Studies show multigenerational workplaces are happier, and seniors remain healthier when they have robust social circles. Then there’s the harm failing to adapt could have on the economy: “If almost 10 percent of your workforce is struggling, that’s a lot of productivity lost,” says Brian Kaskie, lead researcher on the NextFifty survey. “And that means money lost.” Some groups are teaching companies how to keep those dollars. Changing the Narrative, a NextFifty-supported campaign, educates businesses about the value of older workers, and the Denver Economic Development & Opportunity department is partnering with the AARP Foundation to help firms change their hiring processes so retirees can more easily re-enter the workforce. NextFifty is also funding a pilot program that will assist 20 or so Colorado businesses in developing offices that are friendlier to older employees. Bonus points if those include valley views. —ANGELA UFHEIL

Colorado’s workforce is getting older, and companies are struggling to integrate seniors into their business models.

18 5 2 8 0

F E B RUA RY 2 0 2 0

On a recent Sunday, Mile High Comics held its monthly charity talent show, a family-friendly event hosted by drag queens. Across the street, several men who disapproved of the gender-bending aspects of the performance shouted that those entering the building (including many children) would rot in hell if they didn’t repent. Fortunately, the kids never got the message—thanks to a row of 100 people standing between the two parties and twirling multicolored umbrellas. Dubbed the Parasol Patrol, the nonprofit started a year ago when protesters first came to the event. Eli Bazan, a military veteran, suggested using umbrellas (essentially large, easy-to-wield barriers) to guard children from the vitriol. He and co-founder Pasha Eve recruited volunteers, and the crew has attended every show since. They’ve also been invited to other affairs, including drag queen storytelling hours at local children’s bookstore Second Star to the Right. The patrol doesn’t engage the protesters; it just blocks them and provides earmuffs to children on request. It’s been so successful that schools and businesses around the country, such as High Point Central High School in North Carolina, have asked for help creating patrols. Bazan and Eve are working on a training video and raising money for ear protection and umbrellas to send out to burgeoning groups—rain or shine. —CARRIE DOW

Parasol Patrol’s Eli Bazan and Pasha Eve

Courtesy of Pasha Eve; Photo illustration by Sean Parsons. Source images: Art Escobado/Getty Images (Denver skyline); Thomas Barwick/Getty Images (woman)

Denver’s Parasol Patrol shields kids when bigotry rains.

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OUTDOORS

WILD

Lion Taming

In 2019, Colorado saw a record number of mountain lion attacks. Would lowering hunting limits prevent future conflicts?

Fort Collins trail runner Travis Kauffman made national news a year ago this month when he killed a young mountain lion that attacked him near Horsetooth Reservoir. Four months later, an aggressive cougar scratched up a Rangely man who was protecting his house cat. Just weeks after that, a hunter in Big Horn Park near Kremmling fought off a lion with a pocketknife and an eight-year-old boy was mauled near his Bailey home. The four incidents represent the most cougar-on-human assaults ever recorded during a single year in state history. The headlines left many wary about exploring the outdoors, but this isn’t a new trend. Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) has been concerned about the growing number of interactions between mountain lions and people for more than a decade. This year, however, CPW is adjusting its management strategy—and if similar efforts in other states are any indication, the department might finally have found the right solution. Until 1965, the Centennial State sought to exterminate mountain lions, offering bounties for hides. The population has since rebounded, and today, the Front Range has one of the highest documented cougar densities in the country (around four lions per 40 square miles). Of course, cities have grown as well. So, in 2005, CPW commissioned a decadelong study to investigate how lions in and around Boulder County have reacted to mountain towns, such as Lyons, infringing on their territory. CPW scientist Mat Alldredge found that rather than retreating from development, the cougars have adapted. For example: Lions typically feed at dawn or dusk but have begun snacking between midnight and 4 a.m. At the same time, Alldredge discovered that encroaching neighborhoods protected mountain A mountain lion near Cortez lions from being hunted by humans.

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According to many researchers, hunters typically kill young cougars, whose boldness makes them easier prey. That confidence also means they’re the most likely to attack humans. (At least three of the assaults in 2019 were committed by juveniles; the age of the lion in Rangely is unknown.) It might seem like CPW’s most logical move would be to encourage hunting around mountain communities by increasing the cougar quota—reduce the number of young cats, reduce the number of attacks—which is exactly what it has done in years past. During the 2018-’19 season (November through April), the agency raised the limit from 654 to 677 cougars, or about 16 percent of the state’s estimated 4,000-plus mountain lions. But this season,

Katherine Reeder Wildlife Photography/Getty Images

THINGS

OUTDOORS GEAR

CONTINUED

Travis Kauffman

ing might reduce the number of young lions, yes, but more elder cats, which are typically better behaved and keep the young’uns in check, are killed along with them. And when an older male disappears, more aggressive youngsters flood the area. “It’s like you got rid of the policeman,” Wielgus says, “and three hooligans moved into the neighborhood.” Wielgus estimates mountain lion populations rise by about 14 percent a year on average. To ensure younger cats are supervised, he says the total human-caused cougar mortality rate shouldn’t exceed that. In 2012, Washington set its quota around 12 percent based on Wielgus’ data. “Once we did that, all of these prob-

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lems—negative human interactions, livestock and pet predation— went away,” Wielgus says, asserting that researchers in Montana, British Columbia, and Idaho have replicated his results. California, he adds, banned cougar hunting; it now boasts the lowest rate of human-lion interactions per capita in the country. “Mountain lions are self-regulating,” Wielgus says. “The best thing you can do is just leave them alone.” There’s one expert, however, who doesn’t buy the laissez-faire approach: Alldredge. He notes the areas of highest conflict in the state—populated towns along I-25 like Pueblo—have lower limits. “I don’t think, in general, statements about increased hunting leading to increased conflict can be said about Colorado,” he says. Alldredge should soon know for sure. He’s currently three years into a nine-year study in the Arkansas River Valley that’s examining if killing more lions will both increase mule deer numbers and decrease interactions with humans. Alldredge can’t share any early observations— though CPW did say it lowered limits in part because of Alldredge’s (not Wielgus’) research. But he hopes the results will lead to a resolution on how to handle this particular brand of conflict. —KAELYN LYNCH

A DIFFERENT BALL OF WAX A Carbondale company is using plants—instead of chemicals—to help skiers enjoy a smoother ride.

Every winter, more than 10 million people hit the slopes in Colorado, almost all of them with skis and snowboards coated in petroleum-based wax for optimum schussing. That grease can often get left behind, a problem considering the manufactured compounds used in many such waxes don’t always decompose naturally. When the snow melts, perfluorochemicals (which studies suggest cause thyroid issues in animals and humans) and hydrocarbons (a less toxic substance, but one some scientists say may not be fully biodegradeable when used in large quantities) can eventually enter streams and rivers. The thought of wax in his water inspired Peter Arlein to invent a greener alternative: In September, the Carbondale resident unveiled MountainFlow Eco-Wax, North America’s first line of plant-based ski waxes. A longtime ski bum, Arlein spent two years studying the science of friction and boiling various waxes in a shed in his backyard. He’d then take five pairs of skis, each finished with a different formula, to Aspen Snowmass and test their performances on the slopes. Arlein won’t disclose the winning recipe, but eventually he settled on a special stew of five plant oils that, he claims, can compete with petroleum waxes when it comes to limiting resistance and maintaining speed. Maile Spung, owner of 40-year-old Aspen outfitter Ute Mountaineer, agrees, saying MountainFlow ($14 to $19) performs as well as less eco-friendly waxes made by industry giants, like Swix. In addition to Ute, about 100 other North American retailers, including more than 30 in Colorado, are selling MountainFlow—a signal that skiers may no longer be interested in mixing petroleum and water. —MAYA CHIODO

From left: Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife; Sarah Boyum

CPW decreased the quota to 647—12 to 16 percent of the cougar population. Washington-based carnivore scientist Robert Wielgus believes Colorado’s decision to go low is a good one. Research Wielgus conducted at Washington State University suggests a rise in hunt-

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SPORTS

The Marvelous Mrs. Charboneau How a long-running joke helped a Denver woman reach the U.S. Olympic marathon trials. Brittany Charboneau says that after nearly 20 years together, she and running have reached the empty-nest phase of their relationship: “It’s like the kids have moved out and the two of us have found a whole new vibrancy.” It’s the sort of punch line you’re bound to hear during My Long Distance Relationship With Running: From the Early Miles to the Olympic Trials, Charboneau’s one-woman show at Bovine Metropolis Theater in LoDo—and the third leg in this love triangle. When Charboneau met running, she was 13 and fresh off a string of bad relationships with other sports (which is to say, she wasn’t good at them). The Denver native joined the crosscountry team at Colorado State University and later moved to Chicago to study at the famed improv institution Second City. After returning to Denver, she started performing at Bovine and raced as an amateur. She won some small events, but a course-record performance of two hours and 52 minutes at the 2017 Denver Colfax Marathon prompted Charboneau to quit her sales job and chase her passions full time. Her goals?

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Make the U.S. Olympic team and appear in a movie. Since turning pro, Charboneau has finished sixth at the 2018 Los Angeles Marathon and won the 2019 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. She also introduced My Long Distance Relationship With Running—a performance that involves her jogging on a treadmill while conversing with the voice of “running,” which emanates from a loudspeaker. The show hasn’t landed her a Hollywood role yet, but Charboneau says it has made her faster. “Being able to poke fun at things helped me reach another level,” she says. “It helps me maintain perspective.” It’s difficult to argue the point, considering her results: Thanks to her time in Los Angeles, this month Charboneau, now 31, will compete in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Atlanta. She likely needs to cut 10 minutes off her personal best of 2:36 to make the roster heading to Tokyo in July. Even if she fails, Charboneau vows not to take the result too seriously. “It’s just running,” she says. “We’re not divorcing anytime soon.” —SHANE MONAGHAN

P H O T O G R A P H BY J E F F N E L S O N

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ARTS

TRE ND

Fresh Prints

Jump-start that gallery wall with these affordable prints from Denver artists.

In the not-so-distant past, artists were tethered to their representing galleries. Making it big (and sometimes even making a sale) required negotiating a contract with a gallery owner, installing an exhibition, waiting patiently for a piece to catch the eye of a prospective buyer, and, when it did, splitting the profit with the gallery. Now, with the dawn of sites like Saatchi Art, Artsy, and Society6, as well as the influence of Instagram, artists are in control of their output—and, in turn, their creations are more accessible to novice collectors than ever before. One way Denver artists are reaching these burgeoning art lovers is through prints: easy-to-produce digital replicas that, lucky for us, usually come at a fraction of the price of originals. The idea of reproductions may conjure thoughts of mass-produced posters of “The Starry Night” hanging in college dorm rooms, but up-and-coming artists’ limited-edition varieties add color and movement to a space without sacrificing sophistication. In other words, thanks to these and other distinctive replicas from local creatives, you no longer have an excuse for blank walls.

—MICHELLE JOHNSON

Clockwise from top: “Surrender & Trust,” Marsha Robinson, $300, strangedirt.com; “Bluebird,” Kimberly Wolff, price upon request, kwpcollection.com; “Blueberry Punnets,” Risa Friedman, $50, risafriedman.com; “HER IV,” Meredith Steele, $100, meredithsteeleart.com

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With a background in design, Carolyn understands what buyers are looking for in todayâ€™s market. Her expertise paired with her access to Compass Concierge result in success for her sellers.

Carolyn Dooling Real Estate Advisor Certified Negotiation Expert 303.250.8544 carolyn.dooling@compass.com carolyndoolingdenver.com

Maximize the value of your home. Get started at compass.com/concierge Compass is a licensed real estate broker in the State of Colorado and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. No statement is made as to accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate. This is not intended to solicit property already listed. Nothing herein shall be construed as legal, accounting or other professional advice outside the realm of real estate brokerage. Rules & Exclusions apply. Compass offers no guarantee or warranty of results. Subject to additional terms and conditions.

ESSAY

It’s The End Of The World And thanks to Denver’s doom metal scene, I feel fine.

It’s a chilly Saturday night in December, and I’m surrounded by concertgoers from every Denver subculture. Hipsters in denim vests. Flannel-clad dads. Heavily pierced guys in Black Sabbath shirts. The only thing they have in common? Everyone seems to have ear protection. Minus me—an unprepared indie-music lover who dances to Janelle Monáe alone in the elevator. It’s my first doom show, and I’m going to leave it without my hearing. My journey to see the band Primitive Man at the Oriental Theater began nearly two years ago when, eyes bright and ears undamaged, I moved to Denver. I was living outside the Midwest for the first time, and my family, generational Illinosians, didn’t have much advice for acclimating to my new home. The only tip I got came from Uncle Mike, who suggested I check out the city’s doom scene. Mike’s music preferences skew more, um, unconventional than mine, so as I settled into Denver, I stubbornly listened to my stuff—queer indie-pop, piano-laden ballads, dad-rock throwbacks. That is, until two powerful forces collided: stress and dread of the existential variety. Anxiety is a lifelong theme. Near-constant worries include my radiator’s odd hissing noise, that email I forgot to send, and the likelihood that my soulmate bought the Epic pass when I opted for Ikon. Humanity’s many failings drive me to pessimism, too. (I mean, who are all these people still listening to Chris Brown?) In the past, I used music to self-soothe, turning to Kishi Bashi for joy or Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” for a cleansing cry. The longer I spent in Denver, though, the less my playlists worked. I liked my new life, yet deadlines, sleep deprivation, and my own perfectionism threatened to overwhelm me. In a moment of fuck-it-all desperation, I followed Mike’s advice. Music defined by the word “doom” seemed appropriate. Visit 5280.com When the first, harsh chord of Green Druid’s 2018 album Ashen Blood spilled for a not-atall-definitive from my headphones, my nose wrinkled. Not my thing. Then came a syrupy riff. Denver doom Like heavy metal, doom was loud—but melancholy and much slower. The vocals metal playlist.

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were nearly unintelligible screams that washed over me, submerging me in gloom. Rather than deepen my depression, hearing someone else scream into the abyss made me feel less alone. When the album was over, I felt...not good, exactly, but better. Thus began my descent into the dark heart of Denver doom, which Vice has called “one of the nation’s strongest emerging doom scenes.” Green Druid guitarist Graham Zander credits the Rockies’ cold solitude for inspiring such ominous tunes. There’s also a universality to doom: “I’m 36. I have to have a level of composure,” says Ethan McCarthy, Primitive Man’s guitarist and vocalist. “But I can sing about the most unreasonable shit. Being able to express all my frustration, unfiltered, is nice.” I had been experiencing my catharsis remotely, listening to doom from the safety of my office. As the recorded distortion slowed my sprinting pulse, I wondered if a concert would be even more purifying. Once at the Oriental, though, I feel nervous, like I’ll be recognized as an outsider. Then the three members of Primitive Man climb onstage, backed by a wall of amps, and McCarthy roars for 45 minutes straight. Live, each chord lulls me toward a trancelike state; despair courses through and out of me. Afterward, I exit the theater with a headache and a vow to never forget earplugs again. Still, the knot in my stomach feels less dense. I may never dance to doom in an elevator. But damn, what a relief. —ANGELA UFHEIL I L L U S T R AT I O N BY C H R I S M A L B O N

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ROMANCE

After a combined 38 seasons, you’d think producers of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette would have realized that sending contestants on awkward, rapidfire dates rarely yields lasting love. But even if the show can’t engineer stable relationships, it does churn out alums who know a lot about courting. Which is why we asked Centennial State vets of the franchise to bestow roses upon their most memorable date spots. —KAITLYN KINSHELLA

Celebrate Valentine’s Day in Colorado like a bachelor (or bachelorette).

SA R A H HERRON

MARKET DATE

Carbondale Farmers’ Market

CH ASE MCN A R Y

FIRST DATE

Denver Central Market

Despite a 2019 appearance on Bachelor in Paradise, a spinoff set in Mexico, McNary returned to Denver as single as he left. Staying unattached has helped him find the ideal first-date spot: this RiNo food hall. “Fewer guidelines allow the date to be more playful,” McNary says. Plus, the plethora of options gives McNary key insights into his new lady’s tastes. “Does she go for the burger and fries or the salad?” McNary says. “It just allows for more character expression.”

Bachelor producers adore sending hopeful lovebirds to town markets during international trips. At home, Herron, a nonprofit founder from season 17, buys fresh produce from her local farmers’ market and pairs those ingredients with an elk that her boyfriend, an avid huntsman, bags himself. “It makes us feel connected to be able to support our community and source our meals from sustainable farmers,” Herron says.

LE A H BLOCK

SURVIVAL DATE Mt. Falcon Park, Morrison

At least one episode every season drops participants into the wilderness. According to season 20 contestant Block, hikes are better without screens. “It’s nice to breathe the fresh air, get away from the city noise, and spend quality time without our phones,” Block says of strolls with her boyfriend. A recent feat? Mt. Falcon, where sunsets frame Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre.

BEN HIGGINS

ONE-ON-ONE DATE

Willow Creek Restaurant, Evergreen

Aspiring sweethearts never eat while filming romantic dinners (reportedly because the mics pick up unsexy chewing sounds). Higgins—2016’s bachelor—celebrates being able to masticate freely at Willow Creek Restaurant, where he and his girlfriend linger over house-made pasta and views of Evergreen Lake. “It’s the most magical, beautiful setting,” Higgins says.

A MBER W ILK ERSON

GROUP DATE

Voicebox, Denver

Season 22’s Wilkerson and her boyfriend convince friends to join them in private karaoke rooms, like those at Voicebox in RiNo. “It helps you figure out how comfortable you are with your significant other,” Wilkerson says. It’s also a step up from some group-date performances on The Bachelor—including cringe-worthy standup and K-pop acts. At least in Denver, you can loosen up pre-solo at Barcelona Wine Bar, a favorite of Wilkerson’s located just blocks from Voicebox.

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Clockwise from top right: Brian Wolski/Alamy Stock Photo; Courtesy of Willow Creek Restaurant; Courtesy of BonFire; James Florio Photography; Betsie Van der Meer/Getty Images

The Dating Game

Show your love by donating blood. Donating blood saves 12,000 lives a day. But people under 40 arenâ€™t giving like generations before them. So animals are teaming up with Vitalant to save the humans. Because if young people donâ€™t start donating, we could run out.

Find a donation center or blood drive near you at vitalant.org/SavetheHumans. Bonfils Blood Center is now Vitalant.

TREND

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TRAVEL

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REVIEW

EAT DRINK &

Clockwise from top left: Roast beef; chicken cordon bleu; Italian; eggplant Parmesan; Reuben; meatloaf

On A Roll Burrito-sub hybrids have come to LoHi.

While testing recipes this past fall, chef Tim Dotson found himself struggling with the focaccia he wanted to use at his now month-old Dimestore Delibar. “The sandwiches were falling apart when we picked them up,” Dotson says. “Then an idea I’d had years before came back to me: Roll it up.” Today, seven burrito-sub hybrids—dubbed “Dimerolls”—are on the bar/ deli/market’s menu. In each, tender sheets of toasted focaccia from Englewood’s Trompeau Bakery encase savory fillings, such as roast beef with pepper-onion relish and smoked aïoli or, Dotson’s favorite, the umami-bomb meatloaf with pickled jalapeño slaw. But Dotson’s problem-solving didn’t stop there. Dimestore Delibar itself is a fix for another issue he and partner Chris Fuentes had identified: a lack of affordable (and late-night) dining and shopping options in LoHi. That’s why they turned the former Low Country Kitchen space on Boulder Street into a gorgeous yet casual, nothing-over-$15, open-tillmidnight endeavor that sells everything from Tylenol to instant ramen to kosher salt— in addition to Dotson’s refined small plates (lamb gyro corn dog, anyone?) and $10 craft cocktails. If only Dotson could come up with a fix for LoHi’s parking woes, he’d be a true mile-high MacGyver. —DENISE MICKELSEN

P H O T O G R A P H BY S A R A H B OY U M

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TRAVEL

Love Food, Will Hut-Trip Sweating and laughing, our line of 14 ski-touring ladies skinned through knee-deep February powder en route to the Sisters Cabin on Baldy Mountain, just outside of Breckenridge. A few selfie stops and nips of whiskey later, the forest opened before us, revealing our snowy hut away from home. Inside, we peeled off wet layers, called bunk dibs, and sparked a warming wood stove fire—before laying out all of the charcuterie, cheeses, and happyhour accoutrements we’d strategically packed. Sure, lightweight, calorie-dense MREs may be backcountry hut-trippers’ rations of choice, but as a group of foodies escaping our daily grinds (and kids and spouses), we’d carefully planned our expedition to mix adventure and gourmet pleasure. A shared Google spreadsheet that detailed who was responsible for which meals and listed ingredients, down to the spices, helped us minimize the weight we each had to carry. Luckily, the now year-old Sisters hut has a stocked kitchen with propane burners, and our trek was just 3.8 miles each way (though when you’re lugging clothing, gear, food, and booze, every uphill mile can feel like 10). After post-happy-hour powder laps and a snowman-building session, the dinner team heated high-protein chickpea pasta with prechopped veggies, flattened bags of frozen homemade red sauce, and cooked, preseasoned garlic-herb

Why it’s worth a little planning and effort to eat well in the backcountry.

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No-Bake Energy Bites Makes about 20 These easy, ballshaped snacks are perfect fuel for the hike in and out. • 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats • ₂⁄₃ cup toasted, finely shredded unsweetened coconut • ½ cup ground flax or chia seeds • ½ cup dark chocolate chips • ½ cup almond (or any nut or seed) butter • ₁⁄₃ cup honey Combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Roll the mixture into bite-size balls. Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

chicken; others poured red wine from unboxed bladders and pulled out plastic flasks of spiced rum for spiking packet cocoa and cider. Stories of engagements and job promotions floated between the kitchen and living areas as we cooked and sipped, along with recommendations on the best cabin slippers and the lightest alpine touring boots. We passed the pasta around the hut’s table, savoring the hot meal and the company. Bars of dark chocolate and ice cream (made from mixing snow with condensed milk and frozen berries) were divine treats, paired with rounds of Yahtzee. The next morning, early risers woke late-nighters with kitchen bustle: the sizzle of precracked eggs sliding from Nalgene bottles into hot skillets; the crinkle of crisped bacon, shredded cheese, and diced peppers and onions being shaken from plastic bags into the eggs; the aromas from pour-over chai and coffee pouches (REI carries an excellent selection). After breakfast, we packed up and skinned out of the woods, satiated and smiling. Here’s the thing about hut-tripping: The slog in is a pride-making group voyage, while chopping wood for a fire and boiling snow for drinking and washing leads to camaraderie powered by elbow grease. But when the chores are done and friends are gathered in the warm glow of a hut in an isolated gulch on a dark winter night, food is the universal thread— the (literally) fulfilling reward for a backcountry trip well executed. From $700 per night for the whole cabin; book six months to a year in advance at summithuts.org —LISA BLAKE I L L U S T R AT I O N BY S A L LY C A U LW E L L

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REVIEW From left: Taps at Acreage by Stem Ciders; charcuterie boards and Stem’s New England Blend cider

Playing With Fire On paper, Lafayette’s Acreage by Stem Ciders offers many of the comforting virtues one seeks from a cold-weather dinner out: wood-fire cooking; robust alpine European flavors imported from the Basque region of Spain and Alsace in France; an impressive variety of hard ciders; and cheery communal tables with views of the Flatirons. You can easily build a layer of winter insulation there via its snappy cider bratwurst lashed with hot mustard and sauerkraut or perhaps a plate of charred pork belly with a soft egg and an order of fries. Pair your meal with something a little off-piste—perhaps Stem Ciders’ dry Chile Guava. For a sweet ending, order the warm, spicy cider doughnuts. Eat hearty, knowing that tomorrow, you Orange Theory at dawn! It all sounds like so much fun. Alas, Stem Ciders’ ambitious offshoot from its original RiNo taproom—consisting of a large cider production facility, cider hall/ restaurant, and small farm over several hillside acres—suffers from Failure to Focus Syndrome. In October 2018, its counter-service menu evolved and expanded

Does the now full-service Acreage by Stem Ciders in Lafayette live up to its haute aspirations? B Y S C O T T M O W B R AY

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ACREAGE

1380 Horizon Ave., Lafayette 720-443-3007 acreageco.com

The Draw: Hearty food and an intriguing range of ciders in a beer-hall space The Drawback: The kitchen hasn’t found its way with an expanded menu Noise Level: Low Don’t Miss: Cider flights, pretzels, charcuterie, bratwurst, doughnuts

into a full-service model under executive chef Eric Lee, but Acreage has yet to figure out what key it wants to play in, what song it wants to sing. The result is a restaurant which is good for a deep dive into cider styles with accompanying snacks but which falls short of its grander dining ambitions. To start with, the kitchen makes too little of its woodfire oven and grill, and when it is used, the results suggest cooks who are chary of flames. Ash-baked carrots, for example, which I expected to be charred, supple, P H O T O G R A P H Y BY M AT T N A G E R

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REVIEW

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Comfort Food and caramelized, were A juicy cider brat bordering on raw. This with house-made potato chips wasn’t just my view: I passed the plate to a curious young couple sitting beside us at the bar for a second opinion. (They were on a Tinder first date and shared with us that they were discussing—I kid you not—the merits of having children.) The woman munched the carrots for a moment, then announced, “They need to be cooked more!” As with relationships, so too with carrots. Similarly, on two separate occasions, Acreage’s burger lacked conviction. The first was overcooked, and both could have benefited from a fire-licked sear. Beets in a small plate had a boiled texture, which is a poor fate for a vegetable that finds its apotheosis in coals. Charred rainbow trout really wasn’t (charred, that is), nor crisp of skin. And why confit a chicken when you can grill or rotisserie it over wood? There even seemed to be a bit of internal conflict among the Acreage staff over the whole fire thing. When my wife asked for her burger cooked a certain way, our server indicated that her preferred doneness was unlikely because of the unpredictability of, you know, cooking with fire. When my neighbor at the bar exclaimed about the crunchy carrot problem, another server nodded in agreement, rolled his eyes, and suggested jurisdictional reasons as to why he didn’t bring up such things with the kitchen, located 20 feet away. I dwell on this because solid wood-fire cooking can get a restaurant like Acreage about 80 percent of the way to where it needs to be, especially if the overall idea, as Lee has said, is simplicity and seasonality. I recall a meal shared in a vineyard trattoria in Tuscany that was built around

CHALLENGE YOURSELF. AND THE STATUS QUO.

REVIEW a wood oven, manned by an elderly chef who swayed and sweated like he was about to have a heart attack. He paid no attention to the customers, working the rabbit, beef, pork, and vegetables around the oven’s various hot spots with tremendous concentration. He had, in short, command of the fire, and if his was not the best food I had in Italy over many visits, it was some of the most elemental and memorable. There were other problems at Acreage, too: flavor logic failures here, ingredient promiscuity there. Items clashed or didn’t quite add up. The addition of compound butter to the Basque frites, for instance, which were already buried under a cloud of grated Manchego cheese, was puzzling. A simple punch-up with powdered piment d’Espelette would have made more sense.

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When you can’t go to the park

one... more... time 40

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PA R E N T L I K E A P R O

ColoradoParent.com Find things to do and adventures to have! Slow down and connect with nature during a fall family walk. Plus, plan the perfect party, choose the best restaurant, find your favorite kidfriendly hike—and a whole lot more!

Mountain View Mushrooms on The main dining toast came with room at Acreage in Lafayette too-sloppy Burrata, compound butter, and cured egg but would have benefited from one or two fewer of those things. And the candied nuts in my salad were jarringly sweet. I admit that I loathe candied nuts in salad—they taste like a six-year-old’s idea of vegetable avoidance—but the greens in the salad were also too stemmy. As to the aforementioned beets, had they arrived roasted and sticky from the flames, with something salty and acidic as a counterpoint, that would have been brilliant. Instead, the dish was a jumble of those watery beets, toasted almonds, glops of herb-flecked ricotta, torn parsley, and pomegranate arils—all of which was entirely too fussy. When we advanced to the entrée part of the menu, the kitchen’s trencherman approach left a lot of food on a lot of plates. Ironically, the pork belly spent too much time over the fire, resembling big rashers of dry bacon, and arrived on a sweet potato galette, which was basically potato enrobed

REVIEW

G A L A presented by

Please join us for an inspirational evening benefiting Craig Hospital patients, programs, and spinal cord and brain injury research.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2020 5:30 p.m. | COCKTAILS & SILENT AUCTION 7:00 p.m. | DINNER & PROGRAM HYATT REGENCY DENVER

AT THE COLORADO CONVENTION CENTER

Michael and Karen Long, 2020 PUSH Chairs

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craighospital.org/PUSH

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in a buttery pastry crust. As if bacon on rich pie weren’t enough (it was), a soft egg crowned the dish, along with some “green soubise.” Usually, soubise is a mild, creamy onion sauce, but in this case it was more like sweet onion jam. There was too much going on; I wanted to cry uncle. The daily cut of pork, which on that occasion was a beautifully slow-cooked piece of shoulder, was crusted on the outside and melting within, served with poached pears and Carolina rice. But the rice had been treated like risotto, and the meat didn’t get along with the resulting gloppy starch. As I ploughed ahead through my three meals there, I felt increasingly puzzled: Why complicate simplicity? It may seem that I am painting Acreage as a disaster. It is not. It is a ciderhouse with friendly, prompt service and interesting beverage options; it’s just not a full-on restaurant yet. Should you go, sit at the bar and discuss the list of more than two dozen Stem Cider offerings with Acreage’s well-informed staff. You can order flights of four small glasses to compare; if you believe from past experience that hard ciders lean sweet, au contraire. Many versions at Acreage are dry, and some, like the Granny Smith– and crabapple-based Crabby Neighbor, are puckeringly so. I enjoyed the funky seasonal Brett Peach; the Farmhouse; and the Cascade and Citra dry-hopped Hopped cider. The Hibiscus Session, rosy in hue from that flower and slightly sweet, was delicious. The Banjo, aged for nine months in Laws Whiskey House barrels, was a worthy experiment full of caramel notes. As you sip, your eating strategy should include the pretzels, served hot and soft, with cider mustard; homemade potato chips, which have been spanked with malt vinegar powder; buttery olives, redolent of lemon peel and rosemary; a charcuterie board (which comes with shards of the same brown butter pastry used in the galette, but made into crumbly crackers); and, if you require something bigger, the bratwurst, which is juicy, satisfying, and served on a split-top bun. Finish with those spicy cider Find our Dining Guide, doughnuts. They’re small, an extensive though, so maybe splurge list of area on a couple of servings restaurants, on page 84 to fuel yourself for the and online at long ride home—and 5280.com/ restaurants. tomorrow’s workout. m

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L E G A L A F FA I R S

BY H I L A R Y M A S E L L O S WA L D

The Voice

n a large, open room in Capitol Hill’s Metropolitan Community Church of the Rockies, about 20 adults are sitting around tables and chatting quietly. A few scoop up popcorn and grab cookies from a long table. The room is too warm; a fan in the far corner tries and fails to push out the late July heat. The scene is the perfect archetype of the bad church meeting room. Everyone here is a stranger to me, but we’re a few sessions into what will be a series of six three-hour meetings, and their faces are becoming familiar. There are the women who are my mother’s age, the college students, and the twentysomething professionals who’ve clearly scrambled to get here from work. (I hear one of them tell another, “This popcorn is my dinner.”) At 40, I’m the sole representative of Generation X. We’re all here because we’re training to be court-appointed special advocates (CASAs), volunteers who mentor and support children with open dependency and neglect cases—that is, civil cases in which parents have either harmed a child, allowed a child to be hurt, or failed to provide a safe environment for a child— in Denver juvenile court. These children are arguably some of the most vulnerable members of our community: kids whose parents can’t currently take care of them, so the local Department of Human Services (DHS) removes them from their homes, opens a petition with the court, and initiates a series of events over which these children have no control. The need for CASAs is great. Between July 2017 and June 2018, 12,904 children in Colorado had open dependency and neglect cases. Although the child welfare system provides a team of professionals— caseworkers from DHS; special attorneys called guardians ad litem (GALs) for

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L E G A L A F FA I R S the child; clinical consultants and counselors; attorneys for parents—very often those children do not have a voice in court. The GAL doesn’t even technically represent the child; he represents the child’s “best interest,” which might be different from the child’s wishes. Because kids can’t always miss school for midday hearings or because some children are too young or too intimidated to speak in court, they can’t always advocate for themselves. So without a CASA, it’s very possible that the judge making decisions about the child’s life never hears the child’s perspective. As I work with my fellow trainees through case studies, I realize that despite the stifling heat, I’m shivering. My body can’t help but react to the thought of a kid whose opinions about things as personal and fundamental as where she lives and who cares for her aren’t heard. I think of my own children, who are seven and 10 years old. They have very strong voices and very clear preferences—about everything. As their mother, I know how they like their grilled cheese and which books they’ve loved and their favorite bedtime songs. I tremble at the thought of them on their

I tremble at the thought of them on their own, trying to be heard in an adult world that may not be truly listening. own, trying to be heard in an adult world that may not be truly listening. IT WAS A TYPICAL WORKDAY in 1977, and Seattle Judge David Soukup had a difficult decision to make. The case before him involved a three-year-old girl who had shown up at a local hospital with injuries, which the doctor who treated her believed to be the result of physical abuse. The physician called the authorities. The child’s mother told police the girl had fallen off a swing. The judge faced a dilemma: to order the child to be removed from the only home she’d ever known and make her live with strangers, at least for a while, or to leave her in a place that might be unsafe. As he reviewed the facts, Soukup says he wished there had been an adult in the courtroom—a trained volunteer—who could be an impartial party to the case and speak for the child. With that in mind, he asked his bailiff to call a few

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community members to come to juvenile court for a brown-bag lunch and to explore his idea. Fifty people attended that meeting, which led to the start of the first CASA program in the United States. Today, 49 states and the District of Columbia have CASA programs (North Dakota is the holdout)—which are tied to judicial districts—though not every district in those states has one. In Colorado, the first incorporated CASA program was started in 1984, and today, 18 of the state’s 22 districts use court-appointed special advocates. Even so, last year there were only enough CASAs in the Centennial State to serve about a third of the children with open cases. In an effort to up that percentage, the Colorado CASA, which supports individual programs, recently launched a campaign to add 2,020 more volunteers to its roster in 2020. If it succeeds, the number of CASAs in Colorado would nearly double. “We have to close the gap,” says

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L E G A L A F FA I R S Jenny Bender, executive director of Colorado CASA. She acknowledges some statistics for children in the child welfare system are sobering, but, she adds, “We know a single, steady adult presence in a child’s life has incredible protective power. The outcomes improve for vulnerable children who have this kind of support.” Every judicial district and CASA program has slightly different requirements for volunteers. In Denver, a CASA sees the child (or, in the case of siblings, children) on her case at least twice a month. She attends meetings with court-assigned professionals—such as GALs, caseworkers, and counselors—visits schools, and checks in with foster parents and biological families. CASAs log these interactions in a secure online database and, of great importance, submit reports before each hearing on the case. These provide insight into the child’s circumstances: How’s the foster placement going? What’s happening at school? How is the child’s behavior? How do the biological parents seem to be doing? Are the child’s needs—emotional, mental, medical, dental—being met? And what does the child say he or she wants? The report

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ends with the CASA’s recommendations to the judge. Although cases vary wildly, typically every 90 days the team serving the child shows up in court for a hearing, during which the CASA can reiterate or clarify anything she has recommended. Bender understands that her pool of prospective volunteers—adults older than 21 who pass a background check and who can commit to 30 to 40 hours of training— might see the list of responsibilities as unattainably long. The truth, Bender says, is that being a CASA “fits in the nooks and crannies of your life.” Seven months out from my training in that stuffy church meeting room, I had learned that Bender was right. Making room for a CASA kid happens more easily than one might think. Isaac Sargent, a 26-year-old college student majoring in psychology, has been a CASA volunteer for four years. “[Volunteering] is showing up to a kid’s basketball game or talking to Mom and Dad,” he says. “Hearings can be as quick as 10 or 20 minutes. Our work is just about slowing the process down. When you think of kids floating through this system without knowing that someone cares, how can you not show up?”

THE NIGHT THAT her four-year-old son, Daniel, was taken from her Loveland home by the Larimer County Department of Human Services, 31-year-old Heidi Erikson tried to kill herself. It was May 2016, and she’d been wrestling with her mental and physical health and struggling to care for her son’s needs. Daniel was eventually placed in what the system calls “a modified kinship placement”—that is, a home with someone related to or with close ties to Erikson. Erikson alleged, however, that the placement was dangerous for Daniel, and as the months of their separation added up, Erikson grew more distraught. “I only saw him for two hours every other week,” she says. Erikson advocated for Daniel to have a CASA but was told that no volunteers were available at that time in Larimer County. The case dragged on, and in December 2017, the county moved to terminate Erikson’s parental rights, even though, she says, Daniel repeatedly asked his caseworker and GAL if he could go home. Finally, after much urging from Erikson and her attorney, the judge agreed to a closed interview with Daniel. Ultimately, the judge denied the county’s motion and ordered an

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L E G A L A F FA I R S immediate increase in parental visits and a plan for reunification. Just about that time, to Erikson’s “enormous relief,” CASA Eric Wurtz was assigned to the case. Wurtz, 61, a retired air-traffic controller and the married father of two grown children, admits that early on, he wasn’t connecting well with Daniel. He tried playing catch with him or kicking the soccer ball around. “But I could tell he wasn’t really into it,” Wurtz says. Then he discovered Daniel’s love for the outdoors, and they clicked. “We’d go to an open space and get about 50 feet into the forest,” he says, “before Daniel would find something interesting to him, and we’d spend an hour looking at it.” Daniel was also eager to go fishing, so Wurtz learned to fish—sort of. “I’m so glad we never caught a fish,” he laughs. “I would have had no idea what to do with it.” In May 2019, Erikson regained custody of Daniel, and the case closed in August—more than three years after the night Daniel was removed from her home. She credits Wurtz with giving Daniel a voice and “making him brave” as he moved through the foster care system and waited to be reunited with his mom. Wurtz says he’s pleased with the out-

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come, but he still worries. “What happened is what should have happened,” he says. “Although I do wonder what Daniel will be like when he’s 18, with all the trauma he’s been through.” Wurtz’s ruminations hint at one of the more unsettling aspects of being a CASA. These adults step into children’s lives after they’ve been hurt. They show up in the middle of a family’s nightmare and try to help them become whole again, even if their version of “wholeness” looks different from a CASA’s own. Yet they don’t often get to see these children through to adulthood. Whether CASAs get to keep in touch with the children after the cases close is up to those who end up with custody of the children and the kids themselves. Sometimes, CASAs can be a reminder of the worst season in a family’s life, a time they’d rather forget. Moving on can be healthy, of course. However, for the CASA, it can feel like forgoing the final chapters of a book in which you’ve become fully invested. MY 10-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, Hadley, flips off her bedroom light, and I toss the novel we’ve been reading aloud in her bed

to the ground. She rolls toward me, and in the darkness she mentions my CASA kid. “Tell me about her?” she asks. I give a brief description of her personality: She’s energetic and eager to please. She’s affectionate and hugely curious about other people. I might as well be describing the child lying next to me. Hadley stops me. “No, I want to know why she doesn’t have a family.” For reasons I haven’t yet sorted out, my kids pose their heaviest questions right before they fall asleep. I know Hadley wants details, but I can’t give many because the facts of the case are confidential. I also can’t answer the bigger “why” she’s seeking, the push to make sense of a cruel world. Why do some kids get to have stable, safe families and some kids don’t? I explain big-picture problems, about how grown-ups can make mistakes and sometimes those mistakes mean those grown-ups can’t take care of their children, for a short time or a long time. “Raising kids is hard,” I say. “Sometimes people need help, so I’m trying to help. I think that’s what we’re supposed to do.” m Hilary Masell Oswald is a Denver-based freelance writer. Email her at letters@5280.com.

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To get the best result, COMPLEX CASES REQUIRE EXPERIENCED LAWYERS. IT ONLY TOOK 1.7 SECONDS. The Ford Taurus was northbound at 65 mph. It lost control, crossed the median, ejected its driver, became airborne, then crashed into the windshield of a southbound HVAC service van. The impact instantly killed the van driver and injured his co-worker in the passenger seat. First responders smelled alcohol on the breath of the Taurus driver. Her blood test result was positive for alcohol. Felony charges were filed against her alleging careless driving causing death—aggravated by DUI. The wrongful death case on behalf of the family of the van driver would appear simple and straightforward. Make a claim. Settle it quickly. Case closed. However, to get the best outcome for our clients, the van driver’s widow and their 2-month old baby, would be complicated and time-consuming. The case required five different legal proceedings to get top dollar for the family. CASE #1 – Uninsured motorist coverage. The at-fault driver was uninsured. Our investigation determined, however, that the service van was owned by and, therefore, covered by the HVAC company’s $1 Million uninsured motorist (“UM”) policy. UM coverage is insurance you buy in case an un- or under-insured driver runs into you. The statute and insurance explanation can be viewed on Colorado.gov—just search for “UM/UIM coverage.” In this case, the passenger of the van was also injured. The UM insurer, therefore, deposited its policy proceeds with the court. It filed a case (legal term: “interpleader”) so that a court could decide how to divide the money between the widow for the death of her husband and the passenger for his injuries. The widow and her baby received most of the money. This led to CASE #2, probate proceedings to approve and apportion the UM settlement. CASE #3 – The Colorado Victims’ Rights Act (VRA) ensures that crime victims are treated with fairness, respect, and dignity, and that they have notice and the right to attend any hearings at the critical stages of the criminal case. Victims also have the right to submit a victim impact

statement at the time of sentencing. In this case, we attended hearings with our client and worked in cooperation with the victim rights advocate assigned to the case. The statute and applicable forms can also be viewed on the Colorado.gov site—just search for “Victim Rights Act.” CASE #4 – Workers Compensation Case, Benefit Penalty. Employees who are injured or killed on the job are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits as a matter of law. However, if the injury or death is allegedly the result of the employee failing to follow a safety regulation, then the employer’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier can reduce the benefits it owes by 50%. Because our van driver was unbuckled from his seat belt at the moment of the collision, the workers’ compensation carrier petitioned to reduce the widow’s support benefits by half. The evidence, however, persuaded the carrier that belted or not, no one could have survived the impact from the Taurus. The penalty claim was dropped. We settled the compensation claim for the widow and baby for a lump sum plus structured settlements. Colorado.gov, search for “workers compensation benefits/ penalty.” CASE #5 – Lawsuit and judgment against the at-fault driver. In the end, we decided that we needed to finalize any claim against the at-fault driver. The van driver was the primary breadwinner and source of support for his wife and his baby. They were a young family, and he had a long work life ahead of him. We filed a complaint against the at-fault driver and took a default judgment against her for $2,282,005.00. The judge found the conduct of the at-fault driver was a basis to exceed the caps on wrongful death damages and to bar discharge in bankruptcy. Complicated cases require experienced lawyers to get the top dollar/best result.

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Credits Tk

Raíces Brewing Co.’s Sun Valley tasting room

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Colorado’s craft brewers are innovating, collaborating, and producing more spectacular suds than ever before. Here, we explore how the Centennial State became the Napa Valley of Beer, what’s being poured right now, and where the industry is headed. BY PATRICIA KAOWTHUMRONG & DENISE MICKELSEN PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA STUMPF

THROUGH THE PINT GLASS

As beer drinkers sip on more choices than ever before, local craft brewers are adapting to a changing marketplace.

Molly’s Spirits’ BestSelling Colorado Craft Beer Styles in 2019 IPAs, Lagers, Fruit beers, Pale ales, Sours

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Gallons of Colorado craft beer brewed per resident 21 years or older each year (47,279,854 total gallons)

$ 3.2

Brewing); and many are focusing on regional loyalties and opening multiple taprooms to reach more local consumers. Add in the recent enactment of Colorado Senate Bill 16-197, which allows full-strength beer to be sold in grocery and convenience stores, and breweries of all sizes are grappling with harsh new realities relating to distribution, marketing, and production. So, yes, things are in flux. But many Colorado brewers also see this moment as a window of (h)opportunity. (Couldn’t resist.) Although competition for drinkers is at an all-time high, so too are innovation and pure skill. National beer journalist Joshua M. Bernstein offers this perspective, and we can’t help but agree: “There are challenges in the industry right now—and it’s perilous if [brewers] don’t make changes—but we’ve been drinking beer for thousands of years, and we’re not going to stop tomorrow.”

billion

Craft beer’s economic impact on Colorado in 2018

126

Colorado craft breweries in 2011

416

Colorado craft breweries in 2019 (73 are in Denver)

2019 Great American Beer Fest awards won by Colorado breweries

Helen H. Richardson/the Denver Post via Getty Images

The next time you’re strolling down the beer aisle at Molly’s Spirits or King Soopers, slow down and take a good look at what’s on the refrigerated racks. There’s. A. Lot. There. Shelves sag under the weight of fruited sours, peanut-butter-cup porters, countless varieties of IPAs, wheats, lagers, and everything in between. The beer biz must be booming, right? Not exactly. After years of double-digit growth, American beer sales have leveled out, and despite craft beer’s modest four percent gain in overall sales in 2018, many local craft breweries are seeing slight declines. As a result, beer brands—from Colorado-born Goliath Molson Coors Beverage Company to David-esque WeldWerks Brewing Co.—are changing the ways they do business. Some are evolving into full-fledged beverage companies that make other drinks, too (ahem, seltzer); others have been sold to global firms (we’re looking at you, New Belgium

ON TAP HISTORY

Cheers To 161 Years!

An abbreviated timeline of Colorado’s beer scene. —Katie Ketchum 1859 Rocky Mountain Brewery, Colorado’s first, is born. 1873 Adolph Coors Sr. and Jacob Schueler open the Golden Brewery; in 1880, Coors buys out Schueler and renames the business Adolph Coors Company. 1916 The state goes dry. Prohibition hits the nation four years later. 1933 Prohibition ends! Drinkers rejoice. 1979 Colorado’s first microbrewery, Boulder Beer Company, opens. 1982 The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) launches in Boulder with 24 participating breweries (800 breweries poured in 2019). 1988 Governor-to-be John Hickenlooper co-founds the state’s first brewpub, Wynkoop Brewing Co. 1989 Odell Brewing Co. is established in Fort Collins. 1991 New Belgium Brewing opens, also in Fort Collins. 1995 The Colorado Brewers Guild is born to promote and protect the state’s craft brewing industry. 2002 Lyons’ Oskar Blues Brewery (est. 1999) pioneers craft beer in cans with Dale’s Pale Ale.

From left: History Colorado; Rebecca Stumpf

2005 The Brewers Association, a national industry

advocacy organization, is founded in Boulder. 2015 CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective is founded when Oskar Blues connects a group of brewers to share resources and distribution networks, creating a model for other strategic partnerships in the beer industry. 2018 The Brewers Association eliminates the requirement that to qualify as “craft,” a brewery must make the majority of its total beverage alcohol volume in beer—opening the door for seltzer. 2018 Ceria Brewing Co. debuts Colorado’s first THCinfused beer. 2019 On January 1, a 2016 law allowing the sale of fullstrength beer in grocery and convenience stores goes into effect. 2019 Mergers, closings, and buyouts: Ska Brewing and Peach Street Distillers announce Ska Street Brewstillery, a brewery/ distillery/restaurant in Boulder; Molson Coors Brewing Company shutters its Denver headquarters, rebranding as Molson Coors Beverage Company; New Belgium Brewing sells to Japan’s Kirin conglomerate. 2020 Boulder Beer Company closes its brewpub and production facility but continues distributing its existing beers through contract brewer Sleeping Giant Brewing Company.

BEHIND THE BREW

The Source Of All Deliciousness How two women in Wellington bring big flavor to your craft beer.

When you walk into Source of Nature’s 5,600-squarefoot warehouse in the small town of Wellington, just north of Fort Collins, you’ll spot ropes of dried hops, a mountain of wine barrels, pallets of beer cans, bags of ground vanilla beans, and a freezer crammed with orange zest. And while clients—craft brewers, distillers, even kombucha makers—patronize Alex Leedy and Lavelle McGovney’s four-year-old sourcing clearinghouse for the flavorful, sometimes rare ingredients the duo procures, it’s what you can’t see that makes the company a novel resource for about 250 U.S. beverage brands, including Denver’s Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project and Longmont’s Left Hand Brewing Company. McGovney has a background in international business operations, and Leedy worked for years at New Belgium Brewing, collaborating with craft beer masters across the country. Together, they help producers bring a world of flavors, colors, and aromas to their beverages (in addition to offering dry, cold, and frozen storage, wine-barrel aging, and consulting services). “I love helping people find what they need and get it into their beers the right way,” Leedy says. “And I love getting to drink the end result.” —Andra Coberly

COLLABS

Better Together

Colorado brewers love making suds with other beermakers. But the most innovative also work with chefs, distillers, and winemakers to create unique sips. We tracked down four must-trys that are on tap today.

BACON SOCIAL HOUSE

PEACHY KEEN BRUNCH BEER

What happens when a brewery and a porkcentric restaurant create a beer? Brunchtime magic, that’s what. At a morningfriendly 4.5 percent ABV, Peachy Keen is a rich ale

head brewer, worked with Laws and Bonacquisti on a special three-way project: First, Laws aged its three-year-old bourbon in Bonacquisti’s Cabernet barrels for at least 18 months; then, Hieber put a malt-forward dopplebock into the same barrels for four months. The result is a rich lager with notes of blackberries, raisins, caramel, and vanilla. Find It: At Goldspot’s taproom in late February

Beer Mutineer

BRUZ BEERS

+ =

BREWED FOOD LE RENNE & LA REINE

bursting with stone-fruit flavors, thanks to the 180 pounds of Palisade peaches that went into the tank. Find It: At Bacon Social House’s two locations GOLDSPOT BREWING COMPANY

LAWS WHISKEY HOUSE

BONACQUISTI WINE COMPANY

DOPPLEBOCK

For the Regis neighborhood brewery’s fifth anniversary this month, Kelissa Hieber, Goldspot’s

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Bruz’s lead brewer, Dave Olson, and Brewed Food (a local test kitchen/ culinary laboratory) chef Jensen Cummings are the ultimate fermentation nerds. Here, they got geeky exploring how two different sets of “good bugs” (the yeast strains that jump-start fermentation) would affect one base beer: They fermented half of a batch of a wheat-, oat-, and malted-barley-base beer with a Norwegian kveik farmhouse yeast and the other half with a blend of Belgian saison strains. The kveik yeast created a juicy, American IPA– esque brew (Le Renne) with notes of orange marmalade, while the saison bugs resulted in a delicate, ultradry beer (La Reine) with spicy strawberry flavors and a haylike aroma. Find Them: At Bruz Beers’ two taprooms

BEHIND THE BREW

Neil Fisher doesn’t make— or market—his suds like any other craft brand in the Centennial State.

WeldWerks Brewing Co.’s head brewer and co-founder Neil Fisher, who began brewing beer in—you guessed it—his garage, is known for sending it. Which may be why WeldWerks is bringing big medals (most recently, a gold and a silver from GABF 2019) back to its A-frame production facility and taproom (formerly a used car lot and showroom) in Greeley. “We leaned into what came naturally—innovation and recipe design—mainly because we didn’t know any better,” Fisher says. Now, even as he and the rest of the WeldWerks team prepare to open a second taproom in Colorado Springs this spring, the prolific brand is also going into its fourth straight year of producing, canning, and self-distributing 150-plus different beers (a monumental feat of both marketing and logistics). Its myriad offerings include fan-favorite New England–style IPA Juicy Bits; culinary-inspired brews like Taco Gose, a sour crafted with fire-roasted tomatoes and classic chili spices; and multiple pastry-style iterations of its barrel-aged imperial stout, Medianoche. “It’s dreamlike,” Fisher says, reflecting on WeldWerks’ journey to its fifth anniversary this month. “I don’t know when I’ll wake up. I hope I don’t.”

From left: Courtesy of Bacon Social House; Courtesy of David Dougherty

TIVOLI BREWING COMPANY

ON TAP

NAME GAME

Our current favorite craft beer monikers.

1. Brewers’ Tears, hard seltzer, Timnath Beerwerks 2. Japance Off, French/Japanese saison, Denver Beer Co. 3. More Dodge, Less RAM, American IPA, Comrade Brewing Company 4. YOLO (Your Oil Light is On), Scottish brown, Collision Brewing Company 5. Magical Narwhal Candy Cane Unicorn Stout, stout, Woods Boss Brewing Company 6. Vincent van Couch, sour ale, Odd13 Brewing

DRINK THIS, EAT THAT

Nothing against food trucks—but these four Denver gastropubs are proof that great beer can be even more enjoyable when it’s served alongside elevated fare. AT: Brother-owned Briar Common Brewery & Eatery in Jefferson Park DRINK: Broken Bridge grapefruit hazy IPA WITH: Duck confit tacos

Courtesy of Former Saint Craft Kicthen and Taps

BECAUSE: “Our favorite part of pairing a beer with a dish is when you can’t tell where the flavor of one ends and the other begins,” says co-owner Kent Dawson. “This hazy’s big citrus nose and crisp finish complement the orange-chile marmalade and lime crema in the tacos and somehow even make the duck confit seem light.”

Former Saint Craft Kitchen and Taps

AT: Local-first Former Saint Craft Kitchen and Taps inside the Hyatt Regency Denver downtown

AT: Sour-beer emporium Goed Zuur in Five Points

DRINK: Oskar Blues’ G’Knight Imperial Red IPA

DRINK: GZ Ultra multibarrel blended sour (a collaboration with Denver’s Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales)

WITH: Herb-crusted lamb with butternut squash, cherries, Brussels sprouts, and mushrooms

WITH: Crispy pig head with house-made ricotta, pickled blackberries, and pistachio pesto

BECAUSE: “This beer has a malty middle and hop flavors that play well with sweetness and earthiness,” chef Matt Rabelhofer says. “This dish gets sweet notes from squash and dried cherries and earthy ones from local Hazel Dell mushrooms.”

BECAUSE: “The pork and the ricotta are rich, so you need the beer’s light acidity and tropical sour notes to break that up,” says co-owner and chef Anthony Lopiccolo. “The beer restarts your palate, so every bite becomes a new adventure.”

AT: Innovative oenobeer palace Liberati Restaurant & Brewery in Curtis Park DRINK: Recioto Denveris, an imperial Russian sweet stout WITH: The Tiramistout (aka tiramisù) BECAUSE: “We dip ladyfingers into a mixture of our Recioto Denveris and coffee,” says owner-brewer Alex Liberati. “The beer, brewed with Petite Syrah grapes, has chocolatecovered red fruit aromas and an acidity that matches the coffee notes in the tiramisù. The elements transport one another.”

TRENDS

ONE BIG HOPPY FAMILY

Your guide to the wide, wonderful world of IPAs.

Love ’em or hate ’em, India pale ales are here to stay. But what’s the difference between, say, a New England and a West Coast? And what do “pale ales” have to do with anything? Brandon Capps, co-owner and head brewer at four-year-old IPA specialist New Image Brewing in Arvada, gave us the lowdown on how today’s most popular styles fit together, plus his picks for the best local IPAs. ENGLISH IPA NEW ENGLAND IPA (aka Hazy or Juicy IPA)

WEST COAST IPA (aka American IPA)

American hops give this crystal-clear, best-selling style intense flavor, aroma, and bitterness. The brew’s boom can be traced back to the 1970s, when breweries in California and Washington began using Oregon-grown Cascade hops. Tasting Notes: Bold pine and citrus flavors Average Hoppiness: XXXX Try: Juicy Banger IPA at Station 26 Brewing Co.

Inspired by English pale ale (a predecessor of English IPA), its hallmark is a balanced use of malt and hops. Tasting Notes: Floral and citrus flavors; drier finish than a West Coast IPA

WEST COAST PALE ALE (aka American Pale Ale)

Beer drinkers have the United Kingdom to thank for the world’s first IPA. Born during the late 18th century, this brew is enhanced with English hops, yeast, and malt—and brewed for a high ABV so that, historically, the beer would stay fresh as it traveled to British colonies (including those in India).

Dry-hopping and/or the use of specific yeast strains give this unfiltered brew a smooth texture, cloudy appearance, and low bitterness profile.

Tasting Notes: Earthy, floral, caramellike malt flavors

Tasting Notes: Tropical, juicy, stone-fruit character

Average Hoppiness: XXX

Try: Hog Wild at Hogshead Brewery

Try: Coriolis Effect at New Image Brewing

NEW ENGLAND PALE ALE

The West Coast Imperial IPA’s hazy cousin contains heavy quantities of hops, high ABVs (seven to 10.6 percent), and the softness and sweetness of New England styles.

NEW ENGLAND IMPERIAL IPA (aka Double or Triple IPA)

Tasting Notes: Bright citrus and tropical fruit flavors

Average Hoppiness: XXX

Try: Featherweight Pale at Cannonball Creek Brewing Co.

Try: In the Deep Steep Double IPA at Outer Range Brewing Co. A modest ABV (typically six percent or less) makes this brew the New England IPA’s more sessionable offspring.

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Hearty quantities of hops and high ABVs (seven to 10.6 percent) make this a decidedly unchuggable yet delicious brew. Tasting Notes: Intense pine and citrus character

Tasting Notes: Bursts of tropical fruit flavors, a soft texture, and less bitterness than the New England IPA Average Hoppiness: XX Try: Muscle Memory at Cerebral Brewing

Lactose, fruit purées, unfermentable sugars, and adjuncts like vanilla create this ultracreamy, opaque brew. (Imperial IPAs and pale ales can also come milkshake-style.)

Average Hoppiness: XXXXX

Tasting Notes: Bold fruit flavors, rich texture

Try: Sketch Bet Imperial IPA at Comrade Brewing Co.

Average Hoppiness: XX

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Try: Double Peach Milkshake at WeldWerks Brewing Co.

MILKSHAKE IPA (aka Smoothie IPA) Courtesy of Justin Graziano

WEST COAST IMPERIAL IPA (aka Double or Triple American IPA)

ON TAP

No IPAs Allowed

If hop-bombs aren’t your bag, sip the spectrum with these all-the-rage brews instead. I’M A LIGHT BEER DRINKER.

LAGER Bierstadt Lagerhaus’ Slow Pour Pils, 4.9 percent ABV Crisp, aromatic, and crushable, this traditional German pale lager is worth the four- to six-minute wait it takes to achieve the proper pour—resulting in the perfect head—at Bierstadt’s massive, two-level, game-filled RiNo taproom.

BELGIAN-STYLE Primitive Beer’s Harbored in the Fuzz, 6.2 percent ABV First, this Longmont brewer’s two-yearold spontaneous, lambic-style beer is refermented for 10 months on Red Globe peaches from Hotchkiss’ Deer Tree Farm and Agroforest; then it’s bottleconditioned (refermented inside the bottle with added sugars) for six months on local alfalfa honey. The result? A dryas-a-bone brew with funky stone-fruit aromas, deep peach notes, and a bit of blue cheese intensity.

FRUITED SOUR Casey Brewing & Blending’s Funky Blender Preserves–Laroda Plum, 7 percent ABV Glenwood Springs brewer-owner Troy Casey aged this farmhouse ale in oak wine barrels with more than four pounds per gallon of ripe Laroda plums grown in Palisade. It’s got big candy acidity and notes of sweet, jammy plums.

BARREL-AGED Banded Oak Brewing Co.’s Norwegian Tripel (Syrah Barrel), 8 percent ABV This hybrid style from the Speer neighborhood’s Banded Oak marries the malt-forward sweetness of a Belgian tripel with Norwegian kveik yeast’s pearand-honey profile—and tons of oaky vanilla notes from five months of aging in Syrah wine barrels.

PASTRY STOUT

Keith Homan/Alamy Stock Photo

Mountain Sun’s Chocwork Orange Stout, 6.5 percent ABV

GIMME DESSERT IN A GLASS.

During the Colorado icon’s 27th annual Stout Month—happening in February at Mountain Sun, Southern Sun, and Under the Sun in Boulder; Vine Street Pub in Denver; and Longs Peak Pub in Longmont—you’ll find more than 30 house stouts and about 20 more from area guest beer makers. This beauty is brewed with milk and dark chocolates, orange peel, and blood orange purée.

ESSAY

Ode To A Classic

A beer drinker defends his love of Coors Banquet.

I have a simple palate. And when it comes to beer, my palate and I have almost always preferred easy-drinking, easy-on-the-wallet lagers to heavier, more complex brews. But when I left behind my days (and nights) of chugging PBR in New Mexico for a gig at 5280, I felt pressured— obligated, even—to try all the bold brews made here, lest I be ridiculed for drinking “water.” So, I sipped on local sours, stouts, and saisons. I downed Centennial State IPAs. I spent more money than I care to confess at area breweries, hunting for my new favorite beer. Then, late one evening at Don’s Club Tavern, I found the brew I’d been searching for: a $2.50 Coors Banquet stubby. Maybe it’s the Rocky Mountain water. Maybe it’s the Moravian barley. Maybe it’s the way the golden liquid flows from its squat, dark brown vessel. Regardless, 140-year-old Coors Banquet is the most refreshing Colorado beer I’ve ever tasted—and I’m not alone. Connoisseurs (including local newsman Kyle Clark) and brewers alike tout its supremacy. “Banquet feels like the original brew,” says Jason zumBrunnen, co-founder and brewmaster at Denver’s Ratio Beerworks. “It has just the right amount of malt and a little more body than other light beers.” Even though Molson Coors Beverage Company decamped its HQ to Chicago late last year, its OG beer is still being brewed in Golden. And whether I’m on the ski hill, at a dive bar, or shopping at my local liquor store, it’s the beer I’m proud to return to—the beer that made Colorado my home. —Jay Bouchard

AROUND TOWN

Go West

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We know—you, like, always hang out in RiNo. Or LoDo. Or SoBro. But if you never venture across I-25, you’re missing out on a whole frontier of beer pioneers building destination-worthy homesteads and staking claims as some of the city’s best brewers. We’ve charted the territory. —Jessica LaRusso

W 2 6 T H AV E

5 SLOAN’S LAKE

W C O L F A X AV E

I-25

3 1

F E D E R A L B LV D

S H E R I D A N B LV D

Craft Culture

1. Strange Craft Beer Co./Wit’s End Brewing Company In late 2017, Wit’s End left its Valverde digs to share Strange Craft’s industrial strip-mall space on Zuni Street. Last we visited, the distinguished duo each had a World Beer Cup winner (Strange’s Cherry Kriek and Wit’s End’s Jean-Claude Van Blond) on tap. 2. Raíces Brewing Co. With garage-door windows and large-scale artwork, Latino-focused Raíces (see “Craft Culture” at right) is a shiny recent addition to the Sun Valley neighborhood. 3. Seedstock Brewery Don’t look for sours or seltzers at this laid-back West Colfax Avenue taproom. For the past four years, Seedstock has been humbly producing a stellar lineup of Eastern European–inspired suds, like the Czech Pilsner and Bohemian Dunkel. 4. WestFax Brewing Company It’s easy to get overlooked when you’re literally in the shadow of Casa Bonita—but WestFax’s mountain-chic taproom should be on your must-visit list for many

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BEHIND THE BREW

delicious reasons, such as its $3 beer-of-the-week special on Tuesdays and the delightfully opaque Urban Lumberjack hazy IPA. 5. Joyride Brewing Company A true crowd-pleaser, this brewery hosts Mondaynight euchre tournaments for transplanted Midwesterners, pours a diverse lineup for picky drinkers, and has city-skyline-backed views of Sloan’s Lake from its 2,300-square-foot rooftop for everyone. 6. Little Machine Beer From robot arm flight paddles to a game library to wacky brew names, Little Machine has been bringing the fun since 2015. It’s also been serving creative seasonals: This past fall, we sipped on a sweet potato stout, a stone-fruit IPA, and a pear cider in a single visit.

With its vibrant new taproom, Raíces is making Latin American beer—and culture—even more accessible for Denverites.

For spouses José D. Beteta and Tamil Maldonado-Vega (center and right) and head brewer Martín D. Vargas (left), co-founders of five-month-old Raíces Brewing Co., slinging suds is about more than just making greattasting beer. “Everything we do is to celebrate Latino culture and highlight the vast number of subcultures that exist under ‘Latino’—because a Colombian Latino is very different from a Puerto Rican or U.S. Latino,” says Beteta, a native of Costa Rica. Thus, when the trio opened Raíces’ (which means “roots”) first taproom in burgeoning Sun Valley this past fall, events were at the heart of the brand’s mission to facilitate cultural understanding: Its calendar is packed with everything from celebrations for Latino national holidays to fútbol (and football) watch parties. Latin- and Caribbean-inspired food trucks provide fare that complements Vargas’ award-winning beer styles, which range from classic American sips like the Musa stout to Latino-inspired brews like the mango-infused Manguito. In fact, perhaps the only thing more refreshing than sipping on his coffee-infused Cafecito blonde ale is watching Denver’s beer scene get better, and more inclusive, by the day.

From left: Courtesy of WestFax Brewing Co.; Rebecca Stumpf

ON TAP

THE FUTURE IS…

Here are the trends that will be playing out in your pint (or can, or Crowler) over the next few years. BEYOND BEER

Courtesy of TriState Energy

Boozy coffee. Canned wine and cocktails. Hopped water. THC- and/ or CBD-infused beverages. And, of course, the S-word. Today, retail shelves hold seemingly countless ready-to-drink products—all with the potential to lure away craft beer consumers. Producers large and small are taking notice: Oskar Blues Brewery sold 40,000 barrels of Wild Basin Boozy Sparkling Water in 2019, and the inventor of Blue Moon, Keith Villa, is producing a line of nonalcoholic West Coast IPAs and Belgian-style white ales dosed with CBD and/or THC called Ceria. What does such competition mean for Colorado beer? “These other beverages are forcing us to refine our brand, find our true core customers, and figure out how to speak to

Co-owners Josh (left) and Jason Cody at Colorado Farm Brewery in Alamosa

them effectively,” Bonfire Brewing co-founder Andy Jessen says. “If we don’t, we’ll be left behind.” LATINO BREWERIES

Although less than four percent of American craft breweries are Latinoowned, Colorado is home to nearly a dozen. The state’s first, three-year-old Cheluna Brewing Co. (inside Stanley Marketplace in Aurora), pours “chelas” (beers) inspired by the cultural heritage of Oaxaca, Mexico. Dos Luces Brewery, which opened on South Broadway in 2018, crafts gluten-free chicha and pulque brews from locally malted blue corn. At Atrevida Beer Co. in Colorado Springs, brewer Jessica Fierro infuses cervezas with Mexican chocolate, guava, and other Latin American adjuncts. Last summer, all of the above headlined Suave

Fest—the first Latino brew bash in the country—at Denver’s most recent addition to the trend, Raíces Brewing Co. (see “Craft Culture” at left). MULTIPLE TAPROOMS

For smaller craft brewers faced with distribution challenges, slim margins, and competition for shelf and tap space, sometimes building another taproom is the best path to growth. Denver Beer Co. has two metro-area taprooms, is building a third, and also owns Cervecería Colorado, located next to its Platte Street location. Dry Dock Brewing Co. pours from two Aurora taprooms, and Grist Brewing Company serves Highlands Ranch, Littleton, and Lone Tree, where it launched Rare by Grist, a taproom starring high-ABV beer and seltzer cocktails inspired by spirits like tequila and whiskey, in December. SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION

Beer is, essentially, an agricultural product. As such, caring for the planet is a part of many local brewers’ DNA. New Belgium Brewing has been powered entirely by renew-

able energies since 1999 and also diverts 99.9 percent of its waste from landfills. On a smaller scale, year-old Colorado Farm Brewery in Alamo-

sa is the first farm-to-tap business in the world, brewing several estate beers using ingredients sourced entirely from its 300-acre farm. BUSINESS AS (UN)USUAL

Even giants have to adapt to the times, as evidenced by November’s news that New Belgium Brewing had been sold to an international conglomerate. Smaller breweries are making creative alliances, too: In 2018, Idaho Springs’ Westbound & Down Brewing Company and Amalgam opened the Cultural Center, where the companies host intimate monthly public tastings, share equipment and supplies, and collaborate on barrel-aged sour brews. And this past fall, Good River Beer, Renegade Brewing, and Rocky Mountain Sector established the Brewer’s CoHop, a collective production facility where multiple companies work together on administrative, marketing, and sales efforts. m

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The Everyday Everyday Philanthropist For the first time since the Great Recession, some indicators suggest charitable donations in Colorado—and across the country—may be plateauing. Unfortunately, in these turbulent times, need is not. No matter how many hours or how much money you have to give, we explain the most practical, powerful, and feel-good ways to make a difference.

BY LINDSEY B. KING I LI LL LUUSSTTRR AA TT II O N B Y TT II MM BBOOWWE ER R

his is not a guilt trip. Giving back, paying it forward, carrying out random acts of kindness—most of us want to do these things. We really do. But then work… and kids…and tight finances…and in-laws who always seem to be in town…and, well, life often bump those humanitarian inclinations right off the to-do list. Even when bullet points such as “call about volunteering” manage to remain on your Post-it, it still feels like a monumental task to figure out which nonprofits are worthy of your goodwill. And with the new federal tax code rendering itemization unnecessary for many Americans, that cherry-on-top incentive has virtually disappeared. So, we get it. It’s easier to push those items to next week’s agenda and convince yourself you’ll get it done then. Easier, maybe, until you consider this: Roughly nine percent of Coloradans deal with hunger. Homelessness in Denver County increased by 14 percent between 2018 and 2019. Approximately 52 percent of Colorado fourth graders are not reading at grade level. And 18 percent of Coloradans report they have trouble paying their medical bills. In short, the struggle is very real for many Centennial Staters. OK, so maybe this is a little bit of a guilt trip. We do, however, understand the challenges of getting started when it comes to philanthropic endeavors. “People are inundated with asks for gifts,” says Melissa Milios Davis, a vice president with Denver’s Gates Family Foundation, which is known for its philanthropic grant-making, “so being charitable requires some strategy.” With that in mind, we spoke with financial advisers, nonprofit presidents, volunteers, board members, and others to learn the secrets of being an effective altruist in your everyday life.

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THE EXPERTS SAY

Understand The Big Picture Although 2018 was a strong year for giving in the United States, some metrics portend changes—and increasing unpredictability— in the charitable habits of Coloradans and Americans as a whole.

$4.68 billion

Money collected by 7,321 Colorado charities in 2018, the most recent year for which data is available. That’s roughly $33 million less than in 2017.

67% 63%

Percentage of Coloradans* surveyed by the Colorado Nonprofit Association (CNA) in July 2019 who said they donated money to charity in the previous year. In a similar CNA survey in 2014, 80 percent of respondents said they had recently donated to charity.

Percentage of Coloradans* surveyed by the CNA in July 2019 who said they donated household items to charity in the previous year. In a similar CNA survey in 2014, 86 percent of respondents said they had recently donated household items.

$39.6 million

Amount raised in 2019 for Colorado Gives Day (coloradogives.org), organized by the Community First Foundation in December each year; donors gave $35,279,861 in 2018, which was the first time in the program’s history that giving did not increase year over year.

21. 4 million

The decrease in number of federal tax returns (nationwide) that claimed a charitable deduction in 2018, as compared to 2017. This reduction can presumably be attributed to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

68%

The percentage of overall giving done by individual Americans (the rest comes from foundations, corporations, and bequests). The 2018 tax year represents the first time in 50 years that this figure has fallen below 70 percent.

*Coloradans polled include only those who received a state income tax refund.

T HE E VER Y DAY PHIL AN T HROPIS T

having much impact on any one cause. My advice is to look at your charity as an investment with a social, rather than financial, return. Then think about issues that are most important to you. Dream big about what you’d most like to change or preserve. Ask yourself if there are nonprofits to which you or your family have turned in times of need. Look to charities whose missions align with your core values surrounding, say, the environment, civil rights, or education. Once you’ve determined the causes you intend to support, go deep, not wide, with your charity. Giving $1,000 is extremely generous. Most people can’t do that. But if you can, think about what giving $1,000 to one organization means versus giving $100 to 10 organizations. In most cases, greater impact and engagement can be accomplished by giving more to fewer organizations. What does giving this gift do for me? THE EXPERTS SAY

Consider Your Motivation

From top: Milles Studio/Stocksy; Courtesy of the DeBoskey Group/Denver

Denver philanthropic strategist Bruce DeBoskey shares three questions that will help you focus more clearly on your philanthropic intentions. when most of us are considering an investment—buying a house, getting a degree, starting a business—we try to be calculating. We do our due diligence. But when it comes to charitable giving—a philanthropic investment—many of us are disorganized and not nearly as careful. We write checks and hope for the best. As a philanthropic strategist, I work with Denver families to help them become more effective in reaching their philanthropic goals, whatever those may be. As a part of that process, I explain that philanthropy is like love: The more a family makes it a cornerstone of their lives, the more joy they will take from it. I also explain to my clients that there are three questions prospective donors need to answer to become effective philanthropists. Whether you have $1,000 or $1 million to make a gift of, ask yourself: What difference do I want to make in the world?

For many people, this question is difficult to answer. Some folks simply don’t know where to start. Others might realize they have divergent views from their spouses or other family members on which causes to support. Still others care about so many different issues that they end up engaging in what I call “peanut butter giving,” spreading donations thinly over a wide area but not

IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS

Your checklist of random acts of kindness for 2020.

Shovel your next-door neighbor’s snowy sidewalk—without asking or taking any credit.

Keep a few granola bars in your backpack or purse to hand out to people experiencing homelessness in Denver.

People often feel like they shouldn’t think about what being charitable does for them—as if it’s selfish or not altruistic to consider the benefits to their own lives. I disagree; in fact, I believe it’s a critical component of being a smart donor. The answer could be expressing gratitude, paying forward a kindness, seeking recognition, addressing one’s guilt for great success, fulfilling religious obligations, passing values on to children, or creating a legacy. The critical part is knowing why you’re doing it so that your generosity can help you live the life you want to live. What do the recipients of my generosity think is the best use of my donation?

Donors often fail to engage with the recipients of their charity. It’s critical that philanthropists understand the perspectives of the people being served. Ideally, the nonprofits you support have leaders who consult with and listen to those receiving their services. You can also volunteer and learn for yourself if your donations are being spent effectively, according to those you’re hoping to help.

Drop an extra quarter in that downtown Denver meter before you drive away.

When you’re in the coffeeshop drive-thru, ask to cover the order of the car behind you.

THE EXPERTS SAY

Focus On ROI

THE EXPERTS SAY

Nonprofits aren’t businesses, but they need to operate like them. ask any smart business owner what her number one asset is, and she’ll likely say it’s her staff. Ask her what her staff needs to do its job well, and the list might include up-to-date technology, a marketing budget, the freedom to take risks, competitive salaries, and health insurance. Few would balk at those requirements—that is, until those demands are applied to a nonprofit. This notion—believing charities with low overhead costs are more effective because more money goes directly to the cause—was long ago dubbed the “overhead myth.” Yet the idea that there is an acceptable percentage (usually 10 to 15 percent) of expenses that can go to salaries, marketing, and computers persists among some donors. “The formula for the admin cost of a nonprofit,” says Renny Fagan, president and CEO of the Colorado Nonprofit Association, “doesn’t reflect how effective or responsible a nonprofit is.” As the CEO for Urban Peak, a Denver nonprofit that serves youth experiencing homelessness, Christina Carlson says she understands a donor’s desire for his money to be spent on the cause. However, she makes one thing clear: “To keep great staff, the people who do the hard work,” Carlson says, “you have to treat them like professionals and pay them well, especially now that Denver is so expensive.” Doing those things, which any for-profit venture does every day, Fagan says, should ultimately yield results. “It’s all about the return,” he says. “Donors need to ask if a nonprofit is accomplishing great things, not what it’s costing them in overhead to do them.”

LIT TLE THINGS

Rain, shine, or snow, take the King Soopers buggy to the cart corral after putting your groceries in your car.

Leave an outsize tip for a really good server at your favorite restaurant.

Choose Wisely Rare is the nonprofit that doesn’t have a worthy mission—but your generosity is best spent with groups that follow best practices. Erin Pulling is careful to say no nonprofit is perfect. The president and CEO of Denver’s Food Bank of the Rockies explains her hunger-relief organization, like all nonprofits, has its challenges. But, she says, prospective donors and volunteers should investigate the operational prowess and current leadership before offering support to any philanthropic organization. “It’s difficult to know all you need to know from a website,” Pulling says. “Signing up for one or two no-strings-attached volunteer opportunities is a great way to pull back the curtain.” She recommends taking notice of the following and asking plenty of questions.

TOP-TIER NONPROFITS GENERALLY…

THAT’S IMPORTANT BECAUSE…

Have ample volunteer opportunities that vary in time commitment

Not only does it show a certain level of organizational sophistication (mobilizing people is difficult!), but it also displays an awareness that not everyone who wants to help can sign up for the same four-hour shift each week.

See prospective volunteers as more than just box-stuffers

Harnessing the talent of a graphic designer or a marketing specialist or a CPA on a pro-bono basis can be just as critical to a nonprofit’s mission as leveraging unskilled labor.

Maintain sustainable, diverse funding sources

If all the cash comes from one place—government grants or an endowment, for example—and that source dries up, the financial health of an institution can change rapidly and unexpectedly. Avoiding the potential for any undue influence coming from one major donor is equally important.

Respond to the changing needs of the people they serve

When communities are affected by new threats like, say, the opioid epidemic or rising homelessness, existing do-good organizations that are able to evolve their missions to help address the problems will appear relevant to donors. They’ll also be more immediately effective than new nonprofits that pop up in reaction to a crisis.

Offer educational opportunities, like seminars, to donors, volunteers, and the public at large

The more people understand about human trafficking or lack of access to mental health care, the more they want to help. If educational outreach isn’t part of a nonprofit’s mission, forming programming around the community to meet people in need where they are can help spread awareness, too.

Mile High City roads are getting crowded: Remember to wave when someone lets you in, and return the favor when you can.

Lend someone a hand on the slopes, whether that’s collecting a yard sale’s worth of gear or showing a newbie how to board the chairlift.

Go out of your way to take a friend home after he’s had a few too many at the brewery.

T HE E VER Y DAY PHIL AN T HROPIS T

THE EXPERTS SAY

Get Involved Early In Life Denver’s savvier nonprofits build clubs to court socially minded young professionals who one day might become (major) donors. Prospective participants, who are usually between the ages of 20 and 40, see membership not only as a way to give back to the community, but also as an opportunity to network, learn fundraising skills, and gild a resumé. We decided to play matchmaker by creating dating profiles for several of the Mile High City’s most desirable groups.

Name: Next Generation Giving (NG2)

Name: CultureHaus

Affiliation: Denver Health Foundation

Affiliation: Denver Art Museum

Age: 2

Age: 23

Most passionate about: Making sure those who can’t afford health care get the medical attention they need, whenever they need it

Most passionate about: Supporting the arts, encouraging arts awareness, and becoming the next generation of generous arts patrons

Most important qualities in a partner: An irrepressible desire to help all living beings, no matter how helpless; zero aversion to that latex-and-coffee aroma of hospitals

Most important qualities in a partner: Creativity, curiosity, interest in learning about different mediums, openness to collecting avant-garde art, penchant for gallery-hopping

Seeking: 25- to 39-year-olds Nonnegotiables: Attending monthly meetings and several fundraising events throughout the year; bringing $500 to the cause annually; posting on social media platforms to promote volunteer opportunities and fundraising events You should message us if: You want discounted tickets for good-cause events like the Hot Rocks Griller Challenge and NightShine Gala. denverhealthfoundation.org

Name: Denver Active 20-30 Children’s Foundation Affiliation: N/A Age: 33

This spread, from left: Getty Images; Butenkow/123RF; Getty Images (4)

Most passionate about: Helping at-risk or disadvantaged children by addressing their educational, physical, emotional, and developmental needs Most important qualities in a partner: Compassion, energy, persistence, and complete comfort with shaming your family, friends, and colleagues into giving you donations Seeking: Men between the ages of 20 and 39 Nonnegotiables: Attending event-planning meetings; working at charity events; engaging in the DA 20-30 grant selection process You should message us if: You love to help throw a good party and your rowdy but flush friends will pay to attend (you know, because it’s for a good cause). da2030.org

Seeking: Young—and young at heart—professionals Nonnegotiables: An annual DAM membership; a $50 annual membership fee for CultureHaus You should message us if: You’ve always wanted to see rare art and peruse private collections and/or you’d feel good about helping the DAM acquire works for exhibitions and programs. culturehaus.denverartmuseum.org

Name: The 13ers Affiliation: The Nature Conservancy Age: 6 Most passionate about: Protecting the planet, but more specifically the lands and waters of the Centennial State Most important qualities in a partner: Must be an avid recycler and composter, love to hike and backcountry camp, understand Leave No Trace principles, practice catchand-release, and have a working knowledge of wildland fire suppression and the upsides to water funds Seeking: 21- to 40-year-olds Nonnegotiables: A $10 monthly donation (or $100 up front for the year) You should message us if: You like happy hours; educational lectures; outdoor field trips; cleaning up local waterways; and maintaining recreational trails. nature.org

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T HE E VER Y DAY PHIL AN T HROPIS T

THE EXPERTS SAY

Grasp The Financial Implications Everyone in the philanthropy biz says even the smallest contribution of time, money, or needed items is consequential to a nonprofit. A jar of peanut butter. Time spent walking shelter dogs. A bag of used clothes. But if your generosity extends much further than a $50 bill dropped in a red bucket, you should peruse our (admittedly oversimplified) chart outlining things you need to know—or ask a CPA about—before you donate more.

CHECKS WITH LOTS OF ZEROS

Impact Investing A relatively new term, “impact investing” refers to the practice of investments made into for-profit companies, organizations, or funds with the intention of generating measurable social and/ or environmental impact along with a financial return. This isn’t typical giving and essentially upends the notion that only nonprofits can fix social ills.

Passed in 2017, this legislation nearly doubled the standard deduction (from $6,500 to $12,000 for individual filers, and from $13,000 to $24,000 for joint filers) and placed new limitations on itemized deductions, which means most Americans will no longer reap tax benefits from charitable giving. Being strategic— like giving larger sums every other year instead of smaller amounts every year—may bring a tax deduction back into play.

Donor-Advised Fund (DAF)

Legacy Giving Donate To A Colorado Nonprofit Fund For tax year 2019, there will be a new line on the state tax form that allows taxpayers to give part (or all) of their tax refunds to any nonprofit registered in the Centennial State for at least five years—not just the 15 or so that have been listed as options in the past. When Colorado passed Senate Bill 18-141 in May 2018, it became the first state to allow taxpayers to “write in” nonprofits of their choice when they donate their refunds. Although there is no direct benefit to the taxpayer, supporters of the legislation say they anticipate a larger percentage of the roughly $1 billion in annual state income tax refunds to end up with Colorado charities.

If you’ve always wanted to be remembered as an eccentric benefactor who made a mysterious and surprising bequest, planned giving is your sneaky yet savvy way to ensure your money ends up helping to rescue abandoned donkeys or promote the artisan cheese community (yes, both real Colorado charities) or support whatever movement speaks to you. You’ll need to execute a will or a living trust or set up vehicles for giving, like charitable gift annuities or a charitable remainder trust.

I GIVE AS MUCH AS I CAN

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Qualified Charitable Distributions The IRS mandates that adults who reach 70.5 years of age begin taking a required minimum distribution from their individual retirement accounts, or IRAs. Withdrawals for personal use (read: that Bali vacation you’ve long dreamed of) are subject to income tax; however, distributions sent directly to nonprofits are not. If you were planning to give to charity anyway, it might make sense to do so with money on which you won’t be taxed.

This spread, from left: Bruce Peterson/Gallery Stock; Theo Stroomer

Sometimes referred to as a charitable investment account, a DAF is an account maintained within a public charity—like a community foundation—from which you can mete out dollars to nonprofits you wish to support. Many DAF accounts have a minimum—which can be as high as $5,000 or more—but you’ll receive an immediate-year tax deduction even if you leave the money in the fund to grow tax-free. This way you can conceivably give even more to causes you believe in. Bonus: You only have to keep track of one receipt, even if your cash ultimately goes to, say, five nonprofits.

BRING IN THE PROFESSIONALS

EASY ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND

Tax Cuts And Jobs Act

THE EXPERTS SAY

Serve On A Board A board seat can be a substantial commitment, but the takeaways can be life-changing. carol steele is, in her own words, a “retirement-age white woman who lives in a nice community in Denver.” Sammie Wicks is, as he jokingly puts it, “a 32-year-old black man who’s never going to be a white woman.” Yet Steele and Wicks have found common ground while serving on the board of Denver’s Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking (LCHT). The 10-year-old nonprofit has long worked to diversify its board and created a mentorship program that pairs people who are in the early stages of their careers with those who are in or nearing retirement. “We’ve found there’s a lot of teaching going on in both directions,” says Amanda Finger, LCHT’s co-founder. Steele and Wicks concur and agreed to explain what they’ve learned from serving the LCHT—and from each other.

CAROL STEELE

SAMMIE WICKS

I’m old enough that I was part of the civil rights movement. I’ve always wanted to fight for those who are marginalized. When I moved to Colorado from Indiana, this organization just seemed to be a fit for me. I didn’t know much about human trafficking; now I know too much.

I’m a police officer in Aurora, and I realized my training on human trafficking wasn’t matching up with what I saw in real life. Being on this board has helped me learn about exploitation and how law enforcement needs to change its tactics and try to see how survivors view justice.

Learning about trafficking has made me look at the world differently. I’m more observant when I interact with people working in certain industries—nail salons, restaurants. If I get a bad feeling, I try to ask questions: How much do you work every day? Do all these women work for that one man? Have you found a nice place to live here in Denver? You just never know when someone is being coerced or being made to work without pay.

Learning about the exploitation of humans, which put me in the same room as mental health professionals and social service providers, has benefitted me in normal life. I’ve learned to speak that language and have more compassion.

I’ve been very enriched by my sidebar conversations with Sammie. I’ve realized that we have a lot in common, even though you might not think that looking at us. And I have a much greater appreciation for law enforcement.

We have become the board’s “nudgers.” Carol and I nudge people to remind them that the communities affected by trafficking are diverse, but the people who work to help them might not be. Sexual preferences. Cultural differences. Gender identities. Having the board be more diverse helps, but we still have to be aware and intentional about these issues.

I’m grateful to have learned, for better or worse, how trafficking can present itself and to know that we are trying to do the things that need to be done to end it. We have a hotline manned by volunteers. We’re doing important research. I’m gratified by the belief that I’m making some small contribution to this effort.

Carol and I have had a lot of offline conversations. We’ve shared with each other. I’ve learned that although we come from different backgrounds, there are spots where we intersect. The interesting part is when we agree on something but we realize we’ve come to the same conclusion based on different experiences.

As a board member, it’s part of the job description to educate others about the unfortunate reality of human exploitation. But I find myself almost unable to stop myself. I like being able to talk to my social circles to educate them and hope they, in turn, educate others.

I hadn’t ever thought about being on a board. I honestly thought boards were full of older people with lots of money. I have been pleasantly surprised at how invested everyone else has been in what I have to say as a younger person.

LIT TLE THINGS

Donate to and shop at Arc Thrift Store, which employs and advocates for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Adopt a pet from a nonprofit animal shelter, like the Dumb Friends League or Maxfund.

Denver has lots of new residents; welcome someone to your neighborhood by actually introducing yourself in person.

Volunteer to be a baby cuddler in the NICU at the University of Colorado Hospital.

Pick up any trash you see while walking in the park or hiking along a trail.

Scope: The nonprofit runs an overnight shelter and a daytime drop-in center; offers sup-

THE EXPERTS SAY

Ask About An Organization’s Impact Quality nonprofits suffer no shortages of poignant narratives or convincing numbers that illustrate their influences.

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URBAN PEAK, urbanpeak.org Mission: Helping youth exit homelessness to lead fulfilled lives

LIT TLE THINGS

Buy the Denver Voice, which provides economic opportunities to those experiencing poverty.

portive housing options as well as education and employment programming; operates a thrift store; and deploys outreach teams to find 15- to 24-year-olds who need services. Storyteller: Fatima Kiass is a former Urban Peak client who overcame many challenges on her way to self-sufficiency. Today, Kiass (pictured above) is an Urban Peak employee. The 28-year-old has been working for the organization for two years. In her own words: “I’ve been homeless a couple of times. My mom was a single parent. I always had love, but not always the things I needed. Still, no matter how bad things were, my mom would take my sister and me to Civic Center Park to hand out banana bread muffins to the homeless. I was college-age when I came to Urban Peak to volunteer and to access services. I had gotten into UNC-Greeley, but I was essentially homeless. It’s hard to be homeless in a small town. So I came back to Denver and found that Urban Peak understood my situation. To many others, I was too functional to be homeless; I was fake homeless. They helped me find an apartment, where I paid a percentage of the rent and was able to start saving money for when I would age out of services at 25. When I got my life stabilized, I knew I wanted to work for Urban Peak. Now I’m part of its outreach team. Every day I go out with a backpack filled with socks and underwear and hand-warmers—to skate In 2018, Urban Peak provided parks, to Civic Center Park—to find kids not in shelters. I shelter to 312 youths, placed help them get vital documents; I help them feed their dogs; 146 kids in supportive housing, I try to give them love and affection. I always knew I would served 6,935 meals, and supeventually be OK; I have my mom to thank for that. I want plied immediate-need items to 358 youth on the streets. these kids to know they can be OK one day, too.”

Send a handwritten note—not a text!—to someone you love.

Drive someone to DIA—or at least to an A Line stop—because you know you want someone to chauffeur you sometimes, too.

Give up your seat on the light rail or bus for someone else who needs it.

Download Purposity, an app that recently landed in Denver, which lets you donate funds and see what you’re buying for Denverites in need.

T HE E VER Y DAY PHIL AN T HROPIS T Scope: During its 106 years in

Colorado, the Red Cross has helped people in Colorado and Wyoming prepare for, respond to, Colorado-Wyoming Region, redcross.org and recover from disasters; taught Mission: To prevent and alleviate human life-saving skills to thousands; suffering in the face of emergencies supported U.S. service members; assisted immigrant communities; and reconnected families separated by disaster or war. Storyteller: It’s pointless to try to come up with any descriptor for 77-year-old John Miller (pictured below) other than “badass.” He spent four years with the Navy in Vietnam. Then he was a volunteer firefighter, sometimes battling wildland blazes after moving to Boulder in 1999. He’s also, for the past 12 years, been a disaster and damage assessment volunteer with the Colorado-Wyoming Red Cross, deploying to more than 30 disasters. In his own words: “You don’t have to be involved in the worst day of people’s lives to volunteer for the Red Cross, but my background led me to disaster response. A lot of people use the word ‘altruism’ when talking about my volunteering, but altruism is selfless. This fulfills me, excites me—gives me some purpose. I responded to the 2013 floods, to wildfires, but mostly we do house fires here in Colorado. We deal with displaced residents who are often standing outside their homes in PJs in the freezing cold. It can be an emotional experience, but a huge part of that is experiencing how grateful people are. I keep a lot of those responses in the memory bank. One such memory wasn’t from a house fire but from a home we responded to in Longmont because a pipe broke and flooded the place. The mold was so bad the family was living in the backyard in tents. We went to give them assistance and connect them with services to help them recover. The father was a traveling minister, and he had a young family. There were five beautiful kids. After we assessed In 2018 alone, the American Red Cross Colorado-Wyoming things and spoke with the parents, I went to my car to grab Region responded to 512 five teddy bears that we carry. I will never forget the looks disasters in the region, enrolled on those kids’ faces when I handed them the bears. I choke 57,818 people in CPR and up just thinking about it. Those are the things that keep you first aid classes, and engaged 2,802 volunteers. coming back to help.”

This spread, from left: John Johnston Photography/Courtesy of Urban Peak; Courtesy of the American Red Cross of Colorado; Courtesy of Volunteers of America Colorado Branch

AMERICAN RED CROSS

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VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA Colorado Branch, voacolorado.org

Mission: To identify and serve the basic needs of the most vulnerable individuals and families in Colorado

Scope: VOA Colorado Branch serves

at-risk youth; the elderly; low-income families; those experiencing homelessness; and women and children escaping domestic violence. Storyteller: Seventy-four-year-old Elaine Levengood has been volunteering for VOA Colorado Branch for 10 years and has put in more than 500 hours. In her own words: “I got involved with Meals on Wheels in Colorado because the program helped my parents in Ohio. It allowed them to stay in their home instead of having to go to a facility as they aged. That was important to them, and it’s important to my clients now. I spend three hours a week doing two routes. I get to know these people. I had one client, a man who was caring for his disabled wife, whom I still think about. One day he opened the door and invited me in because it was their 47th wedding anniversary. He had helped her get all dolled up. It must’ve been quite an undertaking, but it was important to him, and he shared it with me when I dropped off their dinner. I keep doing this because I see my parents in my clients, but also because I get to see so much good in humans.” m

269,253 By harnessing 269,253 volunteer hours, the organization helped roughly 205,205 Coloradans in 2019.

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RIVER

Just now ramping up, the River Mile will be one of the largest, and most watched, redevelopments in Denver history. But who is behind this visionary project, and how might it shape our cityâ€™s future?Â BY ROBERT SANCHEZ

A rendering of the River Mile project, on the site of the current Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park

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No one at the time could have predicted the audaciousness of the project Rhys Duggan was proposing, nor the impact it might have on his adopted city, but the scope soon became clear to those who attended the meetings. Atop the ground upon which Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park currently sits, Duggan hoped to create an entirely new neighborhood named the River Mile, a multibillion-dollar project along the South Platte River that would include parks, condominiums, and potentially skyline-transforming towers. The redevelopment of 62 prime acres adjacent to a prospering city’s downtown does not happen often. Yet, the opportunity had now presented itself in Denver. The idea that a developer like Duggan could have a hand in reshaping the largest and most important city in the Rocky Mountain West would have seemed unlikely just a few years ago. The owner of a boutique real estate firm called Revesco Properties, Duggan dealt mostly with smaller-scale commercial properties—suburban strip malls with supermarket anchors, for example—which were entirely different from what was being proposed with the central Denver project. The Mile High City has a history of redevelopments that have transformed the city’s fabric within the past several decades. The $3.4 billion Stapleton redevelopment northeast of downtown was built on the site of the former international airport of the same name; the Lowry redevelopment grew out of an old U.S. Air Force base. The River Mile is something of an anomaly—the result of a 2015 agreement among Duggan, billionaire Stanley Kroenke, and Vancouver-based Second City Real Estate to purchase Elitch Gardens and, most important, the land on which it stands. The $140 million land deal gave the trio arguably the city’s most desirable piece of available property: a massive, contiguous site at an enviable location downtown. Over the next 25 years, the developers’ plan suggests the River Mile could add between 12 million and 15 million square feet of commercial and residential property to the city—which equates to 20 percent of the available space that currently exists downtown, Duggan says—and accommodate 15,000 residents while reconnecting the city to its long-neglected waterway. The neighborhood would implement limits on parking spaces and would include trails, parks, shops, and European-style pedestrian-friendly streets. There would be office spaces, a school, a recreation center, restaurants, and a food market. A fraction of the apartments and condominiums would be sold or rented below market rate. A portion of the South Platte River, traditionally among the state’s most polluted rivers, would also be redeveloped into an epicenter for outdoor recreation. Throughout it all, the apparent but unstated goal of the project would be nothing less than transforming Denver’s city center for the future. In time, Duggan

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would also position himself as one of the most significant players in the city’s lucrative real estate market.

A CANADIAN BY BIRTH and a Coloradan for the past 21 years, 53-year-old Duggan has the soft-spoken, warm demeanor of a priest at confession. He generally eschews personal publicity (he initially declined an interview for this story, then agreed but would not have his photograph taken), a trait rival developers say has less to do with hubris or coyness and more to do with his partnership with media-averse Kroenke, who is worth a reported $9.7 billion and whom Duggan calls “Mr. Kroenke.” In many ways, Duggan exists in a carefully cultivated world that inoculates him from divulging much about his personal life while simultaneously allowing him to maintain his role as the face of transformational development within Denver. With his fashionable eyeglasses, casual dress, and finger-swept brown hair, he carries himself with confidence that doesn’t cross into arrogance. “He’s got this distinguished coastal vibe about him,” says one person who has met with Duggan but requested anonymity because their conversation was private. “He’s not a suit-and-tie kind of guy. He definitely knows how he wants to present things.” When political allies, colleagues, and rival developers describe Duggan, it’s mostly in generic terms; he’s something of a cipher, which may be one of the reasons a secretive billionaire like Kroenke was interested in working with him. Duggan speaks about the River Mile not as a cluster of grand towers and river-based recreation but as a road map for a city undergoing an era of unprecedented growth. Since 2010, Denver’s population has expanded nearly 20 percent, adding roughly 1,000 residents per month, which makes it among the nation’s fastest-growing cities. With that growth have come debates over housing and transportation and how best to manage the two. Duggan occasionally falls into developer-speak—visual “porosity,” “river activation,” and “human scale” are among his pet phrases— but the words seem to come from a genuine affinity for the process of development rather than the rote Developer Rhys Duggan promotion of an idea, though he is definitely skilled in the marketing and selling of his project as well. One day earlier this winter, Duggan was sitting in his LoHi office, inside a three-story metal, glass, and concrete structure Revesco Properties owns. The building was a rehabilitation project of sorts for Duggan, who purchased the once-empty triangle of land in 2016 for a reported $750,000 after years of being frustrated with the property’s inactivity in an otherwise blossoming neighborhood. As he saw it, Duggan had aligned Revesco’s core concept—focusing “exclusively on well-located yet often underperforming real estate assets”—and created a diamond for the neighborhood. A wall in Duggan’s corner office was lined with maps and architectural renderings of the River Mile, which will be situated, roughly,

Previous spread: Courtesy of Revesco Properties Inc. This page: Joanne Davidson

BEGINNING IN THE SUMMER OF 2016, A RELATIVELY UNKNOWN DEVELOPER WITH TIES TO ONE OF THE WORLD’S WEALTHIEST MEN STARTED TO QUIETLY APPROACH ARCHITECTS AND POLITICIANS TO DISCUSS WHAT COULD BECOME THE MOST AMBITIOUS PRIVATE URBAN REDEVELOPMENT PLAN ATTEMPTED IN DENVER.

DOWN BY THE RIVER

EMPOWER FIELD AT MILE HIGH

THE RIVER MILE

Courtesy of Revesco Properties Inc.

PEPSI CENTER

A rendering shows the between the Auraria Parkway and I-25 interchange and he is virtually unknown in the city he hopes to radiRiver Mile project’s scope Confluence Park along the South Platte; the first major cally transform over the next quarter century. “Before and proximity to the Pepsi Center and Emconstruction phase is scheduled to begin sometime late River Mile, I had never heard of Rhys,” says Albus power Field at Mile High. this year. (The five-story, 90,000-square-foot Meow Wolf Brooks, the former Denver City Council president building, near Empower Field at Mile High, is the first whose district encompasses the development. “I think official building within the neighborhood and is projected to open in he likes it that way, working quietly without a lot of attention. He’s 2021.) Once completed, the River Mile will help form a contiguous geeky, but in the coolest way possible. He doesn’t want the spotlight; link within the Central Platte Valley. The River Mile will, in turn, he just wants to do the work.” foster connections between redevelopment projects farther south For the past 25 years, Duggan has been buying, selling, manand west in the Sun Valley neighborhood and all the way north to aging, and building real estate in Canada and the United States. the public-private redevelopment of the National Western Complex, From 2006 to 2011, he was president and chief executive of New near I-70. Providence Development Company, where he was in charge of Planning for the development has already consumed nearly four remaking the western edge of New Providence, the most populous years of Duggan’s life and is projected for completion around 2045. island in the Bahamas and home to Nassau, the Bahamian capital. Many of the concepts being proposed—tall, thin towers and small (New Providence Development Company executives did not return city blocks—draw inspiration from Vancouver, which is not far emailed messages seeking comment, nor did Bahamian journalists from where Duggan grew up, attended college, and took his first who covered Duggan and his island projects.) In 2013, two years job as a mayoral liaison for the municipality of West Vancouver, a before inking the Elitch Gardens deal with his partners, Duggan wealthy suburb where he organized public meetings, met constitufounded Revesco, a firm with offices in Denver and Vancouver that ents, and later became the primary contact between the city and has commercial and residential holdings in both countries. AccordFirst Nations tribes in the area. “Rhys never had experience within ing to the company’s website, Revesco has 13 employees and invests the public sphere, yet he could go out there and speak to anyone and in or manages more than a dozen properties between Westminster make them feel like their concerns were being taken seriously,” says and Castle Rock. Mark Sager, the former West Vancouver mayor. “He was a natural at Duggan thinks of central Denver “like a giant doughnut,” with his job. It’s like that Rudyard Kipling poem says: He can walk with the River Mile as the piece that will fill the hole in the middle. Dugkings without losing the common touch. Rhys can sell a vision like gan was around 30 years old when he arrived here in 1998 to take a his Denver project to the public, but he can also work with someone job with the Colorado-based Southwestern Investment Group, a gig like Stan Kroenke. He is absolutely brilliant.” that followed a brief stint with a Canadian developer. On weekends, Even with his connection to Kroenke, Forbes’ 49th-wealthiest peras a new Denver resident, Duggan would hop on his motorcycle and son in the world, Duggan today finds himself in a unique position. He scope out the city. “There was an energy here, and it was young,” he is perhaps the most important developer at the moment in Denver, yet says. LoDo had just undergone its transformation, with Coors Field

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have a long-term vision, and I want the public to see what we create first, then have them make a decision based on that.” DUGGAN MAY BE THE FACE OF THE RIVER MILE—leading and attending, by his estimation, more than 250 public and private meetings over the past two years—but it’s no secret Kroenke has loomed large over the project, though he has never publicly talked about it. Not only is the River Mile set up perfectly to take advantage of Denver’s growth, but it’s also adjacent to the Pepsi Center, one of Kroenke’s many holdings in the city and home to Kroenke’s Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and Colorado Mammoth indoor lacrosse team. A former Walmart board member and the son-in-law of company co-founder Bud Walton, Kroenke has buttressed his twin loves— sports and real estate development—to create a multibillion-dollar empire. Kroenke has traditionally preferred to work in the shadows, most recently in growth epicenters like Colorado and Southern California. One of his corporate affiliates picked up Denver’s Writer Square in 2016 for $96 million. And late last year, the business news site BusinessDen reported that an entity associated with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment’s chief financial officer purchased the 98,794-square-foot Belleview Promenade retail center in Greenwood Village for $49 million. In the past, Kroenke has used his sports venues as anchors for larger developments, and Duggan has made it clear that the River

Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images

as an anchor for bars and restaurants; Elitch Gardens had moved to its land in 1994; and the Pepsi Center opened five years later. The South Platte River, though, was a different story. “Like a lot of American cities, the river was a dumping ground,” Duggan says. To underscore his point, he sometimes shows off a photo of a junkyard along the South Platte—taken decades ago—with flattened, rusting vehicles piled behind a chain-link fence. “This city turned its back on the water,” he says. “Today, one of our key metrics is how many people we can get down to the river.” For years, the South Platte has been among Colorado’s most polluted waterways, with elevated E. coli levels that pose a health risk. Just this past June, the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment recommended releasing fish that were caught in the section of the South Platte that flows through the city. Past warnings have encouraged people to stay out of the water. In a sense, then, the River Mile is Denver’s attempt to undo some of the sins of its past. Rezoning on the land was approved by the City Council in December 2018, but before construction can begin—the first plot, near the Speer Boulevard Platte River Bridge next to the Pepsi Center, is slated to include mixed-use development topped by parking garages—Revesco needs to work out a complicated list of infrastructure requirements with the city that include sewer systems, drainage, and street layout, much of which will be paid for through an estimated more than $600 million in metro-district taxes to be footed by the neighborhood’s future occupants. As part of an extensive rehabilitation, the South Platte will be dredged and deepened up to eight additional feet to ease flooding concerns in the area and then lined, in parts, with new vegetation. The portion of the river project adjacent to the River Mile will require scooping out tens of thousands of tons of silt and sand, with the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, at an estimated cost of nearly $50 to $60 million. “What you have here are basically the best practices of urban design and planning that we have today,” says Thomas J. Campanella, an associate professor of urban planning and the director of undergraduate studies at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning. “As far as what we’ve seen, you’ve got a project created within Denver’s existing footprint that isn’t leapfrogging onto greenfield sites, which is always good. There’s a de-emphasis on the automobile to create a walkable, urban district. There’s sustainability. This is the way Denver should expand: up and not out.” While the overall cost will stretch into the billions of dollars, Duggan talks about the River Mile like a parent who’s trying to downplay a child’s perfect grades in elementary school: enthusiastic, but cautious. “It appears that the River Mile likely will not deliver in time to benefit from the current growth cycle, already the longest economic expansion period in U.S. history,” Cara Stamp, a research analyst for the global real estate firm Avison Young, wrote in Colorado Real Estate Journal last year. “However, given the changes in Denver in the last 10 years, Revesco feels confident in playing the long game with the project, knowing it has the ability to transform the city if done correctly.” Duggan doesn’t like the idea that the River Mile could be considered a savior in a city desperately in need of square footage and affordable housing, both of which the development so far has promised in large quantities. “If I seem like I’m tempering things, that’s because I am,” he says. “It’s pretty easy to draw renderings of things and get people impressed, but this neighborhood isn’t going up overnight. We

DOWN BY THE RIVER Mile could jump-start development on Kroenke’s roughly 50 acres of Pepsi Center parking lots. In 2010, construction was completed on LA Live, the $2.5 billion Philip Anschutz–backed entertainment complex in downtown Los Angeles that connects to Kroenke’s Staples Center—home of the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Los Angeles Kings. In Commerce City, Kroenke has proposed a 250-acre mixed-used project called Victory Crossing Park adjacent to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, which he built in 2007 and is home to his Colorado Rapids soccer team. While the River Mile ensures Kroenke will influence Denver’s future, it isn’t even his most ambitious current project. Fewer than 10 miles from LA Live, he’s spearheaded construction of the 70,240-seat SoFi Stadium, where Kroenke’s Los Angeles Rams will share space next year with the Los Angeles Chargers. While the franchises’ owners have squabbled over issues surrounding joint tenancy at the stadium, Kroenke has invested a reported $1.6 billion in personal equity into the project and watched costs balloon from $2.6 billion to nearly $5 billion in just three years. In addition to the stadium, the area will be home to a development that will include office buildings, shops, restaurants, residential units, a hotel, and parks atop a property that’s three and a half times the size of Disneyland Park. (Last year, Forbes put the entirety of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment’s franchises at $8.4 billion, the most for any single sports entity in the world.) Given his myriad projects, it makes sense that Kroenke would want a steward to handle the River Mile, though his decision to work with Duggan has surprised developers. “Rhys came out of nowhere and managed to land the best development site in Denver with one of the richest people in the world,” says one executive who’s familiar with Revesco and requested anonymity in order to speak openly about him. “There are three or four companies in Denver that you go to for a project that size. Revesco is not one of them.” (A spokesperson for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment did not respond to a message seeking comment.) Perhaps most intriguing to those who deal with massive real-estate transactions in the city is that the River Mile does not appear to be a simple investment play by Kroenke. So far, there’s been no mention of selling off parcels to other developers, which theoretically would result in a quick profit and far fewer headaches. “We are the developer of this site,” Duggan says. For reference, the 19.5-acre, $500 million Union Station redevelopment required coordination from two of the city’s most prestigious developers—Continuum Partners and East West Partners—to complete. Duggan has called Kroenke “not your typical bank loan, not your typical hedge fund investor” and seems mildly perturbed at the suggestion that his company doesn’t have the experience or team to lead the project. “It’s not like I don’t have supervision,” he said. “Having the right partner is key in something like this, and Mr. Kroenke and I are both happy with how things have worked out. Mr. Kroenke thinks on a large scale, but he also understands Denver. That has been integral.” Before the River Mile deal, in January 2014 Duggan had an interaction with Kroenke’s team—in which he sold the Shoppes at Castle Rock to the mogul for $19.9 million—though that’s as far as Duggan will go toward explaining perhaps the seed of the relationship between the two. “I feel fortunate to have Mr. Kroenke as a partner,”

Stan Kroenke (right) at Game 3 of the Nuggets’ playoff series versus the Spurs last year in San Antonio, Texas

Duggan says, declining to discuss who approached whom about the Elitch Gardens purchase and who came up with the River Mile plan. As for their business arrangement, Duggan refers to Kroenke as the project’s “equity partner” and has also described the billionaire in a media report as a “silent partner” in the operation. Given Kroenke’s history of avoiding the public, it’s clear Duggan fills a specific role. When he pulled his St. Louis Rams out of his home state of Missouri in 2016, Kroenke was labeled Benedict Arnold—a financial mercenary and a traitor to his people—and now is mired in a series of lawsuits, totaling more than a billion dollars, over his handling of the move. “With Rhys, you don’t have a Donald Trump–like figure talking about how he’s going to make this be the best thing ever,” says the executive who has worked on several developments in Denver. “The most important thing is that Rhys isn’t a billionaire boogeyman, like Stan would be if he were front and center.” AROUND THE TIME OF THE Elitch Gardens purchase, Duggan met with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and delivered a message: There might be a new plan for the site of the park. Hang tight. “My initial reaction was to be concerned,” the mayor remembers of their meeting, which Hancock describes as a “brief discussion.” The amusement park had been a downtown staple since relocating from northwest Denver, its 220-foot Tower of Doom a conspicuous marker in photos of the city. As the months passed and Duggan began revealing his vision for the River Mile, Hancock says he quickly became interested in the project as an attractive challenge to try to create an entire neighborhood out of what had been a tangle of railroad tracks 30 years earlier. Of course, a successful development could also be a way to cement legacies for the politicians who took it on. That Revesco and Duggan essentially had been smaller players within city development circles didn’t worry Hancock, who got to know Duggan during what became increasingly frequent talks. “He seems to be concerned about what’s best for Denver,” Hancock says. Revesco moved quickly to secure amendments to the city’s Downtown Area Plan, which sets guidelines and ambitions for the city’s future development and had never before imagined anything but an amusement park for the Elitch Gardens site. By June 2018, the City Council unanimously approved the amendments. In exchange for affordability, the city eliminated a 200-foot height cap on Duggan’s buildings at the site, essentially giving Revesco unlimited vertical access in parts of the development. Duggan is currently working with City Council members and planners to plot a complicated infrastructure and land-use grid. In December 2018, the council voted unanimously to approve rezoning on the site, securing an agreement from Revesco that 15 percent of the River Mile’s 8,000-or-so planned residences would fall below market rates—which Duggan often calls “the most comprehensive affordable housing plan in the city.” The approval—which came two years after the project was formally proposed within the city—cleared the way for additional mapping and infrastructure plans before construction could begin. “Everybody won,” says Brooks, the former councilman. The affordable housing agreement “showed that economic and racial diversity was important to everyone at the table, and both sides were willing to work to that goal. Because of that work, we’re going to CONTINUED ON PAGE 98 have a more inclusive, thriving Denver.”

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5280

CALENDAR

SPECIAL EVENTS  ARTS & EXHIBITS  CULINARY  KIDS & FAMILY MUSIC  PERFORMING ARTS  SPORTS & RECREATION

SPECIAL EVENTS

help students avoid disharmony in their art. Boyer, who is known for her oils of Southwestern mesas, small-town streets, and vintage vehicles, teaches pupils about capturing movement, painting crowds, understanding light sources, and—hopefully—how to not create unintentionally jarring images. Fri-Sun, times vary. Sorrel Sky Gallery, 828 Main Ave., Durango, 970-247-3555, sorrelsky.com. $475.

FEB. 5–9 Winter Carnival Steamboat Springs began this five-day annual soirée over a century ago to help residents endure the dreary days of winter. Overthe-top activities—such as the “donkey jump,” in which horses pull children on skis before sending them over small jumps—will ward off guests’ blues. Peruse snow sculptures crafted by locals before warming up with hearty chili and toasting s’mores. If that’s not enough to brighten your spirits, stick around to watch skiers draped with LED lights jump through fiery hoops and a daring performer shoot fireworks from his pyrotechnic suit. Wed-Sun, times vary. Locations vary, Steamboat Springs, 970-879-0695, steamboatchamber.com. $10.

FEB. 8–16

Cripple Creek Ice Festival Snow sculptors use hand tools to carve

their creations, but shaping ice requires a bit more power. So for this frigid fest, artists from across the country, including Ice Cubed of Denver, spend a week etching designs into ice blocks using chainsaws. Kids can enjoy a slide and maze—made entirely of ice—and adults can sip boozy drinks in a heated tent. Mon-Sun, times vary. Bennett Ave., Cripple Creek, 719-689-3315, visitcripplecreek.com. Free.

ARTS & EXHIBITS FEB. 7–MARCH 1 Winter Folk: Music & Photography Showcase In stark contrast to the quiet galleries and stoic museums where most art is shown, this raucous exhibition will have you wishing more showcases were accompanied by a constant rotation of upbeat entertainers, beer, and friends. While listening to live performances by indie-folk musicians such as the Head and the Heart’s Josiah Johnson, guests can browse a swath of local photography. Denver lenswoman Molly McCormick will present her portraits of the state’s landscapes, and Josh Elioseff will show off his snapshots of famous musicians. Fri-Sun, times vary. The St Vrain, 635 Third Ave., Longmont, 720-534-2635, thestvrain. com. Ticket prices vary.

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FEB. 9 The Wizard’s Beer Festival The Harry Potter series might be geared toward children, but that doesn’t mean the franchise doesn’t have millions of adult fans. At this bewitching celebration, Potterheads 21 and older can pay homage to the beloved books and movies by donning black robes and sampling suds from Denver-based Diebolt Brewing. Once you’ve had your fill of boozy beverages, get a Tarot card reading, attend a wand- or potion-making demonstration, and wander the brewery through fog created using dry ice. Sun, 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Diebolt Brewing, 3855 Mariposa St., 720-643-5940, dieboltbrewing.com. $45.

FEB. 15–MARCH 7 Process: Quang Ho Solo Exhibition Esteemed painter Quang Ho is not a stranger to Denver; he had his first solo exhibition in the Mile High City when he was still a teenager. Now 56 years old, the prolific Vietnam-born artist will present a landscape series featuring year-round scenes from across the West. Guests will see forest beds of fallen autumn leaves, branches weighed down by snow in winter, burbling mountain streams in spring, and arid afternoons at the lip of the Grand Canyon in summer. Tue-Sat, noon-6 p.m. Gallery 1261, 1412 Wazee St., 303-5711261, gallery1261.com. Free. Visit quangho.com. FEB. 21–23 Workshop: Lyn Boyer Whether in office lobbies or restaurant bathrooms, we’ve all encountered weirdly unsettling paintings with Alice in Wonderland–like proportions. During this three-day workshop, Durango artist Lyn Boyer will

FEB. 15 Mile High Grilled Cheese & Beer Fest If your idea of a grilled cheese sandwich is a Kraft single between two slices of white bread, this anything-butbland bash will introduce you to more elevated cheesy goodness. Bite down on creative iterations of the gooey, carby fare from the chefs at Dunbar Kitchen & Tap House and Boulder food truck Cheese Love Grill; don’t miss the latter’s Classic 4 Cheese, which boasts a melt-in-your-mouth blend of cheddar, asadero, Gouda, and mozzarella cheeses. Festivalgoers can pair their sandwiches with more than 50 beers, including suds from Crazy Mountain Brewery and Mockery Brewing. Sat, 12:30-7:30 p.m. Runway 35, 8863 E. 47th Ave. $54–$89. Visit grilledcheesebeerfest.com.

FEB. 22 Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo Cook-Off At this Cajun cook-off, Coloradans can taste a New Orleans classic—gumbo—without having to travel more than 1,000 miles. Professional chefs and home cooks will have just under three hours to whip up at least five gallons of the dish to be served up to attendees. Southern-food lovers can sample 20 different renditions of this rich Louisiana stew, including recipes with “filé” (powdered leaves of the sassafras tree) or okra. First-, second-, and third-place prizes, as well as Best Showman-

Courtesy of Pikes Peak Region Attractions

FEB. 10 How is Mars Different from Earth? The long-held dream of colonizing Mars is almost within our reach—but before you consider moving your family to the new planet, you should probably know a little bit more about it. Dr. Stephen Mojzsis, professor of geology at the University of Colorado Boulder and expert planetary researcher, will teach attendees about the similarities and differences between our home and Mars, including the elements that allow life on Earth. The geologist’s research suggests that unlocking the red orb’s secrets might provide insight into the mysteries of the development of life on our current home. Mon 7 p.m. Chautauqua Community House, 900 Baseline Rd., Boulder, 303-442-3282, chautauqua. com. $12–$15.

CULINARY

Colorado Convention Center

February 22 – March 1

PRESENTED BY

SHOW FEATURES: • Get ideas, inspiration and advice for your home from more than 600 companies at Colorado’s largest home and garden marketplace. • Research, compare and choose from thousands of products and services, and take advantage of show-only specials! • Experience the Special Olympics Colorado Entry Garden presented by Bellco and see 10 more gardens bursting with thousands of beautiful flowers. • Visit the CSU Education Garden to see the new plant varieties and get free advice from their Master Gardeners. • Admission for kids is free, and the American Family Insurance Kid’s Zone offers a play structure, fun crafts and more! • 100% of every ticket sold is awarded in horticulture grants and scholarships across Colorado.

HOURS & PRICING: Kids 12 and under are FREE Saturdays, Feb 22 and Feb 29 10 am – 8 pm Sundays, Feb 23 and March 1 10 am – 6 pm Friday, Feb 28 Noon – 7 pm $12 adults / $10 seniors Monday, Feb 24 – Thursday, Feb 27 2 for 1 Admission

Noon – 7 pm

PURCHASE ADVANCE TICKETS AT: GETTING THERE: Take light rail to the Convention Center or park at Empower Field at Mile High Lot C (West on Colfax from I-25. North on Federal Blvd) for $5 cash and ride the free shuttle to the show.

ishable

er $ Donate your nonp n SAVE 2 get $2 off admissio and food at the show Monday Discount not valid

– Thursday

SPONSORED BY

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

www.ColoradoGardenFoundation.org Produced by Colorado Garden Foundation, a non-profit organization providing grants and scholarships statewide.

CALENDAR ship and People’s Choice awards, will be given to amateurs and professionals who showcase the best gumbo bonafides. Sat 11 a.m. Soda Springs Park, 42 Park Ave., Manitou Springs, 719-685-5089, manitousprings.org. Ticket prices vary.

KIDS & FAMILY FEB. 8 The Rock and Roll Playhouse: Music of Phish for Kids Phishheads won’t have to call a babysitter to attend this kid-friendly concert. Little Phans will hear selections from one of America’s favorite jam bands thanks to Boulderbased Phish tribute band Kings of Prussia, who will perform a 60-minute set of the group’s stellar tunes. Children can groove to the upbeat “Bouncing Around the Room” and the funky “Halley’s Comet”—in addition to flying colorful streamers, running through the crowd under a giant rainbow parachute, and battling it out in a limbo contest. Sat 11:30 a.m. The Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., 303-377-1666, bluebirdtheater.net. $15–$17. FEB. 15 Kids Zone: Coins from Around the World Your kids might think of coin collecting as their grandpa’s boring pastime, but after this intriguing event, they’ll leave eager to start their own collections. First, kids will choose coins from the Money Museum’s selection, including hundreds of pieces of 200-year-old change from countries such as Egypt and Greece. Then, children will get a chance to figure out where the currency comes from, what metal it’s made of, and who possibly once owned it. After comparing their findings, kids can sketch a currency for a fictitious country to present to the class. Sat 10:30 a.m.–noon, 1:30–3 p.m. Money Museum, 818 N. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, 719-482-9846, money.org. Free. FEB. 25 Sensory Friendly Magic Tree House: Showtime with Shakespeare The Magic Tree House series took children’s fiction by storm, and at this live performance, lovers of the books can watch main characters Jack and Annie come to life. In the form of a hip-hop musical and based on Stage Fright on a Summer Night, the siblings use their tree house to time-travel back to Elizabethan England. There, they meet William Shakespeare and help him raise the curtain on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Through Shakespeare-inspired raps about courage and a lecture from the famed bard himself, kids will discover that history is shaped by the brave. Tue 6:30 p.m. Lone Tree Arts Center, 10075 Commons St., Lone Tree, 720509-1000, lonetreeartscenter.org. $5.

MUSIC FEB. 11 Yola Though she hails from Great Britain, this emerging singer’s smooth vocals radiate Southern soul. Perhaps that’s why three of the crooner’s four 2020 Grammy Award–nominations are in American Roots Music categories. In her debut album, Walk Through Fire, Yola’s sometimes raspy,

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sometimes buttery voice—backed by instruments that include a fiddle, harmonica, and piano— serves listeners a sampling of blues, bluegrass, and gospel-inspired sounds. After witnessing the powerful vocals showcased in the album’s title track and the lullaby-esque melody of “Deep Blue Dream,” you’ll be pulling for her to take home one of those gramophones. Tue 8 p.m. The Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., 303-377-1666, bluebirdtheater.net. $21–$25. Visit iamyola.com. FEB. 14–16 Midwinter Bluegrass Festival Bluegrass may have been born in Kentucky, but Colorado—where string pickin’, foot-stomping festivals abound—is considered a mecca for the genre’s biggest fans. One such fest takes place here every winter, when more than a dozen bands from across the United States and Canada make a pilgrimage to the state. Performers—including Denver’s Turkeyfoot, Canada’s Slocan Ramblers, and Annie Savage of the Savage Hearts Trio— will help host workshops and a vendor’s fair featuring locally made wares from shops such as Ome Banjos from Boulder. Fri-Sun, times vary. Northglenn Ramada Plaza, 10 E. 120th Ave., Northglenn, 303-452-4100. Ticket prices vary. Visit midwinterbluegrass.com. FEB. 21 Electric Guest Asa Taccone and Matthew Compton, the duo behind this pop outfit, spent all summer in Taccone’s stifling hot Los Angeles apartment, scribing lyrics then testing out the new jams for their friends. The result: Kin, the pair’s third album. New tracks like “Dollar” carry the same anti-materialism theme featured in fan favorites like “Dear to Me.” For their second trip to Denver—they haven’t been here since 2017—expect a blend of hits from their first album (“Oh Devil”) and new beats like the infectious, upbeat “More.” Fri 8 p.m. Summit Music Hall, 1902 Blake St., 303-487-0111. $21. Visit electricguestmusic.com. FEB. 29 Pepper The beachy vibe of this ska-reggae trio—which typically rocks the stage wearing shorts and tank tops—will be a welcome change-up for Denverites bearing the cold this month. Since the group’s debut more than 20 years ago, it has collaborated with bands such as Flogging Molly, No Doubt, Sublime, and 311 and even graced the stages of Warped Tour. With new songs like the chill “Brand New Day,” this band is sure to bring a ray of sunshine wherever it goes. Sat 7:30 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., missionballroom.com. $35–$75. Visit pepperlive.com.

PERFORMING ARTS FEB. 13–22 Speed-the-Plow In 1988, Madonna made her Broadway debut in this David Mamet– written play, helping it become a national sensation. Though the icon won’t be reprising the role, this revival is stocked with local star power, such as actress Elizabeth Anne Newberry, who plays Karen, a secretary who fights to get a book adapted for the big screen by a Hollywood studio. Told in three scenes, it’s a searing satire of the cutthroat entertainment industry. Thu-Sat, 7–9:30 p.m. The Bakery, 2132 Market St., thebakerydenver.com. $17.

FEB. 15–23 Colorado New Play Summit If you’re curious about the hours of work that go into a production before it’s debuted, peek behind the curtain at this enlightening event. Audience members will get to see stage readings of plays, such as Colorado Springs native Jessica Kahkoska’s historical In Her Bones and Benjamin Benne’s family drama Alma, then provide feedback to the playwrights. Since its start, the program has developed 64 new plays, over half of which returned to the stage as full productions, including one of this season’s most-performed plays, Lauren Yee’s The Great Leap. Fri-Sun, times vary. Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 1101 13th St., 303-893-4100, denvercenter.org. Ticket prices vary. FEB. 21–MARCH 15 Secrets of the Universe and Other Songs Scientist Albert Einstein and classical singer Marian Anderson are both well-known in their own rights, but not many people know about their unlikely friendship. When Anderson (played by the current first lady of Denver, Mary Louise Lee) visits Princeton University to perform, she is denied a hotel room because she is African American. Instead, a professor—Einstein—invites her to stay at his home. The two form a bond and explore ideas of faith and racial tensions. Directed by Aurora Fox Art Center’s executive producer, Helen R. Murray, this updated production features music directly from Anderson’s songbook, including her famous spirituals, traditional American songs, and operatic arias. Thu-Sun, times vary. Aurora Fox Arts Center, 9900 E. Colfax Ave., Aurora, 303-739-1970, aurora foxartscenter.org. Ticket prices vary.

SPORTS & RECREATION FEB. 1 Taco Triathlon Many traditional triathletes might eschew the idea of refueling with tacos, but at this three-event competition, you’ll have to down one to finish. Competitors will complete a 45-minute cycling class, endure a heated vinyasa yoga class, and, for the final leg, down a Torchy’s chicken, beef, or fried avocado taco and—if you’re up to it—wash it down with a shot of tequila. Those who complete the tour will get a goody bag that includes a tank top and discounts on CycleBar and Yoga Pod classes. Sat 9 a.m.5:30 p.m. Yoga Pod, 3300 S. College Ave., #160, Fort Collins, 970-829-8751, yogapod.com. $56. FEB. 22 Beaver Creek Talons Challenge If your idea of the perfect ski outing involves finding the steepest slopes and bombing down them, head to this daring challenge. Over six hours, brave participants will conquer 14 black and double black diamond routes on Beaver Creek Resort that total 26,000 vertical feet. Once you’ve earned your bragging rights, join the aprés party in Beaver Creek Village, where participants can refuel with calamari, nachos, and an array of drinks. Sat 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Beaver Creek Village, 26 Avondale Lane, Avon, 970-754-4636, beaver creek.com. $40-$150. LOOKING FOR MORE EVENTS?

Visit our online listings at 5280.com/events.

The Walk of the Town

At SloansEdge, life is perfectly pedestrian. You can park your car, for good, and wander the streets, shops, and parks of the vibrant and eclectic Sloanâ€™s Lake neighborhood. With every modern convenience at your fingertips, the possibilities are endless. Thatâ€™s city living, simplified. Model homes are open 7 days a week. Schedule a tour today. KUHatSloansEdge.com

303 300 8799

DINING GUIDE 

$ UNDER $10

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$$ $11 TO $15

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$$$ $16 TO $25

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$$$$ $26 AND HIGHER

25 B E S T

SYMBOL KEY

25 B E S T

NEW

Indicates a restaurant featured in 5280 for the first time (though not necessarily a restaurant that has just opened). 25 BEST

Indicates inclusion in our annual list of Denver’s best restaurants, released each October. These selections are at the discretion of 5280 editors and are subject to change.

12 at Madison

Acorn

RiNo / New American Contemporary American cuisine with Southern and Moroccan notes is served from an oak-fired oven and grill at this mainstay inside the Source. Don’t miss the bar’s inventive cocktails. Reservations accepted. The Source, 3350 Brighton Blvd., 720-542-3721. Lunch, Dinner Acreage by Stem Ciders

Annette

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Aurora / New American Acorn’s former sous chef, Caroline Glover, brings a warm dining experience to Stanley Marketplace with Annette. Enjoy a family-style menu featuring seasonal salads, toasts, and wood-grilled fare. Reservations accepted. Stanley Marketplace, 2501 Dallas St., Ste. 108, Aurora, 720-710-9975. Dinner, Brunch NEW

Aoi Sushi and Izakaya

Boulder / Japanese This neighborhood spot from Sushi Zanmai veterans Keiko and Yuki Aoi serves expertly crafted sushi and comforting Japanese pub fare in an intimate setting. Reservations accepted. 3303 30th St., Boulder, 303-449-5394. Lunch, Dinner

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Bacon Social House

Barolo Grill

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Sunnyside / American Breakfast and brunch fare is served seven days a week at this bacon-forward spot. Get Whole Hog Omelet, featuring pork three ways. Also try the Littleton location. Reservations accepted. 2434 W. 44th Ave., 720-550-7065. Breakfast, Lunch, Brunch

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Cherry Creek / Italian Dedication to authenticity translates to the food and extensive wine menu at this elegant eatery, which is focused on the cuisines of northern Italy’s Tuscany and Piedmont regions. Reservations accepted. 3030 E. Sixth Ave., 303-393-1040. Dinner

Biju’s Little Curry Shop

Berkeley / Indian This fast-casual curry shop brings traditional plates from southern India to a cozy dining room. Fill up on curried chicken or masala beef, or create your own bowl with spiced meats and veggies. Reservations not accepted. 4279 Tennyson St., 303-975-6886. Lunch, Dinner

The Bindery

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Highland / Contemporary Linda Hampsten Fox’s eatery, market, and bakery offers worldly fare inspired by her travels. Settle in for the smoked rabbit pecan pie with mustard gelato. Reservations accepted. 1817 Central St., 303-993-2364. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Bistro Barbès

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North Park Hill / French Jon Robbins offers a menu inspired by the French, North African, and Middle Eastern flavors of Barbès, the Paris neighborhood where he spent three years. Reservations accepted. 5021 E. 28th Ave., 720-398-8085. Dinner

25 B E S T 25 B E S T

Beckon

Blackbelly

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Boulder / New American Chef Hosea Rosenberg’s meaty menu focuses on charcuterie, small plates, and daily butcher specials. Check out the butcher shop and casual grab-and-go market, Blackbelly Butcher, located next door. Reservations accepted. 1606 Conestoga St., Boulder, 303-247-1000. Dinner

Lafayette / Seasonal Stem Cider’s ciderhouse and eatery pairs its drinks with house-grown produce and sustainable sourcing by chef Eric Lee. Don’t miss the cider donuts. Reservations accepted. 1380 Horizon Ave., Unit A, Lafayette, 720-4433007. Lunch, Dinner

25 B E S T

OPTIONS? Visit our online listings at 5280.com/ restaurants.

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RiNo / Scandinavian Chef Duncan Holmes brings an elevated, intimate dining experience to Larimer Street. The Scandinavian-influenced menu changes seasonally, and excellent, thoughtful wine pairings are  available. Reservations required. 2843 LOOKING FOR MORE DINING Larimer St., 303-749-0020. Dinner

Highland / International Current tenants of this hip food collective include Street Feud, Brava! Pizzeria Della Strada, Meta Asian Kitchen, Quiero Arepas, the Rotary, and Bistro Georgette. 3200 Pecos St., 720-269-4778. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Congress Park / New American With a menu offering 18 small plates meant for sharing (plus one large-format dish meant to feed two to four people), Jeff Osaka’s cozy restaurant is ideal for dining with a small group. Order the French dip with green pepper jus. Reservations accepted. 1160 Madison St., 720-216-0190. Dinner 25 B E S T

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Boulder / American This charming restaurant aims to explore the roots of American heritage through food. Pair a cider with the Colorado lamb or the farmer’s cheese toast. Reservations accepted. 909 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-444-3885. Dinner, Brunch Avanti Food & Beverage

A 25 B E S T

Arcana

Beast & Bottle

Uptown Area / Seasonal A sustainable-sourcing mantra permeates a menu featuring everything from local lamb to cod collars. Reservations accepted. 719 E. 17th Ave., 303-623-3223. Dinner, Brunch

Windy City Pie There’s no shortage of great pizza in Denver, but the Chicago thin-crust beauties coming out of the rotating stone hearth oven at Grabowski’s inside the Source market hall are something special. With tangy tomato sauce and toppings that reach the edges of the pie, each small square piece is a flavor bomb. Try the Italian-sausagetopped Classic Chicago alongside a pitcher of locally brewed Bull & Bush root beer.

Sarah Boyum

PRICE KEY

(Average Entrée)

25 B E S T

Thursday, February 20, 7 â€“ 10 pm Release your inner child at the Childrenâ€™s Museum during our adults-only extravaganza! Taste beers from local breweries, snack on light bites, and best of all, enjoy an evening of play in our world-class exhibits. Come be a kid again! Media Sponsor

DINING GUIDE Briar Common Brewery & Eatery

Broadway Market

Jefferson Park / American You’ll find both classic and experimental beer styles here‚ all of which are designed for pairing with the diverse menu of shared plates and entrées. Reservations accepted for parties of more than seven. 2298 Clay St., 720-512-3894. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Capitol Hill / International This hip marketplace is home to nine food concepts, a central bar, a selfserve beer wall, and two retail options. Dine on offerings from Royal Rooster, Misaki on Broadway, Mother Tongue, and many more. 950 Broadway, 720-390-7132. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Denver Milk Market

NEW

Dimestore Delibar

25 B E S T

Cattivella

$$$

Stapleton / Italian Chef Elise Wiggins offers rustic, wood-fired Italian fare from a sprawling chef’s counter. Go for grilled oysters, seasonal pizzas, and fresh pastas. Reservations accepted. 10195 E. 29th Dr., Ste. 110, 303-645-3779. Lunch, Dinner Cho77

Comal Heritage Food Incubator

RiNo / Latin American You’ll find family recipes from Latin America and Syria at this restaurant, which has a rotating menu and provides job training to local women. Reservations not accepted. 3455 Ringsby Ct., Ste. 105, 303-292-0770. Lunch 25 B E S T

Corrida

E Edgewater Public Market

Euclid Hall Bar & Kitchen

Edgewater / International Satisfy your cravings for everything from wild game sandwiches to Ethiopian fare at this eclectic collective of nearly two dozen food stalls and boutiques. 5505 W. 20th Ave., Edgewater, 303-797-9119. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch Downtown / Pub Innovative and high-quality international pub food is on the menu at this twostory bar, including house-made sausages and duck poutine. Reservations accepted. 1317 14th St., 303-595-4255. Lunch, Dinner

Cracovia

Westminster / Polish Traditional dishes are on the menu at this family-owned spot. Try the placki (fried potato and onion pancakes). Reservations accepted. 8121 W. 94th Ave., Westminster, 303-484-9388. Lunch, Dinner

D Denver Central Market

RiNo / International This marketplace features 11 vendors with dining options ranging from ceviche to ice cream. Take your pick from Crema Bodega, Culture Meat & Cheese, Curio Bar, High Point Creamery, and more. 2669 Larimer St., Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

F E B RUA RY 2 0 2 0

F The Family Jones Spirit House

$$$$

Frank & Roze

Gaetano’s

$$$

Goed Zuur

Highland / Italian This comfy neighborhood hangout features old-school favorites, such as chicken Parmesan. Reservations accepted. 3760 Tejon St., 303-455-9852. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch Five Points /American This European-inspired tap house has a large selection of sour beers and inventive pub fare to match. Get the speckwrapped baked Brie. Reservations accepted. 2801 Welton St., 720-749-2709. Dinner $$$

Downtown / Japanese This Japanese-based chain boasts table-centered grills on which diners cook proteins like Harami skirt steak. There are also noodles and rice dishes, and appetizers such as tuna poké nachos. Reservations accepted. 1998 18th St., 720-726-4068. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

H Hearth & Dram

$$$$

Downtown / New American This modern saloon features more than 600 whiskies. The menu offers a wood-fired take on New American cuisine. Reservations accepted. 1801 Wewatta St., 303-623-0979. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Hop Alley

$$$

RiNo / Chinese From Tommy Lee of Uncle, this neighborhood hangout serves dishes rooted in Chinese tradition with a touch of distinctive flair. Try the dan dan mian. Reservations accepted. 3500 Larimer St., 720-379-8340. Dinner

Downtown / American The menu at this eatery inside the Hyatt Regency takes inspiration from the Centennial State’s bounty. Order the house-cured pastrami reuben. 650 15th St., 303-486-4434. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

NEW

$$$$

25 B E S T

Highland / Contemporary Denver’s first distilleryrestaurant features eclectic small plates and artisanal spirits in a modern space. Snack on a smoked trout tea sandwich while you sip on the vesper martini. Reservations accepted. 3245 Osage St., 303-481-8185. Dinner

Former Saint Kitchen and Taps

Frasca Food and Wine

Boulder / Italian Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson and master sommelier Bobby Stuckey’s fine-dining mecca has racked up scores of accolades over the years (including nods from the James Beard Foundation). The elegant Friulano cuisine always wows. Reservations accepted. 1738 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-442-6966. Dinner

Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Dining

$$$$

Boulder / Spanish Housed on the rooftop level of the PearlWest building, this elegant Spanish steak house offers stunning Flatiron views and fabulous cocktails and wines. Splurge on the Japanese wagyu or opt for a locally sourced steak. Reservations accepted. 1023 Walnut St., Ste. 400, Boulder, 303-444-1333. Dinner, Brunch

86 5 2 8 0

RiNo / Italian One thing you can count on at Alex Figura and Spencer White’s fast-casual Italian eatery: perfect pasta. Try the cacio e pepe or the squid ink fusilli with blue crab. The house-made sour dough is heaven. Reservations accepted for parties of eight or more. 3264 Larimer St., 303-562-1965. Dinner

Downtown / Asian Lon Symensma offers Asian street food with a modern touch at this fastcasual eatery. Order the Hainanese chicken fried rice or the Indian lamb meatballs. Reservations not accepted. 1520 16th St., 720-6388179. Lunch, Dinner

25 B E S T

Dio Mio

25 B E S T

Highland / American This restaurant, bar, convenience store, and market serves elevated deli fare in an eclectic setting. Try the rolled focaccia meatloaf sandwich. Reservations not accepted. 1575 Boulder St., Unit A, 303-537-5323. Lunch, Dinner 25 B E S T

LoDo / International Bonanno Concepts’ 16-venue collection of bars and restaurants features everything from fresh pasta to poke bowls to charcuterie. Don’t miss the the signature fried chicken sandwiches at Lou’s Hot and Naked. Reservations not accepted. 1800 Wazee St., 303-792-8242. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Hale / Cafe This stylish cafe serves sustainably sourced coffee and all-day fare from chef Tom Coohill, including breakfast sandwiches and toasts, fresh-baked pastries, and charcuterie boards. Reservations not accepted. 4097 E. Ninth Ave., 720-328-2960. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

India’s Restaurant

$$$

Istanbul Bakery & Cafe

$$$

Hampden / Indian This spot serves traditional fare, including flavorful dishes like tandoori chicken. Take advantage of the lunch buffet. Reservations accepted. 8921 E. Hampden Ave., 303-755-4284. Lunch, Dinner

Washington Virginia Vale / Middle Eastern Inside the shopping center at the intersection of South Monaco Parkway and Leetsdale Drive, Ismet Yilmaz prepares authentic Turkish pastries. Reservations not accepted. 850 S. Monaco Pkwy. Ste. 9, 720-536-5455. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

DINING GUIDE Izakaya Den

Platt Park / Japanese Ultra-fresh sushi, sashimi, and creative small plates are on the menu at this local favorite. Reservations accepted. 1487-A S. Pearl St., 303-777-0691. Lunch, Dinner

J Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar

25 B E S T

Katsu Ramen

Julep

RiNo / Southern Chef Kyle Foster serves sophisticated dishes inspired by the flavors and techniques of the South, such as barbecued snails and pork and oyster sausage. Reservations accepted. 3258 Larimer St., 303-295-8977. Dinner, Brunch

L 25 B E S T

LeRoux

Liberati Restaurant & Brewery

Westwood / Mexican Kahlo’s offers a veganfriendly menu with Mexican dishes such as mole and enchiladas verdes, along with almost 30

Mango House

$$$$

$$$

Five Points / Italian The brainchild of Rome-born restaurateur Alex Liberati, this combination brewery/eatery serves scratch-made Italian fare and grape ales. Reservations accepted. 2403 Champa St., 303-862-5652. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

$$$$

Capitol Hill / Italian Convivial hospitality and classic Italian dishes greet you at this spot. Don’t miss the house-made burrata cheese. Reservations accepted. 711 Grant St., 303-832-6600. Dinner

Mercantile Dining & Provision

NEW

Misfit Snackbar

Mister Oso

F E B RUA RY 2 0 2 0

$$$

RiNo / Latin American This Señor Bear spinoff offers a Latin-inspired menu featuring smoked meat tacos, creative ceviches, and salads from chefowner Blake Edmunds. Reservations accepted. 3163 Larimer St., 720-677-6454. Dinner

L E A R N M O R E & P U R C H A S E T I C K E T S AT W W W.TA S T E O F VA I L . C O M

5280

City Park / Contemporary This walk-up kitchen inside the Middleman bar serves imaginative twists on familiar pub fare. Reservations not accepted. 3401 E. Colfax Ave., 303-353-4207. Dinner

A P R I L 1 - 4 , 2 0 2 0 | T I C K E T S S TA R T AT $ 6 5

$$$

Downtown / New American Award-winning chefs Alex Seidel and Matt Vawter offer upscale, contemporary farm-to-table fare, including pasta dishes and family-style shared plates for the table. Mercantile also features counter-service dining for breakfast and lunch. Reservations accepted for dinner. Union Station, 1701 Wynkoop St., Ste. 155, 720-460-3733. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Rated among the Nation's Top Food & Wine Festivals by Forbes.com, USA Today and the Travel Channel

SPONSORS TO DATE

Aurora / International This immigrant- and refugee-led food hall is home to six outstanding culinary concepts, including Urban Burma, Jasmine Syrian Food, and Nepali Mountain Kitchen. Reservations not accepted. 10180 E. Colfax Ave., Aurora, 303-900-8639. Lunch, Dinner

25 B E S T

Downtown / French Lon Symensma’s upscale, European-inspired eatery features table-side preparations and a roving cheese cart. Reservations accepted. 1555 Blake St., Ste 102, 720-8451673. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Luca

Kahlo’s Restaurant

Aurora / Japanese Satisfy a ramen craving with one of the traditional styles offered at this cozy spot. Reservations not accepted. 1930 S. Havana St., Aurora, 303-751-2222. Lunch, Dinner

$$$

Downtown / Seafood Enjoy sustainable seafood in an upbeat atmosphere. Specialties include the raw oyster bar and seasonally composed plates. Multiple locations. Reservations accepted. 1539 17th St., 303-292-5767. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

different juices and smoothies. Reservations accepted. 3735 Morrison Rd., 303-936-0758. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

S P E C I A L

A D V E R T I S I N G

S E C T I O N

chanGemakers

Eve ry m onth we highlight an extraordinary organization c ausing c hange in ou r commu nity. Donate tod ay and he lp be part of the sol u tion.

Tennyson Center for Children T H E R A P E U T I C

S E R V I C E S

F O R

C H I L D R E N

A N D

F A M I L I E S

MISSION: Tennyson Center for Children is dedicated to helping children who have experienced severe neglect, abuse, and/or trauma so they can bravely and safely change their life’s story.

This collaborative effort brings together county and state child welfare leaders in radically new ways to rewire the way funding and children move through child welfare to produce better outcomes for kids and families at lower cost to society.

RECENTLY: Tennyson Center for Children has served Colorado’s most neglected, abused, and/or traumatized children since 1904. We provide a safe, stable home for kids 5-18 who are facing critical circumstances; an accredited, therapeutic K-12 school with a 3:1 student-toteacher ratio on our campus; and in-home and community services in diverse counties across the state focused on prevention and early intervention to strengthen families with children of all ages.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: Our donors and partners are the foundation of all our work. Without you, we would not be able to provide safety, support, and life-changing programming to the children and families we work with! • Donate to support our kids, programs, and operations • Partner at the corporate level • Attend or host a fundraising event throughout the year, such as Mile High Country Q & Brew (April 2020), Corks for a Cause Wine Tasting (June 2020), FORE! Our Kids Annual Golf Tournament (August 2020), or our annual gala, the Denver Dinner (October 2020)

Tennyson seeks to ensure that all children have the resources and support needed to succeed today, tomorrow, and into the future. We imagine a world where every child’s unique potential is unleashed. In 2019, we began leading a statewide effort called Rewiring to provide earlier support to children and families, prevent and divert families from entering child welfare, and to follow the children we interact with into adulthood.

TennysonCenter.org | 303.433.2541

� � tennysoncenter INSTAGRAM/ tennysoncenter4kids � � Tennyson Center for Children FEBRUARY 2020 | CHANGEMAKERS | 89

DINING GUIDE Quality Italian

$$$$

Capitol Hill / Contemporary Chef-owner Frank Bonanno’s seasonal cuisine capitalizes on fresh ingredients, and service is prompt, friendly, and knowledgeable. Reservations accepted. 225 E. Seventh Ave., 303-832-4778. Dinner

25 B E S T

Morin

$$$

Downtown / French Chef Max MacKissock serves imaginative French fare at this elegant eatery. Sip a sophisticated cocktail, mocktail, or a glass of natural wine from the extensive list while enjoying a platter of raw oysters. Reservations accepted. 1600 15th St., 303-623-0534. Dinner

Rioja

$$$$

Downtown / Mediterranean James Beard Awardwinning chef Jennifer Jasinski creates high-end Mediterranean-influenced cuisine. Try the artichoke tortelloni. Reservations accepted. 1431 Larimer St., 303-820-2282. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Rosetta Hall

Narrative

New Saigon

Athmar Park / Vietnamese This beloved Denver institution serves an extensive menu featuring delicious rice paper wraps, crispy soft shell crabs, soups, salads, and much more. Reservations accepted for five or more. 630 S. Federal Blvd., 303-936-4954. Lunch, Dinner

North County

$$$

Lowry Field / Mexican With a beach bar atmosphere, this San Diego-inspired taqueria is known for its charcoal fish tacos, stellar green chile, and bar full of tequila libations and spiked sodas batched and bottled in house. Reservations not accepted. 94 Rampart Way, 720-532-0106. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

O Old Major

$$$$

Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox

Daily Fuel Your morning coffee run never looked—or tasted—so good. Stylish, two-month-old Frank & Roze in the 9+CO development off Colorado Boulevard pairs drinks made from its house brand of ethically sourced beans with day-to-night fare from chef Tom Coohill (of Coohills in LoDo), including fresh-baked breads and pastries. Pair a spiced cold brew with the marvelous smoked salmon tartine, built on toasted seven-grain bread with silky Scottish salmon, farmer’s cheese, pickled red onion, capers, and arugula.

P Pho 95

LoHi / American Go for owner Justin Brunson’s bistro-style, seasonal cuisine with an emphasis on locally raised heritage meat. Swing by during lunch for classics such as steak frites and sandwiches from Brunson’s Masterpiece Deli. Reservations accepted. 3316 Tejon St., 720-4200622. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Ballpark / Contemporary This “gastro-brothel” menu encompasses globally inspired pub fare like flatbreads, small plates, and stone-fire skillets. Try the green chile cornbread with goat cheese. Reservations accepted. 1215 20th St., 303-993-8023. Dinner, Brunch

$$$

Platt Park / Japanese Sushi Den’s Toshi Kizaki serves his Japanese robata-style tapas, ramen, and seafood in a casual setting. Order the grilled tuna belly sliders. Reservations accepted. 1501 Pearl St., 303-733-2503. Dinner

F E B RUA RY 2 0 2 0

Downtown / Pub This casual bar serves fantastic French dip sandwiches and crispy fried spuds, alongside craft cocktails. Try the smoked mushroom or the Chicago Italian beef varieties. Reservations not accepted. 1808 Blake St., 720-710-8144. Lunch, Dinner

Q 25 B E S T

Ototo

Mar Lee / Vietnamese Don’t miss the steaming bowls of traditional Vietnamese pho at this restaurant. Also try the Centennial location. Reservations not accepted. 1401 S. Federal Blvd., 303-9363322. Lunch, Dinner

Pony Up

Q House

Boulder / International The tenants of Boulder’s first food hall include Petite Fleur, Folsom Foods, Confit, the Ginger Pig, Jacaranda, La Tigella, Tierra, and Boxcar Coffee Roasters. Grab a seat on the cozy rooftop deck. 109 Walnut St., Boulder, 720-323-5509. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

$$$

Cherry Creek / American Chef Paul Nagan serves gussied-up versions of American favorites‚ such as shrimp and grits with Tabasco butter‚ at this sleek eatery. Reservations accepted. 222 Milwaukee St., 720-571-8080. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

90 5280

$$$$

Cherry Creek / Steak House This upscale spot serves a smart mix of steak house fare and American-Italian favorites. Try the baked lasagna for two. Reservations accepted. 241 Columbine St., 303-532-8888. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

$$$

City Park West / Chinese Enjoy a modern take on Chinese cuisine executed by chef Christopher Lin, an alum of Momofuku in New York City. Try the braised pork rice and the salt and pepper head-on shrimp. Reservations accepted. 3421 E. Colfax Ave., 720-729-8887. Dinner

S Safta

$$$

Salt The Bistro

$$$

Sarto’s

$$$

25 B E S T

RiNo / Mediterranean Acclaimed chef Alon Shaya brings modern Israeli fare to Denver. Start with the creamy hummus and pillowy wood-oven pita before moving onto tabbouleh salad, charred cabbage, and halloumi. Reservations accepted. The Source Hotel & Market Hall, 3330 Brighton Blvd., 720-408-2444. Lunch, Dinner Boulder / Contemporary Chef Roy Benningfield offers comforting dishes prepared with locally sourced and seasonal ingredients in a historic space on Pearl Street. Reservations accepted. 1047 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-444-7258. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Jefferson Park / Italian This authentic Italian restaurant serves house-made pastas, soups, and more. Stop into Sarto’s Pantry‚ the adjacent market‚ for grab-and-go sandwiches, salads, and pizzas. Reservations accepted. 2900 W. 25th Ave., 303-455-1400. Dinner, Brunch

The Source

RiNo / International This industrial-sleek food hall is home to a variety of hip eateries, bars, and shops. Tenants include Acorn, Grabowski’s Pizzeria, Reunion Bread Co., Caffe Figurati, Isabel, and Mondo Market. 3350 Brighton Blvd., 720-4431135. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

25 B E S T

Spuntino

$$$

Highland / Italian Enjoy the locally sourced menu at this Italian-inspired spot. Try the seasonal pasta or any dish with Southern Indian influences. Don’t miss the house-made gelato for dessert. Reservations accepted. 2639 W. 32nd Ave., 303433-0949. Dinner

Sarah Boyum

Mizuna

DINING GUIDE Stanley Marketplace

Aurora / International Formerly the Stanley Aviation building, this site is now home to a sprawling, food-centric marketplace with offerings from Yellowbelly Chicken, Stanley Beer Hall, Annette, Sweet Cow Ice Cream, and many more. 2501 Dallas St., Aurora, 720-990-6743. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

NEW

Sunday Vinyl

$$$

Downtown / Contemporary This stylish Europeanstyle wine bar on the Union Station platform offers the warm hospitality and exquisite cuisine the team behind Frasca Food and Wine is known for, all to the soundtrack of a vinyl-only playlist. Reservations accepted. 1803 16th St., 720-738-1803. Dinner 25 B E S T

Super Mega Bien

Sushi Den

$$$

Platt Park / Japanese Sushi Den offers fresh, vibrant seafood flown in twice a week from Japan and a hip, lively scene. Reservations accepted for five or more, except Friday and Saturday. 1487 S. Pearl St., 303-777-0826. Lunch, Dinner

Sushi Ronin

$$$

Highland / Japanese This spot’s comfortable vibe complements the creative, omakase-style Japanese cuisine. Reservations accepted for parties of eight or more. 2930 Umatilla St., 303-955-0741. Dinner

Tavernetta

$$$$

Tessa Delicatessan

Berkeley / American American Indian food goes Chipotle-style at this quick service restaurant. Try the fry bread taco loaded with beef, buffalo, or

F E B RUA RY 2 0 2 0

Uchi Denver

$$$$

Ultreia

$$$

Downtown / Spanish James Beard Awardwinning chef Jennifer Jasinski brings Iberian fare to Union Station. Reservations not accepted. Union Station, 1701 Wynkoop St., 303-534-1970. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Urban Village

The Way Back

Berkeley / Seasonal Settle in for craft cocktails and polished fare, such as cavatelli with pork ragu and roasted chicken with tomato curry. Reservations accepted. 3963 Tennyson St., 970-682-6888. Dinner The Wolf’s Tailor

$$$

Sunnyside / Contemporary Basta chef Kelly Whitaker fuses Asian and Italian techniques and ingredients at this hip Sunnyside eatery. The results, such as 7x brisket braised in dashi and red wine and house-extruded mafaldine pasta with koji tomatoes, are unique and delicious. Reservations accepted. 4058 Tejon St., 720-456-6507. Dinner Work & Class

$$$

RiNo / American This elevated meat-and-three concept offers a delicious hybrid of American and Latin cuisine in repurposed-shipping-container digs. Get the Cajun rotisserie chicken and chickpea croquettes. Reservations not accepted. 2500 Larimer St., 303-292-0700. Dinner

Wynkoop Brewing Company

Downtown / Pub Established in 1988, Denver’s original brewpub serves cold pints and comforting pub grub in a sprawling pool hall. Pair the IPA fish and chips with Patty’s chile beer. Reservations accepted. 1634 18th St., 303-2972700. Lunch, Dinner

$$$

Lone Tree / Indian This is a cozy seasonal restaurant serving classic and contemporary dishes from regions across India, including a great selection of vegetarian specialties. Reservations accepted. 9234 Park Meadows Dr., Ste. 700, Lone Tree, 720-536-8150. Lunch, Dinner

V $$

Washington Park West / French Salads and sandwiches (think: curry chicken or skirt steak with arugula and walnut mustard) dot the small menu at this European-influenced cafe. Reservations not accepted. 704 S. Pearl St., 303-997-5941. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Vesta

Uptown Area / American This vegetarian icon has been serving wholesome food since 1998. The zesty soups, salads, and wraps are healthy and delicious. Don’t miss the brunch specials. Reservations accepted after 5 p.m. 837 E. 17th Ave., 303-832-7313. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

25 B E S T

Curtis Park / Sushi James Beard Award-winning chef Tyson Cole combines unexpected flavors for his unique take on Japanese food. Try the sake toro aburi or the foie gras sushi. Reservations accepted. 2500 Lawrence St., 303-444-1922. Dinner

Vert Kitchen

South Park Hill / Deli This modern all-day eatery from Vince Howard, formerly of Del Rey Deli in Los Angeles, has tasty hot and cold sandwiches and salads. Reservations not accepted. 5724 E. Colfax Ave., 720-746-9138. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

92 5 2 8 0

U 25 B E S T

WaterCourse Foods

$$$

Downtown / Southern Nosh on re-imagined versions of down-home dishes, such as the signature honey-dusted fried chicken. Reservations accepted. 1650 Wewatta St., 720-274-0650. Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Five Points / English Head to this charming teahouse-bookstore-market for loose-leaf and specialty teas and all-day fare. High tea service is also available. Reservations accepted. 611 22nd St., 303-593-2013. Breakfast, Lunch, Brunch

Tocabe

Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar

LoHi / Asian A sleek, contemporary atmosphere defines this bustling modern noodle house. The selective menu includes dishes such as Chinesestyle steamed buns and, of course, noodles. Also try the Speer location. Reservations not accepted. 2215 W. 32nd Ave., 303-433-3263. Dinner

LoDo / Italian The team behind Boulder’s acclaimed Frasca Food and Wine offers the same attention to hospitality at their more casual Denver restaurant. The charming space is home to dishes from across Italy and a deep wine list. Reservations accepted. 1889 16th St, 720-605-1889. Lunch, Dinner TeaLee’s Teahouse and Bookstore

Golden / International Golden’s first food hall boasts nine culinary options, including Kona Bowls Superfoods Café, Woodgrain Bagels, Mr. Miner Meat & Cheese, Fringe Pizza, and more. 701 12th St., Golden. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Uncle

T 25 B E S T

Tributary Food Hall & Drinkery

$$$

RiNo / Latin American Chef Dana Rodriguez of Work & Class offers a combo of large-format items and Pan-Latin small plates, the latter served from roving dim-sum-style carts. Try the braised lamb with grilled cactus salad. Reservations not accepted. The Ramble Hotel, 1260 25th St., 720-269-4695. Dinner

chicken. Also try the Greenwood Village location. Reservations not accepted. 3536 W. 44th Ave., 720-524-8282. Lunch, Dinner

Zeppelin Station

RiNo / International This industrial-chic food hall, located near the 38th and Blake light rail station, is home to eight globally inspired food and drink vendors and two bars. Options include Vinh Xuong Bakery, Budlong Hot Chicken, La Doña, Norm’s Deli, and more. 3501 Wazee St., 720-460-1978. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Zocalito Latin Bistro

$$$

Downtown / Latin American Formerly located in Aspen, chef/owner Michael Beary’s upscale Oaxacan eatery found a home in the heart of Denver. Try the chorizo and poblano cheese dip and the pork tenderloin with red mole sauce. Reservations accepted. 999 18th St., Ste. 107, 970-920-1991. Lunch, Dinner

$$$

Downtown / New American Visit this stylish LoDo stalwart for upscale-yet-approachable fare. Try the luxe lobster cioppino or the rotating market specials. Reservations accepted. 1822 Blake St., 303-296-1970. Dinner

 These listings are in no way related to advertising in 5280. If

you find that a restaurant differs significantly from the information in its listing or your favorite restaurant is missing from the Dining Guide, please let us know. Write us at 5280 Publishing, Inc., 1675 Larimer St., Suite 675, Denver, CO 80202 or dining@5280.com.

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CP Summer Camp Meet & Greet FEBRUARY 22, 2020, 10 A.M.–2 P.M. Empower Stadium at Mile High. Colorado Parent will bring together dozens of summer camps and experiences for you to have one-on-one, quality conversations to plan the perfect summer tailored specifically for your child. Information at 5280scene.com.

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Indulge in a sweet and savory menu from the top brunch restaurants in Denver, fun cocktails, photo booths galore, and much more. Join the Scene List for first access to tickets at 5280scene.com.

Peter Pan with Colorado Ballet JANUARY 31–FEBRUARY 9 Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Peter Pan will take audiences on a high-flying adventure to Neverland where Peter Pan, Wendy, John and Michael experience pirates, Lost Boys, Captain Hook, an infamous crocodile and a bit of pixie dust as this brilliant story unfolds. Information and tickets at COLORADOBALLET.ORG.

The Sandman FEBRUARY 14–23, VARIOUS TIMES Denver, CO and Parker, CO. From the villainous Sandman to Santa Maria, from bounty hunters to tortured heroes, a tangled web is spun. Featuring alt-country band the Gasoline Lollipops live, The Sandman is a newfangled Western and Wonderbound’s latest epic creation by Garrett Ammon. Information and tickets at wonderbound.com/shows-events.

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Ales, Apps & Barrels of Fun FEBRUARY 20, 7–10 P.M. Children’s Museum of Denver at Marsico Campus. Release your inner child at the Children’s Museum during our adults-only extravaganza! Taste craft beers from local breweries and snack on childhood-inspired bites from top caterers, plus play in the Museum’s world class exhibits! Come be a kid again... without the kids! Information and tickets at mychildsmuseum.org.

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Denver Restaurant Week FEBRUARY 21–MARCH 1 Metro Denver. VISIT DENVER’s Denver Restaurant Week features hundreds of Denver’s top restaurants offering multi-course dinners for one of three tasty prices: $25, $35 or $45 per person. More than 230 restaurants – Italian to Japanese, steakhouses to bistros – will be participating in this culinary celebration. Information and tickets at denverrestauranteek.com.

2020 Colorado Garden & Home Show FEBRUARY 22–MARCH 1 Colorado Convention Center. The Colorado Garden & Home Show is presented by Colorado Garden Foundation and held at the Colorado Convention Center from February 22 to March 1. The home show showcases more than 600 exhibitors, 11 landscaped gardens, FREE seminars, hot products and more. Information and tickets at coloradogardenfoundation.org.

37th Annual Great Chefs of the West UPCOMING

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EXDO Event Center. The foodie event of the year brings together 25 of Denver’s top chefs all competing to win best dish – voted by you! With an all-star gathering of food, drinks, live music and exciting auctions, it’s impossible to duplicate unless you attempt a very long night out on the town with an unlimited budget. Information and tickets at kidney.org/greatchefswest.

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Hyatt Regency Denver. Celebrate Great Colorado Women as the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame inducts its Class of 2020. Join us for an evening of a lifetime as we recognize and celebrate our new Inductees! Their stories are ones of grit, grace, and inspiration. Information and tickets at 2020inductiongala.my-trs.com.

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Multiple developers and real estate consultants who have worked with the city in the past say the River Mile project is notable for the expediency with which it moved through city approval and for the virtually nonexistent opposition to the plan, despite its size and the increasing divide among residents over commercial and residential development within Denver. At the time of the rezoning approval, it was obvious to anyone watching that the 2019 election would be a contentious one, pitting pro-development politicians like Hancock and Brooks against those who want a more measured approach to growth within the city. Among the most formidable challengers was Candi CdeBaca, the 33-year-old community activist and democratic socialist who ran for Brooks’ District 9 City Council seat and built support as she promised to take on what she saw as Hancock’s prodevelopment status quo in the city. In the lead-up to the city election in the spring, Duggan donated thousands of dollars to campaigns, including Hancock’s and Brooks’, according to publicly filed campaign finance documents. In runoffs six months after the rezoning approval, three challengers unseated council incumbents, including Brooks, who lost to CdeBaca and eventually was named a vice president of business development and strategy with Milender White, a development and construction firm with offices in Colorado and Southern California. Hancock won re-election after a runoff against Jamie Giellis. CdeBaca now says the city should have held off on its River Mile rezoning approval, knowing the council was in the midst of a contentious election cycle and development was one of the key issues. “River Mile moved really fast, and I believe the rezoning was done at a time so it could bypass the new people who were likely going to win council seats,” CdeBaca says. The previous council “knew there would be a challenge to Kroenke and Revesco,” she adds. Four months after the June election, CdeBaca and Duggan met to discuss the River Mile. One of her complaints about the development, she says, is that the city didn’t go far enough in its demands to create affordable housing within the site.

This may just look like moss to you, but to us, it’s the antidote for a society that’s moving far too fast. It takes its time, up to ten years in fact, to grow. All the while breaking down rocks and soil, repelling extra moisture and helping to make the environment better for other plants to grow. It carries the forest on its back, so please, don’t step all over it. Moss has been doing its thing since the dawn of time. Free from mankind’s boot prints. Let’s keep it that way. Stay on marked trails while in our state parks.

Conservation starts small.

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“It wasn’t a real conversation with Rhys, because I know when I’m getting played,” she says. “Developers have a way of managing the conversation so they don’t have to talk about the issues that matter. This is not a Revesco-driven development, and everyone knows that. This is a Kroenke development, for sure, and we have to start asking more questions about the people who are shaping our city and who has control over how Denver is unfolding. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.” Both Duggan and Hancock declined to discuss CdeBaca’s criticisms, but the pair defended the approval process. “It’s not happening overnight,” Duggan said. “In terms of timing, this is a long-term vision.” DUGGAN STOOD INSIDE a third-floor event space in the Denver REI flagship store one night this past December and waited to start another meeting. Out one window, through the darkness, the flashing red and blue lights from Elitch’s Big Wheel were visible in the distance. People drifted in and out of conversations and perused renderings of the South Platte area that leaned atop easels along one wall and showed river-based concepts like removing the dam at Confluence Park and creating walkable access to the river’s banks. There was a video screen at the front of the room and dozens of chairs lined up in the middle. Photography of the boards and audio recordings of the event were prohibited. Over the next hour, Duggan and his team of architects and hydrology experts talked to 100 or so “stakeholders”—city officials and those who work or operate businesses nearby. He is a true believer in all the ways he thinks a good development can change lives and make a city prosper. “Imagine what this site will be 50 to 100 years from now,” he told the group. “What are we missing? What are you seeing? What are you excited about?” He wants big ideas, he told the attendees. Duggan—as he always does in places like this—both sells and downplays his development. There were drawings of a “yoga lawn” and a climbing wall and talk of “green ribbons” of public space. He told the crowd that the water quality along the River Mile is “not perfect, but it sustains wildlife,” then broke into a story about how he’s stocked the river four times with rainbow trout and they lived. Duggan still gets pictures texted to him by people who catch his fish, he says. “River Mile can be a catalyst for change in this city,” he promised, “but it can’t solve all the problems.” m

Robert Sanchez is 5280’s senior staff writer. Email him at letters@5280.com.

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A camp designed for the inner adventurers and explorers of your family. Where kids can be kids, learn to sail, kayak, paddleboard and more. These energetic camps are an ideal opportunity for your children to get outdoors this summer and try something new. Ages 6 through 13. See you on the water!

Denver Zoo Summer Safari

Denver, CO (720) 337-1400 denverzoo.org/summer-safari

At Safari Camp, Pre-K through 8th Grade campers have fun using their creativity to engineer fanciful solutions to real-world challenges faced by animals, as well as making new friends, and meeting Zoo ambassador animals!

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Care for animals, learn about life on the farm and how life for early settlers was different from today. Camps are 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., for ages 6-12.

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Cover Represented by KAREN BERNARDI The property information herein is derived from various sources that may include, but not be limited to, county records and the Multiple Listing Service, and it may include approximations. Although the information is believed to be accurate, it is not warranted and you should not rely upon it without personal verification. Real estate agents affiliated with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage and Coldwell Banker Devonshire are independent contractor sales associates, not employees. ÂŠ2020 Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage and Coldwell Banker Devonshire. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage and Coldwell Banker Devonshire fully support the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Owned by a subsidiary of NRT LLC. Coldwell Banker and the Coldwell Banker Logo are registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. 628217CDO_04/19

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Boulder | $5,875,000 Remodeled home w/eye catching upgrades in the friendly & quiet Orange Orchard neighborhood. Bright & open family room w/vaulted ceilings, large windows & plantation shutters that flows to the sunny living room w/cozy brick fireplace. Large master br w/private en suite bath. Kitchen outfitted w/quartz counter tops, soft close drawers & upscale appliances. Gaze upon the expansive backyard from the kitchen window. Easy access through gate to greenbelt & park.

Karen Bernardi 303.402.6000 karenb@thebernardigroup.com | thebernardigroup.com

Boulder | $1,189,000 Breathtaking mountain views greet you upon entering this one-of-a-kind, 55 acre estate. Opulent Colorado Buffed Stone floors guide you to the main level game room complete with a home theater and wet bar. Continue to the exercise room boasting a steam shower, tanning room, indoor pool and hot tub. The private spiral staircase leads you to the master suite featuring a luxurious six-piece bath with a dual head steam shower and jetted tub.

Karen Bernardi 303.402.6000 karenb@thebernardigroup.com | thebernardigroup.com

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Denver | $985,000 Right in the heart of Berkeley and just a few blocks from Tennyson Street, this one of a kind single family home exudes modern sophistication. The home features four bedrooms, four baths + study with open design. The kitchen is complete with quartz countertops with a center island, European style cabinetry and stainless-steel appliances. Master suite features a custom walk in California closet, its own private balcony and an incredible five-piece bath with standalone tub.

John Drew 303.386.2276 jdrew@5280denversearch.com | 5280denversearch.com

LUXURY IS MASTERFUL When a Luxury Property Specialist offers local expertise along with extensive knowledge, skill and responsiveness, you receive the exceptional representation you truly deserve.

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Golden | $1,475,000 Spectacular Spring Ranch home on five acres backing up to Genesee Park open space. This lot hosts a big sky and expansive mountain vista views. The ultimate in Colorado outdoor living with multiple doors accessing a large wrap-around deck and a fenced yard. Southwestern exposure provides beautiful sunsets and a private setting for year-round outdoor entertainment. The grand entryway with an open staircase greets you at the front door.

Anne HardtÂ 303.810.0485 anne.hardt@coloradohomes.com

Erie | $1,129,000 This open & bright, 5 bedroom, 6 bath unique Cape Cod style custom-home in Erie Village offers large windows. There are all new carpet & hardwood flooring. Enjoy the professionally landscaped yard from your large wrap-around front porch, views of Longs Peak & frequent hot air balloon sightings as well as beautiful sunsets from the back porch or upstairs patio. The home includes an accessible additional suite on the main floor with a kitchenette & a separate laundry area.

Brett KennedyÂ 303.881.8000 brett.kennedy@coloradohomes.com

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Longmont | $825,000 Step into a stunning open floor plan--perfect for entertaining! Soaring ceilings, skylights and big windows flood this home with natural light. Main floor master opens onto a huge back porch overlooking a gorgeous fenced yard with mature trees providing shade and beauty. Spacious loft is a perfect work/play space and offers great mountain views. Finished lower level opens to a nice private patio. Sought-after neighborhood with a wonderful park and great schools.

Karen ElmersÂ 303.810.7708 karen.elmers@coloradohomes.com

Highlands Ranch | $649,900 Great mountain and lake views! Updated and move-in-ready! Great price & location in a 55+ Community, this one does not disappoint! A large granite covered island in the gourmet kitchen, real hardwoods, a walk out basement, a five-piece master suite with jet tub, travertine counter top vanities, a balcony off the master overlooking McLellen Reservoir and Front Range, a vaulted master bedroom with its own double sided gas fireplace and sitting area.

Harrison BakerÂ 720.908.1061 harrison@harrisonbaker.net

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Parker | Price Upon Request Every room meticulously & beautifully remodeled! Entertain in your new kitchen with leathered granite, stainless steel appliances, a gas stove & a large island. Enjoy the beautiful Colorado weather on your fabulous brick patio. This home offers five bedrooms & four bathrooms. Laundry is conveniently located on the second floor. The finished basement is complete with a fifth bedroom, a fourth bath & additional entertainment space. 3-car garage & extra parking for an RV or boat.

Rae Marie Heard 720.234.7918 raemarie.heard@coloradohomes.com

Arvada | Price Upon Request You won’t want to miss this wonderful home in Scenic Heights. Completely updated and ready to move in! Five conforming bedrooms, three baths, a large kitchen and plenty of living space. There is not a detail left to update. Brand new kitchen features new black stainless-steel appliances, new cabinets and quartz counter top. Real hard wood floors throughout the main level. Brand new tile and vanities in all three bathrooms. Huge laundry and storage room.

Amy Metz 720.272.7337 amy.metz@coloradohomes.com

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Denver | $574,000 Modern townhome with three bedrooms and four bathrooms with gorgeous finishes. Soft close cabinets, stainless-steel appliances, quartz countertops, newly finished hardwood floors and freshly painted. On the third floor, enjoy views of Pikes Peak and the Front Range mountains from the rooftop deck. Two car tandem garage. Finished crawl space for additional storage. Just blocks away from Sloans Lake. Quick possession available.

Lynne Ross 303.520.8800 lynne.ross@coloradohomes.com | lynneross.com

Westminster | $560,000 This beautiful home in Bradburn East features top of line finishes on a corner lot directly across from the community park will not disappoint! The open and inviting main level is perfectly designed for entertaining! There are beautiful wood floors throughout the great room, kitchen and dining room. The large kitchen features cream cabinets, stainless steel appliances, a double oven, slab granite counters and a huge island.

Michael Brassem 303.494.0990 michael.brassem@coloradohomes.com | roosthomescolorado.com

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Castle Pines | Price Upon Request 5br/4ba backs to open space, gourmet kitchen w/granite & ss appliances, dining rm w/butler’s pantry, dual staircase, basement w/rec room, wet bar & wine cellar, trex deck & fire pit.

Lakewood | Price Upon Request 4br/2ba duplex each side has 2br/1ba located in the Green Mountain Park area completely remodeled & renovated. Located across from the Federal Center & near St. Anthony’s Hospital.

Kurtz Krew 720.421.4580

Ray Brienza 303.910.5854 ray.brienza@coloradohomes.com | raybrienza.cbintouch.com

bryan.kurtz@coloradohomes.com | bryankurtz.cbintouch.com

Thornton | $559,500 3br/4ba offers a great room, cherry raised panel cabinets, granite counters & ss appliances in the kitchen, an office, a master with tub/shower & dual cherry vanity, a finished lower level & oversized garage. This 55+ community offers many amenities.

Broomfield | $550,000 3-story Live/Work Loft style townhouse w/open floor plan located between Denver & Boulder. Entry level commercial/flex space. Private master suite and loft living space on 3rd level.

Linda Gilbert 720.232.1990 linda.gilbert@coloradohomes.com | lindagilberthomes.com

Tina Ford 303.717.7871 tina.ford@coloradohomes.com | tinafordco.cbintouch.com

Lakewood | $550,000 3br/3.5ba townhouse with ample upgrades, city & mountain views & rooftop deck near the Edgewater Public Market, Sloan's Lake, and Sheridan Light Rail. 1,796 sqft. 2 car attached garage.

Lakewood | $549,000 5br/4ba home in sought after Green Mountain. An entertainers delight! From the great kitchen that opens to the spacious family room and formal dining area to the multiple outdoor spaces to enjoy. Oversized 2-car garage and room for the RV and toys.

Audi Lundy 720.273.5892 Alexander Lundy 303.718.2664

Stephanie Freadhoff 303.589.3777 stephaniesellshomes@outlook.com

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Aurora | Price Upon Request 4br/4ba features office, kitchen, living/dining room, master w/coffee bar, multiple closets & 5-piece bath, kitchen w/granite counters & ss appliances, 4-car garage, deck, stamped concrete patio & new roof.

Arvada | $537,000 5br/3600+ sqft. features open floor plan w/cathedral ceilings, living room with fireplace, eat-in kitchen, dining room, office, master with 5-piece bath & finished basement minus flooring.

Marcus & Kirsten Harris 720.217.8904 marcus.harris@coloradohomes.com | harristeamrealestate.com

Dylan Lario 303.931.3039 dylan@lariorealestate.com

Westminster | $535,000 4br/3ba home w/open floor plan. Kitchen w/skylights, quartz counters, stainless steel appliances, tile back splash & nook. Main floor master suite w/large bath & walk-in closet. Basement w/2br, 3/4 bath and family room.

Denver | $525,000 4br/2ba home offers original fireplace, wood moldings, updated kitchen, dining room, finished walk out basement w/kitchen & private entrance, a garden bed, fenced yard & oversized 2-car garage. Newer roof, gutters, water heater and sewer line.

Cybyske Home Team 303.635.1100 bryan@cybyske.com | cybyske.com

Yaron Marcus 303.484.1186 yaron.marcus@coloradohomes.com

Conifer | $515,000 5br/4ba home w/fireplace and updated kitchen. Master suite w/private bath. There is a walk out basement family room. BBQ on a deck, explore private rock outcroppings and watch wildlife.

Castle Rock | $510,000 3br/2ba bath home w/open floor plan. Kitchen w/stainless steel appliances and an island. Great room w/gas fireplace. Master retreat w/bay window, walk-in shower and walk-in closet. Complete w/basement and an outdoor space w/patio and hot tub.

Sandra Wieber 303.902.6637 sandra.wieber@coloradohomes.com

Donna Jarock 303.718.6285 thanksdonna@gmail.com | homesandcondoscolorado.com

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Aurora | $499,999 Ranch home w/open floor plan boasting a gourmet kitchen w/stainless steel appliances and a great room w/fireplace. Enjoy a 5-piece bath in your master-suite and covered patio outdoors.

Erie | $498,500 Beautiful home features a stunning kitchen and an open floor plan which is perfect for entertaining! Enjoy coffee on the spacious back patio overlooking a fully fenced yard backing to private open space. Newly finished basement with gorgeous finishes!

Dan DeBacco 720.955.6111 dan.debacco@coloradohomes.com | debaccorealestate.com

Karen Elmers 303.810.7708 karen.elmers@coloradohomes.com

Lafayette | $495,000 4br/4ba townhome w/spectacular views and walnut-stained solid oak flooring throughout the main level. Kitchen w/granite counters and stainless steel appliances. A master five-piece suite and a private garden level suite make this home unique.

Centennial | $485,000 4br/3ba home offering granite, a 5-piece bath, a kitchen with ss appliances, an island and under cabinet lighting, a living room w/a fireplace, a dinning room and a finished basement!

Ernie Sica 720.469.6999 ernie.sica@coloradohomes.com | welovecoloradohomes.com

Gifford & Trish Dudley 303.356.3947 gifford.dudley@coloradohomes.com

Aurora | $485,000 5br/3ba home w/a bedroom and a 3/4 bath on the main level. Gourmet kitchen w/newer appliances. There are 3 bedrooms, a luxurious master suite w/5-piece bath and a laundry area on the 2nd floor. Complete w/an unfinished basement for your imagination.

Boulder | $479,900 Spacious 2 bed/2 bath condo w/high ceilings, an open floor plan w/stainless steel appliances, new flooring and paint throughout. Master bedroom w/a master bath, walk-in closet and deck.

Bruce McQuiston 303.882.9235 macsbrew@msn.com

Elise Waldron 303.250.2771 elise.waldron@coloradohomes.com

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Castle Rock | $469,000 3br/4ba townhome offers ss appliances, granite counter tops, hardwood floors, stonework fireplace & family room w/ high ceilings. Professionally finished basement w/bonus & mud room.

Frederick | $465,000 4br/3ba home. Kitchen w/double ovens, gas cook top and center island. Living room w/gas fireplace. Master suite w/walk-in closet and master bath. Complete w/a basement and 3-car garage.

Hallie Rand 720.810.2931 hallie.rand@coloradohomes.com | hallierand.com

Amanda Duran 720.427.9882 amanda.duran@coloradohomes.com

Centennial | $455,300 3br/3ba home with open floor plan. Kitchen w/stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and pantry! Master bedroom with en-suite bath. Backyard with patio and hot tub! Complete with basement.

Highlands Ranch | Price Upon Request SOLD! This beautiful five-bed three-bath home in Highlands Ranch is guaranteed to have all the space you need! Newly renovated master bath. Backyard with deck, jungle gym, playhouse.

Jan Bollhoefner 303.947.3095 janb1001@aol.com

LaDawn Sperling 303.710.5817 ladawn.sperling@coloradohomes.com | ladawnsperling.com

Highlands Ranch | $455,000 3br/4ba updated home on an oversized lot, features fresh paint inside & out, wood floors, open kitchen w/ss appliances & granite countertops, master w/walk-in closet, finished basement w/flex space & laundry room & deck.

Denver | $454,900 5br/3ba home w/tons of natural light and a new remodel kitchen. Complete w/a large basement, a huge and open backyard as well as a detached two-car garage with extra space for an RV. The home is close to light rail, restaurants parks and shopping.

The Simonis Group 303.905.5137 yourhometownrealtors@yahoo.com

Miguel Miranda 720.883.8650 jmiguel.1325@gmail.com | miguelmiranda.cbintouch.com

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Broomfield | $445,000 4br/3ba across from open space features updated windows, kitchen w/granite & ss appliances, newer carpet & hot water heater & backyard w/ deck, patio & built-in basketball hoop & pad.

Parker | $439,900 Nestled in the outskirts of Parker and backing to open space in the Pinery Glen subdivision, this oversized corner lot offers a quiet and serene setting. The private backyard has professionally landscaping, a large patio, and gazebo.

Christy Hepp 303.910.5393 christy.hepp@coloradohomes.com | christysellscolorado.com

Illona Gerlock 303.809.1235 Illona@gerlockhomes.com | gerlockhomes.com

Aurora | $435,000 This amazing Ryland home features a bright, open floor plan, fully finished basement and gorgeous park-like yard!

Littleton | $430,000 Charming ranch home in the foothill green subdivision! Beautiful corner lot with composite front and back deck. The pergola offers a great shade cover, ideal for gatherings.

Marcus & Kirsten Harris 720.217.8904

Gifford & Trish Dudley 303.356.3947 gifford.dudley@coloradohomes.com

marcus.harris@coloradohomes.com | harristeamrealestate.com

Centennial | $429,900 Within walking distance of The Streets at SouthGlenn this 5 bedroom/2 bath ranch home boasts new interior paint, quartz counters, stainless steel appliances, finished basement, covered patio and an oversized yard. www.1662EEuclidAve.com

Littleton | $429,900 4br/3ba ranch on premium lot w/mountain views & open lay out offers a kitchen w/stainless appliances, skylight & dine-in counter, living area, master suite, finished basement w/fireplace, wrap around porch & large 2-car garage.

Medra Volpi 303.378.1144 medra@medravolpi.com | medravolpi.com

Kimberly Austin 303.360.6400 kimberly@anotherjustsold.com | anotherjustsold.com

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Broomfield | Price Upon Request 4br/3ba home in the Willow Run Community features a formal living rm w/ vaulted ceilings, eat-in kitchen, family room w/ fireplace, unfinished basement, a deck & attached 2 car garage.

Parker | Price Upon Request Open concept home that expands from the grand living room with vaulted ceilings to the kitchen. Fully finished basement is great for relaxing or enjoying a game. Complete with a deck, a zero-maintenance yard and smart home technology.

Christy Hepp 303.910.5393 christy.hepp@coloradohomes.com | christysellscolorado.com

Vicki Zeeb 303.549.6203 vicki.zeeb@outlook.com

Littleton | $409,000 The outdoors of this beautiful home features an enormous yard with a covered patio. Enjoy quick access to C-470 and mountains.

Westminster | $407,000 Three bedroom, three bath four level home with remodeled kitchen, wood laminate flooring. Has covered patio that overlooks wonderful yard. Near trails, rec center and school.

Sean and Janet Willcox 303.903.5255 willcox2@comcast.net | seanandjanet.com

Cathy Schuster 303.478.6364 cathy.schuster@coloradohomes.com

Commerce City | $389,000 4br/3ba home is newly renovated and freshly painted. Kitchen w/stainless steel appliances. Laundry room w/front load washer and dryer. Backyard w/a large deck. Complete w/2-car garage.

Castle Rock | Price Upon Request 3br/1-3/4ba ranch w/open floor plan, front porch, hardwood floors, vaulted ceilings, walk in closets, kitchen w/ an island, eating space, granite counter tops, black appliances & toffee concord maple cabinets & fenced yard w/covered patio & deck.

Gail Wheeler 303.726.7202 gail.wheeler@coloradohomes.com

Mike Hanrahan 720.404.6651 mh7204046651@gmail.com | mikeh.cbintouch.com

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Denver | $384,900 This amazing Capitol Hill condo has it all! Inspiring mountain and city views, 2br/2ba, 2 parking spaces, an in-unit washer & dryer, storage locker and much more!

Brighton | $376,500 Charming 3br/3ba two story with Craftsman features. Front porch overlooks open area adjacent to Charter school. Main floor study, six panel wood doors, wood & tile flooring, fireplace.

Marcus & Kirsten Harris 720.217.8904

Cathy Schuster 303.478.6364 cathy.schuster@coloradohomes.com

marcus.harris@coloradohomes.com | harristeamrealestate.com

Brighton | $362,000 Pride of ownership is evident in this fantastic 3br/3ba home! Features include a study, formal sitting area, family room and sunny eat-in kitchen, wood floors & great back yard.

Lakewood | $350,000 2br/2ba townhome has an open floor plan, a master closet w/ built-in shelving, included refrigerator, washer and dryer, a basement rec room, a two-car attached garage and a patio.

Christy Hepp 303.910.5393 christy.hepp@coloradohomes.com | christysellscolorado.com

Sean and Janet Willcox 303.903.5255 willcox2@comcast.net | seanandjanet.com

Lakewood | Price Upon Request Townhome w/2,300+ finished sqft., kitchen w/custom cabinetry, island, pantry & eating nook, living room, fresh interior paint, new carpet, 2 large master suites w/ baths & walk-in closets, finished basement w/media room & 2 bedrooms & 2 car garage.

Englewood | $335,000 Remodeled 2br/1ba is approx. 1184 sqft., bungalow w/new windows, new flooring, new roof, upgraded electrical as well as an updated kitchen and bathroom. All appliances and the washer/dryer are included. Large over 6,050 sqft. lot w/shed in backyard.

Shannon Byerly 303.919.2611 yourfreshstartrealty@gmail.com | yourfreshstartrealty.com

Colleen Teitelbaum 303.668.8186 teitelbaumcolleen@gmail.com

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Brighton | $334,900 5br/2ba home w/laminate wood floors. Kitchen w/granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances. Complete w/one-car garage, 2 additional parking spaces and a backyard w/storage shed.

Denver | $330,000 3br/1ba ranch - 9,090 sqft. lot, an updated kitchen w/plenty of cabinets, a spacious living area and laundry is a breeze in the separate laundry area. Ideally located near Garfield Park in Denver's Mar Lee neighborhood. Home warranty included.

Maria Kinzie 720.588.3310 Kelly Parker 720.635.5432

Shannon Byerly 303.919.2611 yourfreshstartrealty@gmail.com | yourfreshstartrealty.com

Castle Rock | $325,000 3br/2ba home w/a living room and a dining room. Kitchen w/stainless-steel appliances. Main level concludes w/1/2 bath and a mud room. Master bedroom w/a walk-in closet and an attached dual bath. Complete w/2-car garage. Near a park and many trails.

Centennial | Price Upon Request 3br townhome features all new kitchen appliances, cabinets, countertops, carpet, furnace, A/C, bathroom vanities, windows & doors & fresh paint. Master w/balcony & walk-in closet.

Adrian Espinoza 720.799.4164 adrian.espinoza@coloradohomes.com | espiagency.com

fred.kress@coloradohomes.com | fredericksrealestate.com

The Simonis Group 720.688.1554

Colorado Springs | $319,000 3br/3ba, 2-car, 2,799 sqft. home. Stacked brick fireplace with natural maple mantle, maple cabinets, a master suite, fenced backyard and garden.

Aurora | $315,000 Don't miss this well maintained, end-unit townhouse in the Trail Ridge neighborhood of Southeast Aurora. 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, and 2-car garage. Open floor plan on main level.

Camellia Coray 719.359.0014 camellia@coldwellbanker.com | camellia.ccsignaturegroup.com

Dan Gerlock 303.755.7373 dan.gerlock@coloradohomes.com

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Highlands Ranch | $315,000 Gorgeous 2br/2ba condo at Clocktower, in Highlands Ranch. Plank hardwoods, granite, built-in speakers, tile backsplash, fireplace, reserved garage and storage space in heated garage.

Aurora | $300,000 2br/2ba condo offers a great room, dining room, kitchen w/white appliances/cabinets, updated solid surface countertops & hardwood flooring, master w/walk-in closet & laundry room w/included washer/dryer. Amenities include golf, tennis & clubhouse.

Diane Evans 303.875.7341 diane.evans@coloradohomes.com | dianelevans.com

Jeff Kloenne 303.884.9830 jeffrey.kloenne@coloradohomes.com | kloennewilsonteam.com

Denver | $295,500 3br home in the Berkeley Regis neighborhood w/updated kitchen, a remodeled bath, a new furnace and a window unit swamp cooler. There are 2 storage sheds and 2 off street parking spaces.

Littleton | Price Upon Request Condo w/open concept. Living room w/vaulted ceilings and a fireplace. Home w/smart home technology. Complete w/covered patio. Community w/club house, pool, hot tub, gym and rec center.

Jon Campbell 303.396.2049 jon.campbell@coloradohomes.com

Vicki Zeeb 303.549.6203 vicki.zeeb@outlook.com

Aurora | Price Upon Request SOLD! 3br condo w/fresh paint, new appliances and fireplace. Master suite w/walk-in closet. 2nd bedroom w/storage. There are many walking paths in this complex that will take you on a to the clubhouse, green space and many of the ponds on the property.

Evans | $259,950 This 3br/2.5ba ranch style home features a fireplace, newer stainless steel appliances, newer carpet, newer vinyl and a newer roof. The unfinished basement features a finished 3/4 bath. The fenced yard provides a patio and a sprinkler system.

Sarah Bowles 720.837.2724 sarah@chdagent.com

Cheryl Melichar 303.817.6163 cheryl.melichar@coloradohomes.com

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Littleton | $259,000 2br/2ba townhouse In Dakota Station with a great floor plan that offers new flooring, paint, countertops, new dishwasher, washer/ dryer, water heater, vaulted ceilings and a patio.

Thornton | $255,000 Everything updated!

Wendy Fourez 303.548.4812 wendy.fourez@coloradohomes.com

Kelly Ellis 303.921.5420 ellisteam@comcast.net

Aurora | $249,000 2br/3ba townhome features a kitchen w/cherry cabinets, granite counters & walk-in pantry, vaulted ceilings, loft w/built in bookshelves, master w/bath & walk-in closet & a 2nd bedroom w/ fireplace. Includes newer windows, furnace & water heater.

Denver | $192,500 Beautifully updated home located close to Lowry features a kitchen w/updated cabinets, countertop & backsplash & newer flooring. Peaceful end unit with reserved parking and close to pool. Close to Denver, Stapleton & Aurora w/easy access to RTD.

Joe Blinn 720.498.1365 joe@therowleygroup.com

Ashley Warren 720.938.1129 ashleywarrenre@gmail.com | ashleywarren.cbintouch.com

Lakewood | $110,000 1br/1ba studio condo - gourmet kitchen w/upgraded appliances, counters & cabinets, dining area & living area w/newer carpet & built-in cabinetry. HOA includes heat, water & sewer. Gail Wheeler 303.726.7202 gail.wheeler@coloradohomes.com

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BACKSTORY Two Truths And A Lie Can you spot the counterfeits hiding among Colorado hotels’ wildest perks?

The state’s growing tourism economy has triggered an era of competitive creativity among Colorado’s swankiest resorts, which keep dreaming up ever-more-inventive lodging packages to attract well-heeled visitors. Some of these amenities have become so bizarre, though, they seem fake. In fact, under each category below, one of the promotions has been fabricated. It’s up to you to sort the lies from the weirdbut-we-swear-they’re-true frills.

FOOD & DRINK

IN-ROOM AMENITIES

A. A crickets and cheese board at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, part of the allegedly haunted resort’s “Halloween Spooktacular” (from $1,200 for two nights in October).

A. Fuzzy handcuffs or a blindfold, for the, erm, adventurous couples who book the Moxy Denver in Cherry Creek’s “Netflix and Chill” option (from $179 per night).

B. A $125 bottle of bourbon made especially for the Oxford Hotel’s “Laws Whiskey House Experience,” which also includes a tour of the Laws Whiskey House distillery in Denver (from $239 per night).

B. Puppies! “Choose Your Happy” (from $229 per night) at the Curtis hotel is the result of a partnership with a local shelter to bring adoptable—and adorable—pups to your room.

C. Your great-grandmother’s pumpkin pie. Splurge on “Holidays at Cloud Camp” (from $40,000 for three to four nights), and staff at the Broadmoor’s Colorado Springs wilderness retreat will cook a feast using your family recipes.

C. An in-room keg, an indulgence included in the $275-a-night “Beer Lovers” package at Gravity Haus. This new hotel at the base of Breckenridge’s Peak Nine also offers memberships with perks like lodging discounts and dedicated ski lockers.

SPA TREATMENTS

LESSONS

A. Himalayan salt caves. Spend 45 minutes lounging in a manmade cavern encrusted with sodium that’s said to ease respiratory issues as part of Broomfield’s Omni Interlocken Hotel’s two-night, $750 “Breathe Deep” special.

A. Team sorting, the Western equestrian sport of separating cattle into pens. Master your riding skills during the “Great Grownup Getaway” at Loveland’s Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch (August 9 to 15, $2,400 per person; September 13 to 18, $1,675 per person).

B. A beer pedicure. After a day in ski boots, participants in the “Brews, Bindings & Backcountry” weekend (marketed to men and available throughout ski season, $4,362 per person) at the Sebastian in Vail can soak their toes in Bonfire Brewing’s Kindler Pale Ale.

B. Mushroom foraging. The main feature of “Mountains & Morels” at Hotel Telluride is available August 1 to 27 (from $1,849 for three nights for two fungi fans).

C. In-room Botox, if you drop $1,200 per night for “Check In At 50, Check Out At 30” at the Jacquard in Cherry Creek.

C. Dog grooming, one of the many ways Hotel Indigo Denver’s “Pawsome Perks,” an $800-per-night package available all summer, teaches you how to be the ultimate pup parent. LIES: Food & Drink, A; In-Room Amenities, C; Spa Treatments, A; Lessons, C

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Photo illustration by Sean Parsons. Source images: Getty Images (14)

—ANGELA UFHEIL