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THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 2
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Bigger, Better & Beefier Welcome to the 11th annual Gazette Best of the Springs The ballots are in — all 1,241 of them. That’s about 900 more reader responses than Best of the Springs has ever received. Our giveaways of $1,000 in cash and prizes, doled out randomly to those who filled out surveys (congrats to the winners!) might have had something to do with that. Readers voted on 50 categories. Our staff weighed in on those and about 350 more. The collective result is the biggest, most comprehensive and meaty Best of the Springs ever. Whether you’re a longtime resident or a newcomer, we hope you find this a useful guide to the riches our region has to offer. The “American Gothic” theme in this year’s section refers to the masterpieces the winners represent. From the Best Chocolate Dessert to the Best Bathrooms, we are recognizing true works of art. Grant Wood’s iconic painting also says something about the Pikes Peak region, where the West meets
Our staff of experts took nominations from the public and did months of research to arrive at their choices. If fact, we think the reporter assigned to find Best Martini is still doing research . . . on her own time and dime. Talk about dedication. WHERE IS “THE SPRINGS”? We define the Springs rather loosely here. Most of the time, we tried to keep our picks within the Pikes Peak region, although we strayed a bit farther for our skiing-related categories. But we did resist the temptation to go to the Swiss Alps.
Middle America to create a beautiful place to live. THE PROCESS Readers voted online and by mail for their favorites.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
STAFF SECTION EDITOR Warren Epstein DESIGNERS David Demi-Smith, Nichole Montañez, Stephen Olver COPY EDITORS Linda Doty, Carmen Hall, Kristin Marsh, Amanda Sears, Rhonda Van Pelt PHOTOGRAPHERS Molly Hauxwell and Mark Reis WRITERS Deb Acord, Mark Arnest, Paul Asay, Jay Beeton, Milo Bryant, Warren Epstein, Molly Hauxwell, Kerry McGinley, Jen Mulson, Linda Navarro, Dave Philipps, RyAnne Scott, Ed Sealover, J. Adrian Stanley, Andrew Wineke
ON THE COVER Local actors Sue Bachman and Bob Pinney can be seen on the cover and throughout this section as the Springs version of Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” couple. Photos by The Gazette’s Mark Reis. Cover design by Nichole Montañez.
ONLINE See more images from Best of the Springs at www.gazette.com
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 3
YOUR FEEDBACK Disagree with our staff picks or readers’ choices? Let us know. Are there categories we should add for next year? Give us you ideas. Please send comments to wepstein@gazette.com or Warren Epstein, The Gazette, P.O. Box 1779, Colorado Springs 80901.
CITY LIFE — Page 27 You’ll meet fascinating people: a receptionist with the happiest voice outside of DisneyLand, a tarot reader who’s also a notary public. You’ll get reacquainted with old friends: Your favorite anchorwoman, the friendliest DJs. And you’ll explore cool places: a haunted inn, a church with comfortable seats, an annual drive-through Christmas display.
SHOPPING Page 52
PHOTOS BY MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
DINING — Page 6 This is the first and chunkiest section, for good reason. You spend more of your dollars going out to eat than on any other form of entertainment. Our Dining Guide outlines the broad categories — Best Fine Dining, Best Seafood, Best Chinese, etc. — and also the specifics — Best Hamburger, Best Chicken Wing, Best Calamari (a specialty of Franco Pisani of Paravicini’s, pictured above). Dig in. The eatin’s fine.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT — Page 44 Looking for a place to line dance to Tim McGraw? Wondering where to find the best karaoke or the best outdoor festival? It’s all here. This section also recognizes greatness from the past year in the arts. Best Actor. Best Drama. Best Church Production. These are our local Oscars, and the winners are . . .
RECREATION — Page 63 Uncle Irving is in town and he wants to do something in “those mountains over there.” We have a few ideas, such as the best mountain bike trail and the best moderate hike. Don’t forget your water bottle. It’s dry here.
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
Grab your shopping bags, warm up your credit cards and get ready for some conspicuous consumption. We will guide you to the most fun and edgy stores in the region. We’ll tell you where to find great shoes, imported hammers and even gifts for your cat.
FAMILY Page 60 The Subaru is loaded up and headed for a family outing. We’ll steer you toward the hottest spots for kids, and even outings for Mom and Dad.
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INDEX BY CATEGORY
ACCESSIBLE TRAIL: Page 65 ADVENTURE DAY TRIP: Page 66 AL FRESCO DINING: Page 16 ANTIQUES: Page 56 ARCADE GAME: Page 62 ARCHITECTURE: Page 36 ART GALLERY: Page 47 ASIAN MARKET: Page 53 AUCTION: Page 57 BABY STORE: Page 58 BAGEL: Page 12 BAND THAT LETS YOU PLAY TAMBOURINE: Page 49 BAR DOG: Page 39 BARBECUE: Page 22 BARTENDER: Page 31 BATHROOM READ: Page 28 BATHROOM: Page 32 BED AND BREAKFAST: Page 40 BIKE SHOP: Page 54 BIKINI WAXER: Page 38 BILLBOARD: Page 28 BLAB: Page 28 BLING: Page 56 BLUES CLUB: Page 49 BOOKSTORE: Page 57 BREAD FOR PEOPLE ALLERGIC TO WHEAT: Page 16 BREAD: Page 16 BREAKFAST: Page 12 BREAKFAST DEAL: Page 12 BREAKFAST PASTRIES: Page 17 BREW PUB: Page 26 BRISKET: Page 22 BUFFALO: Page 14 BUFFET: Page 16 BULL IN A CHINA SHOP: Page 50 BURGER: Page 17 BURRITO: Page 16 BUS DRIVER: Page 40 BUSINESS TREND: Page 39 BUTCHER: Page 58 CAKE: Page 14 CALAMARI: Page 16 CAMPGROUND: Page 66 CAR DEALER WAITING ROOM: Page 42 CARD SHOP: Page 56 CATERER: Page 26 CELL TOWER: Page 28 CEMETERY CARETAKER: Page 31 CHAIN RESTAURANT: Page 8 CHAIN SHOE STORE: Page 59 CHANDELIER: Page 50 CHANDELIER PARODY: Page 50
KIDDIE RIDE: Page 62 GETAWAY FOR DAD: Page 61 CHEAP HAIRCUT AND STYLE: Page 28 KIDS CONSIGNMENT SHOP: Page 58 GETAWAY FOR MOM: Page 61 CHINESE: Page 21 KOREAN: Page 21 GIFT SHOP: Page 54 CHINESE BUFFET: Page 16 LARGE CLASSICAL CONCERT: Page 45 GO-KARTS: Page 62 CHINESE FUSION: Page 21 LARGE CONCERT: Page 45 GOLF COURSE: Page 66 CHIPS AND SALSA: Page 16 LAWN ART: Page 50 GOURMET SHOP: Page 57 CHOCOLATE DESSERTS: Page 14 LIBRARIAN: Page 38 GREEK: Page 22 CHOCOLATE: Page 26 LIQUOR STORE: Page 57 GREEN CHILI: Page 16 CHRISTIAN STORE: Page 58 LIVE MUSIC VENUE: Page 46 GYRO: Page 16 CHRISTMAS DRIVE-THROUGH: Page LOCAL ACTOR: Page 48 36 HAIR SALON: Page 28 LOCAL ACTRESS: Page 48 CHURCH ARCHITECTURE: Page 36 HAIR STYLISTS: Page 28 LOCAL BAND: Page 49 CHURCH PRODUCTION: Page 49 HAPPY HOUR: Page 34 LOCAL BAND’S SONG LYRIC: Page 51 CHURCH SEATS: Page 35 HAUNTED HOUSE: Page 62 LOCAL BREW: Page 26 CLIMBING WALL: Page 66 HAUTE COMFORT FOOD: Page 24 LOCAL CD: Page 46 COFFEE PLACE: Page 20 HIGH-FASHION WOMEN’S SHOP: Page LOCAL CELEBRITY: Page 30 58 COFFEE: Page 20 LOCAL CELEBRITY CHEF: Page 30 HIKE FOR OUT-OF-TOWNERS: Page 65 COLORADO CUISINE: Page 24 LOCAL COMMERCIAL: Page 30 HIKE WITH A VIEW: Page 65 COUNTRY & WESTERN CLUB: Page 45 LOCAL HIP-HOP GROUP: Page 49 HIKE: Page 65 COVER BAND: Page 49 LOCAL SINGER-SONGWRITER: Page HOBBY STORE: Page 55 CRAB CAKES: Page 16 49 CRIPPLE CREEK CASINO: Page MALAYSIAN: Page 21 47 MARGARITA: Page 17 CROSSING GUARD: Page 41 MARTINI: Page 26 CRUISER BIKE SHOP: Page 54 MARTINI BAR: Page 26 DATE PLACE WHEN YOU'RE NOT MASSAGE THERAPIST: Page 34 TRYING TO IMPRESS: Page 12 MATZO BALL SOUP: Page 16 DATE PLACE WHEN YOU'RE TRYMEXICAN APPETIZER: Page 16 ING TO IMPRESS: Page 11 MEXICAN BUFFET: Page 16 DAY SPA: Page 28 MEXICAN DESSERT: Page 16 DELI: Page 16 MEXICAN MARKET: Page 53 DINER: Page 17 MEXICAN: Page 20 DINNER THEATER: Page 48 MINIATURE GOLF: Page 62 DIVE BAR: Page 46 MOROCCAN: Page 24 MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE DIVORCE LAWYER: Page 43 BEST BARTENDER: Jonathan Shankland pours MOTEL: Page 39 DJ CLUB: Page 46 one of 15C’s classic martinis at the swanky, back- MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAIL FOR BEDOGGIE DAY CARE: Page 42 street bar, 15 N. Tejon St. GINNERS: Page 64 DOUGHNUT: Page 17 MOUNTAIN TRAIL: Page 65 DRY CLEANER: Page 35 MOVIE THEATER: Page 48 HOLIDAY MAKEOVER: Page 38 ECLECTIC TAKEOUT: Page 16 MUSEUM EXHIBIT: Page 45 ENSEMBLE: Page 49 HOME CONSIGNMENT SHOP: Page 54 MUSIC STORE: Page 57 EXOTIC FISH STORE: Page 57 HOME FURNISHINGS: Page 54 MUSICAL: Page 48 FAMILY RESTAURANT: Page 10 HOME IMPROVEMENT STORE: Page 54 NATURAL FOODS STORE: Page 57 FAMILY URBAN DAY TRIP: Page 61 HOT DOG: Page 16 NATURE WALK: Page 67 FARMERS MARKET: Page 53 HOTEL MARQUEE: Page 42 NEPALESE: Page 21 FAST FOOD: Page 11 HOTEL/RESORT: Page 39 NEW AGE STORE: Page 58 FESTIVAL: Page 50 HUMMUS: Page 16 NEW NIGHTCLUB: Page 50 FINE DINING: Page 10 ICE CREAM: Page 14 NEW RESTAURANT: Page 8 FISH AND CHIPS: Page 25 ICE SKATING: Page 66 NEW STORE: Page 53 FISH TACO: Page 17 INDEPENDENT SHOE STORE: Page 59 NEW SUPERMARKET: Page 53 FISHING SPOT: Page 67 INDIAN BUFFET: Page 16 NOVELTY SHOP: Page 54 FONDUE: Page 25 INDIAN: Page 21 ONION RINGS: Page 16 FOUNTAIN: Page 36 INDOOR ART FOR TOURISTS: 46 OPEN MIC: Page 50 FREE ENTERTAINMENT: Page 49 INSANE MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAIL: Page OUTDOOR ART FOR TOURISTS: 46 64 FREE SAMPLES: Page 25 OUTDOOR MUSIC VENUE: Page 46 ITALIAN: Page 20 FRENCH ONION SOUP: Page 16 OUTDOOR STORE: Page 55 JAMAICAN RESTAURANT: Page 24 FRIED CHICKEN: Page 16 OYSTERS: Page 16 JAPANESE: Page 20 GALLERY SHOW: Page 47 PARK: Page 64 JUNKHOUSE: Page 38 GAY BAR: Page 46 PERFORMING ARTS COLLABORATION: KARAOKE SINGER: Page 50 GERMAN: Page 24 Page 45
Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 4
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INDEX BY CATEGORY PHONE DIRECTORY VOICE: Page 42 PICO DE GALLO: Page 16 PIE: Page 14 PIZZA: Page 17 TAMALES: Page 25 PLACE FOR 24-HOUR BREAKTAQUERIA TRUCK: Page 25 FASTS: Page 24 TAQUERIA: Page 17 PLACE FOR A “BIG LEBOWSKI” TAROT CARD READER/ PARTY: Page 51 NOTARY PUBLIC: Page 34 PLACE FOR A KIDS’ PARTY: Page TAXI DRIVER: Page 40 62 TEA: Page 16 PLACE FOR BIG FISH TALES: TEJANO BAR: Page 47 Page 59 TENNIS COURTS: Page 66 PLACE FOR DANCERS WITH A THAI: Page 21 BROKEN POINTE: Page 31 PLACE FOR GLASSES: Page 39 THEATER COMPANY: Page 48 PLACE FOR KARAOKE: Page 50 THEATRICAL COMEDY: Page PLACE FOR VEGANS: Page 11 48 PLACE FOR YOUR DOG TO SNIFF THEATRICAL DRAMA: Page OTHER DOGS’ BUTTS: Page 42 48 PLACE TO EAT AFTER MIDNIGHT: MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE THEMED DINNERS: Page 11 Page 24 BEST SANDBOX: Owen White, 3, plays in The Manizoo. The tile-walled sandbox features mo- THING IN BRIARGATE: Page PLACE TO FIND BARGAINS: Page saic animals and a fun design that encloses the sand. 38 53 THING IN FALCON: Page 37 PLACE TO GET EDUCATED (beTHING IN FOUNTAIN: Page fore you buy a 55-inch LCoS SEAT AT THE PIKES PEAK CENTER: QUICK SERVE: Page 16 37 HDTV): Page 55 Page 51 QUOTE FROM DOUGLAS BRUCE: Page THING IN MONUMENT: Page 37 PLACE TO GET MARRIED: Page 43 36 SEAT AT THE WORLD ARENA: Page 51 THING IN WOODLAND PARK: Page 37 PLACE TO GET THROWN: Page 62 QUOTE FROM RUNNING, SCREAMING SELF-SERVICE GAS STATION: Page 39 THING ON ACADEMY BOULEVARD: PLACE TO GET YOUR FREAK ON: Page MAN: Page 36 SHADY WALK: Page 66 Page 36 51 QUOTES FROM MAYOR LIONEL RIVSINGLE-MALT SCOTCH TASTING: Page THING ON NEVADA: Page 37 PLACE TO GET YOUR GEEK ON: Page 51 ERA: Page 36 16 THING IN PALMER LAKE: Page 37 PLACE TO GET YOUR GREEK ON: Page RADIO PERSONALITIES: Page 32 SKATE PARK: Page 66 THING ON POWERS: Page 37 51 RADIO STATION THAT PLAYS RESKIING FOR BEGINNERS: Page 64 THING ON TEJON: Page 38 PLACE TO GHOSTBUST: Page 35 QUESTS: Page 32 SKIING FOR THE THRILL OF IT, NEARTHRIFT STORE: Page 56 PLACE TO MAKE YOURSELF HIPPER: RADIO STATION: Page 32 BY: Page 64 Page 58 TOY STORE FOR ADULTS: Page 53 REALLY CHEAP MEXICAN LUNCH: SKIING FOR THE THRILL OF IT, WITH TOY STORE FOR KIDS: Page 53 PLACE TO MEET THE LOVE OF YOUR Page 17 A LONG DRIVE: Page 64 LIFE: Page 43 TRUSTY MECHANIC: Page 38 RECEPTIONIST: Page 41 SKI RESORT, BIG: Page 64 PLACE TO PIMP YOUR RIDE: Page 42 TV ANCHOR: Page 33 RELIEF ORGANIZATION: Page 35 SKI RESORT, SMALL: Page 64 PLACE TO POP THE QUESTION: Page TV NEWS HOTTIE, FEMALE: Page 33 RESTAURANT FOR BANQUETS: Page 11 SKI SHOP: Page 57 43 TV NEWS HOTTIE, MALE: Page 33 RESTAURANT WITH AN ATTITUDE: SKI-SLOPE FOOD: Page 25 PLACE TO SEE 66-MILLION-YEARPage 10 TV REPORTER: Page 33 SMALL CONCERT VENUE: Page 46 OLD CARNIVORES: Page 39 ROCK STAR DAY JOB: Page 51 UNDERGROUND ARTS EVENT: Page 51 SMALL CONCERT: Page 45 PLACE TO TAKE GRANDKIDS: Page 62 ROLLER SKATING: Page 66 UNUSUAL THERAPY: Page 34 SMELLING CAFE: Page 16 PLACE TO TAKE KIDS: Page 61 ROMANTIC RESTAURANT: Page 10 URBAN TRAIL: Page 65 SMOOTHIE: Page 16 PLACE TO TAKE OUT-OF-TOWN VISIRUMOR: Page 36 VALUE FOR YOUR QUARTERS IN CRIPTORS: Page 36 SOUP: Page 22 PLE CREEK: Page 14 SALAD BAR: Page 25 PLACE TO VOLUNTEER: Page 34 SPA: Page 30 VEGGIE BURGER: Page 12 SALAD: Page 12 PLACE TO WATCH THE SUNSET: Page SPORTS BAR: Page 46 VIDEO STORE: Page 57 SANDBOX: Page 62 66 SPORTS COMPLEX: Page 66 VIETNAMESE: Page 22 SANDWICH: Page 14 PLACE TO WI-FI: Page 39 SPOT FOR A PICNIC: Page 38 WAIT STAFF: Page 12 SCENIC DRIVE: Page 33 PLANT NURSERY: Page 56 STEAK: Page 20 WEEKLY POKER GAME: Page 47 SCHOOL FIELD TRIP: Page 39 POET: Page 50 STORE CATS: Page 39 WHITE-WATER THRILL: Page 65 SCOTCH EGGS: Page 16 POOL HALL: Page 47 STREET PERFORMER: Page 45 WINE BAR: Page 26 SEAFOOD: Page 18 PUB CRAWL: Page 34 SUNDAY BRUNCH: Page 14 WINE DINNERS: Page 11 SEAT AT SEAT AT THE CINEMARK PUBLIC ORIGAMI: Page 36 SUPERMARKET SANDWICHES: Page IMAX THEATRE: Page 51 WINE SHOP: Page 57 PUBLIC POOL: Page 66 16 SEAT AT THE FINE ARTS CENTER: WINGS: Page 25 PUERTO RICAN AND CUBAN: Page 25 SUSHI: Page 18 Page 51 WONTONS: Page 16 QUESADILLA: Page 25 SUSHI WORK OF ART: Page 18 SEAT AT THE LON CHANEY THEATER: ZOO ANIMALS: Page 31 Page 51 QUICHE: Page 16
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BEST OF THE SPRINGS 7
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Candle Light Carryout Candle Light Carryout Pickup your Romantic Dinner with a candle and enjoy a relaxing meal in your home. Complete meals to go. We’ll do the work.
All En Pric trees Und ed er $ 20
Please call ahead Enjoy dining in-house or on our patio Piano Live Entertainment Catering Now Available
115 East Dale St • 578-7998
Thank You
From all of your friends at
BEST NEW RESTAURANT Elephant Bar Restaurant Nevermind that it’s been open for a couple of years now, the Elephant Bar, with its whimsical safari decor, eclectic menu and delicious artichoke dip continues to feel like the cute new kid in school. Kids especially like the Banana Republic-meets-Rainforest Cafe theme, and grownups like the happy hour. 7585 N. Academy Blvd.
READERS’ CHOICE
GO! CHOICE: Carlos’ Bistro Having been in and around the restaurant business for decades, Carlos Echeandia gets his own place and wows us right off the bat. Stunningly prepared and lovingly presented seafood and meat dishes — many with South American and Italian accents — in a charmingly informal atmosphere make for a great meal every visit. 1025 S. 21st St. Worthy contender: Caspian Cafe, Blue Vervain
BEST CHAIN RESTAURANT Chili’s 21
S. Tejon Street • 385-0766 www.jackquinnspub.com
READERS’ CHOICE
You want your baby back, baby back ribs. You want your
MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
Best New Restaurant: Ted and Huey Johnson eat at Carlos’ Bistro, which has a consistently good menu and an oyster bar. The GO! pick is at 1025 S. 21st Street, far from the parking circus downtown.
14 flavors of margaritas. You want your charbroiled burgers with those tasty onion straws on top and those sizzling fajita platters (don’t touch that plate, it’s hot!). Chili’s has it all, and it serves everything with unerring consistency. You go to Chili’s, you know what you’re going to get. Chili’s edged out Red Robin and Outback Steak-
house to win this distinction. 5807 N. Academy Blvd., 1706 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd., 2890 New Center Point GO! CHOICE:
P.F. Chang’s China Bistro Chinese cuisine fuses with American tastes at Chang’s, SEE DINING x PAGE 10
NEW
Senior Menu 4-6 Daily
Great Dinners from $3.99 1 block of Powers on Fountain Blvd. Just Look for the Plane
in the Springs!
The finest in Sushi, Tempura & authentic Japanese cuisine. 1760 Dublin Blvd. off Academy Blvd ◆ 531-9368 Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 8
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06 20 05
w e N t s e B t r o s e R n i a t n u Mo
1, 2 and 3 bedroom models Secure gated community Year-round access
Only 23 miles from Breckenridge PRE-CONSTRUCTION PRICES
From Only $129,000 The resort is located in the historic town of Fairplay in the heart of the central Colorado Rockies. To learn more, please call our sales office or visit our website at:
1.877.836.9747 http://www.whisperingaspen.com
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 9
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
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Voted “The Best” Chinese Cuisine & Ambiance in The Springs 5 Years in a Row by Readers’ Choice & The Gazette
Elegant Fine Dining and Lounge
Consistently Serving You The Best Silver Pond is Always Worth The Trip
Specializing in Hunan, Cantonese, Szechwan & Mandarin The Most Extensive Vegetarian Menu Gift Certificates Available • Open 7 Days Lunch & Dinner • Banquet Facilities Available for Parties or Business Meetings • Reservations Suggested
Come Enjoy Our Authentic Food! Thank You for Your Continued Patronage
594-9343 • 5670 N. Academy Blvd. www.bestsilverpondchinese.com
Happy Hour M-F 5:00-6:30 Plus Bar Menu
FINE DINING HOURS: Lunch: Mon. - Fri. 11am-2pm Dinner: Mon. - Sat. 5:30-9pm
Thank You s g Colorado Sprin for Your ort Continued Supp
NEW LOCATION: 146 E. Cheyenne Mtn Blvd. Reservations Suggested OpenTable.com
HISTORIC
Voted Best Buffalo
-Gazette, 2004
CREEKSIDE DINING 2 Creekside decks now open!
Try Our Revised Summer Menu! Featuring : Buffalo Steak au Poivre, Prime Rib, Trout, Free Range Elk, Vodka Shrimp, Salmon, Chicken Marsala, Steak Oscar, Mediterranean Pasta and Much More!
Early Bird Discounts & Happy Hour Every Night 4:30-5:30 p.m. Open Nightly 4:30 p.m.
Downtown Manitou Springs 685-9400 Reservations Recommended
FROM PAGE 8
and the results are absolutely delicious. The chicken lettuce wraps, spiked with a little hot sauce, should be at the top of any food pyramid. We also appreciate the care taken to meet special diets with special menus. 1725 Briargate Parkway in The Shops at Briargate Worthy contenders: Carrabba’s, Biaggi’s, Ted’s Montana Grill, Noodles & Company, Buca di Beppo
BEST FINE DINING
game-inspired menu, a full complement of tastings, salads that would make a rabbit cry tears of joy and desserts that will stop your heart. Walter himself will be around to ensure your thorough satisfaction. The man is tireless, and his dedication comes through in every dish. 146 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd. Worthy contenders: La Petite Maison, The Cliff House at Pikes Peak, Briarhurst Manor Estate, The Blue Star, Black Bear Restaurant
BEST FAMILY
The RESTAURANT Peppertree Red Robin READERS’ Restaurant It’s not just The ultiCHOICE about the poor mate date resREADERS’ fool walking taurant. The view from the CHOICE around in a big bluff overlooking the twinkling
tertainment than background; and its servings are generous enough to feed, well, the family. Buca meets all those criteria and offers tasty Italian food as well, served family-style. 7252 N. Academy Blvd.
BEST ROMANTIC RESTAURANT GO! CHOICE: The Cliff House at Pikes Peak It’s the best of both worlds: Food prepared by award-winning chefs and a property voted one of the “Top Ten Romantic Inns of the Decade” by American Historic Inns. The dining room is one of the most charming in the city, with tables spread with Damask linens and set with Riedel crystal, Villroy and Boch china, Christofle Hotel flatware and fresh flowers. It’s what worldclass romantic dining is about. 306 Cañon Ave., Manitou Springs Worthy contender: Mona Lisa Gourmet Cafe & Fondue
red bird suit. It’s about the combination of stuff for adults (booze, top-notch burgers) and kids (video games, fine burgers). Red Robin knows how to cater to children without creating that out-of-control, kidsrunning-and-yelling, playground atmosphere you find at GO! CHOICE: The Blue Star its competitors. The ambience Sophisticated and aggresis colorful and vibrant without sively hip, The Blue Star refusbeing too cheesy. GO! CHOICE: Walter’s Bistro es to age or mellow. Four locations A meal here gives you the It’s a restaurant and bar complete package: impeccable that could be air-lifted and service, top-notch meals and el- GO! CHOICE: Buca di Beppo dropped into San Francisco or Here’s how we define “fami- New York, and it would fit egant surroundings. Walter Iser is a man with a mission: to ly restaurant” — it’s loud right in. see that you get the best dining enough that your not-so-per1645 S. Tejon St. experience in the Springs fect kids won’t annoy others; every time you walk through it’s got stuff to look at on the his door. He does this with a walls and music that’s more enSEE DINING x PAGE 11 city lights is spectacular, the decor is romantic and the tableside flambéed Steak Diane and Steak Au Poivre are legendary. The Peppertree’s reputation for being the region’s best aphrodisiac keeps it booked up for Valentine’s Day months ahead of time. 888 W. Moreno St.
BEST RESTAURANT WITH AN ATTITUDE
starting in
Look
June Wednes day Nig hts Blue
ew for N Side East tion Loca ng Comi er umm S s i Th Southern Style Barbeque & Homecooked Meals, including Tender-Smoked Ribs, Pulled Pork, Beef Brisket, Chicken, & Sausage. Sides & Homemade Desserts made from scratch.
gr on t ass h Pati e o Su
Jaso ndays n A Maso lex n
Thank You Voted Best BBQ The Gazette 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004
2330 Colorado Ave
632-2596
Happy Hour: Daily 3-6 Live Music Wednesdays 7-9 Open Tues – Sun 11:00 am for lunch & dinner Closed Mondays
www.frontrangebarbeque.com
Friday, May 20, 2005
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FROM PAGE 10
BEST WINE DINNERS
BEST THEMED DINNERS Sencha Sencha’s legREADERS’ endary literary CHOICE dinner series has taken on some of the great foodie books and movies, such as “Like Water for Chocolate” and “Fried Green Tomatoes.” Theysell out every time. For each of the dinners in the series, chef Brent Beavers and his crew choose a theme that is acted out by the wait staff and complemented by the food and wine. Cost for the dinners is usually about $65 per person, which does not include gratuity and tax. 331 S. Nevada Ave.
BEST PLACE FOR VEGANS GO! CHOICE: Gertrude’s
Restaurant Chef Robert Wooldridge dreams up gourmet vegan offerings if someone doesn’t see what they want on the menu. For breakfast, there are eggless breakfast burritos, polenta and fresh fruit. At lunch, you can choose from the hummus platter, burritos, a veggie burger or portobello mushroom sandwich, salads and some pastas, which can be made vegan by leaving off the cheese or butter. The dinner menu has a couple of vegan appetizers, salads and pastas. 2625 West Colorado Blvd. Worthy contender: Adam’s Mountain Cafe
GO! CHOICE: IRC dinners A group of restaurateurs from some of the city’s best eateries formed the Independent Restaurant Cooperative. The group has wine dinners each month for which the chefs pull out all the stops to create delicious five-course menus paired with wine. It’s a great way to experience the cooking of these upscale places at the reasonable price of $50 per person plus tax and gratuity. Still in the lineup are: June 14: The Margarita at PineCreek, 7350 Pine Creek Road July 12: Edelweiss Restaurant, 34 E. Ramona August 9: Briarhurst Manor Estate, 404 Manitou Ave. Sept. 13: Jun Japanese Restaurant, 1760 Dublin Blvd. Oct. 11: La Petite Maison, 1015 W. Colorado Ave. Nov. 8: Steel City Diner & Bakeshop, 121 W. B Street in Pueblo
terBurgers: seared, amoebashaped ground-chuck patties on buttered, toasted buns. The smooth and creamy frozen custard creates a stir as well. If that were all it had going for it, Culver’s might have fallen to Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard. But Culver’s keeps on going, with some phenomenally flaky North Atlantic cod filet and killer onion rings. 2925 New Center Point
BEST RESTAURANT FOR BANQUETS GO! CHOICE: The Cliff House at Pikes Peak Most restaurants offer quality or quantity. The Cliff House can do both, serving up 40 perfect wild-green salads, 40 perfect beef tenderloins (minus a few for the fish and veggie people) and 40 perfect servings of crème brulée for you and your employees or wedding guests. 306 Cañon Ave.
BEST DATE PLACE WHEN YOU’RE BEST FAST FOOD TRYING TO IMPRESS Wendy’s Old- GO! CHOICE: The Penrose Room Fashioned READERS’ Hamburgers Wendy’s not CHOICE
only gives us all the great, greasy fast food we love — fresh, never-frozen burgers, substantial fries, tasty country-style chicken strips — it also has been leading the way toward more healthful fast-food options: deluxe salads, fruit bowls, milk instead of soda. Many locations
The courtly atmosphere, the fine cuisine, the lake view, the impeccable service, the eyepopping bill — they all say you have money and you’re willing to spend it to impress the object of your desire. In The Broadmoor hotel at 1 Lake Ave.
SEE DINING x PAGE 12 002
GO! CHOICE: Culver’s This Wisconsin-based fastfood joint is known for its But-
Buy any delicious entree and receive the second of equal or lesser value at 1/2 price with this coupon.
OFFER GOOD SUN - THUR ONLY. Not good in combination with any other offer. Not good on “to go” orders.
*with purchase of drink
D AWA R G N WINNI RITAS! MARGA
FINE MEXICAN FOOD & COCKTAILS
3071 S. Academy • 392-3000 BEST OF THE SPRINGS 11
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
AUTHENTIC GREEK CUISINE together with
Neptune Lakeside Cafe 604 S. Union at Prospect Lake
447-9290 Catering & Takeout Available
Traditional Greek Favorites Appetizers Homemade Desserts Best Greek Wines & Beer Happy hour 2:30–5:00P.M. & Take Out Special
2 FOR 1 Gyros OR Kabobs ONLY $4.50EA.
Place Best to Get aHead. Texas Hold ‘em ~Every Tuesday Night
Karaoke ~Every Tuesday Night
Come Visit us for
Lunch or Dinner Stay for the
“True” Pints!
Live Music ~Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday
Open til 2AM EVERYNIGHT! 06 21 05
520 S. Tejon • (719) 633-3300
www.the wayfarerpub.com BEST OF SPRINGS
05/19/05
11:30
FROM PAGE 11
tal procedure or selecting which sharp object to poke in your eye. Thank goodness we’ve moved on — except for those poor souls on the South Beach diet. And thank goodness for Brooklyn Bagel Cafe, GO! CHOICE: Marigold Cafe & which continues to turn out Bakery tasty loops of concentrated It looks like just a refined carbs. neighborhood bakery. But the 132 N. Tejon St. food — from the gourmet sandwiches to the succulent rack of lamb — rivals the cuisine at the city’s finest. 4605 Centennial Blvd. GO! CHOICE: Adam’s Mountain
BEST DATE PLACE WHEN YOU’RE NOT TRYING TO IMPRESS
BEST VEGGIE BURGER
Cafe
BEST BAGEL GO! CHOICE: Brooklyn
Bagel
Cafe It was just a year ago, during the depths of the Atkins craze, when picking a best bagel wasn’t much different from picking your favorite den-
S T E A K S
The Planet Burger is the most delicious thing to happen to fried meatless mush since, well, ever. Combining nuts, brown rice and cheese into a pleasantly textured and tasty patty, the people at Adam’s surround their fine creation with sunflower seed, Great Harvest
Thanks Colorado Springs! THROUGHOUT THE YEARS YOU’VE VOTED FOR STEAKSMITH AS:
Bread Co. bread, veggies and salad greens. The burger is delightful as is, but is made better with your choice of three decidedly yummy extras: grilled mushrooms, sautéed onions or white cheddar cheese. Worthy contender: Poor Richard’s Restaurant’s “Awesome Veggie Burger”
GO! CHOICE: Charles Court How pleasantly shocked we were to find the staff at this old-money institution to be, well, jocular. Not only are they not snooty, but your dining experience will be enhanced by the down-to-earth, yet thoroughly knowledgeable, Charles Court team. There are a lot of parts to this machine, from the waterand-napkin guy to the wine purveyors to the waitress who takes your food order. Any of them could slip up and bring the curtain down, but that’s not likely to happen. What you’ll get is superior service and maybe a few laughs besides. How refreshing. In The Broadmoor hotel at 1 Lake Ave.
RESERVATIONS
MI
596-9300
WWW.STEAKSMITH.COM
TH
with fine seafood
BEST SALAD GO! CHOICE: Marigold MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
Best Veggie Burger: Adam’s Mountain Cafe’s Planet Burger blends nuts, brown rice and cheese, with three tasty toppings to choose from.
BEST BREAKFAST GO! CHOICE: Broadway Delicatessen & Restaurant Lox, eggs and onions. Pastrami and eggs. Real corned-beef hash. A fresh poppyseed bagel with a nice schmear of cream cheese.
B o oe th in! a Vill • Dinner Show $2400 • Show Only $1300 • Child, Senior, Group Rates
SAME LOCAL OWNER SINCE 1981
Authentic Mexican breakfast burritos with egg and homemade chorizo for $1.39. The fast-food chains can’t beat that. Five locations
Colorado’s Fun Melodrama
FAMILY STYLE DINNER
THE STANDARD FOR EXCELLENCE
GO! CHOICE: Las Casita Patio Cafe’s breakfast burrito
The Iron Springs Chateau
- GAZETTE
- GAZETTE
BEST BREAKFAST DEAL
BEST WAIT STAFF
• ALL-TIME FAVORITE RESTAURANT IN COLORADO SPRINGS (2 TIME WINNER!) - GAZETTE • BEST STEAK (11 TIME WINNER INCLUDING 2003!) • BEST WAITSTAFF (4 TIME WINNER!) - GAZETTE • BEST DINNER - GAZETTE • BEST SEAFOOD - GAZETTE • BEST SERVICE - GAZETTE • BEST BARTENDER - GAZETTE • C.S. HALL OF FAME MEMBER
It’s like you died and went to Brooklyn. 24 S. Tejon St.
Cafe
& Bakery You know a salad is amazing when you’re in the middle of a heaping forkful, and you suddenly blurt out, “This is the best salad EVER!” True story. It happened to us. We almost needed a cigarette afterward. The Nicoise (nee-swah) Salad is a dream come true, with greens, a heaping portion of tuna salad, hardboiled egg, red onions, artichoke hearts, green beans, tomatoes, sprouts, Kalamata olives, potatoes and an amazingly tangy house vinaigrette on the side. 4605 Centennial Blvd. Worthy contenders: Fanz, Poor Richard’s Restaurant, Shuga’s
Che th er Her e o!
“Farther North to Laughter” MELODRAMA, SING-ALONG INTERMISSION, MUSICAL COMEDY REVUE
SEE DINING x PAGE 14
RESERVATIONS 685-5104 OPEN MID APRIL TO MID OCTOBER IN MANITOU SPRINGS ACROSS FROM PIKES PEAK COG RAILWAY
Amanda’s Fonda
Tajine Alami AUTHENTIC MOROCCAN RESTAURANT
Mediterranean Nights
NO W REOPENED!! At our original 1625 W. Unitah location. Come & join Mark & Amanda for dinner or lunch at the Unitah Fonda! “Best Mexican Restaurant” ‘98, ‘99, ‘00, ‘01, ‘02, ‘03, & ‘04 Gazette & Peoples Choice
“Best Mexican Restaurant” ‘99, ‘00, ‘01, ‘02, ‘03, & ‘04 Independent Magazine
Chef’s Gala Award M-F 11:30-9, Sat / Sun 12-9
1625 W. Unitah • 633-5585
and
Belly Dancing with
Live Band
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Good For 1 FREE Order of BUNUELOS
Wednesday, May 25th 10 O LD M AN ’ S T RAIL
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Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
M ANITOU S PRINGS
685-1119
R ESERVATIONS S UGGESTED • O PEN 5-9 WWW. TAJINEALAMI . COM
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 12
05/19/05
11:31
06 20 05
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 13
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
05/19/05
11:31
FROM PAGE 12
BEST BUFFALO GO! CHOICE: Ted’s Montana Grill Here it’s all about huge hunks of bison: burgers, steaks, meatloaf, short ribs. And, it’s all cooked perfectly and served attractively. 1685 Briargate Parkway
BEST SANDWICH GO! CHOICE: Shuga’s
Eastern
Shore A sandwich that looks as good as it tastes, Shuga’s Eastern Shore panini is layered with Virginia ham, Swiss, tomato, red onions, mustard and mayo. And Shuga’s trendy digs are a nice place to enjoy it. 702 S. Cascade Ave.
230 Point of the Pines Drive Worthy contenders: The Broadmoor’s Lake Terrace DinGO! CHOICE: Sunbird Restaurant ing Room and Cheyenne MounThis brunch is such a treat, tain Resort GO! CHOICE: Cut Above Buffet at Sunday should come more Womacks Hotel & Casino than once a week. Relaxing If there’s a classic casino music, a spectacular view of dining experience, it’s this: a the city, an attentive wait staff, Cold Stone buffet. Casino buffets can be casual elegance and an excelscary (think about Randy Creamery lent variety of dishes. The staQuaid’s character in “National READERS’ tions start off with cappuccino The king of CHOICE the mix-in joints, Lampoon’s Las Vegas Vacaand move to omelets, fresh pasta, ham and roast beef, waf- Cold Stone specializes in rich, tion” proclaiming “The bread fles and the save-for-the-finale premium ice cream folded in pudding is extra runny toBananas Foster. The flow takes with candies, fruits, cookies, night!”) or impressive. The Cut you past breakfast specialties cakes, sauces. Check out the Above Buffet at Womacks such as eggs Benedict to hearti- Founder’s Favorite combo — Hotel & Casino is, thankfully, er entrees including Mexican Sweet Cream ice cream with the latter. The upstairs buffet dishes and a seafood table. pecans, brownie, fudge and car- features a meat table with tender, well-seasoned prime rib, a Don’t miss the crab-and-fruit amel. Classic. Delicious. fresh and interesting salad bar, combo at the salad site or the Five locations and a variety of other entrees heavenly desserts. Now for the to fill your plate. We dare you surprise: the price — $22.95 GO! CHOICE: Josh & John’s to eat your salad and entree befor adults, $17.95 seniors. Even Homemade Ice Cream fore venturing to the dessert better, go early, 9 to 10 a.m., Make it an ice cream adven- area, which offers a staggering and it’s just $17.95 for adults. ture. Sure, vanilla and choco- array of cakes, cheesecake, late are just dandy — especial- cookies and other goodies. The ly doused with hot fudge — but dinner buffet is open Friday how about Oreo cookie ice and Saturday. (There’s also a cream with chunked Oreos in- breakfast buffet on Sunday — side. Or oatmeal cookie ice call for information.) Join the cream that’s a lick away from Gold Club (it’s free) and dinner memories of sneaking the cook- is $9.95. Don’t join and pay ie dough at home. For those $13.95. who’ve wondered why there 200-220 E. Bennett Ave., are liquor bottles in an ice Cripple Creek cream store, go for a double scoop of Jack Daniels or Irish Cream and wonder no more. 111 E. Pikes Peak Ave., 5152 N. Academy Blvd. GO! CHOICE: Walter’s Bistro Worthy contenders: Maggie The pastry/dessert chef at Moo’s, Michelle’s, Colorado Walter’s must have cut a deal Creamery with some well-connected deni-
BEST SUNDAY BRUNCH
BEST VALUE FOR YOUR QUARTERS IN CRIPPLE CREEK
BEST ICE CREAM
6 restaurants in the world can prepare perfect steaks... 4 are in Argentina.
BEST CHOCOLATE DESSERTS
zen of Hades. The lava cakes she puts out cannot possibly come from human hands. There was one in a trio a few months back that shared a plate with a chocolate shot glass filled with chocolate-mint liqueur. The one currently on the menu has a chocolate-cinnamon ooze that is indescribably good. 146 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd.
BEST PIE GO! CHOICE: The Corner Cafe A confession: our ritual at the Corner Cafe is to eat the pie first and ask questions later. That’s not to imply anything negative about the sandwiches; it’s just that the coconut cream pie is that good. Starting with a perfect, flaky crust and graduating to a lightas-can-be filling that melts away when it hits your tongue, we know you’ll be hooked, just as we are. 7 E. Vermijo Ave.
BEST CAKE GO! CHOICE: Marigold
Cafe
& Bakery So heavenly you won’t want to share. Forget the diet and just savor the top-of-the-line ingredients in the Double Chocolate Mousse Cake, with its Belgian chocolate, 42 percent heavy cream, butter, chocolate ganache and milk chocolate shavSEE DINING x PAGE 16
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Specializing in Prime Grade & Angus Located minutes off I-25 at 945 S. 8th St.
473-9999
ROCKRIMMON/ GARDEN OF THE GODS 4697 Centennial Blvd. Monday-Friday, 8-8 Saturday, 8-6 Sunday, 12-5
Voted “Best of the Springs:” 1997-2003 -The Independent
s.com www.vedasal o n s . c oonm Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 14
05/19/05
11:31
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719-593-1577 BEST OF THE SPRINGS 15
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
05/19/05
11:31
FROM PAGE 14
ings. Yum. 4605 Centennial Blvd. Worthy contenders: Like No Other, etc. and Old Heidelberg Pastry Shop
BEST BREAD GO! CHOICE: Wimberger’s
Old World Bakery and Delicatessen
Hop out of bed early to get in on fresh-from-the-oven dinner rolls so good they won’t last until mealtime. Pretzel rolls, addictive salt sticks, poppyseed rolls, kaiser rolls, onion rolls, hoagies and the Saturday special, vollkorn, with eight grains, sunflower and caraway seeds. Also a Saturday treat starting at 7 a.m.: plenty of free samples. The bakery and deli also features Bavarian pretzels and German meats and cheeses.
2321 Bott Ave. The whole place smells like Worthy contenders: La Ba- fresh-baked brownies, and the guette, Panera selection makes it easy to assemble a wildly inappropriate dessert. The price for adults is $7.29 for breakfast, $6.27 for GO! CHOICE: Golden Corral lunch, $8.39 to 8.99 for dinner; Heat lamps and bland, less for kids and seniors. greasy food give buffets a bad 1970 Waynoka Road name. This is where Golden Worthy contender: Western Corral schools other buffets on Sizzlin’ how it’s done. Everything’s fresh — from piping hot rolls brought to the table to the real bacon bits to the crispy/soft pizza crust. GO! CHOICE: Jade Dragon No matter your diet, there Jade doesn’t try to compete are plenty of options. Going with the 200-items crowd, inlight with a salad, potato and stead opting for quality over grilled chicken? No problem — quantity. The dinner buffet fealow-fat and sugar-free foods tures succulent crab legs and a are marked. Loading up on At- fair assortment of Chinese kins-friendly protein? They’ve standards. But what really got zesty baked fish, smoky bar- throws Jade over the top are becued pork, crispy fried chick- the skewers of shrimp, beef en and about 20 other meat and mushroom that are delivdishes. Desserts are the killer: ered to your table. You can
BEST BUFFET
Dip into something different.®
BEST CHINESE BUFFET
BEST AL FRESCO DINING
READERS’ CHOICE
75
$
Big Night Out For Two
BEST MEXICAN BUFFET
GO! CHOICE: Las Flamas The spread looks modest, but don’t let looks fool you. There are great homemade Mexican specialities here, including the tamales and casseroles. The owner won’t let chiles rellenos sit in a tray and turn to mush, so these outstanding stuffed poblanos come made to order for everybody who orders the buffet. The cost is $7.95 for adults. heat them up at your table on 405 N. Union Blvd. a Pu Pu Platter sterno. The price for adults is $5.95 for lunch, $8.75 for dinner. 3958 N. Academy Blvd. GO! CHOICE: The Wines of
BEST INDIAN BUFFET
Sunday-Thursday Special
the best that the restaurant has to offer. With such wonderful fare as saag, the ultimate mushy spinach dish; fiery chicken korma; cool mango pudding; and naan bread delivered hot and fresh to your table, this exotic buffet has it all. 5644 N. Academy Blvd.
Colorado
If you live up Ute Pass, this place is reason to feel smug. If India Palace you live elsewhere, the drive is worth it for the delicious food This amaz- and spacious creekside patio. ing buffet is Plan to stay awhile to enjoy the like a Greatest relaxing, casual atmosphere Hits CD, sampling some of SEE DINING x PAGE 17
THE FUNNIEST SHOW IN TOWN! Opens Wednesday!
(includes select bottle of wine) The Melting Pot isn’t just for special occasions. Come any evening to relax, unwind and enjoy four courses of fondue, fine wines, and fun.
NOW OPEN 30-A East Pikes Peak Avenue Colorado Springs
(719) 385-0300
Over 80 locations nationwide www.meltingpot.com
with Paul Dwyer as Pseudolus
303-799-1410
www.countrydinnerplayhouse.com Eve: Wed–Sun, Mat: Wed., Sat., Sun. Just off I-25 and Arapahoe Rd. Friday, May 20, 2005
QUICK HITS All GO! staff picks BEST GREEN CHILI: The Loop, 965 Manitou Ave., Manitou Springs BEST CHIPS AND SALSA: Sonterra Grill, 28 S. Tejon St. BEST PICO DE GALLO: Arceo’s, 1605 S. Nevada Ave. BEST BURRITO: Avocado Pork Burrito at El Taco Rey, 330 E. Colorado Ave. BEST MEXICAN APPETIZER: Shrimp Toritos at La Hacienda, 2125 Fountain Blvd. BEST MEXICAN DESSERT: Sweet Enchiladas at Carlos Miguel’s, 730 E. U.S. Highway 24 BEST TEA: Montague’s Parlour, 1019 S. Tejon St. BEST SMELLING CAFE: Spice of Life, 727 Manitou Ave. BEST QUICK SERVE: Chipotle, several locations BEST DELI: Broadway Delicatessen & Restaurant, 24 S. Tejon St. BEST MATZO BALL SOUP: Broadway Delicatessen & Restaurant, 24 S. Tejon St. BEST FRENCH ONION SOUP: La Baguette Cafe, 4440 N. Chestnut St., 1420 Kelly Johnson Blvd., 2417 W. Colorado Ave., 117 E. Pikes Peak Ave. BEST GYRO: Mediterranean Cafe, 118 E. Kiowa St. BEST WONTONS: Saigon Stars, 410 S. 26th St. BEST CALAMARI: Paravicini’s Italian Bistro, 2802 W. Colorado Ave. BEST ONION RINGS: Slayton’s BBQ and Creamery, 806 Village Center Drive BEST BREAD FOR PEOPLE ALLERGIC TO WHEAT: Outside the Breadbox, 1508 W. Colorado Ave. BEST SINGLE-MALT SCOTCH TASTING: Powers Liquor Mart, 5847 Palmer Park Blvd. BEST QUICHE: The CatBird Seat, 323 N. Tejon St. BEST SMOOTHIE: Jamba Juice, multiple locations BEST CRAB CAKES: The Blue Star, 1645 S. Tejon St. BEST HUMMUS: Mediterranean Cafe, 118 E Kiowa St. BEST ECLECTIC TAKEOUT: Subs N’ Such, 337 N. Circle Drive BEST OYSTERS: Carlos’ Bistro, 1025 S. 21st St. BEST CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE: Jack Quinn Irish Ale House & Pub, 21 S. Tejon St. BEST SCOTCH EGGS: The Wayfarer British & Irish Pub, 520 S. Tejon St. BEST SUPERMARKET SANDWICHES: Safeway, several locations BEST HOT DOG: Spud Melvins, Circle Drive and Palmer Park Boulevard BEST FRIED CHICKEN: Juniper Valley Ranch, south of Colorado Springs on U.S. Highway 115
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 16
05/19/05
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FROM PAGE 16
while sipping Colorado wine and enjoying the award-winning Colorado Wine Burger. The menu also includes excellent steaks, seafood and prime rib on certain nights. Be sure to order a side of Marv’s famous baked beans. 8045 West U.S. Highway 24
BEST BURGER Red Robin This kidfriendly chain more READERS’ offers than two dozen CHOICE burgers. But Red Robin is rather loose with its definition of “burger.” There’s the Parmigiano Chicken Burger, the Grilled Salmon Burger, the Grilled Turkey Burger. And there are even burgers made with ground beef. They’re juicy and delicious and come with an endless supply of fries. Four locations
eatery on Costilla Street, a grizzly cook with a neck tattoo and a hot spatula summed it up by saying, “It means we get to do whatever the %$#& we want.” Fortunately, King’s Chef has used that broad mandate for culinary good. If you can get a seat, the homemade fries, giamongus burgers and killer vegetarian green chili are hard to beat, and the informal counter atmosphere fosters refreshing human interaction, if not always politeness. 110 E. Costilla St.
BEST PIZZA Papa Murphy’s Take ’N’ Bake Pizza
Papa pioneered the take-and-bake READERS’ concept, and CHOICE now it’s the largest take-and-bake pizza company in the world. From the second you pull the pizza out of your oven, you can smell the freshness that puts Papa’s ahead of its delivery-pizza riGO! CHOICE: Cy’s Drive-In vals. Papa is heavy on the topRestaurant ping and light on the wallet. All-natural Alaska burgers Six locations in paper wrappers keep the lines out the door at this west- GO! CHOICE: Palermo Pizza side snack shack, which for If you’ve eaten here, you years has been serving up know the drill — the Sicilian friendly food and no bull. style is rectangular and thick 1833 W. Uintah St. and chewy, and the New York style is thin and pie-shaped with a crispy edge. Be sure to throw back a slice of each. Top GO! CHOICE: King’s Chef Diner off your meal with one of PalerYou can argue until the grill mo’s delectable homemade is cold about what it means to say a place is a diner. On a recent visit to this castle-shaped
BEST DINER
C andles & Honey s P ure
&
pastries and breads, as well as such Italian staples as antipasto and calzones, and you’ve got GO! CHOICE: Arceo’s huckleberry a little bit of pizza heaven here, margarita This sweet-and-tart margaritucked in a strip mall off South ta arrives all blended up in a Nevada Avenue. pretty purple hue and slides 1107 S. Nevada Ave. down nice and smooth. Watch yourself — the pleasant berry sweetness masks GO! CHOICE: Alfonso’s Mexican quite a punch. Arriba! Food 1605 S. Nevada Ave. With new taquerias sprouting up overnight in every fallow strip mall, naming a top taco joint is tough, but Alfonso’s sets the benchmark. It has the GO! CHOICE: Old Heidelberg phone cards, milky cups of hor- Pastry Shop chata and tripe burritos that Rise and shine, the hot from brand it the real deal, but it the kitchen, gooey pecan rolls doesn’t skimp on service, fresh await. salsas and quality meats that There they are nestled keep Anglos crying for mas. alongside the equally scrump1022 S. 21st St. tious cheese Danish, strudel, French apple pastries and so many others. Everything’s baked daily. GO! CHOICE: Del Taco Simple, fresh-tasting, crisp, and best of all, cheap. Order several. Powers Boulevard at Palmer Park Boulevard, in front of Wal-Mart
BEST MARGARITA
BEST TAQUERIA
BEST BREAKFAST PASTRIES
GO! CHOICE: Arceo’s
Mexican
Restaurant For $5 or less, you get delicious steak tacos (or about a dozen other options), refried beans and rice, and a small sopaipilla dessert. Such a deal! 1605 S. Nevada Ave.
Japanese Grill Cooking Table
2429 W. Colorado Ave.
THE GAZETTE
SEE DINING x PAGE 18
Voted
“Best Breakfast” by the Gazette & Independent
1/2 Price Omelettes Everyday from 6 - 7am
Happy Hour Mon - Fri from 4 - 7pm
Burger Madness ALL DAY – Sundays,Tuesdays & Thursdays!
Hours:
Hours:
Mon-Fri 6am - 2:30pm Sat & Sun 6am - 3pm
Sat & Sun 11am - 2pm
SUSHI & GRILL JAPANESE RESTAURANT
4655 CENTENNIAL BLVD.
Buy 1 get 50% Off 2nd Entree* entree of equal or lesser value
(at Garden of the Gods)
Monday - Friday ONLY!
266-5858
Omelette Parlor – 11:30am - 1:30pm O’Furry’s – 11 am - 4 pm
Lunch: Mon-Fri. 11am-2:30pm Dinner: Sun.-Thurs. 5-9:00pm Fri-Sat 5-10pm
329-0525 BEST OF THE SPRINGS 17
GO! CHOICE: Donut Mill Just a year ago, folks were waiting in line to get into their favorite spot. After all, the 30-year landmark had been closed for almost seven months after a fire, and everyone was past due for their Donut Mill fix. Now it’s hard to imagine months and months without those heavenly, sweet cake doughnuts people scoop up on their way to the mountains or down Ute Pass to work — or just devour right there.
BEST REALLY CHEAP MEXICAN LUNCH
N at ura l
Honey • Candles • Teas • Burt’s Bees
BEST DOUGHNUT
BEST FISH TACO
For the love of Sushi.
• Soybean & Beeswax • Local & Domestic Nectars
The secret: butter, real butter. 1109 S. Tejon St., 3609 Austin Bluffs Parkway Worthy contender: Marigold Cafe & Bakery’s cinnamon twists
Friday, May 20, 2005
*Excludes 1/2 price omelettes & Burger Madness. W/ coupon only. Expires 7/1/05
05/19/05
11:31
FROM PAGE 17
310 W. Midland Ave., Woodland Park Worthy contenders: Pikes Peak Summit House, Woody’s Continental Pastries and fresh off the line Krispy Kremes
BEST SUSHI GO! Choice:
Tako Japanese Res-
taurant The sushi here is better than any landlocked city deserves. The raw fish has that just-from-the-ocean sweetness. It’s also surprisingly affordable. The best maki value is
the Crunchy Roll ($5.50) — spicy tuna, avocado and cream cheese on the inside, rice rimmed with green onion and crunch tempura flakes on the outside. With eight pieces, it’s a meal. 1840 Dominion Way
Best Sushi: Matt Manke puts together chirashi, a bowl of rice topped with a variety of raw fish, at Tako Japanese Restaurant.
BEST SUSHI WORK OF ART GO! CHOICE: The Dragon
Roll
at Kohnami
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A N D D E LI
Tejon Street Market • 321 N. Tejon • 636-0017 Mon-Fri 8:00am-7pm § Sat 9am-6pm § Sun 10am-5pm
06 21 05
Barbecued eel, veggies, raw fish and seaweed are transformed into a beautiful serpent, with carrots for ears and octopus parts for eyes. 3105 S. Academy Blvd.
BEST SEAFOOD Red Lobster The seafood lover in you just can’t resist this consistent chain restaurant. Maybe it’s because of all fests — LobREADERS’ the s t e r fe s t , CHOICE Shrimpfest, Escargotfest (OK, we’re not too
MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
sure about that last one). For lunch, you can get a lobster pizza — much better than anchovy. Red Lobster is big into shrimp this spring. You can get it fried popcorn-style, scampi-
style or tossed with pasta and alfredo sauce — or mix and match different styles — for $11.99. 4925 N. Academy Blvd., 275 S. Academy Blvd. SEE DINING x PAGE 20
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Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 18
05/19/05
11:31
*1/2 price installation of up to 5 video outlets with Adelphia Classic Cable only. Digital Basic and Digital Plus promotion $5 each per month until Dec 31, 2005. Any premium channel promotion $10 each per month until Dec. 31, 2005. Standard service rates apply at the end of the promotional period. Services subject to applicable franchise fees and taxes. HD service not available in all areas. To receive HD features and benefits a customer-owned HD television and HD capable equipment from Adelphia is required. Additional equipment charges and other restrictions may apply. Advertised channels/stations generally provide a mix of HD and non-HD programming. HD programming is limited to the HD programming provided to Adelphia by the programming provider. Basic service subscription is required. Access to HD premium channels requires subscription to underlying premium channel. Network HD programming from ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS is available in selected areas. Installation charges are additional and rates vary according to service area. Call Adelphia for additional details, pricing and restrictions.
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 19
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
05/19/05
11:32
FROM PAGE 18
out the winning formula. GO! CHOICE: The Black Bear 2220 Academy Place Restaurant Worthy contender: Emily’s Chef Victor Matthews is the GO! CHOICE: English Dockside Ocean Grill & Steak House King of Beef. Before you decide Seafood and Grill which type of steak you’d like Straight to you from the to dive into, check out the comDeep South comes this fish parison chart to see which has and shellfish lovers’ Valhalla. Texas the most votes at the moment. Oyster po’ boys, God’s own It’s not unusual to have 30 Roadhouse crab cakes, and the freshest This corpo- types of steaks to ponder. fish in town cooked with approre-cre- Chances are you’ll find Kobe READERS’ rate priate care are what the Dockof a beef in the top place. After all, CHOICE ation side is all about. Thinly coated Texas Road- this is one of the few eateries in Thomas’ own seasoning and house — without the bar fights that keeps this pricy meat in fried, grilled to perfection, or — is all about the beef. You see its cooler, and it’s always juicy blackened to give your taste the pretty, hand-cut raw steaks tender. buds a rise, this is fish at its un- in display cases when you walk 10375 Ute Pass Ave., Green adorned best. The ambience is in, and they’re even prettier Mountain Falls fittingly informal and takeout when they’re grilled up and on may be your best bet during your plate. Whether you go for high-traffic meal times, but the the Dallas Filet, Texas T-Bone Dockside’s ocean bounty is well or Fort Worth Rib-Eye, you GO! CHOICE: Dazbog Coffee “We think coffee should worth the wait. know you’re in for a quality car- taste like coffee.” A truer stateInexpensive lunch specials nivore experience. ment has never been uttered. and the ability to buy fish di595 S. Eighth St., 3120 N. You won’t find any nambyrectly from the cooler round Powers Blvd. pamby butterscotch, hazelnut, white chocolate-flavored coffee 06 05 S O here. Just straight-up specialty blends such as Caspian EspresPikes Peak Foundation for Mental Health so, Siberian Blend and Russian Ban Bare Bears Community Art Project & Auction Roulette Blend. Now, doesn’t that sound like a little cup of heaven? 7142 N. Academy Blvd.
BEST STEAK
BEST COFFEE
BEST COFFEE PLACE Starbucks
READERS’ CHOICE
Tour de Bears Life-size bears start out as plain fiberglass and are magically transformed by local artists into “bear-dazzling creatures.”
See the 33, 6-foot decorated bears MAY 21 - 30 AT ACACIA PARK!
GO! CHOICE: The Coffee
Warehouse
regardless of what day or time you visit. 1760 Dublin Blvd. GO! CHOICE: Akasaka You won’t find the Japanese steakhouse, cut-the-shrimp-inmidair schtick here. Instead, you’ll find solid, across-theboard Japanese favorites. The sushi and tempura are fabulous. But it’s the tender, juicy butterfish misoyaki that’s Akasaka’s greatest achievement. 4737 N. Academy Blvd.
Life moves a little slower here, and the overstuffed armchairs and free wireless Internet access beckon. And what 3 Margaritas other coffee shop do you know This authenthat transforms into a romantic Mexican tic bar at night? From 4 to 7 family restaup.m., drink orders change from has READERS’ rant lattes to beer and wine, while grown into a CHOICE live jazz music filters out into little empire, the starry skies on Friday and with six locations throughout Saturday nights. the city. It has built its success 526 S. Tejon St. on reasonable prices, fast service, a huge menu and food that’s appealing without being too spicy or weird for the masses. We recommend the enchilaJun das rancheros, topped with a Japanese robust chili sauce that’s remiRestaurant niscent of mole. READERS’ With more Six locations CHOICE than twice as many votes as its nearest com- GO! CHOICE: La Unica Autentico petitor (Ai Sushi & Grill), Jun Restaurante Mexicano has demonstrated a loyalty Forgo the Americanized borne of quality and consisten- crispy-shell tacos served at cy. Fresh sushi (and great most so-called Mexican eaterhappy-hour sushi specials), ies and check out what this crispy and light tempura, and Mexican cantina serves. Two comforting sukiyaki are givens, warm corn tortillas can be
BEST MEXICAN
BEST JAPANESE
totally tempting...
Triple Treat Tuesday! You choose an appetizer, entrée, & dessert
ALL FOR ONLY $9.99! Many menu items available Chile con queso, taco, enchiladas, tamales, burritos, sopapillas, flan, & more!
Call 572-6175
P I K E S P E A K F O U N D AT I O N F O R M E N TA L H E A LT H
The Denverbased parody newspaper The Onion once reported
that a Starbucks had opened in the bathroom of an existing Starbucks. It could happen. Our region’s unquenchable thirst for the dark-brewed java from this monster chain ensures that new Starbucks will continue to pop up everywhere. 15 locations, plus many inside other businesses — and probably more that we don’t know about
topped with al pastor (marinated pork), asada (sautéed beef), barbacoa (shredded beef), carnitas (roasted pork) or pescado (codfish) and garnished with shredded lettuce, onions, tomatoes, cilantro and queso blanco. The chile relleno is a huge poblano pepper stuffed with creamy Mexican cheese, lightly battered and fried to perfection. The salsa is kickin’, with just the right pepper spice. This is the place to chow down on the real deal. 3317 W. Colorado Ave.
BEST ITALIAN Carrabba’s Italian Grill
222 N. Tejon St.
Humor is Healing
READERS’ CHOICE
Downtown 636-2311
Carrabba’s introduced middle America to
SEE DINING x PAGE 21
003
Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 20
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the open kitchen and Italian food that goes beyond spaghetti and meatballs. A great example of Carrabba’s culinary muscle: Sirloin Marsala, an 11-ounce center-cut sirloin grilled and topped with mushrooms, prosciutto and a rich, tangy Marsala wine sauce.
BEST CHINESE P.F. Chang’s This amazing chain joint READERS’ breaks all the CHOICE Chinese restaurant conventions: no red lanterns, no goopy, nondescript sauces, no limp, overcooked vegetables. Instead, it presents us with a modern, open-kitchen design, fresh food that bursts with flavors and an impressive wine list. It even has killer desserts. P.F Chang’s and its little sibling restaurant, Pei Wei Asian Diner, have broadened what we mean by “going out for Chinese.” 1725 Briargate Parkway GO! CHOICE: Silver Pond Chinese
Restaurant You’d think with all those “Best Of” certificates on display, Silver Pond would get lazy, let its guard slip, maybe skimp a little here and there. No way. This Chinese institution continues to show flare in its tasty traditional dishes, such as Mu Shu Pork and Lo Mein, and artistry in its specials. The latest special — Coconut Prawns — is amazing: ever-so-lightly-breaded, tangy crustaceans swimming in a creamy coconut sauce. 5670 N. Academy Blvd. BEST OF THE SPRINGS 21
THE GAZETTE FILE
BEST CHINESE: P.F. Chang’s is a chain that breaks all the rules.
BEST NEPALESE GO! CHOICE: Everest Nepal
Restaurant The lunch buffet is good, but it’s the off-the-menu dinners that show the best that this little restaurant can do. Its curries surpass those you’ll find at most Indian restaurants. The sauces taste healthier, less greasy. The restaurant has recently been expanded. 28 E. Bijou St.
BEST CHINESE FUSION GO! CHOICE: Chopsticks
Asian
Bistro The chefs here draw influences from Chinese, Thai, Japanese and American cuisines to create food that is a hundred notches above the usual Chinese takeout. Look for the Wasabi Sea Bass special, it’s among
BEST THAI
• Baseball • Softball • Volleyball • Wrestling • Lacrosse • Soccer • Baseball • Softball •
SP CO R LO SE INGS RA LE LA DO B C SO AS TIO RG FT EBA N EST BA L OF LL L & GE AR
Y LL CA ED &ED O L WN AT 75 O ER 19 OPINCE S
3690 N. Academy Blvd. • 574-4400 In Stock Items Only • Open Daily: M-F: 9am - 8pm • Sat: 9am - 6pm • Sun: 11am - 4pm • *Prior Sales Excluded
MEMORIAL DAY SPORTS SALE
TODAY THRU MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND
$15 OFF $1000 OFF $500 OFF 00
TYR
ANY PURCHASE OVER 100
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ANY PURCHASE OVER 5000 ANY PURCHASE OVER 2500
OR
DIADORA
30% OFF
ANY SINGLE ITEM
VALID ONLY WITH AD
Not Valid with any other offer prior sales excluded • Baseball • Softball • Volleyball • Wrestling • Lacrosse • Soccer • Baseball • Softball •
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
BEST MALAYSIAN GO! CHOICE: New Panda
Restaurant Don’t be afraid — exotic is good. Start with the Mango Shrimp, a spicy mix of shrimp,
BEST INDIAN
Baseball • Softball • Volleyball • Wrestling • Lacrosse • Baseball • Softball • Volleyball • Wrestling • Lacrosse • Soccer • Swimming • Basketball • Football • Baseball • Softball • Volleyball • Wrestling •
GO! CHOICE: Cafe Giovanna What you’ll get at Cafe Giovanna is classic northern Italian food: a few great ingredients, prepared simply but artfully by Ravenna-born Giovanna Fenati. Don’t miss the homemade pasta, worlds better than the dried stuff most of us grew up on, or even the leathery items that supermarkets sell as fresh pasta. On further thought, don’t miss anything on this menu. 773 W. Garden of the Gods Road Worthy contenders: Palermo, Paravicini’s
the best Asian dishes in town. an restaurants, and Indian Pal120 E. Cheyenne Mountain ace leads the pack. Try the Blvd. Chicken Saag, a creamy spinach-and-chicken dish with the perfect blend of spices. Go for the lunch buffet, and discover GO! CHOICE: Lee’s Noodle House three varieties of rice and a The tangy and savory Pork banquet of spicy and mild Bulgoki, best ordered in one of meat and veggie specialties. those lunch boxes with all the 5644 N. Academy Blvd. side dishes, shows Lee’s depth of flavors. But for Asian comfort, nothing beats Lee’s noodles. They are twirly strings of GO! CHOICE: Taste of Thai Spice bliss. Our fave: Bibim Naeng Losing Royal Thai was a Mein, with chunks of Asian great disappointments to local pear, carrots, leafy greens, red Thai fans. But this unassuming pepper and chilled, light restaurant near Fort Carson is brown, transparent yam cello- best positioned to assume its phane noodles. thrown. Taste of Thai Spice 3752 Astrozon Blvd. has a solid Pad Thai and a spicy green curry that’s deliciously painful. 1609 Lashelle Way GO! CHOICE: India Palace A decade ago, our city had one mediocre Indian joint. Today we have four great Indi-
BEST KOREAN
Baseball • Softball • Volleyball • Wrestling • Lacrosse • Baseball • Softball • Volleyball • Wrestling • Lacrosse • Soccer • Swimming • Basketball • Football • Baseball • Softball • Volleyball • Wrestling •
05/19/05
SEE DINING x PAGE 22
Under the New Ownership of
Chef ChefHenri HenriChaperont Chaperont
Enjoy the Best of Paris in Colorado Springs Reservations Suggested Regular Hours
Sundays: Lunch 11-2 Dinner 5-9 Tuesday - Friday: Lunch 11-2 Dinner 5-10 Saturday: Dinner Only 5-10 1015 West Colorado Ave.
719 - 632 - 4887
www.restauranteur.com/maison
Great New Things are Happening at Antonio’s! Try our exciting new menu additions
We Give Boring Dinners the Boot!
Lunch 11:30 am-2 pm, Mon- Fri. ✺ Dinner 5pm Nightly
531-7177 Centrally located at I-25 & Garden of the Gods Rd. (1 block east)
READ CHO
11:41
V Su nd BE oted ay ST Br un ch .
Join Us for the Best Champagne Brucnh in Colorado Springs Beat the Clock 9-10 am and Receive
Complete Early Bird 3-Course Dinner. 4:30-6 pm. Sun-Thur.
$5.00 OFF Only $13.95 15% OFF Banquet Lunches and November Holiday Parties. Pls. call for details. Promotions are not available on Holidays and may change without notice.
Reservations Recommended
(719) 598-8990 230 Pointe of the Pines Dr., Colorado Springs
Unique Furniture and Accessories For Every Budget
FROM PAGE 21
mango and veggies, served in mango skins. Pretty and delicious. Then move on to the sumptuous Malaysian Pork Chops. 12225 Voyager Parkway, Suite 16 Worthy contender: China Wok
BEST GREEK Jake & Telly’s Greek Cuisine Sit on the balcony overlooking Old City READERS’ Colorado and the mounCHOICE tains beyond, sip fine Greek wine and sample fabulous Greek morsels. Jake & Telly’s has become a well-rounded Greek institution. The peppery, lemony souvlaki is among the best in town, and the spanakopita is a work of art. 2616 W. Colorado Ave.
tic Greek food for miles around? Longtime Springs businessman and Greek immigrant Costas Rombocos keeps an eye on every dish that comes from the kitchen, most of them taught to cooks from his cookbooks. You can count on consistency regardless of who might be wearing the toque in the kitchen. 604 S. Union Blvd.
BEST BRISKET
BEST BARBECUE
GO! CHOICE: Saigon Cafe The food is almost identical to what you’ll find at Saigon Stars, Saigon Springs, Saigon Grill and Fine Vietnamese Cuisine: fresh-tasting noodlebowls, succulent pork chops, etc. What puts Saigon Cafe ahead of the rest is the elegant decor and the ample wine list. 20 E. Colorado Ave.
GO! CHOICE: Slayton’s BBQ
and Creamery
This category has become THE most contested category in the Pikes Peak region. It used to be ruled by Red, Hot and Blue. Then Front Range Barbecue moved into the west side, with delicious smoked meats and outstanding sides. It was king until earlier this year, when Bird Dog BBQ moved in on Powers Boulevard with the best brisket known to mankind. Now, dang-it, we have a new front-runner: Slayton’s, a GO! CHOICE: Zorbadillo’s startup from the owners of Heavenly Greek & Mexican Sonterra Grill and Salsa Brava, Cuisine is pure, slow-smoked, pull-offWhy think about having the-bone Kansas City barbeMexican anything here when cue. Go for the burnt ends. you could have the best authen806 Village Center Drive
GO! CHOICE: Bird Dog BBQ Served sliced or chopped, the beef is amazingly moist and perfectly smoked. We also like the cafeteria setup, which serves up lunch or dinner in about five minutes. 5984 Stetson Hills Blvd.
BEST VIETNAMESE
BEST SOUP GO! CHOICE: The Lettuce Head How good is this: Put your name on the “soup list” and they’ll give you a call when your favorite’s on the menu. Owner Terri Bailey pulls out her grandmother’s old-fashioned comfort-food recipes,
J
TEJON
SEE DINING x PAGE 24
Cache La Poudre
Shuttles run every 10-30 minutes Dale
J J J J
Monument
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RUNNING SCHEDULE J
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Warehouse Now Open to the Public! Mondays 12-6 • Fridays and Saturdays 10-6
GRAND OPENING JUNE 11, 2005
1485 Tuskegee Place #F • 638-7000 East of Palmer Park & Powers. Right on Paonia, left on Tuskegee.
J J
Platte
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Cucharras
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Vermijo
Costilla
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Monday thru Thursday 7:00am - 11:00am 11:00am - 2:30pm 2:30pm - 6:30pm 6:30pm - 9:00pm Friday 7:00am 11:00am 2:30pm 6:30pm
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Frequency in Minutes
20 10 20 30
11:00am 2:30pm 6:30pm 1:00am
20 10 20 30
Saturday 9:30am - 11:00am 11:00am - 2:00pm 2:00pm - 1:00am
30 15 30
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Bijou
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Pikes Peak
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Colorado
J
Cucharras
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TEJON
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CASCADE
05/19/05
Vermijo
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COLORADO
SPRINGS
FREE DOWNTOWN SHUTTLE RIDE THE FREE SHUTTLE LOOPING FROM CC TO SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY’S For more information please call the Downtown Partnership at (719) 886-0088.
J
Cimarron
Loop to the Park & Ride at I-25 & Tejon
Moreno
002
Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
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THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
05/19/05
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schedules some of the restaurant’s almost 40 tried-and-true favorites, or she and the cook test something new. Still, the top crowd-pleaser is Wednesday’s green chile and cheese soup, given a healthier twist with chicken instead of pork. And it’s a busy “soup list” calling day when they ladle up smoky sweet potato, Irish potato chowder, wild rice and mushroom, chicken tortilla or Caribbean corn. 2917 Galley Road Worthy contenders: Shuga’s, Sencha, Marigold Cafe & Bakery, La Baguette, Montague’s Parlour
BEST COLORADO CUISINE GO! CHOICE: Craftwood Inn With elk, venison, wild boar, quail, lamb, pheasant, antelope, caribou and trout dominating the menu, you can be sure this is the place to have a Colorado-style food evening. 404 El Paso Blvd.
BEST GERMAN GO! CHOICE: Uwe’s
taurant
German Res-
over Fountain Creek. The wraps and sandwiches are made fresh from natural ingredients and taste great. Get a little maté — in flavors ranging from raspberry to chai — to complement your meal. The only letdown about this 24-hour Manitou Springs hot spot is that it is closed from 3 p.m. Fridays to 6 p.m. Saturdays. 966 Manitou Ave., Manitou GO! CHOICE: Tajine Alami Springs Exotic food you eat with Worthy contender: Pita Pit your fingers, belly dancers, soft pillows. It doesn’t get any more sensual than this. 10 Old Mans Trail, Manitou Springs And don’t forget to top off your meal with a proper piece of apple strudel. This place has many fans — even at 11 a.m. on a recent Thursday, you couldn’t get a table without a reservation. 31 Iowa Ave. Worthy contender: Edelweiss
BEST MOROCCAN
It’s small, tucked into a modest strip mall, and it looks like the menu covers and wall decorations haven’t been changed since it opened in the 1980s, but Uwe’s delivers in the food department. Try the jaegerschnitzel, a pounded, lightly breaded, melt-in-your mouth GO! CHOICE: The Maté Factor The natural wood booths pork patty with the most delectable mushroom gravy ever. make you feel like you’re in a hobbit dwelling, the back side of which hovers precariously
BEST PLACE TO EAT AFTER MIDNIGHT
BEST PLACE FOR 24-HOUR BREAKFASTS
GO! CHOICE: Dutch Mill Tavern Why leave the bar and go to Denny’s when you can hang at a bar with a fine breakfast cook. The food here is better than most chain-breakfast joints. The eggs, for instance, are cooked exactly to order.
Serving the Best Food Always 15% Entire Check Off* Good for Dine-In Only Not Good with Other Offers Expires June 30, 2005 *With Discount Coupon
• Full Bar Available • Salad Bar Included with Your Entree Open 7 Days Lunch and Dinner FREE Delivery Available
The bacon is perfect — thick, lean and crispy, with a nice smoky flavor. 503½ W. Colorado Ave.
BEST HAUTE COMFORT FOOD GO! CHOICE: Phantom Canyon Brewing Company Of all the new takes on old diner food, we like Phantom’s version of mac and cheese: macaroni and smoked gouda cheese tossed with bacon, spinach and shiitakes. 2 E. Pikes Peak Ave.
BEST JAMAICAN RESTAURANT Tie — Island Grill and Irie Rasta Pub
GO! CHOICE:
Tough choice, and there are just two Jamaican restaurants in town. Both have mouth-watering jerk, brown stew chicken and curried goat, plus traditional dishes such as ackee and saltfish, fried plantains, callaloo and even roots drinks and Ting. But if you want escovich fish (think hotter than the most sizzling imagination) or brown stew snapper (with the head — “de bes part a de fish”) then the plain-Jane Island Grill is your choice. For a party atmosphere, tropical lights, Red Stripe, rum punch and a touch of Jamaican culture, pick the Irie Rasta Pub. Enjoy either place and know that “every’ting irie.” Island Grill, 1107 S. Nevada Ave. Irie Rasta Pub, 315 E. Arvada Ave.
3958 North Academy (and Austin Bluffs) Academy Station
597-4844
SEE DINING x PAGE 25
Buy any delicious entree and receive the second of equal or lesser value at 1/2 price with this coupon.
OFFER GOOD SUN - THUR ONLY. Not good in combination with any other offer. Not good on “to go” orders.
*with purchase of drink
D AWA R G N WINNI RITAS! MARGA
FINE MEXICAN FOOD & COCKTAILS
3071 S. Academy • 392-3000 Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 24
05/19/05
11:42
FROM PAGE 24
BEST PUERTO RICAN AND CUBAN GO! CHOICE: We Like It Hot The giant Cuban roast pork sandwiches can feed a family of four. The stews warm you inside — the finest of comfort foods. 1853 N. Academy Blvd.
BEST SKI-SLOPE FOOD
to a college-neighborhood sandwich joint. But taste Wooglin’s heavenly spicy black bean quesadilla, and you won’t consider going anywhere else. 823 N. Tejon St. Worthy contender: The Quesadilla Sambruno at Casa Grande in Woodland Park
BEST FISH AND CHIPS
Judge Baldwin’s Brewing Company GO! CHOICE: Tie — The giant Good beer places tend to burgers from the outside grill at have good fish and chips. The Breckenridge’s Bergenhof ResJudge didn’t make this rule, taurant (at Peak 8) and the but it stands by it by serving giant chicken burrito in the cafe- up moist chunks of cod in teria at the Village at Winter crunchy beer batter fresh from Park, at that resort’s base the fryer. Ask for extra napGO! CHOICE:
What do they have in com- kins. mon? They’re both big — no, gi4 S. Cascade Ave. gantic — and they’re both hot, flavorful — and did we mention gigantic? Ski-resort food is expensive, so it makes sense to really work up an appetite and see if you can eat the whole thing before you stuff yourself back onto a chair lift for the afternoon.
BEST TAMALES GO! CHOICE: El Taco Rey For the second year in a row, El Taco Rey keeps its crown for best tamales. The tasty masa and pork concoctions are moist and packed with flavor — spicy enough that the fresh lemonade is a perfect quencher for the pica, but not so hot that you lose the pork flavor. Do yourself a favor and order the green chili or red sauce on the side. The tamales are good enough that they don’t need to be drowned in sauce, as delicious as the chili is. Do yourself a second favor: save room for homemade tres leches coconut cake. 330 E. Colorado Ave.
GO! CHOICE: The Melting Pot New to the Colorado Springs downtown dining scene, The Melting Pot is an upscale urban fondue chain restaurant. There’s the traditional Swiss cheese fondue, of course. But you’s also find beef, pork, shrimp and teriyaki sirloin that can be cooked tableside and a variety of cooking liquids, including plain court bouillon (vegetable broth); Mojo, (a Caribbean-spiced bouillon with orange, lime, cilantro and garlic); fondue bourguignon or hot oil. There’s also an extensive wine list to accompany the dip-andeat experience. 30-A E. Pikes Peak Ave.
BEST SALAD BAR
THE BEST
Jazz in town!
Homemade Sausage in town!
Lunch • Dinner
Brad Easto EVERY Fri-Sat n Night
Take out • Fresh Pastas • Sauces Meats • Cheeses • Banquet Room
We specialize in Weddings & Rehearsal Dinners THE BEST 598-1088 985-A Gardenof theGods Rd. Classical Guitarights www.mollicas.com Thursday N
Indian Cuisine
Best Indian Restaurant 2004 - Independent Gazette GO! Choice Best Indian Restaurant 2003
Food for your soul... Open 7 Days A Week Lunch Buffet: 11-2:30 Dinners: 5-10
MIRCH MASALA KABAB & CURRY DINING
5047 N. Academy Blvd. (at Union) • 599-0003
BEST QUESADILLA GO! CHOICE: Wooglin’s Deli With all the good Mexican places in town, it seems a shame Best 25 Quesadilla THE GAZETTE BEST OF to THEgive SPRINGS
Buy 1 Get 1 50% Off 2nd entree of equal or lesser value Expires 6/10/05
Friday, May 20, 2005
haven’t visited this delectable bar. You could probably eat here every day for a year and come up with a different combination of vegetables, meats, prepared salads and crunchy toppings. And if you really want to experiment, there’s an olive bar with a lush variety of our favorite oval orbs. 7635 N. Academy Blvd.
BEST FREE SAMPLES Whole Foods Market
GO! CHOICE: Not only are the samples delicious and healthy, they’re also reliable. On behalf of rice-and-ramen-eating college students everywhere, we’d like to salute Whole Foods for preventing our youths from GO! CHOICE: Whole Foods Mar- dying of scurvy. On any given day, you’ll find fresh fruit, interket If you think diet food when esting salsas, amazing olives. you hear the word salad, you
THE BEST
BEST TAQUERIA TRUCK GO! CHOICE: La Flor de Jalisco Friendly, bilingual, delicious, and most of all, predictable. Don’t miss the bottle of Mexican Coca-Cola and the tacos al pastor. 1801 N. Union Blvd.
BEST FONDUE
But go on a special day — say, the store’s anniversary celebration — and you’ll find grilled asparagus soaked in balsamic vinaigrette or roasted teriyaki pineapple. All delicious. All free. 7635 N. Academy Blvd. Worthy contender: Par Avion
BEST WINGS GO! CHOICE: Dublin House This decision ended with an eat-off between the hot wings from the Dublin House (two flavors: mild and hot) and the Cajun wings from Wing Stop (the national chain has an assortment of flavors). The choices boast distinctly different flavors, but they’re equally pleasing to the palate. They pack a ton of flavor and tongue-tingling spiciness into each bite. SEE DINING x PAGE 26
05/19/05
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There’s little, if any, butter in the sauces, which means they’ll be great wings after a night in the refrigerator and a few minutes in the microwave. The spices are visible, too. You can see the pepper seeds from the Dublin House and the Cajun seasonings from Wing Stop. The difference? Hold up a Dublin House drumette next to one from Wing Stop. It’s like picturing Pikes Peak next to Cheyenne Mountain. The Dublin House gives you more great wing for the money. 1850 Dominion Way
BEST WINE BAR GO! CHOICE: Mona’s Wine Cellar You probably know the upstairs portion of Mona Lisa, a realm of Italian country ambience and fine fondue. But head downstairs and you’ll find a funky gem of a wine bar, where exposed pipes are decorated with plastic vines, the walls are lined with wine racks and candlelight plays upon your date’s face. On Friday nights, Doug Zinn plays gentle acoustic guitar while the waiters lead you through a limited, but well-selected, wine list. Tastings of three small glasses range from $7 to $13. Check out the 2004 Groom Adelaide Hills Sauvi-
The eats range from fried gnon Blanc from Australia. 733 Manitou Ave., Manitou bliss to classy dinners, and it seems there’s always a pool Springs table available upstairs. This is a great place to take out-of-town visitors for a full GO! CHOICE: New World IPA, night. Bristol Brewing Co. 2 E. Pikes Peak Ave. New World is not for everyone — only those who appreciate good, flavorful beer. Brewed with more than 30 vari- GO! CHOICE: 15C The bar in the alley behind eties of hops and aged in French oak barrels for more Old Chicago earns high marks than a year, this double India again and again. Besides it’s elusive location, Pale Ale packs a punch. Stark bitterness is tucked inside a marked only by the blue light smooth and slightly sweet first above the door, it’s got a cozy, taste. A sipper, not a chugger. friendly atmosphere with great couches to sink into and big, Available only at the brewery. square bar stools perfect for 1647 S. Tejon St. perching on. The martinis are always excellent, and the service sparkles. Phantom 15 E. Bijou St.
BEST LOCAL BREW
BEST MARTINI BAR
BEST BREW PUB
Canyon READERS’ Brewery Give CHOICE
Voted Best German Restaurant 5 Years in a Row The Independent The Gazette 34 E. Romana Ave. 633-2220 ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ $14.95 per person ◆ Tuscan Appetizer • Soup or Salad ◆ Three Entree Choices • Garlic Rolls ◆ 2 for 1 House Wine ◆ Reservations Please 575-9571 Present Coupon Mon-Thurs 5-6:30 p.m. ◆ Expiration Date 6/30/05 ◆ www.fratelliristorante.com ◆124 North Nevada—Downtown Social Club Italiano 1 Tuesday each month at 6:00 p.m. ◆ Voted Best Italian Cuisine 2004 ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆COUPON ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
Chianti Sunset
st
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
it kudos first for renovating and saving the character of the historic Cheyenne Building. Then, as the second brew pub in Colorado Springs, it introduced the city to a wheaty hefeweizen, hoppy amber ale and smooth Railyard Ale.
Old Fashion Burgers Sandwiches Fresh Salads Homemade Soups Freshly Baked Pies
GO! CHOICE: Rendezvous Lounge It’s new, it’s sleek and it’s got 200 vodkas in stock. Infused vodka coming soon. Name your pleasure, or pain, and let the night begin. 128 N. Tejon St.
GO! CHOICE: Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory All bow to the deity of decadence, the Dionysus of dark chocolate, the King of the cocoa universe. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, you make us want to gain weight. You tempt us with champagne and mint truffles rich with flavor and caloric sin. You bring us the chocolate snowman, fruit enhanced with caramel, toffee and chocolate; mint Oreo cookie break-away, ice cream, and chocolate haystacks. You present this bounty in an aesthetically pleasing shop where we can watch you make our chocolate from scratch. Four locations Worthy contender: Michelle’s
BEST CATERER GO! CHOICE: Garden of the Gods Seasonings & Gourmet Holly Mervis works her magic creating a line of seasonings as well as handling a fullservice catering business. 2528 W. Cucharras St.
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Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
NCUA
National Credit Union Administration, a U.S. Government Agency
Federally insured by NCUA.
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 26
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Finally, you realize, “Man, I’ve got four bars of reception here.” And then you get back to driving and dialing.
BEST BILLBOARD GO! CHOICE: Kaiser
Permanente sign covered with green beans, reading, “I scream, you scream, we all scream for green beans”
BEST BLAB
BEST BATHROOM READ GO! CHOICE: The Toilet Paper You could get by without The Toilet Paper, but that’s a mighty unpleasant prospect. This homegrown paper’s layers of humor, stingingly blunt commentary and punk ethos make it a must-read for anyone who wants to stay in touch with our community’s counterculture. It’s like Colorado Springs’ answer to Vice Magazine. www.toiletpaperonline.com
Because, we suppose, green GO! CHOICE: News Blab (www. beans are healthier than ice newsblab.com) cream. Or maybe those greedy Mike Coletta, aka “Blabbing doctors want to hog all the ice Mike,” has made his blog a cream for themselves! must-read at local TV stations. Part TV news fan site, part media watchdog, Newsblab GO! CHOICE: The faux pine trees keeps close tabs on what’s just west of Interstate 25 at the going on in front of and behind the cameras. crest of Monument Hill The discussion boards on At first you look at these the site are filled with neverthings and you think, “Man, ending arguments, analysis those are some scraggly-lookand rumors that seem to ating trees.” tract a cross section of employThen you think, “Man, those ees from every station in town. GO! CHOICE: TIGI are some big honkin’ trees.”
BEST CELL TOWER
MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
Best Hair Stylists: Shari Cleek, right, and Rose Murphy work at Blades in Manitou Springs. The pair joined forces more than 11 years ago, and they have a loyal customer base of male and female clients.
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Working together for 11½ years, Murphy and Cleek trained as barbers — giving them precision training in cuts and styling beyond the average cosmetologist. In their newcustomer consultations, they ask tons of questions and work with the customer to create that perfect look. It’s attracted GO! CHOICE: Veda a loyal customer base of both sexes. The slick, new location on Manitou Avenue will likely draw more. Blades has five styl- Veda ists; women’s cuts start at $30, There’s another side to men’s $25. Veda, where 329 Manitou Ave., Manitou the clip, clip Springs of scissors fade and are READERS’ replaced by CHOICE peaceful harp music. Beyond doors labeled Veda Veda feels like a big city “Love,” “Harmony,” and “Balsalon — bustling but not hectic. ance,” you can enter new Clean but not sterile-looking.
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BEST OF THE SPRINGS 29
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
05/19/05
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FROM PAGE 28
packages is the Day of Beauty, It takes about 4½ hours — which includes a facial, mas- for $285. GO! CHOICE: The Broadmoor realms of relaxation and beauti- sage, manicure, pedicure, shamhotel fication. poo, makeup, lunch and Veda GO! CHOICE: Veda Wrap yourself in herbs, Among the most popular Spa Bag. bathe yourself in milk and whey, get loofahed with salt, have your muscles kneaded or get your pores cleaned out with a high-tech firehose. These are just a few of the treatments that await you at N O W A V A I L A B L E this world-class pampering palace. 1 Lake Ave.
BEST SPA
Accent Francais Entire Collection on Sale Cherry and Mahagony Bedroom, Dining, Accent Pieces
BEST LOCAL COMMERCIAL GO! CHOICE: “The Thorn” New Life Church’s Passion play extravaganza got the deluxe treatment on the small screen, with TV spots that looked like Mel Gibson handled the directing. It wasn’t always easy to tell what “The Thorn” was actually about, but, man, did it look exciting.
Introducing the Accents Francais collection from Drexel Heritage. A collection created for those who take pleasure in the fine art of living and the seamless blending of past & present.
BEST LOCAL CELEBRITY Goose Gossage
Armoire Reg $2519 King Bed Reg $2099 Bench Reg $599
Goose was one of the greatest relief pitchers of all READERS’ time, working CHOICE for the New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the San Diego Padres, the Chicago Cubs, the San Francisco Giants, the Texas Rangers, the Oakland A’s and the Seattle Mariners. He was born and raised in the Springs
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and remains active in the community’s sports scene. GO! CHOICE: John Cameron
Mitchell Mitchell hasn’t lived in the Springs since he was a kid, but the playwright and actor’s glam-rock opera masterpiece, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” finally played here in March — five years after the film version came out. No matter, the play, which starred Brian Upton, still rocked, and Colorado Springs got the opportunity to celebrate its link to rock history.
BEST LOCAL CELEBRITY CHEF GO! CHOICE: Franco Pisani of Paravicini’s Italian Bistro Franco is more than just a chef, kitchen manager and coowner of a wonderful neighborhood Italian eatery. He’s also the most boisterously self-promoting celebrity chef in town. He teaches classes, hosts a cooking segment (“Franco’s Food for Thought”) every other Wednesday during the noon news on KKTV/Channel 11, he’s promoting a book (“MAMA MIA! Now That’s Italian!”) that blends his childhood memories with recipes, he schmoozes at every table of his restaurant. All this might get annoying if Franco weren’t such a sweet guy. He’s the embodiment of big-mouthed Italian charm, and he also happens to be a wizard in the kitchen. SEE CITY x PAGE 31
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© 2003 Drexel Heritage Furniture Industries, Inc.
Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 30
05/19/05
11:45
FROM PAGE 30
BEST ZOO ANIMALS GO! CHOICE: The giraffes at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo The zoo darlings win by a neck. The latest zoo project, the African Rift Valley, provides up-close and personal treatment by the tall spotted ones and makes you feel like they’re your own illegal exotic pets. You can feed them and pet them, and there are photos nearby so you can tell who’s who (and if you can tell the difference, more power to you). This reticulated giraffe herd is among the largest in captivity. 4250 Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Road
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BEST BARTENDER GO! CHOICE: Jonathan Shank-
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BEST OF THE SPRINGS 31
Voted: “Best Fashion” 2004
Springtime Sale
GO! CHOICE: Art Tremayne,
GO! CHOICE: La
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
471-1556
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05/19/05
11:45
FROM PAGE 31
Gunther Toody’s, The Golden Bee, Fountain Valley School Hasultant who actually specializ- cienda, Shove Memorial Chapel at Colorado College es in dance injuries. 2935 N. Prospect St.
BEST BATHROOM GO! CHOICE: The restrooms at
Ted’s Montana Grill Hey, cowpoke, we’re not pulling your chain. But that’s what you’ve gotta give a tug when you use the old-fashioned commode in this indoor outhouse. There are Borax soap dispensers, brass handrails and mahogany paneling, just like in the old ranch house. 1685 Briargate Parkway Worthy contenders:
BEST RADIO PERSONALITIES Sammye and Mark on KKCS (101.9 FM) Sammye READERS’ Phelps and CHOICE Mark Goldberg lobbied on-air to win this distinction, which wouldn’t be very fair if it weren’t the same strategy employed by just about every station in town. The KKCS morn-
ing team is so darned likable you wanna pinch their cheeks. They keep their show lively with fresh banter and clever regular features, such as Mark’s Conundrum and listeners’ favorite Web sites. GO! CHOICE: The Magic Morning
Show Although it’s not at the top of the ratings anymore, KKMG (98.9 FM)’s CK and Lazerman are still No. 1 in our hearts. The show still manages to step over the line from funny to tasteless at least twice a week. That said, CK and Lazer consistently offer the most entertaining gimmicks and gags on the dial. Even if you don’t like the
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BEST RADIO STATION KKCS (101.9 FM) KKCS advertises being “the most country.” It READERS’ tries to live up CHOICE to that boast by sponsoring a heap o’ concerts and playing mainstream acts. Although the other local country station, KCCY (96.9
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music, the innuendo or the antics, it’s hard not to flip over to Magic just to see what these overgrown adolescents are up to.
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FM), has pulled ahead in the ratings, count on KKCS to climb back into the fight. GO! CHOICE: KIBT (96.1 FM) This new hip-hop station wins simply for upsetting the apple cart. Clear Channel took what was a low-rated rock station and flipped the format. Before it had hired its first DJ, “The Beat” shot to the top of the charts. It won’t be easy to hang on, but we give the station kudos for spicing up the local radio scene.
BEST RADIO STATION THAT PLAYS REQUESTS GO! CHOICE: KRDO (95.1 FM) “The Peak” midday host Shawnee Smith Because sometimes you just need to hear Hoobastank’s “The Reason” for the millionth time. Shawnee Smith understands. SEE CITY x PAGE 33
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9650 Antler Creek Drive Falcon, Colorado 719.494.1900 www.AntlerCreekGolf.com
Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 32
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FROM PAGE 32
BEST TV ANCHOR
BEST TV REPORTER TaRhonda Thomas at KOAA/ Channels 5&30
BEST TV NEWS Lisa Lyden at KOAA/Chan- HOTTIE, FEMALE nels 5&30 Lisa Lyden is just three READERS’ years shy of a CHOICE quarter-century at the station (and her co-anchor Rob Quirk has stuck around for 16 years). KOAA’s news ratings usually top the competition, which is notable because NBC’s prime-time lineup has turned into must-avoid TV. Whatever combo of consistency and charm Lyden has patented, it’s still going strong.
Thomas wins over viewers with her enthusiasm and sense of composure. Whether she’s interviewing the mayor or standing out in a blizzard shouting to be heard over the wind, Thomas rarely gets ruffled. When she’s not working, she’s leading hip-hop aerobics classes. DISCLOSURE: Thomas does a GO! CHOICE: Lisa Friday morning segment, “Weekend on the GO!” with Gazette Arts and Entertainment editor Warren Epstein.
READERS’ CHOICE
She was the perky cub reporter when she started at KOAA in 1994. Eleven years later, she’s a reREADERS’ spected anCHOICE chor . . . and still turning heads. GO! CHOICE: Kellie MacMullan on KRDO/Channel 13 Because waking up is easier when Kellie is behind the anchor desk.
Lyden
BEST TV NEWS HOTTIE, MALE
GO! CHOICE:
Georgiann Lymberopoulos at KOAA/Channels 5&30
BEST SCENIC DRIVE GO! CHOICE: A loop through Crip-
ple Creek
Start in the Springs and head west on U.S. Highway 24. At the town of Divide, turn He’s not south on Colorado Highway 67 just a pretty and follow it to Cripple Creek. face. But he is For your return, head out of a pretty face. town on Teller Road 1 to Florissant and hook back up with GO! CHOICE:
Jeff Marcu at KKTV/ James Jarman, Channel 11
KOAA/Channels 5&30
A solid reporter who can tackle the mundane and the sensational with equal aplomb. Worthy contender: Jeff Marcu, KKTV/Channel 11
READERS’ CHOICE Jeff Marcu
SEE CITY x PAGE 34
“Independent Records & Video would like to thank Colorado Springs for their loyal support of our local record store and our local music scene for the past 25 years!” PRESENT THIS COUPON FOR
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BEST OF THE SPRINGS 33
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
05/19/05
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FROM PAGE 33
or a Fat Tire or Laughing Lab for $4. Mixing and matching allowed. The best part? This isn’t just a happy-hour deal, so it’s possible to stretch a happy hour into a happy evening. 333 S. Tejon St.
U.S. 24. Go east until you’re home. This trip is good yearround, but best at sunset and any time of day in the fall. The road is good, the views stretch before you, and in September, the aspens put on a spectacular show.
BEST PUB CRAWL GO! CHOICE: The Not-So-Critical
BEST TAROT CARD READER/NOTARY PUBLIC GO! CHOICE: Ruth Perez Gonzalez Talk about your unusual one-stop shopping — find out if you’ll live a long, happy life, and get your last will and testament notarized at the same time. Stop by Whispering Winds in Manitou Springs and get otherworldly and down-toearth in the blink of an eye. 955 Manitou Ave.
BEST MASSAGE THERAPIST
Crawl
MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
Best Tarot Card Reader/Notary Public: Ruth Perez Gonzalez shows one of her books on tarot cards. Gonzalez reads cards and notarizes official documents at Whispering Winds in Manitou Springs.
deep-tissue work that makes you feel like you’re melting into the table. 2910 N. Academy Blvd., Suite 103
BEST UNUSUAL THERAPY
learn to concentrate, relax and overcome attention disorders. NASA developed this neurofeedback technology to assess pilot attention problems. 525 N. Nevada Ave.
BEST HAPPY HOUR
GO! CHOICE: Oscar’s Double your pleasure, douMassage ble your fun at Oscar’s. With This cutting-edge clinic uses the bar’s two-for-one drafts, Crowl, who has 16 years of racing video games, hooked up get a double serving of Bud hands-on experience, blends to electrodes that stick to the Light or Coors light for $3.25, classic Swedish massage with patients’ heads, to help kids GO! CHOICE: Jeff Crowl
at Helios GO! CHOICE: Neuro-Health Center
You wish you had organizational skills and good-time dedication like the Not-So-Critical Crawl’s regulars. Those guys and gals are out there every week — rain or shine — pedaling the pubs, having a grand ol’ time. And about once a month, they dress up. Seeing a fleet of silver, bikeriding robots riding Tejon Street downtown — it’s inspirational. You look like an antisocial, couch potato bum in comparison. The crawl starts between 8 and 8:30 p.m. Thursdays at Wooglin’s Deli, 823 N. Tejon. To join, e-mail cosbikepub crawl@hotmail.com.
MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
Best Massage Therapist: Jeff Crowl blends Swedish and deeptissue techniques at Helios Massage.
BEST PLACE TO VOLUNTEER GO! CHOICE: Memorial Hospital The hospital is so appreciative of its 930 volunteers that the 100 departments turn them into family. Adoptees are honored on their birthdays and other days of note, surprised SEE CITY x PAGE 35
An Experts Advice…Healthy Indoor Air • SAFE Furnace Operation & Low Heating Bills “Don’t Buy A New Furnace Until You Know These 5 ‘Loopholes’!” Your furnace is probably the most expensive appliance you’ll ever buy for your home. And since you’ll be living with it for the next 10 to 20 years, it only makes sense to avoid a nightmare. Here are the 5 most important things to know before you buy a new furnace. 1. Waste Not. Many furnaces are replaced that don’t need to be. They can be inexpensively fixed compared to the age of the unit. And worse, the new system can cost almost as much to operate as the old one. Call us and we’ll give you an exact way to know if your furnace should be replace. 2. The Money Pit. Avoid spending a lot more money after you get your new furnace installed. Demand a written agreement that the installer will protect your floors and carpets, use wall protectors and thoroughly clean up after he’s finished. 3. Blowin’ in the Wind. Simply installing a new furnace isn’t going to guarantee better heat and lower energy costs. If the installer isn’t careful about checking to see that your ductwork is clean and unclogged, you could be throwing heating dollars out of the front door. Your furnace will be working overtime to force heat through a clogged duct system.
4. Brand Envy. You’ve seen all the big, expensive ads showing one brand over another. Now, here’s the “dirty little secret” they don’t want you to know. Only about one-fifth of the satisfaction you are going to get is the result of the brand you choose. The other 80% is how well it’s installed. And there are 8 crucial procedures that should be properly done. If not, the brand is irrelevant. 5. Concrete Guarantee. Some companies have a guarantee that stops as soon as they leave your concrete driveway. For your own protection, INSIST on a written 100% Money Back Guarantee. If you’ve been told you need to replace your furnace, we will happily give you a FREE SECOND OPINION so you can have all the facts. Also, there is NO cost or obligation for one of our FREE estimates. Call now…
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THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 34
11:46
FROM PAGE 34
ten to the high-pitched squeals of a voice from the afterlife on with special treats and routine- a digital recording. Be afraid. ly given notes of thanks. Volun- Be very afraid. 506 N. Cascade Ave. teers’ hours are rewarded. What’s extra-special about this hospital is the opportunity for trained volunteers to work with babies and children. Just imagine being a baby cuddler GO! CHOICE: Compassion or doing hearing screenings International for newborns. Other popular When the world cries for options include working in es- help, Colorado Springs listens. corting or greeting, spiritual The city has more than its fair care and pediatric playroom. share of quality relief organiza1400 E. Boulder St. tions, including Mission of Worthy contenders: Penrose- Mercy and VisionTrust InterSt. Francis Health Services, national, but Compassion InterColorado Springs Airport Am- national still reigns. bassadors, Komen Race for the Despite raising its dues this Cure
BEST RELIEF ORGANIZATION
BEST DRY CLEANER
GO! CHOICE: Vanguard Church Many people go to church to find comfort for their souls, not their buns. But Vanguard Church offers salve for both. Vanguard Church is in the old Academy Station 6 movie theater complex and still uses its cushy, fold-up theater seats. Compared with the stan-
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GO! CHOICE: Hearthstone Inn The bad news is, you won’t get a proton gun to whip these ghosts into shape. The good news is, you’ll be aided by real ghost hunters with all sorts of fancy ghost-detecting equipment. Wander these spooky halls by night and keep an eye out for glowing orbs. You may even have an opportunity to lis-
Cleaners
BEST CHURCH SEATS
Dixie’s Hot Cinnabunz 599-3400 Lower Level Dillards Wing Chapel Hills Mall
Any Freshly
BEST PLACE TO GHOSTBUST
year, it still earns a four-star dard wooden pew, these seats dry cleaning. rating from Charity Navigator, are a godsend. And the staff is friendly and an online charity watchdog, 3950 N. Academy Blvd. reliable. and doles out almost $140 mil1638 S. Nevada Ave. lion to about 600,000 children Worthy contenders: Summit worldwide. Cleaners and Delmonico CleanGO! CHOICE: Continental ers
Baked & Packaged Four Pack
05/19/05
The price is right: Each drycleanable garment is $1.50. The service is fast: one day for
SEE CITY x PAGE 36
The Best Way to Spend Your Saturday
ROSS AUCTION 109 S. Sierra Madre
(1 block south of Guiseppe’s Restaurant) Public Estate Auction Every Saturday at 9am
• • • • • • •
Antiques Collectibles Furniture Artwork Electronics Tools Home & Garden
For Pictures & Info Go To www.rossauction.com We Accept Quality Consignments – One Item or an Entire Estate Drop Off or We Pickup 632-6693
For the 4th time. Million Dollar and up.
Dynasty Design Wins the Prestigious Mame Award.
esigner Nancy Lusk and her team bring you the best in design services, one-of-a-kind accessories, and unique window treatments. Indulge yourself in fine furnishings! Penthouse Citywalk...2005
Come Browse • 1709 South 8th Street, Colorado Springs • BEST OF THE SPRINGS 35
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
Ph 385-0401
05/19/05
11:46
FROM PAGE 35
BEST PUBLIC ORIGAMI GO! CHOICE: Cranes at Shuga’s They hang from the ceiling and change color with the season. After a few drinks, you might see them fly. 702 S. Cascade Ave.
BEST PLACE TO TAKE OUT-OFTOWN VISITORS READERS’ Garden of CHOICE the Gods These towering red sandstone giants are sure to wow Uncle Al during his trip from Long Island. Even for visitors who have only an hour in the Springs, a brief
drive through our Garden will leave a lasting impression. Off 30th Street at Gateway GO! CHOICE: Uncle Wilber Four years after its installaRoad tion, Uncle Wilber still turns newcomers’ heads even as it GO! CHOICE: The Iron Springs entertains — and cools off — Chateau children from all over the city. Whether you’re 8 or 80, The Acacia Park fountain, a you’ll find yourself laughing gift from the Smokebrush and singing along during the Foundation, has helped make Iron Springs Chateau’s melodowntown a summertime destidrama and olio. nation. For 44 years, audiences In Acacia Park at the corner have booed the bad guy and of Bijou and Tejon streets cheered the good guy during the two-hour drama with a happy ending. The post-melodrama olio has crowds singing along to GO! CHOICE: The Colorado the musical revue. It’s also a Springs Fine Arts Center great place to take that uncle For years, the Fine Arts with the comb-over. The torch singers are known to twist it Center had some of the feel of exceptionally pleasant around their fingers and make an morgue. No longer: The more it stand straight up. 444 Ruxton Ave., Manitou the center is restored to its original 1936 state, the lighter, Springs more elegant and more full of life John Gaw Meem’s building becomes. 30 W. Dale St.
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to both medieval cathedrals and modern jets. Air Force Academy campus
BEST CHRISTMAS DRIVE-THROUGH
GO! CHOICE: U.S. Air Force Academy Chapel
Lights of Christmas,” First Church of the Nazarene
people can always be cynical about somebody’s magnanimous gesture. I’m prepared to It’s a living tour of the holi- deal with responding to smallday with actors in costume, minded people for the next four 500,000 lights, a 40-foot-tall years, as I have for the last 18.” drive-through castle, turn-ofthe-century skaters, snowmen, a full-size gingerbread house, two-story Bethlehem, camels and goats and donkeys, the shepherd’s pasture and, as the finale, a living nativity. Making it an even more awesome event for the kids, as cars wait in line, helpers quietly get the name of each child, which is magnetized to the door of the car. Imagine the surprise when Santa calls out “Merry Christmas, Eric.” 4120 E. Fountain Blvd.
BEST RUMOR Don’t count on it.
Next year will be 50 years since ground was broken for Walter Netsch’s creation. It remains one of the region’s most successful contemGO! CHOICE: “What makes it so porary buildings, with a poised special is I live just over the hill. but dynamic form that refers
BEST QUOTE FROM MAYOR LIONEL RIVERA
002
You guys can get to my house really fast.” — On the dedica-
tion of a new police substation in Stetson Hills
• Walk-ins welcome • On-site pharmacy
GO! CHOICE: “Small-minded
GO! CHOICE: “Many
GO! CHOICE: Southwest Airlines is coming to the Colorado Springs Airport.
BEST CHURCH ARCHITECTURE
BEST QUOTE FROM COUNTY COMMISSIONER DOUGLAS BRUCE
— When the newly elected politician’s motives were questioned because he wanted his county commissioner’s salary donated to a charity he had established.
BEST QUOTE FROM RUNNING, SCREAMING MAN GO! CHOICE: “You
It’s spring, which means one of Colorado Springs’ true eccentrics has resumed jogging in the area east of downtown — and haranguing local drivers. This one was heard recently, shouted at the traffic on Platte Avenue.
BEST THING ON ACADEMY BOULEVARD GO! CHOICE: The Picture Show Stop paying Vin Diesel’s salary. It’s hard enough to shell out $7 to see a good movie. It’s far worse when you pay that much and the plot never ties up loose ends, the stars can’t SEE CITY x PAGE 37
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BEST OF THE SPRINGS 36
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act their way out of a paper bag and the Farrelly Brothers prove they aren’t as funny as they used to be. That’s why the Picture Show is the ideal movie experience. The movies running are a few months past their release dates but still new enough to be water cooler topics without anyone looking at you funny. Shows are 50 cents on Tuesdays, $1 for matinees and $1.50 after 6 p.m. on other days. 901 N. Academy Blvd.
BEST THING ON POWERS
themes: sushi with dishes, spices and a recipe book; martinis with glasses and a jar of olives; and coffee with mugs, beans and chocolate treats. The store sells baskets, wrapping paper, bows and cards, too. 2985 N. New Center Point
BEST THING ON NEVADA GO! CHOICE: Squatting Chicken Nothing beats a cold beer and beef on a wick after a game of softball at the Four-Diamonds Sports Complex. Great name, great food, great view. And horseshoes, dude, horseshoes. 5020 N. Nevada Ave.
GO! CHOICE: Cost Plus World
Market “Fun Finishing Touches” could be in parentheses underneath the Cost Plus World Market sign. The cheaper, cooler version of Pier 1 carries everything imaginable to add accents that really pull a room together. Candles, frames, pillows, baskets, teapots and curtains come in fun colors and funky designs. This is also a great place for gifts. You can create gift baskets with tons of
BEST THING IN WOODLAND PARK GO! CHOICE: The trees The hilly mountain town is built in a thick ponderosa pine forest and even has (faux) palm trees decorating the grounds of the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center. Up the road, you’ll find giant sequoia stumps at the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.
BEST THING IN FALCON
BEST THING IN MONUMENT
GO! CHOICE: The Big R Ranchers, farmers, boys, girls, Mr. Ed, Screech, the Olsen twins, your mom, cowpokes, the Solid Gold Dancers and Eva Gabor could all find something they wanted at The Big R. The store carries appliances, saddles, candy, gardening supplies, pet supplies, plumbing and hardware, guns and ammo, straw bales, flipflops and baby chicks. Cute cowboys and cowgirls hold down the registers. 14155 U.S. Highway 24
GO! CHOICE: The Monument Branch of the The Pikes Peak Library District
BEST THING IN PALMER LAKE GO! CHOICE: Palmer Lake After the drought threatened to dry up their town’s namesake, hundreds of residents lined the muddy banks and dumped containers of water into the lake. It was partly a symbolic gesture, but it underscored their commitment to the lake. Residents have voted to use 9.7 million gallons of their own drinking water to fill the lake.
Harding Nursery i s o n e o f Colorado’s Best! In 1957, when Billie & Joan Harding opened Harding Nursery, they specialized in homegrown blue spruce, assorted shade trees & evergreen spreaders. Today Harding’s have expanded to a selection of over 1280 plant varities.
Come see the color • • • • • • • • • • • •
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721 Powers Blvd 596 . 5712 Supplying all your plant & landscape needs since 1957
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 37
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
www.HardingNursery.com
BEST THING IN FOUNTAIN GO! CHOICE: The Fountain-Fort
Carson High School Boys The Monument Library is Basketball Team
quacktastic! Not only is there a duck pond behind it with year-round feathered residents, but the library itself is a hub of the community with computers, programs for all ages, exhibits and a community room keeping everyone happy. The cozy sunlit library hosts tons of weekly events and groups, and service with a smile is guaranteed. 1706 Lake Woodmoor Drive
At Fountain-Fort Carson, the Trojans basketball team doesn’t rebuild — it reloads. After losing the entire starting lineup from a State championship runner-up team last year, the 2004-2005 team stepped up and advanced to the Class 4A Round of 16. Under Coach Anthony Ribaudo, the team’s full court press and fast breaks make it a force on the court. Their record for the past two years is a combined 45-5.
SEE CITY x PAGE 38
Melissa Cooper & Paula Fasken reception May 21, 4-8 pm
Tom Lockhart & Daniel Glanz reception June 17, 4-8 pm Thomas Owen & Stephen LeBlanc reception July 8, 4-8 pm
Bunny Oliver & Robert Deurloo reception August 5, 4-8 pm
Work on display throughout each month.
THE SQUASH BLOSSOM Fine Jewelry Est. 1973 2531 West Colorado Avenue Colorado Springs, CO 80904 719.632.1899 www.squashblossom.com
SHOWS
FROM PAGE 36
SUMMER
05/19/05
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FROM PAGE 37
BEST THING IN BRIARGATE GO! CHOICE: The Shops
at Briargate The Shops at Briargate could also win “Best place to blow your paycheck in a day.� Start your day shopping for home furnishings at Pier 1 Imports or yuppie paradise Pottery Barn. Then on to look for the perfect outfit at Ann Taylor, Express or Banana Republic. Afterward, grab a coffee at Panera Bread, then head to Ulta for beauty supplies. Lunch at PF Chang’s China Bistro or California Pizza Kitchen. Stop by Eddie Bauer for a shirt for the hubby. Summer is coming and so is wedding season — so pick up a
E tched through time.
present from Yankee Candle Co. or Le Gourmet Chef. At the end of the day, rest your feet and sip iced tea at Ted’s Montana Grill. I-25 off Briargate Parkway and Highway 83
BEST SPOT FOR A PICNIC
Butch Lippincott, owner of the general-maintenance auto shop, is the stereotypical mechanic, dirty overalls and all. He’s developed a loyal following with reliable work, and he enjoys chatting with customers. 1412 N. Corona St. Worthy contenders: Volvo Independent Specialists Inc. and Aamco Transmissions
GO! CHOICE: Outlook Ridge at Mueller State Park
BEST LIBRARIAN
This appropriately named spot at Mueller features a ridgetop view of distant peaks, as well as the requisite picnic sites. Just a short distance down a trail are three equally rewarding overlooks where we’ve met up with (not all at once) lizards, snakes, mule deer and a golden eagle. Mueller is off Colorado Highway 67, 3.5 miles south of Divide
BEST THING ON TEJON GO! CHOICE: A fresh
cold beer at Bristol Brewing Co.
It’s Bristol time! Because the beer is made on-site, it doesn’t get any fresher than this. Besides Bristol favorites Laughing Lab, Beehive and Mass Transit, there are usually nine seasonal and test beers on tap. You can also take it home in a $9 jug, $6 for a refill, for summer night porch drinkin.’ 1647 S. Tejon St. Worthy contender: The Blue Star
MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
Best Bikini Waxer: Twenty years of experience have made Marith Riddell quick and precise in her job at Body & Face.
BEST JUNKHOUSE GO! CHOICE: William H.
BEST HOLIDAY MAKEOVER
Hutton’s
Home The home of eccentric gentleman William H. Hutton stands like a well-marked road stop on the path to weird. Hutton has carefully attached an impressive collection of garage sale art and found objects to the front of his house. Close inspection will find fake flowers, a relief of King Tut, stuffed animals, sculptures, paintings, photographs and more. Each item seems to have been carefully arranged for optimal contrast with its neighboring objects. Speaking of neighbors, Hutton isn’t getting a whole lot of love from his since erecting this eye-catching collage, but it sure gives passers-by something to gawk at. 124 E. Espaùola St.
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GO! CHOICE: Pikes Peak Library District business services librarian Terry Zarsky She’s the go-to person for the local business community, and she’s caught the attention of — and some cash from — Dun & Bradstreet as well as snagging a New York Times Librarian Award.
Center
BEST BIKINI WAXER
The family fun center spends all of October dishing out a Halloween spookfest and challenging people to find their way out of a creaky, waving corn maze. Come December, the blood-spattered walls of the haunted house are transformed into a holly, jolly Christmas scene, complete with merry elves and St. Nick himself. 5150 Edison Ave.
GO! CHOICE: Marith Riddell Going to the bikini waxer is like going to the dentist: You hope it’ll be as quick and painless as possible. That’s why Marith Riddell’s the one to see. A waxer with more than 20 years’ experience, Riddell gets the job done in as few steps as possible, avoids bruising and knows the best waxes for your hair type. In and out in 10 minutes, tops. As for the pain, take two aspirin 45 minutes before your appointment and you’re golden. Body & Face, 105 E. Willamette Ave.
BEST TRUSTY MECHANIC GO! CHOICE: Butch’s Automotive
Service Butch is his name, wrenchin’ in the trenches is his game.
SEE CITY x PAGE 39
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THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 38
05/19/05
11:47
FROM PAGE 38
BEST STORE CATS
BEST SELF-SERVICE GAS STATION GO! CHOICE: Shell Station at
2705 Janitell Road Sure, it has the requisite car wash and convenience store. It even has a McDonald’s. But what puts this place over the top are the TV screens built into the gas pumps so you can watch CNN while you pump your unleaded. How cool is that?
BEST PLACE FOR GLASSES GO! CHOICE: Charlotte’s Optical The European designs at Charlotte’s are so hot and fashionable you won’t see knockoffs of them at the mall stores until next year. 76 S. Sierra Madre St.
GO! CHOICE: Vinny and Oliver, Black Forest Veterinary Clinic Take the family pet in for a checkup and Vinny is your greeter — even if you’re accompanied by a Doberman. Oliver doesn’t show his whiskers — until he wants to. They’ve both been on the job for a couple of years. 12740 Black Forest Road
BEST PLACE TO WI-FI:
BEST BUSINESS TREND GO! CHOICE: Bike-shop hybrids Why have a bike shop, a coffee parlor and a microbrew bar when you can have a business that’s all of them? Kinfolks in Manitou Springs and Jimbo’s Bike and Coffee on North Academy Boulevard have proved that gears, java and brews work well. Now, when is somebody going to develop a shoe store/martini bar?
Creek, where deer and little thy of a big-city museum. 201 S. Fairview St., Wood- critters make regular appearances. Accommodations are land Park quaint and rustic, dating from the 1930s to the ’50s. But never fear, “They’re modern inside, with hot water and heat GO! CHOICE: Challenger and everything,” says owner John Hooton, a personable Learning Center You can pilot your own “former yuppie who joined space shuttle, visit a comet or Mom and Popsville” with his work back in Mission Control, wife, Cindy, in 1988. 3627 W. Colorado Ave., bewith simulators that challenge minds and fuel imaginations. tween Old Colorado City and This also is great for families, Manitou Springs Worthy contenders: Alpine seniors and corporate retreats. 10215 Lexington Drive, Suite Motel and The Buffalo Lodge 110
BEST SCHOOL FIELD TRIP
BEST PLACE TO SEE 66-MILLION-YEAROLD CARNIVORES BEST MOTEL
GO! CHOICE: FREX The interurban bus service touts free wireless Internet as one of its chief attractions. The Wi-Fi feature hasn’t worked GO! CHOICE: Rocky Mountain Diflawlessly, but the connected nosaur Resource Center World-renowned commercommute is an idea whose cial paleontologist Mike Trietime has come. bold has created a collection of fossils, bones and castings wor-
BEST HOTEL/ RESORT
GO! CHOICE: The Timber Lodge GO! CHOICE: The Broadmoor Take a mountain vacation The plans were grander without leaving town. Adorable than grand in 1916 when Spenlittle log A-frames and cabins cer Penrose hand-picked the arare spread across heavily wooded acreage along Fountain SEE CITY x PAGE 40
BEST BAR DOG GO! CHOICE: Oscar’s Scharlotte’s her name, and bacon’s her game. If you pop into Oscars after 5 p.m., you might be greeted by a friendly 7-year-old black Lab who visits regularly with her owner, Dawn. She roams about, gently saying hello to friendly hands, especially friendly hands with bacon in them. 333 S. Tejon St.
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Friday, May 20, 2005
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45 years, AAA Five-Diamond Awards for 29 years and the Zagat Survey Exceptional Rating. Add to that the Colorado Avid Golfer Readers Choice for No. 1 Resort Course and No. 1 Golf Pro Shop, top-rated restaurants, a spa carrying the Zagat Extraordinary Rating, and recognition as one of the top tennis resorts in the country. Not one to sit on its laurels, The Broadmoor is undergoing a $200 million expansion that will include a 60,000-squarefoot event center, 90 luxury condominiums and townhoMOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE mes, and a new restaurant. Best Taxi Driver: Donna Stafford is outgoing and fun, and this su1 Lake Ave. perb listener hugs the regulars on her Yellow Cab route.
FROM PAGE 39
best. They’ve never let their founder down. The pink resort chitects for New York’s Grand works hard to maintain the Central Station to create a image, pulling Mobil Five-Star hotel here. Nothing but the ratings (the best) for the past
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BEST BED AND BREAKFAST
Inn is one of the region’s few AAA-rated 4-star B&Bs, and for good reason. The gourmet breakfasts are outstanding, and the inn perfectly balances luxury and comfort. The antique furnishings are gorgeous, but they’re not so fussy that you’re afraid you’re going to break something. We recommend the Spindletop Suite ($255 to $295 per night), which has 17 windows looking out at Pikes Peak. 328 El Paso Blvd., Manitou Springs
BEST TAXI DRIVER GO! CHOICE: Donna Stafford,
Yellow Cab
She’s so much more than a taxi driver; she’s friend and GO! CHOICE: The Rockledge family to the special-needs people who request her. Country Inn The first-name-basis cusThis romantic green-stone tomers go to dialysis, therapy mansion next to the Craftwood and medical appointments, and for years she took her “boys” to a recreation center until her 002 company discontinued using wheelchair accessible vans such as hers this month. Now she drives a regular cab. When she loses a passenger, Stafford says, “it’s personal” and she rarely misses a funeral. When one of her passengers is hospitalized, family mem-
bers call to update her on how they’re doing. Stafford says “wheelchair people have the best jokes, the best humor. The elderly have the best stories.” And she loves to listen as she drives. Donna Stafford, too, is disabled. She has heart disease, blood clots in her legs and a vein graft, so she understands. “This isn’t even work,” she says.
BEST BUS DRIVER GO! CHOICE:
Leroy Kelly, Springs
Transit He loves the people who ride the bus, and they love him. Regulars boarding Hillside bus 9903 say Kelly is always happy to see them and they hope he stays on this route for a long time. He’s been on the job 14-plus years. “Being retired from the military I don’t have to work, but I love what I do,” he says. “I don’t do something for people to say ‘thank you, thank you,’ but having them appreciate what I do makes me want to do my job even better.” That’s a tall order. Worthy contenders: Janice Parker, FREX; John Mitchell, Springs Transit, Peterson Air Force Base bus SEE CITY x PAGE 41
Colorado Springs #1 Amusement Park
3 Go-Kart Tracks Dragon Roller Coaster Frog Hopper Ride Outdoor Super Slide
Bumper Boats Bumper Cars Tornado Thrill Ride Climbing Wall
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(719) 573-5500 www.JoyRidesFFC.com THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 40
11:47
FROM PAGE 40
Your Neighborhood Market ~ Since 1902!
BEST CROSSING GUARD
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GO! CHOICE: Pat Hannaford “Miss Pat” is not just the lady who gets you from point A to point B safely. She is more like a street-crossing fairy godmother. The Steele Elementary School crossing guard at Del Norte and Cascade avenues gives out treats at holidays, wears silly hats and earrings, provides hugs when needed, once bought a little boy a hat and gloves and carries treats for dogs. She has special relationships with her “crossees” and misses them when they grow up and change schools.
BEST RECEPTIONIST
in Town!
THE LITTLE
& DELI
MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
Best Crossing Guard: Pat Hannaford is a favorite of “crossees” at Del Norte and Cascade avenues near Steele Elementary School.
Don’t call the Pioneers Museum unless you’re prepared for a hefty dose of sunshine. Gretchen Arnold, who’s been at the museum for 11 years, always seems to be high on life. In reality, Arnold has gone through some rough times. But she vows to always put on a chipper attitude. She’s been a victim of receptionists from the other camp: “What was I doing there, and why was I interrupting their life? I’m never MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE going to be like that.” Best Receptionist: Gretchen Arnold keeps a sunny attitude while Call her at 385-5990. greeting everyone who calls or enters the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.
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GO! CHOICE: Gretchen Arnold at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum
SEE CITY x PAGE 42
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FROM PAGE 41
cited dogs scratching at the windows to get out. Off 21st Street, north of GO! CHOICE: Mi Gente Customs These guys will put 20-inch Cheyenne Boulevard rims on a tricycle. Get hooked up and, if you’re stuck in traffic on I-25, at least your rims will still be spinning. 2495 Arlington Drive GO! CHOICE: Camp Bow Wow Now you can board Fifi while you work . . . and keep an eye on her from your computer terminal. Camp Bow Wow, a GO! CHOICE: Lexus of Colorado 7,100-square-foot facility, has Springs Absolutely the ultimate in eight webcams. You can work on designing waiting-for-your-car pamperthat new microchip at your ing: your own concierge to desk while you track Fifi’s bring the daily paper or some fresh fruit, flavored coffees and progress on that chewy. hot chocolate, big-screen TV, 4295 Northpark Drive comfy armchairs, carpet, fresh Mrs. Fields cookies, three work stations with Internet access and computers and a full view of the kids’ toy room and GO! CHOICE: Clarion Hotel its Bambi mural. A yummy (formerly Le Baron Hotel) Almost every day, and some- chocolate with company logo times twice a day, the thought- awaits inside the car. 603 Auto Heights ful Clarion Hotel staffers use Worthy contenders: Heutheir marquee to welcome a berger Subaru-Volkswagen’s new group to their premises. Java Cat Cafe and fish pond The complete and utter randomness of who visits makes with waterfall; Red Noland Jagevery day a surprise. Some ex- uar-Land Rover’s fireplace, playamples: “Welcome Japanese room, plasma TV and, just outBroomball Team,” “Welcome side, a Land Rover test course; American Black Belt Acade- Phil Long Hyundai’s fireplace, my,” “Welcome Girl Scouts” Jay Cimino’s Colorado photos, and “Welcome Mary Kay.” Do a Internet access and kids’ play drive-by and you’ll see why it’s area; Pikes Peak Acura’s become our daily guilty plea- Spongebob SquarePants playroom and free Starbucks for sure. the big people 314 W. Bijou St.
PIMP YOUR RIDE
BEST PHONE DIRECTORY VOICE GO! CHOICE: Colorado Springs
BEST DOGGIE DAY CARE
Credit Union It’s nice while caught in phone system purgatory to be asked by a dignified British voice to please wait “whilst” your call is connected. It’s even better when the accent is legit. Arthur Ashmole, the credit union’s vice president with the velvety recorded voice, hales from Hertfordshire, England. Was it his charm that won him the honor of doing the recording? He shrugs, saying, “I think I was just out of the room when they voted.” Call him at 482-7600
BEST CAR DEALER WAITING ROOM
BEST HOTEL MARQUEE
BEST PLACE FOR YOUR DOG TO SNIFF THE BUTTS OF OTHER DOGS GO! CHOICE: Bear Creek Regional Park’s dog park This huge park has about a quarter-mile circular path that takes you and your pooch by a creek, up a hill, through a meadow and back down again. Along the way are plastic garbage cans, kiosks filled with plastic bags for poop, ratty tennis balls for games of fetch and every shape, size and breed of dog imaginable. On a nice day, the small dirt parking lot is packed, as cars pile in with ex-
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SEE CITY x PAGE 43
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Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
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Personal Touch Gardening & Landscaping Colorado Springs’ Personal Gardener Since 1989 • Landscape Design • Natural Water Features • Outdoor Lighting
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Best Place to Get Married: Glen Eyrie is the most romantic spot in the region to get hitched. After you’ve popped the question at Palmer Park, plan to rent out this castle near Garden of the Gods.
FROM PAGE 42
dings and other special events. There’s not a more stately GO! CHOICE: Grandview Overlook and romantic setting in the on north side of Palmer Park Pikes Peak region than the At the summit of Palmer Rose Garden at Glen Eyrie. Park, you can see the whole Off 30th Street, just north city and maybe glimpse your of Garden of the Gods future. Stroll to the bench, sit your partner down, and be careful on the rocks as you go down on one knee. GO! CHOICE: Thomas R. Cross Because sometimes forever doesn’t last. Cross has 34 years of experience, and he has a sense for when to deal, when GO! CHOICE: Glen Eyrie to settle and when to fight. The castle that Gen. Palmer And when he fights, watch out. built for his “Queen” is now opHe gets $325 an hour. erated as a conference center by The Navigators ministry, and it’s rented out for wed-
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oppressive heat and humidity of a hopping Southern town and pouring us a brimming glass of moonshine. The beats were wicked, the horns spiritual, the sweat dripping off that dancing guy’s back — absolutely disgusting. We were definitely feeling it. Worthy contender: Asleep at the Wheel.
BEST STREET PERFORMER GO! CHOICE: Vincent
Raymond
La France With long hair, a scraggly gray beard, a NASA cap or cowboy hat and a road-weary voice that’s reminiscent of John Prine and Willie Nelson, La France is the quintessential street troubadour. The Springs native says he’s played his guitar and sung on the corner of Tejon and Boulder streets for about 12 years. One of his favorite covers: David Allan Coe’s “Longhaired Redneck.” Give him an ear and he’ll tell you about his studies in astrophysics or meeting Janis Joplin.
BEST LARGE CONCERT Cher
MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
Best Street Performer: Vincent Raymond La France plays from noon to 3 p.m. at Tejon and Boulder streets when the weather is nice.
in the blank), a living legend! Then you go to the show. Your hero gives a less-then-stellar one-hour performance, bows and leaves. That’s why it’s great to see a couple of legends such as Robert Cray and Buddy Guy hit the stage with plenty of enthusiasm, musical creativity and passion still left in them. Guys, when you sing the blues, you take away ours. Worthy contender: John Prine.
It doesn’t matter how many faretours READERS’ well gives, CHOICE she she leaves us wanting more. This time around, Cher raised the camp level (and gay appeal) of her dazzling Vegas-style show at World Arena by inviting The Village People to open. It was nostalgic, spectacular and bigger than ever. If she’s still say- GO! CHOICE: Colorado Springs ing goodbye a decade from Philharmonic, a performance of now, local fans won’t mind a bit. Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and
BEST LARGE CLASSICAL CONCERT
Mozart
GO! CHOICE: The Robert
Cray
Band and Buddy Guy We’ve all done it. You buy the tickets, you pay a week’s salary for them, and you’re completely psyched to see (fill
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 45
Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Itzhak Perlman was the classical music event of the year. But for sheer excitement, the Colorado Springs Philharmonic’s finest moment came in
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
a Briargate performance of Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and Mozart. For two hours in the intimate setting of Sunrise United Methodist Church, the audience was transported.
BEST SMALL CONCERT GO! CHOICE: North Mississippi Allstars and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at now-closed 32 Bleu
BEST PERFORMING ARTS COLLABORATION GO! CHOICE:
“Amahl and the
Night Visitors” This co-production of the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs and the Colorado Springs Conservatory was so good in 2003 that the only sensible thing to do in 2004 was repeat it. About 5,000 area residents heard Menotti’s melodic and heartstring-tugging opera at venues including Fort Carson and Woodland Park.
work you hardly ever saw. That ended in January, when the Fine Arts Center devoted a searingly powerful two-gallery retrospective to Tunson’s edgy multimedia work. NOTE: The Fine Arts Center’s Chihuly exhibit opened after our research deadline, so it’ll be considered next year.
BEST COUNTRY & WESTERN CLUB GO! CHOICE: Cowboys We take our 10-gallon hats off to this little honky-tonk. Cowboys consistently ropes in the hottest country stars, and the past year’s lineup was no exception. Fans kicked up their boots to favorites including Blake Shelton, Asleep at the Wheel, Ty Herndon, Tracy Lawrence, and The Honky Tonk Tailgate Party (Daryle Singletary, Chad Brock, Rhett Akins and David Kersh). 3910 Palmer Park Blvd.
BEST MUSEUM EXHIBIT
Sure, it’s easy to daydream you’re somewhere warm and sunny in November in Colo- GO! CHOICE: Floyd Tunson, Fine rado, but the Allstars and the Arts Center For years, Floyd Tunson Dirty Dozen took us a step farther — transporting us to the was the best local artist whose
SEE A&E x PAGE 46
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FROM PAGE 45
BEST LIVE MUSIC VENUE GO! CHOICE: Pikes Peak Center It may not be the rowdiest place or have the hippest interior, but the Pikes Peak Center has something other places don’t: exquisite acoustics. That’s because it’s not made up of four stagnant walls — it’s a room in flux, a high-tech puzzle of panels made to adjust to the acoustics of any musical journey. The ceiling moves, acoustic banners descend, movable towers cruise back and forth behind the stage. So you are never the schmo sitting in the section that hears words as garbles and crystal-clear guitar hooks as a muted echo. 190 S. Cascade Ave.
BEST SMALL CONCERT VENUE GO! CHOICE: Navajo
Hogan
Roadhouse The Hogan is just plain cool. The twin peaks of the ceiling — domes built from logs in the ’30s — are absolutely mesmerizing. They also create some pretty fine acoustics. The new rockin’ Hogan opened a year ago, and it is hosting a lot of heavy rock with healthy doses of country and hip-hop. The new owner, Ken Patterson, keeps an open mind to music, and with the help of his sons he is creating a unique music landscape. 2817 N. Nevada Ave. Worthy contender: The nowclosed 32 Bleu/Red River Saloon.
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BEST OUTDOOR MUSIC VENUE
QUICK HITS
(All GO! staff picks) GO! CHOICE: Hillside Gardens Oh beautiful for spacious BEST RETIRING ARTS skies, for waterfalls and plants, MAVEN: Mary Mashburn, former for bluegrass, acoustic guitars, executive director of the Kennedy and lots of fascinating trash . . . Center Imagination Celebration If you haven’t seen a show at BEST TEEN ARTS OUTHillside Gardens, your life REACH: Battle of the Bands by the could stand to improve. This Colorado Springs Conservatory beautiful plant nursery, which BEST PUPPETEER: David Simspans more than four acres, is pich of Simpich Marionettes a wonderland overlooking the BEST CLOWN: Jim Jackson at city and the distant mountains. The gardens has free shows the Manitou Art Theater weekly during the summer, as well as a few major concerts, a bluegrass festival and a blues festival — plus tasty food and GO! CHOICE: Joe’s Bar beer. Those fancy-pants martini 1006 S. Institute St. drinkers don’t know what they’re missing. Tucked away in a shopping center, Joe’s Bar GO! CHOICE: Black Pegasus, oozes with easygoing atmosphere and simple pleasures. “Knuckle Up” The B.P. is a hip-hop ma- There’s something so satisfychine, and this latest disc ing about a night when a shows he has what it takes to bunch of friends wage an epic merge his underground sound battle of doubles table shufflewith the glitz of the main- board, chug a few beers and stream. The result? A truly ad- warble their way through dictive collection that you karaoke (starts at 9 p.m. every should never (never!) consider night but Thursday) — and don’t worry about how cool playing for your mother. Worthy contender: John- they look doing it. Good times. 4763 Flintridge Drive Alex Mason, “Time Will Come”
BEST DIVE BAR
BEST LOCAL CD
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Rum Bay
Old Chicago
Downstairs are the girls straight off MTV, and the READERS’ guys who ogle CHOICE them. Above is a laid-back crowd dancing and singing to tunes of the ’70s and ’80s, and in back are hip cats rocking to live blues and jazz. You can always find a song to get your groove on. 20 N. Tejon St.
Upstart Champps rallied, but in the end, Old Chicago won by two votes. Maybe it’s the 110 beers from around the world. Maybe it’s the classic sports-bar ator READERS’ mosphere the deep-dish CHOICE pizza. Or maybe it’s the bartenders and managers, who have a terrific sense for the biggest games of the day and yet are flexible enough to honor requests.
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GO! CHOICE: Rum Bay
ur rce ATRE o Y ou HE s T t E s Visit be HOM The Most experienced and for staff knowledgeable in the Springs!
BEST GOTH CLUB: The Darkside, 2106 E. Platte Ave. BEST RESTAURANT ART GALLERY: The Warehouse, 25 W. Cimarron St. BEST INDOOR ART FOR TOURISTS: Michael Garman’s “Magic Town,” 2418 W. Colorado Ave. BEST OUTDOOR ART FOR TOURISTS: Starr Kempf’s metal kinetic sculptures, across the street from Stratton Park at the mouth of Cheyenne Canyon
7115 Commerce Center Drive, 118 N. Tejon St., 4110 N. Academy Blvd. A new one is coming soon to the First and Main shopping center on Powers Boulevard. GO! CHOICE: Overtime Sports
Bar and Grill Armchair quarterbacks can get into the action — sort of — with QuarterBack Bingo at Overtime Sports Bar. The bar hosts a trademarked bingo game with prizes for players who can get five in a row. Players earn squares for spotting beer commercials, food purchases and specific plays on the field of whatever NFL game is on that Monday night. In the deal you get three big screens, 29 total TVs, a Chicago-style menu and a good seat from any spot in the room — who could ask for anything more? 2809 Dublin Blvd.
BEST GAY BAR GO! CHOICE: Club Q This joint is jumping with lots of delicious men and women and the men and women who love them. Check out the schedule at www.clubqonline.com. There’s something outrageous going on every night of the week, from Purgatory Strippers and “Find Your Match with Club Q Matchmaker Night” to drag queen bingo. 3430 N. Academy Blvd.
SEE A&E x PAGE 47
Locally-owned since 1964
636-1684 • 7 East Cimarron • Downtown Friday, May 20, 2005
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FROM PAGE 46
Best Art Gallery: Dale Chihuly’s sculpture “Autumn Gold, Citron and Scarlet Tower, 2002” is one of many works drawing crowds to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.
BEST TEJANO BAR Twisters Restaurant and Cantina
BEST POOL HALL GO! CHOICE:
Phantom Canyon
Brewing Co.
GO! CHOICE: Double
Eagle Hotel
& Casino From the glitzy Monte Carlo slots to the ornate ceilings to the stained glass to the glittering chandeliers, the Double Eagle is a feast for the eyes. This place is big — really big, and it has what must be one of the world’s highest Starbucks,
GO! CHOICE: Broke as a Joke TV shows make poker seem so simple and badass — nevermind the little cameras that give an omnipresent view of the action. So, how do you get good without flushing away all that cash? Broke as a Joke (www.broke asajoke.com) hosts poker games all over town (Tony’s, Overtime, Cleats Bar & Grill,
“Three Collectors: Highlights from the Brasch, Lehrer and Wenderski Collections,” University of Colorado at Colorado Springs GO! CHOICE:
BEST ART GALLERY Colorado Springs Fine Art Center OK, so this is more of a museum than a galREADERS’ lery. CHOICE But since Michael De Marsche took the reins, its vibe has been more cosmopolitan art gallery than stuffy museum. The exhibits are more exciting and focused, and now it has a nifty lounge where you can hang out before or after your art strolls. 30 W. Dale St.GO! CHOICE:
M
E
TO THE SU
I
LIFE
BEST CRIPPLE CREEK CASINO
BEST WEEKLY POKER GAME
BEST GALLERY SHOW
TE
You can shoot stick anywhere. It’s the little extras that put Phantom Canyon’s classic, second-floor pool hall above the rest: killer jukebox, nice views, huge selection of fresh beer, above-average food and foosball for the billiards-challenged. 2 E. Pikes Peak Ave.
along with two restaurants, a deli, a hotel and classic casino entertainment, with such names as B.J. Thomas and Juice Newton. Its hotel has a deluxe twobedroom Presidential Suite, with living room complete with bar and fireplace, dining room, walk-out balcony, two baths and a Jacuzzi. 400-442 E. Bennett Ave.
er it’s Tricia Higgins Hurt’s whimsical southwestern scenes, Martha Mans’ sublime landscapes or Thomas Buechner’s master-influenced stilllifes. The Broadmoor hotel, 1 Lake Ave.
The UCCS Gallery of Contemporary Art routinely MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE achieves miracles with a shoestring-insulting budget — and Joe’s and many others) with no Hayden-Hays never more so than with fall’s buy-in. Practice your Annie Gallery “Three Collectors: Highlights Duke-style flirtation or your This fine-art gallery has from the Brasch, Lehrer and Phil Helmuth-style tantrums. been around for 25 years, but Wenderski Collections.” Learn poker’s secrets — when the art is always fresh, whethto hold ’em, when to fold ’em SEE A&E x PAGE 48 . . . well, you know the song.
LC O
Every Friday and Saturday night, Twisters is THE Latin hot spot in the region, presenting Tejano acts from across the region and around the world. The little READERS’ dance floor gets pretty CHOICE crowded, so you have to get there early for a good spot in front of the band. 2810 E. Fountain Blvd.
WE
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Embassy Suites • Beautiful Garden Setting • Receptions and Rehearsal Dinners • Bridesmaids Luncheons • Corporate Meetings & Retreats • Holiday Parties Accommodations available for groups up to 250 people
For more information contact our catering department 719-599-9100 ext. 526
I-25 at Woodmen at Exit 149 Colorado Springs, CO BEST OF THE SPRINGS 47
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FROM PAGE 47
Half eye-opening and half thought-provoking, the exhibit beautifully demonstrated that artistic individuality isn’t limited to artists.
BEST MOVIE THEATER Cinemark Theatre Tinseltown was the slickest, grandest READERS’ megaplex in CHOICE town when it opened in 1998. We all oohed and aahed. But when Cinemark opened a couple of years later, it made its older sibling look like a forgotten screening room on Disney’s back lot. Cinemark’s art deco design is classier, and the theater just
feels cooler. It also boasts a 3-D IMAX theater with a killer sound system that has expanded our movie options. It has become popular with families and school field-trip groups. 3305 Cinema Point at First & Main Town Center — off Powers Boulevard and Carefree Circle. GO! CHOICE: Kimball’s
Twin Peak
Theater Twin Peak owner Kimball Bayles had Daryl Hannah and Kris Kristofferson hanging out in his lobby this year (for the opening of “Silver City.”) And he has a wine bar. And he shows movies that won Oscars for something other than visual effects. All of which means that the Twin Peak Theater is way hipper than the multiplexes out in the burbs. 115 E. Pikes Peak Ave.
They’re already impressed with you.
NOW FLOOR ‘EM.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THEATREWORKS
Best Theater Company: Shelley Burl starred in Theatreworks’ production of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
walked the fine line between the human and the mythic. The cast was as strong as has ever been seen in Colorado Springs, from Denver actor Gene Gillette’s likeable yet malevolent Stanley to Laura Tesman’s radiant Stella. Director Murray Ross brought out the lyricism in Tennessee Williams’ greatest script without blunting its crushing emotional power. Worthy contender: Theatreworks’ “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
BEST THEATRICAL COMEDY GO! CHOICE: “Taming of the Shrew,” Theatreworks
BEST THEATER COMPANY
Is it possible to get bruised just watching a play? In Theatreworks’ madcap production, it was as if a band of superliterate circus clowns had taken it on themselves to deconstruct Shakespeare — blending Chaplinesque gaits with rimshots and high-energy pratfalls. Kudos to director Richard Crawford and to his cast, which had to do the actual work.
GO! CHOICE: Theatreworks It’s a pleasure to have to agonize over this choice. Theatreworks’ season wasn’t consistently good, but standout productions of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Taming of the Shrew” — and the transcendent show it sponsored of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” — keep it a nose ahead of the vastly improved Fine Arts Center. At UCCS, with most shows in the Dusty Loo Bon Vivant GO! CHOICE: “Cabaret,” Theater, 3955 Cragwood Drive.
BEST MUSICAL
Fine Arts Center
The Fine Arts Center’s dark, sexy production of “Cabaret” deftly shifted from roGO! CHOICE: “A Streetcar Named mance to drama. And the younger-than-usual Sally and Desire,” Theatreworks Theatreworks’ production Cliff — Taylor O’Donnell and of “A Streetcar Named Desire” David Jackson — gave this usu-
BEST THEATRICAL DRAMA
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ally seedy show a welcome core of innocence and lightheartedness.
BEST DINNER THEATER GO! CHOICE: Country Dinner
Playhouse To find good professional dinner theater, you have to drive to Greenwood Village. But it’s worth the trip. The food is bland, but the shows are not: The casts include some of the region’s most accomplished performers. 6875 S. Clinton St., Greenwood Village, I-25 to Arapahoe Road.
BEST LOCAL ACTOR GO! CHOICE: Jonathan Eberhardt To insiders, this may be a stretch, but no local actor stretched himself more, or more successfully, than Jonathan Eberhardt. Best known for his behind-thescenes work with makeup and wigs, Eberhardt followed a breakthrough comic role as Hysterium in the Fine Arts Center’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” with a breakthrough dramatic role as the mysterious Emcee in “Cabaret.” Worthy contenders: David Plambeck in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” Mark Hennessy in “Moon Over Buffalo,” Jerome Davis in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
BEST LOCAL ACTRESS GO! CHOICE: Jane Fromme When Jane Fromme as Blanche Dubois was quietly escorted offstage in Theatreworks’ production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the audience’s collective hearts went with her. Fromme gave us a Blanche that was bigger than life yet achingly human, and showed us Blanche’s intelligence, refinement, humor, sensuality, dishonesty and anguish. Worthy contenders: Leah Chandler Mills in “Vinegar Tom” by Theatreworks, Alysabeth Clements in “The Taming of the Shrew,” Laura Tesman in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
MONEY MUSEUM SEE A&E x PAGE 49
The country’s only museum and library dedicated to the study and collecting of money and related items
818 N. Cascade Ave. • Colorado Springs 719.632.2646 • www.money.org
Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 48
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FROM PAGE 48
get the opportunity, be prepared to play along — and shake it with spunk — because Hooks could throw any song GO! CHOICE: “The Thorn” GO! CHOICE: “The Merry Wives out there, from “The Time by New Life Church of Windsor,” Star Bar Players Warp” to an original number. Every year it gets bigger. By any reasonable measure, Consider yourself lucky if This year’s crucifixion specStar Bar Player’s campy, slap- you’re one of the chosen few. tacular actually had two Cirstick production of “The www.archhooks.com. que du Soleil veterans to rig Merry Wives of Windsor” wires for the soaring angels should have been an embarand demons. The cast has rassment to the community. bloated to about 800, the crew But there was nothing reato about 200. sonable at all in the gusto with GO! CHOICE: Accumen1 Even for atheists, this is which director Mark HenFor so many, the term “hip- quite a show. nessy’s large cast attacked hop” brings to mind women in 11025 Voyager Parkway. Shakespeare’s most unsubstan- skimpy outfits and men with a tial comedy. mic in one hand and an AK-47 in the other. But local MCs Kevin “Theory?” Mitchell and Antoine “Samir” Zamundu are GO! CHOICE: Festival of Lights GO! CHOICE: Pikes Peak Blues overcoming that stereotype, Family Event at Colorado Community Although not a physical lo- with music that stimulates the Springs Pioneers Museum Mark the first Saturday of cale, the Pikes Peak Blues Com- intellect as much as the hips. munity holds a special place in With melodic grooves that take each December — Dec. 3 this our hearts. This little club that cues from the warmth of old- year. Leading up to that evening’s could has hauled a lot of great school reggae, and the alternatblues into our little city, and ing perspective of the two tal- holiday lights parade downhas supported our blues com- ented MCs, Accumen1 challeng- town, hundreds of families are munity with love, tenderness es you to reinvent your defini- at the museum making holiday tion of hip-hop. and fundraising. ornaments, taking goat cart rides, learning to weave or spin wool, singing holiday songs, viewing model trains GO! CHOICE: leer43 and watching magicians, dancWe admire the patience and ers and musicians. GO! CHOICE: John-Alex Mason determination of this band, And during the parade, muThat deep, warm drawl dewhich has stuck it out for seum volunteers warm up specabout 10 years, surviving mands your attention, sucks tators with hot chocolate and changes in lineup and popular you in, and takes you on a blue- cookies. music. The group has managed sy sonic journey down a path 215 S. Tejon St. to keep up with the times with- that feels so Southern you’d out selling its soul to the latest never guess this guy’s from Colcraze, and it has gradually im- orado. Worthy contender: Joe proved as the group plays conUveges. sistently great shows across SEE A&E x PAGE 50 the state. The poppy rock, led by the warm voice and appealing falsetto of Brandon Metz, has become a local favorite. Worthy contender: Eyes Caught Fire.
Best Church Production: New Life’s production of “The Thorn” gets bigger every year — two Cirque du Soleil veterans pitched in on this year’s spectacular.
BEST CHURCH PRODUCTION
BEST ENSEMBLE
BEST LOCAL HIP-HOP GROUP
BEST FREE ENTERTAINMENT
BEST BLUES CLUB
BEST LOCAL BAND
BEST LOCAL SINGERSONGWRITER
BEST COVER BAND GO! CHOICE: The Riders With 27 years of experience, the members of The Riders are more than a staple on the Springs music scene — they’re the soundtrack to the tipsy portion of our lives.
BEST BAND THAT LETS YOU PLAY TAMBOURINE GO! CHOICE: Arch Hooks Arch Hooks doesn’t let just anyone play his tambourine. And the honor is becoming more rare. “It can be a real train wreck, especially with the drunks,” Hooks said. If you BEST OF THE SPRINGS 49
At the Tick Tock Shop, Dave Mattson, master watchmaker and owner, helps customers find the right timepiece. The Shop has the biggest and best selection on clocks and watches. Why not stop in and browse before making your purchase.
7 North Circle, Colorado Springs 475-8585
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
PHOTO COURTESY OF BOLDFACE DESIGNS INC.
r ce u Yo sour TV . Visit t D s The Most be H. experienced and r knowledgeable o f staff in the Springs! Locally-owned since 1964
636-1684 • 7 East Cimarron • Downtown
05/19/05
11:49
FROM PAGE 49
Best New retired Air Force master serNightclub: geant is out and about four Cedars Jazz nights a week, working the mic Club, near I-25 like nobody’s business. When and Fillmore Avhe isn’t on the road with his enue, draws an contracting business, he’s at GO! CHOICE: Good Company eclectic mix of the Polo Club at the Embassy Restaurant and Bar bands, includThe north-end bar has all Suites on Fridays and Saturing jazz band days and Champps and Good the makings of good karaoke: a Creating a Company on Thursdays. That’s mic, regularly updated playlist Newsense. and lots of audience love. Star- right — sometimes he hits two builders runs it at 8:30 p.m. spots on the same night. MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE He sparkles on Billy Joel’s Tuesdays through Saturdays, “Piano Man,” even adding in as well as some Mondays. “American Idol” alert — you his own harmonica playing, can sing for your soul, or a bar and he shines on “Kyrie” by drawn media attention from around the globe. It’s dedicattab, beginning at 11 p.m. Fri- Mr. Mister. ed to the idea that certain GO! CHOICE: Wayfarer British days and Saturdays. Christmas confections serve and Irish Pub 7625 N. Union Blvd. Every Sunday night from 6 better as projectiles than desGO! CHOICE: The Great Fruitcake serts. Some competitors throw to 10 p.m., the Channel Cats Toss in Manitou Springs the fruitcakes. Others devise host a blues jam. They work This zany “Northern Expo- complicated contraptions to hard to make it a fair night; evsure”-type event, started by launch their cakes across Mani- erybody who shows and signs GO! CHOICE: Buddy Gilmore the Manitou Springs Chamber up gets an opportunity to shine Buddy takes this karaoke of Commerce in 1996, has tou Springs. in the spotlight. Bassists, harHeld in early January at Mestuff seriously. The 51-year old morial Park, Manitou Springs. monica players, vocalists and others better know their blues stuff — there’s no country or hip-hop here. 520 S. Tejon St. Family Owned
BEST PLACE FOR KARAOKE
BEST OPEN MIC
BEST FESTIVAL
BEST KARAOKE SINGER
BEST NEW NIGHTCLUB
& Operated In Business Since 1987
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GO! CHOICE: Cedars Jazz Club A little gem lies hidden in a remote location near Interstate 25 and Fillmore Avenue. It’s a jazz club-cum-art gallery that opened last June. A jazz band plays Fridays and Sundays, but the rest of the week is a menagerie of music, from hip-hop to rock and pop. It’s got a sweet little dance floor, two bars, plenty of cozy lounging and some culture by way of the OpticalReverb art gallery that wraps around a few walls. 3125 Sinton Road. Worthy contender: Rendezvous Lounge.
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BEST CHANDELIER GO! CHOICE: The Chihuly at the Fine Arts Center
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GO! CHOICE: “The Baseball Guy” What’s with that huge mustachioed guy on the southeast corner of Willamette Avenue and Royer Street? He’s as enigmatic as he is impressive: Big enough and bold enough to attract you, but enough of an attitude to keep you away. He’s the work of Tom Henderson, who also has a lizard and other creatures roaming his yard.
Dale Chihuly’s huge chandeliers aren’t exactly unique — Google “Chihuly” and “chandelier” and the about 4,000 hits will lead you everywhere from Las Vegas’ Bellagio Hotel to Auburn University’s Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art (which happens to be Fine Arts Center director Michael De Marsche’s previous job). But only the most hard-hearted art lover will fail to experience what De Marsche calls “a ‘wow’ moment” on entering GO! CHOICE: Jim Ciletti the center and being confrontA man who passes along his ed by this exuberant mass of love of writing and reading, he twisting color. teaches classes, is active in Po30 W. Dale St. etry West, was the Pikes Peak Arts Council’s first poet of the year, was in residence in Salida’s Poetry on a Platter program and was a Colorado Book GO! CHOICE: Chihuly knockoff Award nominee. His poem Even those of us who love “Getting the Newspaper from the Fine Arts Center’s Chihuly the Lawn” earned him a $500 chandelier had to laugh out first prize in a national contest. loud at Christopher Keller’s Worthy contender: Jason $80 Chihuly knockoff — made Gaulden, who uses his poetry of balloons — that graced the to facilitate social change. Business of Art Center lobby during the Manitou Art Theater’s “10 Minutes Max.”
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GO! CHOICE: Michael De Marsche The Fine Arts Center’s president and chief executive officer Michael De Marsche has energy and vision. He’s ruffled feathers and he’s brought in crowds. In less than two years, he’s taken major steps in transforming a quiet, low-profile community arts center into a bustling midsize art museum — restoring John Gaw Meem’s building, attracting new works and high-profile exhibits, and shaking up the staff. The center will never be the same.
THE GAZETTE
SEE A&E x PAGE 51
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 50
11:49
BEST SEAT AT THE CINEMARK IMAX THEATRE GO! CHOICE: Front row center The 3-D effects work best when you’re not looking over other seats. You may have to crane your neck a bit, but most of the action in the IMAX shows takes place on the lower portion of the screen.
BEST SEAT AT THE PIKES PEAK CENTER GO! CHOICE: Center
of the mez-
zanine A tragedy of the Pikes Peak Center — a tragedy for bargainhunters, that is — is that the mezzanine seats are both the best seats and the most expensive. Its center seats have an especially good balance between acoustic quality and sheer volume.
BEST SEAT AT THE LON CHANEY THEATER GO! CHOICE:
Any seat with a
cushion Of course you also want to find one in which your sightline isn’t blocked by the person in front of you. Sadly, these seats are hard to find at some of Star Bar Players’ productions.
BEST SEAT AT THE FINE ARTS CENTER
BEST PLACE FOR A “BIG LEBOWSKI� PARTY: GO! CHOICE:
Brunswick Zone
Circle The Dude would approve of dollar drinks, dollar shoe rental and dollar beer at Brunswick Zone Circle on Monday and Wednesday nights. The special starts after 9 p.m. and Caucasians (White Russians) are $6. So dress up in bathrobes, crank up the Creedence and get ready to roll. 999 N. Circle Drive.
Gamer’s also offers Tuesday to care, well you can even sing night games of Eberron, the it to your holy underwear.� — newest world in the game of Susan Morello, from the song Dungeons and Dragons. “Thinkin’ Blues� on the album 5969 N. Academy Blvd. “thenandnow,� by Morello & Smith.
tour? The last Dave Matthews tour? The last two Metallica summer tours? Cristian Asuncion assembled the stages for all of them. As an employee of Black Forest-based StageCo US, Asuncion and his crewmates arrive at a stadium two or three days before the show, GO! CHOICE: The Greek Festival assemble the stage and see the at Archangel Michael Greek Or- GO! CHOICE: Stage builder Cris- sights, then head to the next thodox Church tian Asuncion, who plays with gig. The best part: No long tour bus rides, they fly you evIf you liked “My Big Fat Godless Promise Mechanism Greek Wedding,� you’re going See the last Rolling Stones erywhere and you stay in the same hotels the bands do. to love this festival of Greek eats, music, dancing and much more. There was even a raffle for a Greek vacation last year. The festival runs in mid-July. 2215 Paseo Road.
BEST PLACE TO GET BEST ROCK STAR YOUR GREEK ON DAY JOB
BEST PLACE TO GET YOUR FREAK ON BEST GO! CHOICE: Darkside With events like Valentine’s UNDERGROUND Day Fetish Night and Toxic ARTS EVENT Goth Night, we get the impression the clientele at this club won’t be fazed. So pull out the freaky outfits, bust out the Klingon dance moves and make whatever bizarre statement you want the world to know. 2106 E. Platte Ave.
BEST PLACE TO GET YOUR GEEK ON
GO! CHOICE: Art Wars II Because it attracted hundreds of people, “underground� may be a stretch for Art Wars II, the recent arts happening at the City Auditorium. But “best� certainly counts: With an arts smorgasbord ranging from from hip-hop to ballet, this multimedia showcase was everything it was billed as, which was a bit of everything.
GO! CHOICE: Gamer’s Gathering You heard it here first — geek chic is still hot. Celebrate it every night of the week where fantasy role-playing games are all the rage. April GO! CHOICE: “You can talk to events included Lord of the your teacher, tell it to your Rings on Thursdays and Satur- mama, you can ask your preachdays, Pirates League on Tues- er, pray it to your lama, and if days and HeroClix on Fridays. your Dalai Lama doesn’t seem
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GO! CHOICE: Eight to 10 rows back and center For regular plays, that’s close enough to hear clearly but not so close that you have to crane your head back to look at the performers. For musicals, the sweet spot is a few rows farther back.
BEST SEAT AT THE WORLD ARENA GO! CHOICE: Front row, center At least if you’re at a rock concert and you’re not concerned about maintaining your hearing. World Arena has pockets where the sound is awful. Seats toward the top of the arena are especially undesirable because the sound becomes distorted.
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dors get set up around 7 a.m., and close when they run out of things to sell or at 1 p.m. The market will run this year through Oct. 22. West Colorado Avenue at 24th Street MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
Best Asian Market: Thrill your senses at Saigon Oriental.
Toys-R-Us
Follow the big giraffe and you’ll GO! CHOICE: Bancroft Park find the bigREADERS’ gest toy store CHOICE in town. Toys-R-Us continues to be the place to find the hottest toy — especially when that toy has a Goodwill Industries movie tie-in. This month you’ll of Colorado Springs find enough “Star Wars� action The grandad- figures to launch your own dy of thrift Clone War. stores, Goodwill 3730 Citadel Drive North READERS’ has a mind-bogCHOICE gling variety of GO! CHOICE: Toys 4 Fun Where hymns once rang stuff that not only saves you out, now there are the sounds money, but provides you with of children’s delight. When the bragging rights: “Nice jacket.� weather cooperates, laughter “Thanks, $10 at Goodwill.� no doubt comes from the sandTen locations box, where, with the blessing of staff, tiny customers discovGO CHOICE! TJ Maxx Among mankind’s timeless, er new toys. Inside the former epic battles: Alien versus Pred- church await tools of discovator, North versus South, ery: Erector sets, LEGOs, Darth versus Luke, and TJ dress-up outfits, Groovy Girls, Maxx versus Ross. TJ Maxx classic German dollhouses, has better shoes. End of compe- French and German and diversity dolls, and exquisite Ravenstition. burger puzzles. 3999 Palmer Park Blvd.
BEST PLACE TO FIND BARGAINS
BEST MEXICAN MARKET GO! CHOICE: Leonela
BEST TOY STORE FOR KIDS
Meat
Market It’s called a carniceria or meat market, but it’s much more than that. Although it boasts a meat counter stacked high with all sorts of meats, including goat and fried pork skins, it also has extensive produce and canned foods sections. You might swear you’re in Mexico, with one exception — the helpful staff is bilingual and eager to answer questions. 3736 E. Pikes Peak Ave.
BEST ASIAN MARKET GO! CHOICE: Saigon Oriental
Market Dozens of types of noodles and teas, fresh quail eggs, bulk rice and fresh spices join other wares here for a well-rounded market. Wednesday is fresh fish and vegetable day, after 1:30 p.m. When blue crabs are in season, there will be boxes of them squirming around while you make your selection. There’s a fish tank with tilapia waiting to be fished out, too. Even if you’re not interested in purchasing the more unusual ingredients, don’t overlook this market for bargains on mainstream foods, such as soy sauce, sesame seed oil and rice. They’re often available in larger quantities and at lower prices than you’ll find at ordinary grocery stores. 3744 Astrozon Blvd.
THOMAS KINKADE SIGNATURE GALLERY
155 Jefferson St., Monument names are cheap, and the store Worthy contenders: Little is clean, colorful and well-organized. There are comfy waiting Richards and Retro Moto stations with TVs for men and kids (usually tuned to ESPN and Nickelodeon, respectively), so women can shop unencumGO! CHOICE: Sharper Image bered. It may not be the place The really big kids in the to look for something specific, family are the ones trying out but if you’re looking for sumthe massage chairs, robotic mer clothes, it’s a good, cheap vacuum cleaners, ultrasonic place to start. 1972 Southgate Road dog trainers, electronic coin sorters and radio-controlled camcorders. GO! CHOICE: Gordmans 1685 Briargate Parkway
BEST TOY STORE FOR ADULTS
BEST NEW STORE
BEST NEW SUPERMARKET
GO! CHOICE: King Soopers on Bob Barker would approve. Centennial Boulevard Forget everything you know, The price is or think you know, about King right at this new discount Soopers. The new, improved format is displayed here as a lifeREADERS’ department store. Brand CHOICE
Gordmans
SEE SHOPPING x PAGE 54
BARS • BARSTOOLS • GAME ROOM FURNITURE
Family Fun For
Everyone l s! o o t s Bar
CHAPEL HILLS 260-8800 L OWER L EVEL N EXT TO D ILLARDS C HAPEL H ILLS M ALL
BEST FARMERS MARKET Bancroft Park Starting June 11, this is the place be every READERS’ to S a t urday CHOICE morning for a wide selection of fresh produce, baked goods, fresh flowers, arts and crafts. The venBEST OF THE SPRINGS 53
THE GAZETTE
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DENVER ERINDALE SQUARE (W. OF PARK MEADOWS MALL) (JUST NORTH OF VICKERS) 8225 S. HOLLY ST. 5959 N. ACADEMY 719-598-4611
719-770-7771
05/19/05
11:49
FROM PAGE 53
some good-quality small appliances, and givances, cooking notions and gading classes on gets. how to build A gas station and drive-up and fix READERS’ stuff pharmacy window add to the stuff. CHOICE appeal of the new location. Five locations — GO! advis3250 Centennial Blvd. es you visit the Monument store, where you can often find what you need and get out the door while hardware shoppers at other locations are still circling the parking lot.
style grocery store. The floral department has been moved front and center, making for a colorful, fragrant welcome upon entering the store. The produce section has been jazzed up with nicer-looking displays anchoring the right side of the entrance, while the aroma of Starbucks coffee arouses your senses Home Depot from the left. Home Depot took the old The best part is the househardware store and supersized wares section in the center of it, adding all kinds of bathroom the store, breaking up the typiand kitchen fixtures and applical aisle formation and offering
BEST HOME IMPROVEMENT STORE
Get Ready For Summer LADIES DAY EVERY DAY
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All Around Automotive Your One Stop For All Your Vehicle Needs!
2625 Platte Place • 719•473•5072
GO! CHOICE: Harbor Freight Visiting this small strip mall hardware shop is like going on a treasure hunt where you have no idea what the prize will be. Need a gear puller, a welding helmet and a miniature toy floor jack? This is your place. Part of a chain that specializes in importing inexpensive tools, you never know exactly what you’ll find — suction cups, a magnetic pickup tool, a 382-piece O-ring assortment — but it’s almost impossible to leave without grabbing a few things. 2835 E. Fountain Blvd.
BEST HOME FURNISHINGS Jake Jabs, the guy in the TV commercials with the tigers, has built a Colorado furniture empire low prices READERS’ on and tasteful
06 21 05
FACOG
in Women’s Healthcare
282-4066 8890 N. Union Blvd. (at Research) Most insurance accepted
BEST CRUISER BIKE SHOP GO! CHOICE: Brian’s Bicycle
Repair
BEST HOME CONSIGNMENT SHOP
BEST NOVELTY SHOP
Full or Half Days and Drop ins Fun & flips, 19 trampolines, Rope & Wallclimb, Foam Pits & Castles, Power & Cheer Tumble
FLIPPIN’ Dr. Doranna Christenson
GO! CHOICE: Criterium
High-end tunes for high-end bikes are veteran mechanic Brian Gravestock’s bread and butter, but his passion is old, streamlined cruisers. He’s one of the few guys in the state who might have the right fender for that 1950s Schwinn or the right fork for a 1969 Raleigh. Lucky visitors will get to see the basement vault. GO! CHOICE: I Saw It First! 110 S. Sierra Madre St. Goodies from the Broadmoor area, even one-of-a-kind furniture and limited edition prints. If an item has been there 45 days or longer, the GO! CHOICE: Gigi’s — the Animal price keeps dropping, so keep Lover’s Gift Shop an eye on it. Chihuahuas, bulldogs, rat 104 E. Cheyenne Road terriers, pugs. You’ll find every breed emblazoned across luxurious pet costumes, sweat shirts with kooky sayings, doorCriterium Bicycles mats and doggy purses. Don’t forget the other creaW h e n you’ve been tures in your life, with travel the best for a pouches for birds, canopy cat and animal versions of READERS’ while, it’s easy beds Monopoly — Dog-opoly and to be content CHOICE to chug along Cat-opoly. 728 Manitou Ave., Manitou Springs
BEST
Maternal Fetal Specialist
RYGIEL’S RENAISSANCE
Most of us think about buying furniture or buying art. Spirit merges the two, creating modern furniture pieces that have artistic style, yet are comfortable and functional. But you should expect to pay quite a bit more than you would at American Furniture Warehouse. 1645 Briargate Parkway, Suite 207
BEST OF
Empowering women to lead healthier lives
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Contemporary
Furniture
Summer Camp
A NEW BEGINNING in Women’s Healthcare Board Certified High Risk Obstetrics Infertility Urogynecology Adv. Laparoscopy Coloposcopy Menopause Care
GO! CHOICE: Spirit
in an easy gear, but Criterium regularly pushes the pack. Expert staff, huge selection, great service and a location on the Pikes Peak Greenway push this shop to the head of the peloton. 6150 Corporate Drive
BEST BIKE SHOP
American Furniture Warehouse
CHOICE
furniture. As the word “warehouse” suggests, the stores are immense. But the layout is logical — divided into rooms — and fairly easy to navigate. 2805 Chestnut St.
TIME YOU CAN HAVE
www.artsportsworld.com
531-5867
www.artsportsworld.com I25 & Garden of the Gods
Birthday Parties!
IN COLORADO SPRINGS Friday, May 20, 2005
BEST GIFT SHOP Terra Verde The jewel of downtown, Terra Verde is READERS’ the antidote to CHOICE every generic mall gift shop. Hip jewelry. Funky clothes. Gifts and home furnishings that look like you went out of the way to search for them. The owners of Terra Verde recently purchased the former Chinook Bookstore building and plan to expand: A good thing is about to get better. 208 N. Tejon St. GO! CHOICE: Barracuda Bazaar The place where pigs fly. A slingshot that launches tiny SEE SHOPPING x PAGE 55
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 54
05/19/05
11:50
FROM PAGE 54
plastic pigs is one of the many fun, funky gifts you’ll find at this retro-chic gift shop. The store carries a hodgepodge of clothes, cards, dishes, jewelry, magnets and toys. The stylish finds make perfect gifts, especially for yourself. The accessories alone could keep you in compliments for a year. 2502 W. Colorado Ave.
BEST HOBBY STORE GO! CHOICE: Compleat Games
and Hobbies Some hobby stores carry fake flowers and frames; this hobby store is for people with different kinds of hobbies: model making, model-car racing, role-playing games, puzzles and board games. If this hobby store doesn’t have what you’re looking for, you just don’t have enough hobbies. 326 N. Tejon St.
BEST PLACE TO GET EDUCATED (before you buy a 55-inch LCoS HDTV) GO! CHOICE: ListenUp Audio and
Video Gary Brovetto puts on a free class on the last Tuesday of each month that is A/V 101, 201, 301 and graduate seminar all rolled together. He starts just after man first banged rocks together to make sound and finishes by discussing the pros and cons of LCoS, DLP, LCD and other big-screen TV technologies sure to make your eyes bug out of your head. It’s a long night, three or four hours, but worth it if you want the nitty-gritty about the latest technology. 230 N. Tejon St.
BEST OUTDOOR STORE
ACADEMY
REI While the kids unload their energy on the climbing wall, you can shop for all your READERS’ recreational CHOICE needs and desires. REI has a large selection of gear for camping, hiking, biking, kayaking, climbing or just looking like an outdoorsman. 1376 E. Woodmen Road
HEARING TOLL FREE 1-866-AUDIBEL 591-2444 2105 Academy Circle, Suite 100
® CARDS
AUDIBEL CARD
002
SEE SHOPPING x PAGE 56
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 55
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
CAR
05/19/05
11:50
FROM PAGE 55
GO! CHOICE: Mountain Chalet Who cares if you can order your gear on the Internet? Does the Internet give you expert advice from men and women who have done it all — climbed peaks in South America, scaled walls of ice in Ouray, set first routes on rocks throughout the country? Of course not. That’s why we always head to Mountain Chalet, where the staff will help you find the right pack, the perfect boots and the sleeping bag that will actually keep you warm, as well as a grand story of a real adventure. 226 N. Tejon St.
BEST BLING GO! CHOICE: Luisa Graff Diamonds & Jewelers
how to grow things in the Pikes Peak region. They should: They’ve been selling plants and trees in the Springs since 1948. The staff has more than 100 combined years of professional gardening experience. Combine that knowledge with a huge selection of greenery, and you can see why the green thumbs, the brown thumbs and every thumb in between come to Rick’s. 1827 W. Uintah Ave.
Luisa Graff is the best argument against Web shopping we’ve seen. This store has a fantastic selection of rocks and settings and every other sort of jewelry. But what really sparkles is the personal service. The sales staff takes the time to get to know you, and if the sale doesn’t work out, they never make you feel guilty GO! CHOICE: Spencer’s about walking out the door. Lawn & Garden Center 4663 Centennial Blvd. Everything you’d ever need for a lawn or garden is here, with expert guidance to help you along the way, whether you’re a pro or a newbie. Free Rick’s Garden Saturday morning lawn-care Q&A sessions (coffee and Center doughnuts provided), an annuThe folks at garden show with seminars READERS’ Rick’s knows al and a helpful newsletter keep CHOICE the Spencers in touch with their customers. No surprise they’ve been in business for 71 years. Also a plus: fresh produce, and they roast their own chiles. 1430 S. Tejon St., and a large, new-this-season center at 4720 Center Valley Drive in Fountain Worthy contenders: Hillside Gardens and Nursery, Harding Nursery, Greenside Nursery
BEST PLANT NURSERY
Best Antiques: The cup and pitcher set is an example of the wares displayed at the Pikes Peak Depression Glass club’s “Rainbow of Glass” show.
MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
BEST CARD SHOP Hallmark
mal in a party hat telling you to party your tail off or the over-the-hill card that shows something actually going over the hill. Decorated with glitter, cutouts, watercolor, beads, feathers and recycled paper. As flashy as they sound, they are very tasteful. 214 N. Tejon St.
Hallmark isn’t just a card store. It’s part of our READERS’ aculture. We CHOICE have “Hallmark” moments. We’re getting all verklempt just thinking about it. 3578 Hartsel Drive, 1710 Bri- GO! CHOICE: Pikes Peak argate Blvd., 750 Citadel Drive Depression Glass Club East City Auditorium never looked so good. When 22 of the GO! CHOICE: CJ Kard nation’s top Depression glass This is the place to find dealers gathered for the Pikes something special to send Peak Depression Glass Club’s through the mail — even if it’s “Rainbow of Glass” show in late, doesn’t include money or April, the place sparkled with isn’t attached to a gift. These all those vintage wares. cards are unique. No one will Club members also helped confuse them with the typical identify pieces people took in. greeting card featuring an ani- For $12, you can become a member, and you’ll learn to easily tell the difference between a Fiesta and a Fenton. On the Web: members.aol. com/iwantglass/indexg3.html
BEST ANTIQUES
A “Heavenly” Dining Experience with the flavors of
BEST THRIFT STORE
Santa Fe
Affordable, not just for special occasions! EXTRA 10% OFF
Only 30 minutes from Downtown Colorado Springs.
Our already low prices! GLASSES
Reservations suggested Closed Sundays & Mondays
COUPON EXPIRES 6-05-05 Bring your prescription to Colorado Specs Optical!
Exclusively carrying Fendi, Prada, Ferragamo, Donna Karan, SDO and Coach! PLUS BCBG, Versace and DKNY, Rayban,Takumi Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani, Christian Dior, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Burberry and Nike!
In the Chapel Hills Mall (near Ruby Tuesdays)
JANE FAYTAREN, ABOC, CPO
266-9900 Bring your prescriptions for eyewear and contact lenses.
C a re C re d i t ®
GRAND
OPENING! Come see our extensive collection of Designer Frames for women, men and children!
303•688•9000 210 3rd St. Castle Rock, CO
GO! CHOICE: Salvation Army Faced with a sales slump, the Salvation Army took a cue from the glut of popular remodeling shows. It renovated an old Rite Aid building, added bright colors and fancy racks, and started organizing with obsessive-compulsive flair. It’s big “reveal” to the public: An airy, open store where it’s easy to sort through everything — jewelry, vinyl records, toys, electronics. Prepare to gush over it. 2730 Platte Ave. Worthy contender: Thrift House. SEE SHOPPING x PAGE 57
Chef Owned & Operated
002
www. T he O ld S tone C hurch R estaurant . com Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 56
11:50
Cheers Liquor Mart A toast to C h e e r s , which has managed to READERS’ balance the CHOICE expertise of a specialty shop with the discounts of a big-box store. 1105 N. Circle Drive
BEST WINE SHOP GO! CHOICE: The Wine Store Have trouble remembering that great merlot you had last Saturday? (OK, it had a duck on it . . . or maybe it was a rooster.) The folks at the Wine Store log your name and wine purchases in their computer. Within a month, they’ll know your personal wine preferences well enough to be your personal sommelier. 5223 S. Cascade Ave.
BEST AUCTION GO! CHOICE: Police auction Forget estate sales — the quality ones are few and far between. The city’s police auction is where the action is. At 7 a.m. every third Saturday of the month at the Police Impound Lot, about 300 to 400 people stop by to check out cars, motorcycles, trailers and boats that go on the auction block at 9 a.m. There’s an element of risk: You can’t start or drive them; sometimes there are no keys. But there’s the chance of a great deal. One guy recently got a ’68 Chevelle with a brandnew engine; some people spend $300 and all the car needs is a new battery. All the vehicles were abandoned or involved in some sort of criminal activity — which makes for a cool story. Everyone loves hot wheels. 2725 E. Las Vegas St.
BEST NATURAL FOODS STORE GO! CHOICE: Whole
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 57
Foods
GO! CHOICE: Neptune’s Realm Sometimes it’s worth visiting Neptune’s just to stare for hours at the big saltwater aquarium setups. But the reason to shop Neptune’s is its knowledgable staff. They know fish. They know water pH balance issues. They’ll help you solve your aquarium problems, even if you don’t buy from them. 2640 W. Colorado Ave.
Markets
Unlike so many new stores that quickly lose their attractiveness and attention to detail, this year-old grocery store has maintained its high standards. The huge selection of bulk foods is amazing, as is the selection of natural foods, vitamins and supplements. The staff is knowledgeable and helpful. You can spend several hours here shopping, exploring the array of food selections and sampling many of them. GO! CHOICE: Barnes 7635 N. Academy Blvd.
BEST BOOKSTORE
Blockbuster When you think DVDs, you think B l o c k b u s t e r. READERS’ It’s convenient. CHOICE The stores are smartly organized and usually have what you want — as long as it’s a recent release. And the company has proved adaptable. After consumers rose up to fight ridiculous late fees, Blockbuster changed its fee structure. When competition moved in from Netflix, which offered unlimited movies for a monthly fee, Blockbuster started selling monthly movie and game passes. Eighteen locations
GO! CHOICE: Carefree Video Locally-owned corner video stores have mostly gone the way of the dinosaurs, but Carefree Video is still kicking, offering knowledgable advice and taking reservations. 4715 N. Carefree Circle
BEST SKI SHOP GO! CHOICE: The Ski Shop We can’t stay away from The Ski Shop. Its staff works hard to stay abreast of the latest trends in ski gear (with many grueling days of intensive research on the slopes). And its selection of merchandise holds up to many mega-stores, with staples such SEE SHOPPING x PAGE 58
& Noble
Booksellers
BEST MUSIC STORE Independent Records Independent Records has got the goods. This hip local treasure READERS’ has several loCHOICE c a t i o n s packed with a great selection of music, movies, porn flicks, stickers, incense, offensive apparel and geeky record store staffers. And they even have live performances occasionally. The only choice for proper music snobs.
Following the tradition of the great independents — The Tattered Cover in Denver, Powell’s in Portland, Ore. — Barnes & Noble created a bookstore where people don’t just want to shop, they want to hang out. Get your java at the attached Starbucks, pick up a magazine or two, browse for a fun paperback for your book group, and there goes an afternoon. 1565 Briargate Blvd. and 795 Citadel Drive E
06 21 05
BEST OF WOMENS ACC
T h e B e s t G i f t . . . EVER!
on the front lawn!
Tha t Flamingo G al L AW N G R E E T I N G S Our greetings land before dawn and fly away at dusk. www.thatflamingogal.com
7 Nights A Week Beginning May 27th Chuckwagon & Western Show
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✴ for Summer! ✴
BEST GOURMET SHOP GO! CHOICE: Par Avion If it’s difficult to find the gourmet food you’re after, more than likely you’ll find it here, or owner Jim Sebastiani will find it for you. The store stocks more than 8,000 gourmet grocery items, 100 varieties of extra-virgin olive oil, 40 varieties of balsamic vinegar
BEST EXOTIC FISH STORE
BEST VIDEO STORE
LATEST LOOKS ♥ JEWELRY HANDBAGS ♥ WATCHES SUNGLASSES ♥ GREAT SELECTION AT WHOLESALE PRICES
NEW Location!
Great Food: BBQ Beef or BBQ Chicken an’ all the fixin’s Adults $19.50 • Children 8 & Under $9.50 Our ar 53rd Ye
Women’s Fashion Accessories First and Main Town Center Dustee’s new location is on Powers, at the Imax Center 3377 Cinema Point, Colorado Springs New Summer Hours: Mon.-Thurs., 10am8pm, Fri. - Sat.,10am-10pm, Sun. 12pm-6pm.
THE GAZETTE
260-8394
Friday, May 20, 2005
d. agon R Chuckw
Flying W Ranch Mountain Shadows
N
et Stre 30th
Interstate 25
BEST LIQUOR STORE
and the best cheese depart- GO! CHOICE: Independent ment in town. It even has a Records new little cafe. Four locations 1872 Southgate Road Worthy contender: Toons
Centennial Blvd.
FROM PAGE 56
Rd. Flying W Ranch
05/19/05
Garden of the Gods Rd.
RESERVATIONS PLEASE
598-4000
11:50
FROM PAGE 57
as Burton, Salomon and Rossignol, and some high-end offerings such as divine $500 sweaters from Dale of Norway and the newest high-end skis. When the season ends, the store closes down for the summer. 1422 S. Tejon St.
BEST CHRISTIAN STORE
BEST NEW AGE STORE
GO! CHOICE: Family Christian
GO! CHOICE: Celebration Just by entering this bright yellow, cheery building, your chakras will become aligned. Calming, mystical music plays, and delicious fruity and musky incense will linger on your clothing long after you leave. Peruse the zen gardens, the grandiose selection of aromatherapy oils, colorful clothing and books galore on topics such as feng shui and shamanism. Down on the second level is a private altar, built into a corner, where you can pray to your own god or goddess. 2209 W. Colorado Ave.
Stores Bibles, Christian novels, DVDs, self-help books, Christian jewelry — this place is the the Barnes and Noble of the Christian world. 687 N. Academy Blvd. and 7560 N. Academy Blvd.
J
BEST BABY STORE
2005 MO UN TA IN
05/19/05
(719) 687-7777
EY SURV OT P K AC
Voted #1 for Friendliest Employees
www.thewildhorsecasino.com
GO! CHOICE: Mountain Moppets It’s not the largest store, just the best. Here’s where you’ll find the special for infants and older babies. The delightful Baby Boutique is stocked with cozy Moses Baskets, keepsake Annie Blankets, Burt’s Bees baby lotions and precious Mullins Square hooded towels. There’s a full line of specialty clothing. And while Mom shops, there’s a play area for the kids. 2532 W. Colorado Ave. Worthy contenders: Gymboree, Babies-R-Us
MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
Best Place to Make Yourself Hipper: Adam Leech owns The Leech Pit at 708 N. Weber St., a funky shop that carries vintage vinyl and punk from the ’70s and ’80s for crowds of today.
miss with special offers such as “Get $10 when you spend $30”? And the seasonal clearances can’t be beat. 6130 Barnes Road, No. 128, and 205B W. Rockrimmon Blvd.
market in town where you’ll find a butcher who will cut a steak to your desired thickness — or a roast, for that matter. 2915 E. Platte Ave.
Get Getanan
BEST KIDS CONSIGNMENT SHOP
Exceptional Exceptional
GO! CHOICE: Children’s Orchard The company motto says it: “Find a Treasure, Save a Fortune.” When the little folks GO! CHOICE: Andy’s Market It’s about the only true meat GO! CHOICE: The Leech Pit sprout so rapidly, how can you Taking a page from the hipster scriptures, the store’s perfected its blend of kitsch, punkaesthetic and arrested development — while always winking at the fact that it’s smarter than it looks. Choose from a divine selection of vintage vinyl, toys, jackets and T-shirts. Your F U L L D AY S PA kid sis will freak when she gets • Color Corrections, • Acne & Skin Treatments that Pee-wee’s Playhouse fun Tinting and • Hair Removal and pack. Why not use that Happy Extensions Highlighting • Lash and Brow Tinting Days lunch box as a purse? Ev• Diamond Tome™ Microderm Abrasion • Straightening and erybody knows what Fonzie’s Waving • Hair Styling like. • Nail Care & Pedicure 708 N. Weber St. • Massage
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BEST PLACE TO MAKE YOURSELF HIPPER
BEST HIGH-FASHION WOMEN’S SHOP GO! CHOICE: Stein Mart Not just a women’s shop, it is, hands down, the best place SEE SHOPPING x PAGE 59
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Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 58
11:50
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MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
Best Independent Shoe Store: Saboz on Tejon Street has attention-grabbers at bargain prices.
FROM PAGE 58
with shoes here, so polishing action from work, check out off a whole outfit is easy. (Love this store’s new handy, larger to find upscale fashions at bar- those purses that double as location. gain prices. Sign up to become jewelry boxes.) Funny how the driveway is a Preferred Customer and 129½ N. Tejon St. a straight shot up Ute Pass to you’ll get a regular mailing of the South Platte River. coupons for deeper discounts. Off U.S. Highway 24 at 21st From accessories to shoes, to Street lingerie, to dresses, you’re sure to find natty-looking stuff that GO! CHOICE: Angler’s Covey you won’t see in other departIf fishermen are missing in ment stores. Plus, there are stylish housewares and a good men’s department. WOULD YOU LIKE 7710 N. Academy Blvd.
BEST PLACE FOR BIG FISH TALES
Solid Hardwood Accent Table
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BEST INDEPENDENT SHOE STORE GO! CHOICE: Saboz Neat-o. That’s the only way to describe the shoes at Saboz. Be it black and white tweed flats, ladybug-patterned platforms or chartreuse snakeskin heels, everything in this place is a compliment-getter and a standout piece. Purses and accessories are on equal footing
Solid Pine Computer Armoire
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4 Fun Adventures Help teach children responsibility and compassion. Designed for small size pets, our safe, nurturing habitat kits include fundamental features and accessories to help ensure the health and happiness of these special creatures.
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
Let The Adventure Begin! Order Direct: www.critteradventures.com
(800) 750-5279 (719) 955-0335
Hardwood Lift-top Coffee Table
$199 All Roads Lead to the Expo!
(Some items require assembly)
Mon-Sat 9-6p, Sun 11-5p www.UnfinishedFurnitureExpo.com
5925 Paonia St
597-6850
Unfinished Furniture
N
1 Block Palmer Park Walmart K-Mart
Galley Blvd.
Omaha
Paonia St.
GO! CHOICE: DSW Most women love to hear those three little letters — DSW. For those who worship at the altar of quality footwear (patron saint: St. Hubbins), DSW’s impeccably organized rows of sneakers, heels and slides make the heart race. The high of finding a sweet bargain-rack deal can only be crushed by seeing your shoes walking down the street on another gal. 7635 N. Academy Blvd.
$99
Powers Blvd.
BEST CHAIN SHOE STORE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 59
SOLID WOOD EXTRAVAGANZA!
2 Blocks
05/19/05
Paonia Ct.
05/19/05
11:51
11:51
shampoo and blow dry. Lunch his primitive need to provide arrives with flowers. food for his family. 6835 White Fir Lane Off U.S. Highway 24, west of Back at home, Merry Maids Lake George GO! CHOICE: Mr. Biggs Family have been there and gone, leavFun Center It’s pricey. A four-hour pass ing every surface sparkling is $20 per person, and that clean. doesn’t include the price of arGO! CHOICE: FREX cade games or paintball. But The bus? A treat? It is now. for a splurge of a family outing, Grab Front Range Express no place beats Biggs. Variety is from Park ’n’ Ride sites the thing. Paintball, laser tag, Golf throughout the area and spend go-karts, miniature golf, video When Dad a weekday in Denver. No drivgames — all under one roof. needs some ing or parking hassles, and no And for the 5 and younger set, b r e a t h i n g $2-plus gas — all for $12 round there’s LittleBiggtown, a miniahe trip. READERS’ room, ture Main Street where props needs to tee Get dropped off at Six Flags and sets fuel young imaginaCHOICE off. This maleElitch Gardens or just two tions. Right around the corner bonding ritual is a way for blocks from the 16th Street is a cave filled with dinosaur aging, out-of-shape dads to feel Mall. There’s also a shopping bones and a pirate ship like they’re competing in a stop at The Outlets at Castle equipped with cannons that bona fide sport. Humor him. Rock. Convenient return trips shoot foam balls. run all day, the final one at 7:15 5825 Mark Dabling Blvd. GO! CHOICE: A fishing trip to p.m. Eleven Mile Canyon Reservoir For the lowdown: www.front Get his fishing rod ready rangeexpress.com and send him out to to hook some rainbow, brown and cutCripple Creek throat trout, kokanee salmon, THE GAZETTE FILE SEE FAMILY x PAGE 62 Mom’s feel- northern pike or carp. Not only Best Place to Take Kids: Mr. Biggs Family Fun Center offers amuseing lucky. is it great relaxation, it meets ments and activities for all ages, including LittleBiggtown, a Send her 10,000-square-foot play area for kids 10 and younger. over the pass READERS’ to our gamCHOICE bling mecca, and wait for her to win a new car — or lose the nest egg.
BEST PLACE TO TAKE KIDS
BEST FAMILY URBAN DAY TRIP
BEST GETAWAY FOR DAD
BIKE
Mom takes her busy self to Black Forest for a day, or part of a day, of complete relaxation: facial, hot tub, sauna, steam shower, massage, pedicure, manicure, body wrap,
2500
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HALF DAY
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CLOSE TO TRAILS N
31ST ST.
Russian Day Spa and Merry Maids
GO! CHOICE:
1500
$
HWY 24
Colorado Kite & Ski ORE MILL DR.
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BEST OF THE SPRINGS 61
THE GAZETTE
Friday, May 20, 2005
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05/19/05
05/19/05
11:51
FROM PAGE 61
Best Place to Get Thrown: Alyssa Totzke, 6, creates a bowl during Adobe Moby’s Spring Break Junior Camp. The studio lets you create ceramics including plates, baby items, frames, gifts and collectibles. Then you turn your masterpiece over to the pros for glazing and firing.
BEST PLACE TO TAKE THE GRANDKIDS GO! CHOICE: Focus
Once is never enough. The grandkids will beg to go back to the delightful Kid’s Korner again and again. And speaking about again and again, that’s what will happen when they fly down the three-story corkscrew slide, A-Bend-A-Go. There are puppet shows, storybooks, family-oriented movies, the KYDS’ Radio Station, a play area and a clamberaboard replica B-17 bomber from “Last Chance Detectives.” Top it all off at Whit’s End Soda Shoppe. 8685 Explorer Drive Worthy contenders: Pump It Up, Mr. Biggs, watching the trains at Giuseppe’s Depot restaurant, Santa’s Workshop.
MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
Inventory REDUCTION SALE 10%-50% OFF Everything in the Store
Ed’s Cards & Comics 5857 Palmer Park Blvd. 596-9128 Mon & Tue 10-6 • Wed-Sat 10-7 • Sun 12-4
Next to K-Mart at Powers & Palmer Park
FAMILY FUN DAYS MAY 14-JUNE 30 Family Fun!
$
on the Family
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Santa Claus!
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Schedule: May 14-31, 10a-5p Closed Wed & Thur June 1-30, 9a-5:30p, Daily Location: 10 miles W. of CO Springs on Hwy 24 Call 684-9432 or www.santas-colo.com
do everyone a favor and take it out on BattleTech. It’s a video game, sure (and an expensive one at about $5 a pop), but climbing inside the enclosed pods and seeing the world through the cockpit of a monstrous robot warrior takes things to a higher level. And, if you can get the aforementioned friends and family to climb in a few of the other pods, then you can have an oldfashioned, knock-down, dragout donnybrook of a good time. 5825 Mark Dabling Blvd.
BEST GO-KARTS GO! CHOICE: Joyrides
Family
Fun Center We like Mr. Biggs’ zippy electric cars, but Joyrides wins the category by putting the tracks outside and offering three different size tracks and cars for different ages. Kids as young as 4 can drive their own cars. It doesn’t get any better than that. 5150 Edison Ave.
BEST SANDBOX The Manizoo This new tilewalled sandbox in ManiMemoriREADERS’ tou’s al Park is the CHOICE hot place for the 2-andyounger set. The mosaic wall of animals was suggested by kids in the community and created by artists Jillian Lind, Harriet Lee and Paul Dahlsten. The Manizoo was built with funding from private donations and the Colorado Lottery.
BEST PLACE FOR A KIDS’ PARTY
GO! CHOICE: Pump It Up Mr. Biggs’ Family Fun Center has the variety and excitement, but Pump It Up has more fun for the money. Kids can jump in a variety of bouncing rooms. One of the big advantages for parents? The bouncers absorb sound, so this place isn’t nearly as noisy as GO! CHOICE: The Candy Cane other family fun centers. Coaster at Santa’s Workshop 5850 Championship View. The perfect slow-moving, GO! CHOICE: Mind Seizure Worthy contenders: Mr. Biggs’ candy-cane-colored training ve- It was a white-tented DIA-look- Family Fun Center, Art Sports hicle for the adrenaline-rush ing contraption in the Flea rides to come in a few years. Market’s parking lot on Platte On the Pikes Peak Highway Avenue. How scary could it be? toll road (before you get to the So scary that we turned into toll gate), near Cascade Ave. screaming 12-year-old girls. A GO! CHOICE: Champion clown with nails growing out of Golf & Games his face and stalkers wielding Champion grooms its courses GO! CHOICE: BattleTech at Mr. terrifying chain saws chased like the big boys do. Lush us relentlessly. And the moving lawns, bright flower beds and Biggs Family Fun Center If you have a deep, abiding, walls formed an endless maze mountain views make for a gnawing desire to shoot your we thought we’d never escape. great miniature golf on two 18-hole courses. Each hole is friends, family or co-workers Is it Halloween yet? its own environment, with elab(especially your co-workers), orate sculptures, varied terrain, unusual levels and musical accompaniment — just watch out for shooting water. Add batting cages, an arcade and Bowlingo — the best arcade game ever — and there’s no beating it. 777 Vondelpark Drive. Two Convenient Locations. Worthy contender: World Golf Locally Owned & Operated 8 Years.
BEST KIDDIE RIDE
BEST HAUNTED HOUSE
BEST MINIATURE GOLF
BEST ARCADE GAME
BEST PLACE TO GET THROWN
•Work related Injury Care ~Same day access. • Occupational Health Services ~Drug screens and Physicals. • Family Practice ~Most insurances accepted.
Proven cost savings with workers’ compensation claims. 1299 Lake Plaza Dr. 527-1728 1802 Chapel Hills Dr. 522-1122
John P. Ogrodnick MD, MPH, PC
Board Certified in Occupational Medicine
GO! CHOICE: Adobe Moby Use Adobe Moby’s studio to make your own pottery and ceramic plates, baby items, frames, gifts, collectibles, you name it. They’ll glaze and fire your masterpieces for you. 2360 Montebello Square Drive, Suite J
Mon-Fri 8am-5pm
Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 62
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05/19/05
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Smack-dab in the middle of Colorado Springs, PalmREADERS’ er Park offers CHOICE several antidotes to the stresses of city life. Some of the best local bike trails offer white-knuckle thrills. The views are wonderful. There are sports fields, places to fly kites, a nice playground and a dog park. Main entrance is on Maizeland Road, just west of Academy Boulevard GO! CHOICE: Red Rock Canyon This new $15 million, 800-acre open space is a little slice of heaven for hikers, bikers, climbers, picnickers and nature lovers. The rock formations absorb the sound and shield you well from the civilization beyond. Kids love the old rock quarry, which looks like the ruins of an ancient Mayan temple. Park in a lot at High Street
• 9 hole Golf course • Distances ranging from 2,937 to 3,410 yards • 4 sets of tee boxes give • Variety of views & challenges • Clubhouse with full service bar & grill
BEST SKI RESORT, SMALL
BEST SKIING FOR BEGINNERS
BEST SKI RESORT, BIG
BEST SKIING FOR THE THRILL OF IT, WITH A LONG DRIVE GO! CHOICE: Silverton Mountain Hold onto your ski cap. This is where the big boys and girls ski or ride. Why? The tiny resort’s slogan says it all: “Born from a dream of fresh uncut lines in a world of chop and bump fields. Mind-blowing terrain.” The easiest runs are 30 to 35 degrees (the pitch of the steepest runs at most resorts), and the hardest ones are a vertigo-inducing 55 degrees. Go south on Colorado Highway 115, west on U.S. Highway 50 and south on U.S. Highway 550 to Silverton. Drive through Silverton. At the town park, make a left and stay left. When in doubt, go left. The base is about 6.65 miles up Colorado Highway 110. Four-wheel drive is recommended in inclement weather.
BEST SKIING FOR THE THRILL OF IT, NEARBY
maimed a number of locals over the years, but hard-core skiers keep coming back. Off the Pikes Peak Highway toll road
BEST MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAIL FOR BEGINNERS GO! CHOICE: New Santa Fe Trail Start at the Palmer Lake Recreation Area off County Line Road in north El Paso County and ride downhill to Colorado Springs along this 15-mile stretch of wide gravel trail. There’s nothing here to thrill expert riders, but beginners can use the ride through the grasslands and stands of ponderosa pine to get to know their bikes. You can go either direction, but keep in mind the 1,200 elevation difference between the Springs and Palmer Lake. (Palmer Lake is higher.)
BEST INSANE MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAIL
GO! CHOICE: Templeton Trail GO! CHOICE: Pikes Peak At less than five miles, this The Chimney, The Rock Gar- Palmer Park loop looks easy on den and other aptly named the map, but rock drop after chutes on the north side of Pikes Peak have killed and SEE RECREATION x PAGE 65
Cl u b
• Offers Men’s, Women’s and couples leagues • Corporate & Group Outings • Food & Beverage Services • Driving Range Lake Circle 5 Vene
tu c c
i B lv
Vineyard Golf Club
ni
d.
Ja te
FIDUCIAL
Call us today for a FREE initial consultation to learn how we can help you.
ll
Call for info & Tee Times • 719-226-2466
I-2
3819 Janitell Road, Colorado Springs, CO
Summertime... and the
ll
Palmer Park
and Ridge Road, off U.S. High- Sprawling across 6,000 acres, way 24 just west of 31st Street Vail is so big that veterans suggest you take a tour guide the first time so you can get from the parking lot to Mid-Vail, to the top, to the back bowls, to GO! CHOICE: Ski Cooper Lionshead and back again withWhich Colorado ski resort is out getting lost. Its size doesn’t operated by a county as a non- make it the best, however. Its snow, its mountains, its back profit company? Ski Cooper. Which is made up complete- bowls and its front trails do. ly of U.S. Forest Service land, This is a place where you could which means there is no glitzy ski your entire life and never development at the base? Ski feel like you’ve been there before. Cooper. Off of Interstate 70, about This tiny resort outside the town of Leadville is big on natu- 100 miles west of Denver ral snow and not so big on crowds, pay parking or gourmet coffee. Go on a weekday and you’ll have the trails to yourself. Go on a weekend, and GO! CHOICE: Breckenridge you still won’t stand in line Start with a morning or a more than a couple of minutes. day in ski school on Peak 9, You can ski or ride all day. Isn’t then spend the rest of the day that how a ski day should be? honing your skills on the wide Just north of Leadville on green trails below the QuicksilU.S. Highway 24 ver Super 6 chair. This has to be the widest, gentlest green terrain around, and its size even allows for better-than-beginner skiers and riders to GO! CHOICE: Vail work the edges as they hone It’s the largest single-moun- their skills. tain resort in North America. Take U.S. Highway 24 west, and then go north on Colorado Highway 9
ite
BEST PARK
Jan
05/19/05
Living’s 9:45 am Boulder Street Coffee Roasters 332 N. Tejon St., 577-4291
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Visit our local websites below or our national web site at www.fiducial.com. Darryl L. Harrison at (719) 597-2007 1623 N. Circle Drive, Colorado Springs email: d.harrison@fiducial.com
Richard A. St. John at (719) 590-7373 4245 Austin Bluffs Parkway, Colorado Springs email: r.stjohn@fiducial.com
Website: www.harrisontriplecheck.com
Website: www.rockystjohn.com
12 E. Bijou, 471-3235
Assorted implements of culinary construction and groovy glassware! Local Tip: They have all the gadgets that will impress your dinner guests!
1:30 pm Old Town Bike Shop 426 S. Tejon St., 475-8589
It’s the right time to get your Lefty®! Local Tip: This is where the serious riders hang.
Friday, May 20, 2005
THE GAZETTE
BEST OF THE SPRINGS 64
05/19/05
11:51
smallish mountain, but it’s got all the required elements: a narrow trail that feels tantalizing slippery, an uphill climb that will leave your guests just a little winded, and a classic rocky summit with views of Seven Falls and dark green forests. They can go home and brag to the neighbors about the time they “climbed Cutler.” In Cheyenne Cañon Park
BEST HIKE WITH A VIEW GO! CHOICE:
Rampart Reservoir
Loop Trail Start at the Rainbow Gulch Trailhead on Rampart Range Road and hike a little more than a mile to the reservoir. Then, follow the shoreline as far as you want (the trail is 11 miles), winding through hidden coves and stands of aspen and pine. All the while, watch for views of Pikes Peak on the horizon.
promised, kayakers will be throwing ends in Pueblo all summer long and maybe into GO! CHOICE: Part of Pikes Peak Greenway that runs through fall. Between Union Avenue and north Monument Valley Park The Greenway itself is a canFourth Street, northeast of didate for best urban trail, but Abriendo Avenue, just west of the path that meanders Interstate 25 in Pueblo through the north end of Monument Valley Park is worth a visit. Giant cottonwoods shade parts of this trail, which winds GO! CHOICE: Devil’s Playground up and down through this grassy park. Look for intriguTrail This trail not only has one ing remainders from the past of the best names ever, it also — rock bridges and walls have offers something that local hik- been left standing. And listen ers wanted: a way to climb — on early mornings, the trees Pikes Peak without using Barr are alive with birdsong. Trail. Devil’s Playground winds up through the forest and tundra from a trailhead off the Crags, a popular hiking area on the western slope of Pikes GO! CHOICE: Rock Island Trail Start at the windmill off Peak. This 8½-mile route isn’t easy, but it gives hikers a new Powers Boulevard near Palmer Park Boulevard. There’s parklook at the mountain. ing there on a frontage road for this 5½-mile trail that stretches from Powers to Wah-
BEST URBAN TRAIL
BEST MOUNTAIN TRAIL
BEST ACCESSIBLE TRAIL
BEST WHITE-WATER THRILL GO! CHOICE:
Pueblo Whitewater
Park MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE
Best Skate Park: The John L. Stone Park behind the Briargate YMCA has a great mix of cement ramps, rails and kind regulars.
FROM PAGE 64
BEST HIKE FOR OUT-OF-TOWNERS
rock drop make for a long, bumpy road. No place is better GO! CHOICE: Mount Cutler for building technical skills. Give the flatlanders what they want — let them climb a mountain. Granted, Cutler is a
BEST HIKE
Local kayakers salivated for more than a year, waiting for construction to end on this series of artificial rapids in downtown Pueblo. Paddlers from as far away as Fort Collins have been hitting the park, and it’s a huge boon for local kayakers. Pueblo’s park is an hour closer than the next-nearest kayaking to Colorado Springs, the Royal Gorge. If the course receives the water flows designers have
SEE RECREATION x PAGE 66
THOMAS KINKADE SIGNATURE GALLERY CHAPEL HILLS 260-8800 L OWER L EVEL N EXT TO D ILLARDS C HAPEL H ILLS M ALL
Garden of the Gods These are our favorite rocks. Twengiant, draREADERS’ ty matic redCHOICE rock formations jut from the scrub oak and scratch at the sky. Running around them and among them are eight miles of mostly moderate hiking trails. This has to be one of God’s greatest gifts to Colorado Springs. Take 30th Street north from Colorado Avenue. GO CHOICE: Garden of the
Gods
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FROM PAGE 65
Best Golf Course: The historic Patty Jewett’s mountain views, right, rival those of the posher East Course at The Broadmoor.
BEST SPORTS COMPLEX
satch Avenue. The path is wide and paved, with little elevation GO! CHOICE: Goose Gossage gain. Watch for a concrete Youth Sports Complex bench shaped like a leaf in the No other sports complex shade about a mile from Pow- has so much going on: soccer, ers Boulevard. baseball, a skateboard park, a mountain bike course, a playground, a multiuse trail. Just GO! CHOICE: John L. Stone Park reading about it should make This relatively new park has you sweat. 3410 Mark Dabling Blvd. a kickin’ mix of cement ramps and rails, and the regulars usually don’t dis you when you crash and burn. GO! CHOICE: The Southeast Fami4025 Family Place lies and Armed Services YMCA The Y Aquatics Center, a public facility, features a water playground, a water slide, a lazy river and separate hot tub GO! CHOICE: The Country Club and lap pools. Because it’s inof Colorado side, it’s open all year. Colorado Springs has fine 2190 Jet Wing Drive free, lighted, outdoor public courts at Memorial and Bear Creek parks. But if you want tournament-quality indoor and outdoor courts (including two GO! CHOICE: From the shoreline swell clay courts), this private at Manitou Lake Recreation Area club is the way to go. This isn’t your classic sun125 Clubhouse Drive set view — you’re looking south at Pikes Peak. But the
BEST SKATE PARK
BEST PUBLIC POOL
BEST TENNIS COURTS
BEST PLACE TO WATCH THE SUNSET
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view is unobstructed, and on the right night, as the sun sets you can watch its light play on the flanks of Pikes Peak. Seven miles north of Woodland Park on Colorado Highway 67
BEST SHADY WALK Near the pond in South Monument Valley Park GO! CHOICE:
We dare you to actually walk through this section of the Pikes Peak Greenway. We dare you to make it past the pond, with its giant koi swimming and its trout jumping. We dare you to leave this paradise of thick emerald grass and towering cottonwoods. We dare you to pass by without throwing yourself on that velvety carpet for a nap. On a hot day, this is one of the coolest spots around. Southern end of Monument Valley Park. Park in the lot where Cache la Poudre Street dead-ends near the Fine Arts Center and walk north.
BEST GOLF COURSE Patty Jewett One of the great public courses and one of READERS’ the oldest CHOICE west of the Mississippi. Built in 1898, Patty Jewett is a traditional-style course with tremendous views of Pikes Peak and the the foothills. And with green fees of less than $35, the price is right. 900 E. Espanola St.
BEST ROLLER SKATING GO! CHOICE: Skate City “Yo Ricky, you wanna go strap on some skates and cruise the chicks with pom pon tassles? Maybe grab a giant pretzel with mustard for dinner? See if we can limbo till we just can’t limbo no more? Yeah? Meet me at the city — Skate City, that is, on Sunday night.” It’s adult skate from 8 to 10:30 p.m. for $5. If an official workout is your thing, there’s Adult Swim on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Join the folks there for a little yoga and some skating and call it a day. 1920 N. Academy Blvd. (The one at 4575 Austin Bluffs Parkway doesn’t have Adult Swim.)
BEST ICE SKATING
GO! CHOICE: Sertich Ice Center Touted as “the hottest ice at the coolest prices,” Sertich offers 200-by-85-foot ice for skating, lessons, parties, teen nights, family days or just slipGO! CHOICE: The East Course at ping and sliding around. The Broadmoor 1705 East Pikes Peak Ave., Host to many major golf in Memorial Park tournaments, The Broadmoor’s East Course was one of only a dozen courses on the continent to receive a five-star rating by Golf Digest. Its holes GO! CHOICE: Telluride Helitrax are tough, the mountain views For about $1,000, Colorado stunning and the green fees Springs residents can fly to Telpricey ($145 through May). luride, get on a helicopter, ski some of the sweetest powder 1 Lake Ave. on the continent, and be back home and bragging by dark. Go to www.helitrax.net
BEST ADVENTURE DAY TRIP
BEST CLIMBING WALL GO! CHOICE:
The Sport Climbing
Center This indoor climbing gym boasts 13,000 square feet of climbing surface for leading, top-roping and bouldering. It hosts regional competitions as well as kids and adults looking for training or adventure. The Climbing Center also will host outdoor guided climbs. 4650 Northpark Drive
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BEST CAMPGROUND
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GO! CHOICE: Mueller State Park This park is so classically Colorado that flatlanders who find their way here from Illi-
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SEE RECREATION x PAGE 67
Friday, May 20, 2005
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BEST OF THE SPRINGS 66
05/19/05
11:52
Best Public Pool The Southeast Families and Armed Services YMCA’s Y Aquatics Center public pool features a water playground, slide and lazy river. It’s open all year.
MOLLY HAUXWELL, THE GAZETTE FROM PAGE 66
the side of the trail. Just past the Fountain nois or Kansas or Arkansas Creek Regional Park Nature think they’ve gotten lost and Center, which is at 320 Pepperended up in Rocky Mountain grass Lane in Fountain National Park. The campgrounds are well-designed, so you won’t feel like you’re sleeping next to your neighbor. And GO! CHOICE: Eleven Mile Reserthe thick forests of pine, voir Give up on fishing last year spruce and aspen provide the solitude you crave. Some camp- because of the drought? Get grounds are made for RVs and your license immediately. It tents; others are tent-only. The new deluxe cabins are for those who want all the sounds and smells of nature without having to actually camp. Four miles west of Divide on Colorado Highway 67
BEST FISHING SPOT
BEST NATURE WALK GO! CHOICE: Nature trail at Foun-
Green Weavers & Valley Knitters
2115 W. Colorado Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80904
tain Creek Regional Park Birders just might go insane with birding overload if they walk this 0.6-mile trail that offers an opportunity to see more than 200 species of birds, along with mammals, reptiles and insects. Canada geese patrol the path, and butterflies sparkle in the air. Great blue herons stand one-legged in the water, turtles sun on logs and massive bull snakes lie in wait on BEST OF THE SPRINGS 67
promises to be a great summer at the reservoir. The water level is good again, predictions are for a big increase in the kokanee salmon population, and there should be a plentiful supply of rainbow trout and northern pike. Reel ’em in! In Park County, 38 miles west of Colorado Springs off U.S. Highway 24, west of Lake George, County Road 90 to County Road 92
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