Places to Eat, Stay, See, and Meet: In DENVER

[sdematt]

Hey all.

Since it already looks like a bunch of Sourcers are coming to GP Denver, I'd prefer to prepare for this trip earlier rather than later.

So, to all of you who have been to or live in Denver:

1) Where are good places to eat in Denver?

2) What are good hotels to stay at?

3) Good places to drink or general liquor stores?

4) What museums and tourist sites are there, and are they worth seeing?

5) Would you guys be interested in having an MTGTheSource tournament on the Friday or Thursday beforehand just to get together, meet, chill, trade, and maybe play if we feel like it?

6) What should we bring for this time of year?

7) Any local customs/traditions/local laws we should know about?

Thoughts, opinions, etc.

-Matt

[Esper3k]

Most importantly, which are the best strip clubs?

[sdematt]

That was supposed to be an implicit request in the list, but sure, let's just get it out in the open.

-Matt

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

Anyone going to the GP please bring me copies of Psychatog :cry:

[cdr]

Anyone going to the GP please bring me copies of Psychatog :cry:

You collect them, or?

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

You collect them, or?

No, I just love the card and wish it were playable.

Also, hotels are filling up fast. Ugh, there's this one that was $67 a night and three minutes from the venue, but it's booked for the GP weekend.

[Koby]

Where is the venue?

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

I'm assuming it's the Airport Convention Center, where it was held last year.

[r3dd09]

I'm assuming it's the Airport Convention Center, where it was held last year.

Oddly enough, they all it the airport convention center, when really it is at a hotel... Or am I thinking of the year before. Hmm.
Places to eat, I can't remember the name, but there is a place that serve buffalo burgers. Top notch stuff.

[rxavage]

I'm very optimistic that I'll be able to sell thins one to my wife.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Hey all.

Since it already looks like a bunch of Sourcers are coming to GP Denver, I'd prefer to prepare for this trip earlier rather than later.

So, to all of you who have been to or live in Denver:

1) Where are good places to eat in Denver?

2) What are good hotels to stay at?

3) Good places to drink or general liquor stores?

4) What museums and tourist sites are there, and are they worth seeing?

5) Would you guys be interested in having an MTGTheSource tournament on the Friday or Thursday beforehand just to get together, meet, chill, trade, and maybe play if we feel like it?

6) What should we bring for this time of year?

7) Any local customs/traditions/local laws we should know about?

Thoughts, opinions, etc.

-Matt


1) City grill has the best burgers in the city. Absolutely delicious. Also, all the gourmet fast food restaurants started here. I'm talkin' about Chipotle, Heidi's, Noodles and Co, etc. You can find these on every corner. If you like chipotle-style burritos, try illegal petes. Same concept, except they sit the insides of the burrito, so you don't get chunks of rice in random bites. Also, there are too many seafood/sushi/all you can eat brazilian steakhouses than I care to list. PM me and I'll give you my reviews.

2) Anywhere in downton denver are going to be expensive. With that said, the Magnolia downtown was around 150 a night. It's close to everything (LoDo, Larimar Square, etc) and the staff was friendly. I would recommend finding a motel in the nearby suburbs. Look in Lakewood.

3) In downtown, Argonaut liquors is the megastore. If you're on the west side of town, Applejacks is the place. As for bars, my favorite is the giggling grizzly. There's a TON of upscale bars in the LoDo/Larimar square area, but something tells me Magic players won't like that. Either way, I'll be partying my ass off Saturday night. Come find me for a good time. As Trey Songz put it: "I only came for the bitches and the drinks."

4) It's a Trap!!! Seriously, CO has so much to offer, outdoors wise. Go to boulder. Go skiing. Go to Red Rocks Amphitheater. Rent a mountain bike. Rent a B-Cycle (look it up!). Go Hike. Go climbing. Better yet, if any of you scrub and want to climb/cycle/ski, hit me up.

5) Absolutely. I know the perfect place to host it. I want More Comics. Awesome store. Awesome Owner. Great environment.

6) Layers. Lots of fucking layers. It could be 70 if the sun's out. It could be 20 with 6 inches of snow on the ground. Also, don't forget your water bottles. If you're a flatlander, you'll get dehydrated FAST.

7) Puff, Puff, Pass!

[sdematt]

I'm very optimistic that I'll be able to sell thins one to my wife.

And then, once we get her in Denver, I'm pretty sure I can sell Vancouver to her.

-Matt

[Koby]

This may prove to be VERY very important -

Late nite eats
Late nite drinks - not necessarily clubs tho

Atlanta proved to be miserable in the former.

This happened at Atlanta:
Arrive 10 PM friday - go to a pizza/bar. They CANNOT serve me food past 10. watdafuq man? "bar license, can't keep our kitchen open"
*grumblgrumble* Drown out my hunger.

[csy]

yeah but vancouver is in CANADA! :P

[Richard Cheese]

GP Denver Good Times Guide
I may update with links later, but for now I'm assuming you're all smart enough to use google. More to come as I have time.

Food

Fine Dining

Beatrice & Woodsley - Full disclaimer, I used to work here, but I still think they have some of the most interesting and innovative food in the city, and by far the most interesting interior design. On the current menu, the meat-n-beet and and chicken-fried duck burger are batshit-crazy-good. Brunch is always solid too (get a rasher of bacon, you will not be disappointed), and the cocktails are usually good, though I find them a bit fussy.

Fruition - If B&W is the the most innovative restaurant around, Fruition is probably the most solid. Competent staff, good wine list, and they own their own farm where they get most of their eggs, produce, and make some really excellent cheeses. Book well in advance, because the place is tiny. Also no parties bigger than 4.

Z Cuisine/A Cote - Phenomenal French bistro. Z cuisine is the restaurant proper, while A Cote is the Absinthe/wine bar next door. They share a kitchen though, so the real difference is that Z is much harder to get into, but has a menu that changes daily, whereas the A Cote menu is a more stable selection of a few favorites. Excellent charcuterie.


Dirty Good Time

Tacos y Salsas #3 - Best tacos I've had since leaving TX, hands down. Carnitas, Deshebrada, Lengua, and Barbacoa are all not to be missed.

Lao Wang Noodle House - Usually crowded, hot, terrible service, but absurdly amazing xiao long bao (think wonton soup, but the soup is in the wonton...mind = blown)

Pho 95 - There are about 300 numbered Pho places along South Federal, but I can vouch for this one being consistently excellent. Be aware that it's going to be packed on a cold weekend night, and you'll probably be sitting uncomfortably close to a perfect stranger. On the upside, it'll smells way better inside than most Magic event spaces.

Snarf's (many locations) - Best. Sandwiches. Ever. Get an Italian with everything, weep.


Brekkie
Honestly I don't go out for breakfast much, feel free to send me suggestions.

Denver Diner - Yeah it's all frozen hashbrowns and pre-made everything, etc. But the coffee is good, service is fast, and they never ever fuck up eggs over medium. Pretty much all you can ask for in a greasy spoon.

Santiago's - Denver has a thing about "green chili" which is a spicy green/orange pork-based southwestern kind of sauce. Santiago's is known for theirs being spicy as all hell, and selling these tiny breakfast burritos by the dozen with eggs and potato and green chili. It's a chain, so there may be one relatively close to the event site.

Drink

Upscale/Cocktails

Colt and Gray - This place has a full menu, but I was not super impressed with the restaurant, especially when compared to the bar, which has some of the best cocktails in town. Interesting original drinks that aren't overdone, and great versions of about any classic you can think up. The bar snacks menu is great too, they make a lot of good charcuterie in house, and the portions on the cheese plate are fairly generous. Don't miss the crispy pig's trotter.

Williams and Graham - Jumping on the Speakeasy craze, the front of this place is designed to look like a small bookstore with a hidden door to the bar. Oddly enough, they do not serve bathtub gin or moonshine or fruit wine, which really ruins the illusion for me. Regardless, the cocktails really are excellent. A wide range of classics and some nice originals. Decent food too. The downside is that it has very limited space and wait times can be super long. Reservations suggested.

Green Russel - See above, but substitute bookstore with (functional) pie shop. A harder part of town to find parking in, and slightly more expensive, but more space (less waiting) and there are tons of restaurants in that area.


Bars

Hops & Pie - Awesome place. Great pizza and sandwiches, great beer selection that changes regularly.

Euclid Hall - This is really more of a restaurant, but I'm not super impressed with their food, but they keep a lot of good beers around.

Providence Tavern - This is my neighborhood joint. Good beer selection, really fucking good hamburgers.

Falling Rock Tap House - Tons of beer on tap (mostly leans towards Belgians), generic bar food, douchey part of town.


Breweries
For now this is just one big jumbled list in no particular order, because there are just too many to go into detail. Fort Collins is about an hour and a half north, Boulder is 30-45min northwest.

Breckenridge (Kalmath St. location)
O'Dell Brewing(Fort Collins)
Upslope (Boulder)
Strange Brewing
Denver Beer Company
Golden City Brewery (Golden)
Coors (when in Rome?) (Golden)
Oskar Blues (Lyons, north of Boulder)
New Belgium (Fort Collins)
Boulder Beer Company
Dry Dock (Aurora)
Wynkoop
Avery (Boulder)
Great Divide
Left Hand (Longmont, N of Boulder)

I'm sure there are plenty I'm forgetting and will get yelled at about.


Stuff to Do

Brewery Tours - See list above. Coors is actually interesting just because of the scale, also self-guided so you can basically skip to the free beer part.

Lannie's Clocktower Cabaret - I cannot stress enough how awesome this place can be. The late night burlesque/variety shows (Thurs-Sat, 11pm) are always excellent. Good mix of comedy, magic, variety, and of course, boobs.


Go Outside
Note that you can rent just about any outdoor equipment you might want at REI. There is a huge flagship store on Platte St. near downtown.

Skiing - Winter Park, Loveland, and Arapahoe Basin are all the closest resorts (I think). Keep going and you'll hit Aspen, Vail, Copper Mtn, Breckenridge, etc.

Snowshoeing - No idea where to go, but you can rent shoes at REI. If anyone is actually interested I can ask a friend that's into it.

Ice Skating - The lake at Evergreen is where it's at, and only 5$ (not counting skate rental)

Hot Springs - If you really want to make a vacation out of it, about 3hrs west of Denver you run into Glenwood Springs and Steamboat Springs. There are hot spring resorts/lodges/cabins all over the place out there.

[sdematt]

Copy it everywhere. Here, there, everywhere.

-Matt

[Richard Cheese]

Done. Also yes on Source meetup, I'm sure we can put something together with I Want More.

[.dk]

To add one to your list - don't forget about Snooze for breakfast. They can get pretty busy though, so if you're an early riser, this place may be for you. A very interesting breakfast menu including some of the best hash browns I've ever had (they have an entree that is just hash browns - with basically whatever you want on them. Sauteed Onions, Canitas, Green Chiles, eggs, you name it). They also have a very interesting selection of Bloody Mary's - including jalapeno Bloodies, Carrot Juice Bloodies, and a few other variations.

I can't say I've ever been to the one in Denver (it's down around Colorado and 9th), but I've been to the one in Boulder a fair amount of times. I believe the menu's are pretty much the same.

http://www.snoozeeatery.com/

Another classic place for breakfast is Lucile's Creole Cafe. Really neat selection of Creole style breakfast choices. They are rather famous for their Beignets (New Orleans style donuts), and have some pretty decent Grits along with homemade hot sauce and ketchup for eggs/potatoes.

http://www.luciles.com/

Neither of those are close to the event site though - because, well... nothing is. Crowne Plaza is in the middle of nowhere. :(

And yeah - lets do something at I Want More Comics!

[Richard Cheese]

Neither of those are close to the event site though - because, well... nothing is. Crowne Plaza is in the middle of nowhere. :(


Yeah, basically anyone that wants to enjoy Denver needs to scrub out and head into town. There are lots and lots of hotels off 70 though, so if you're renting a car, it might be worth it to find something between the event site and downtown, like these:

http://goo.gl/maps/tewMP

[sdematt]

Richard, any chance you'll have a car? I'm just wondering if it's worth renting a car or not.

-Matt

[Richard Cheese]

Richard, any chance you'll have a car? I'm just wondering if it's worth renting a car or not.

-Matt

I will. It really depends on where you want to stay and for how long and what else you want to do. I can definitely give people a ride into town for activities Friday/Saturday night, and if you're on my way to the event then I can grab you in the morning. What I'd rather not do to be honest though, is ferry people back to Crowne Plaza after drinking and shenanigans, just because it's going to be a 45min + round trip to get back to the house. Also, don't expect me to last all day Saturday. I kinda suck at this game.

[.dk]

I will also have a car - but I likely also won't really be wanting to take people back to Crowne Plaza either, as I have to head up to Boulder.

[Richard Cheese]

Added a couple more cocktail bars.

[sdematt]

I'm mostly looking for rides to the Thursday night event. The cab ride seems atrocious. Ten million dollars later...

-Matt

[Richard Cheese]

I'm mostly looking for rides to the Thursday night event. The cab ride seems atrocious. Ten million dollars later...

-Matt

Shouldn't be a problem.

[sdematt]

Cool, much obliged, citizen. In fact, I'll even pitch in for gas so you don't have to awkwardly ask me. But, since your gas is *almost* as cheap as Venezuela, I don't mind :P

*hyperbolic statement is hyperbolic*

-Matt

[Richard Cheese]

Fair warning - I get like 16mpg.

Anything in particular anyone else wants to know about in Denver? I was going to update the fun times post on the first page again soon.