Fresh Start

View from our room

Wake up everybody no more sleeping in bed, we got to get some food at Snooze, so we can go out drinking again. Okay, it's not quite the same remake as the Roots version, but it works for me. So, after a good night of sleep, we awoke to one hell of a view from our lovely place at the Brooks Tower Condos.What a great visual to start your morning with. While everybody was getting ready, it was now time for me to prepare for the day by checking out some new beer places in the Westworld magazine.That reading thing does come in handy at times.

 We then strolled downtown to one of my favorite breakfast places ever, Snooze. They opened up right before I last came to Denver, a little over 4 years ago and I was blown away. Now it was time to see if it would do same for my traveling companions. As you can plainly see, it was some good eats. Who else has fresh poblanos as a side for your breakfast tacos?
 Oh, and those pancakes may have put a weaker man in a sugar coma, but the esteemed Mr. Kulp took it down. But there was one small problem. We were stuffed. To the gills. Like, I can't move anymore. So after several minutes of trying to get our shit together. We finally, with the help of a crane, got up and ventured out upon the streets of Denver.




 

Juan's breakfast tacos

We decided to stroll down Blake Street and what to our wondering eyes did we find, Breckenridge Brewery. It's 11:30 am and besides, it's always Thursday somewhere. I think in hindsight that this was more of a ploy to sit our fat butts down and continue digesting our giant breakfast than it was to drink beer. But beer was ordered, albeit a small one and a once over was given to this huge place. So after paying our tab, we started our stroll down Blake and saw the Falling Rock sign, and I uttered these famous words "I wonder if they still have Publication and Saboteur on?" Their answer was yes, and our answer was, where do you want to sit? So we grabbed a table outside and enjoyed a couple of beers and some beautiful warm weather. After a couple of hours of beer bliss, we forcibly remove ourselves and continued our walk down Blake to a brand new place called Freshcraft. They have been open for about three weeks, and in the next several days we were to become some of their best customers. The reason we came at this time was a session happy hour, a sandwich, fries and a 5% beer for $8.50 and a house made pickle to boot, which is oh, so good. After making ourselves very happy and full, we then met up with the RJ team for a trip to the Vine Street Pub for a beer or two and a snack, then we were off to the Cheeky Monk for some dinner and a special tapping of Three Cheeks To The Wind, a super small batch of beer brewed by Avery for their 3rd anniversary. It is all about timing folks. As we got seated outside, our waitress asked us for our beer order and we all ordered that. It wasn't on tap yet, but should be in two or three minutes. Sure enough about 10 minutes later we all had a glass and she proceeded to tell us that there were people at the bar that didn't get any as it was only a sixtel and it kicked in three minutes. Well, dinner was great, and the beer was damn good and the company wasn't too shabby either. So we all took a bus back into town and I headed off to sleep land after another tough 12 hour day, but the RJ team talked my companions into a so called nightcap at Rock Bottom. (remember the RJ line from the last story about wolves?) Which lasted well over two plus hours. Another lesson learned, the hard way of course. There would be plenty of more lesson to learn along the way. But it sure beats working.

Baby Steps

  Lets face it, a day without breakfast is like a day on vacation without beer. So after dropping off the bags, we hopped on the 16th Street shuttle and shuttled our way into Dixon's for some much needed food. Half way thru breakfast, the RJ team stopped by to see what we were up to the rest of the day. For those who do not know, RJ stands for Rick and Jeannie. Damn good folks. ( Who later on in these stories might turn up more like friendly wolves in sheep's clothing. You will find out the reason why soon enough.)  We had plenty of time to kill as our room wouldn't be ready until three, so after breakfast, we strolled  up 16th street to stretch our legs and get a lay of the land near the capitol area. We were quickly reminded of the term "city block"once we arrived there. We kept walking uphill in the blazing sunshine and it seemed liked we were getting nowhere fast. Until my faux daughter spotted a beer sign in a window up ahead.

  Uptown Brothers was the name and in we went hoping for the best. Our hopes were met quite nicely. Another fairly new place in the slowly up and coming Colfax Avenue area. Good beer selection and better yet was some of their mac and cheese. Now I wasn't all that hungry, but when the bartender says it is made with the three kinds of cheese, including smoked Gouda, well, I had to do what I had to do. App size please. The results, it was wrong, oh so very, very wrong. So wrong in fact, that when I came back a two days later, I had it again just to be sure.
 
So we left there and did our running around and got back to our room with just enough time to put stuff away and head down to the epicenter for the week of beer events, Falling Rock. The RJ team


Where evil lurks at every tap

was already at the bar chatting up the bartenders. Their kickoff of events started at 5, so it wasn't crazy crowded just yet. The chalkboard said it all for me, Russian River Publication. Never heard of that. It reminds me a bit like Dreamweaver unfiltered and gently caressed with funk. How can that be a bad thing? What was a bad thing however was something we would end having on a daily basis there. Odell's

Saboteur. We had the chance to try this back in June at Capones when they came in for a rare visit. And now it would be on tap for a solid week here.



Doing what they did best, drinking Odell's



 Darkness has slowly started to fall and so was our eyelids from lack of sleep. The RJ team suggested one more stop, Rock Bottom. But, as we made our way up the street, the road crews were working nearby , so I said let's check out the Mellow Mushroom. Rick than orders a pitcher of Twisted Pine IPA. (See what I am talking about) We somehow finish that, cry uncle repeatedly and stagger back to our rooms for some much, much needed sleep. It was to be an early night. Like I keep saying,  it's a marathon not a sprint.