Wednesday, August 31, 2016

A Taste of Ethiopia at Abyssinia Restaurant

Abyssinia Restaurant is a snug cafe serving homey Ethiopian fare, with vegan options, plus honey wine in colorful surrounds.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Taylor's: Denver's Finest Suburban Restaurant and Supper Club

Denver is a mile above sea level, but apparently Lakewood is a mile above Denver...This knowledge courtesy Denver's Finest Suburban Restaurant and Supper Club: Taylor's!

Monday, August 29, 2016

Lakewood 666: The El Rey Lodge

I guess the El Rey Lodge didn't like their phone number: Lakewood 666.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Tour de Fat is coming to Denver on September 10th


Mark it Down! Tour de Fat is coming to Denver on September 10
with more zany antics than ever before

Day includes costumes, bikes, music, contests, fundraising,
and the only place to get Carnie Blood!

Ft. Collins, Colo., August 24, 2016 –  New Belgium Brewing’s Tour de Fat, a traveling celebration of all things bike, is returning to Denver Saturday, September 10. Tour de Fat will take place in City Park (west side) offering a day of eclectic entertainment, a costumed bike ride, a gameshow, car-for-bike swap, fashion showdown, great music, and of course plenty of New Belgium beer. The event is free, yet all donations and proceeds from beer and merchandise sales will go to Denver-area non-profits.

“We can’t wait to bring the magic of Tour de Fat back to Denver,” said Matt Kowal, New Belgium Brewing’s Tour de Fat Impresario. “New Belgium celebrates 25 years this year. To me, more than anything, that means 25 years of Fat Tire shining like a rainbow over a waterfall of ho-hummity. Emblazoned with a red cruiser bicycle, Fat Tire speaks to the inspiration of our company, our founding beers, and our ethos of balance. And so it was and so it continues to inspire us all, let's celebrate! Whether you ride your bike down or ride one of our mutant bikes around, we will have a bash and raise some cash for bike-orgs that work hard for you all year!"

Entertainment
The main stage in Denver will feature Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds, a seven-piece band that plays a mixture of soul, rock and dirty funk. The band shakes up rock ‘n’ roll and has shared stages with Gov’t Mule, Dr. John, Trombone Shorty, The Avett Brothers, Counting Crows, and Galactic.

Other main stage acts will include cellist, singer-songwriter, and composer Ben Sollee. Ben plays the banjo, guitar, mandolin, and percussion. His cello playing is the most unique around, with music ranging from folk to R&B.

The Kolars will also play in Denver. This husband and wife duo are members of the renowned band He’s my Brother, She’s my Sister. To complement his disco, glam-a-billy, space guitar blues; she has reconceived a rhythmic contraption to tap and play atop a kick drum. The Kolars thrills audiences with its unabashed exuberance.

Two Variety Venues: Sputnik mobile stage and Le Tigre Grande, will offer all-day entertainment featuring comedy, spectacle, and interactive happenings. And finally the Fat Tire and Friends Stage will feature local and regional bands. This year we are pleased to present: The Parlor Pickers, Chimney ChoirBrent Cowles, and The Other Black.

Beers
Everyone 21 and older will be able to sample new and classic favorites from New Belgium, including the brewery’s flagship brew, Fat Tire, New Belgium’s latest year-round offering, Citradelic Tangerine IPA, along with more esoteric beers from its Lips of Faith series. It’s also the only place to enjoy Carnie Blood, a beer made in honor of the Tour de Fat Carnies that make this tour possible every year. Carnie Blood Vol. 3 is an Imperial Stout brewed with two single-origin cocoas and chicory.

Fundraising
As for the fundraising, this year all proceeds in Denver will go to Bike Denver and Denver Cruiser Ride. The entire 2015 season raised more than $647,668, with the Denver event rolling in $113,305.

Swap your car for a $2,250 Bike! New Belgium is once again on the hunt for a lucky swapper willing to trade in four wheels for two and commit to using a bike as their sole means of transportation. Each swapper is awarded a stipend to buy his or her own commuter bike. Potential swappers just need to submit a video explaining why they have what to takes to go car-free and what the new lifestyle would mean to them. Apply at NewBelgium.com/Events/Tour-de-Fat/CarTrader.

Tour de Fat – Denver Details

Date:
Saturday, September 10

Location: 
City Park, west side

Main Stage:
10:00 a.m. - Ride Registration
11:00 a.m. - Bike Ride
12:00 p.m. - Fashion Showdown
12:30 p.m. - The Kolars
1:20 p.m. - Slow Ride
1:40 p.m. Ben Sollee 
2:40 p.m. - The Bike is Right! Game show to win a 2016 New Belgium bike
3:10 p.m. ****SPUTNIK @ MAIN STAGE****
3:30 p.m. - Car For Bike Trade
3:40 p.m. – Sister Sparrow
5:00 p.m. - Adios Amigos! (curfew)

Fat Tire and Friends Stage:
12:00 p.m.  The Parlor Pickers
1:15 p.m.    Chimney Choir
2:30 p.m.    Brent Cowles
3:45 p.m.    The Other Black

Pre-Registration
You can pre-register and donate to receive a limited edition Tour de Fat license plate, sunglasses, or patch at http://bit.ly/2bt4igy.

See Facebook.com/TourDeFat for the Tour de Fat credo, schedules, videos and to submit an entry to swap your vehicle for a fancy new bicycle. For more on the Denver stop, click here.


About New Belgium Brewing Company 
 

New Belgium Brewing, makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale and a host of Belgian-inspired beers, is recognized as one of Outside Magazine’s Best Places to Work and one of the Wall Street Journal’s Best Small Businesses. The 100% employee-owned brewery is a Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Business as designated by the League of American Bicyclists, and one of World Blu’s most democratic U.S. businesses, and a Certified B Corp. In addition to Fat Tire, New Belgium brews thirteen year-round beers; Citradelic Tangerine IPA, Ranger IPA, Rampant Imperial IPA, Shift Pale Lager, Slow Ride Session IPA, Snapshot Wheat, Sunshine Wheat, 1554 Black Ale, Blue Paddle Pilsner, Abbey Belgian Ale and Trippel and a gluten-reduced line, Glutiny Pale Ale and Glutiny Golden Ale. Learn more at www.newbelgium.com.

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Transit opens at DAVA September 22nd

Transit 
Transit explores the future of transportation with artworks by DAVA youth focused on modes of transportation and the design process. Works by Industrial Design students from Metropolitan State University complete the exhibit. You are invited to the opening reception and special film screening Thursday September 22nd, from 4 pm to 7:30 pm.  The exhibit runs through November 18th, 2016. DAVA (Downtown Aurora Visual Arts) is located at 1405 Florence Street, one block south of Colfax in the Aurora Cultural Arts District. All DAVA exhibits are free and open to the public from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday or by appointment.
David Klein, professor of Industrial Design at Metropolitan State University came to our studios to initiate the design process with DAVA students.  He will contribute a selection of drawings, computer renderings and 3D models created by students from his department at Metro.
DAVA’s Job Training Students in Computer and Fine arts, along with select high school students, examined the evolution of transportation devices, then researched and developed future designs. Younger students, in DAVA’s Open Studio created a fully articulated road scene with vehicles and boats, bicycles and traffic signs.
Also included in this exhibit are the results of fast paced summer projects in art and technology. 15 short films related to the future of transportation will be shown, produced by DAVA students led by Professor Geoffrey Chadwick from the Colorado Film School at Lowry. A new remote controlled “artbot” will be introduced, created during a special section of robotics in our Job Training program.

Downtown Aurora Visual Arts is a nonprofit arts organization whose mission is to strengthen the community through the arts with a primary focus on youth engagement. For more information about our programs, visit www.davarts.org.

Friday, August 26, 2016

The Artwork of Kirsten Denbow

Riviera Motel
Aurora Motel
The pendants are from left to right Lions Lair, Riviera Motel, Niagara Motel, Driftwood Motel.




Love this Colfax artwork by Kirsten Denbow! Find out more about her and her art here.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Rip Van Winkle's Motel

Re-use, Recycle is what I always say! The Rip Van Winkle's Motel/Desert Inn Motel, 1939. #WestColfax

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Festival of Mountain and Plain, 1895

People walk in a baseball stadium (probably Broadway Athletic Park) at Colfax Avenue and Broadway in Denver, Colorado, during the Festival of Mountain and Plain. The Colorado State Capitol building shows through the entry arch. (courtesy Denver Library, Western History Collection)

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Retro Colfax: Del Norte Lodge

The Del Norte Lodge used to be at 9800 W. Colfax Avenue in Lakewood, CO

Monday, August 22, 2016

Remembering Dutch Boy Donuts

If there's one thing I love about Colfax, it's the neon! Dutch Boy Donuts, as photographed by Walt Hackney.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Hold It Together

Don't worry, she'll hold together...you hear me, baby? Hold together! (photo by Jonny B.)

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Vintage Theatre presents Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune

Vintage Theatre presents
Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune
By Terrance McNally
Directed by Missy Moore

July 29 – September 4**


Vintage Theatre presents "Frankie and Johnny in Claire de Lune" July 29- September 4, Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St., Aurora 80010. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 2:30 p.m.; Monday, August 15 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $24 - $30 and available online at www.vintagetheatre.org or by calling 303-856-7830. Group discounts for 6+ are available. * For mature audiences. Contains nudity and sexual situations.

Frankie (a waitress) and Johnny (a short-order cook who works in the same restaurant) are discovered in bed. It is their first encounter, after having met several weeks ago on the job, and Frankie is hopeful that Johnny will now put on his clothes and depart, so she can return to her usual routine of watching TV and eating ice cream. But Johnny, a compulsive talker (and romantic), has other ideas. He is convinced that he loves Frankie, a notion that she, at first, considers to be ridiculous. She has had more disappointments than delights in life, and he is the veteran of one broken marriage already. And neither of them is in the bloom of youth. Yet out of their sometimes touching, sometimes hilarious interplay the promise of a relationship beyond a "one-night stand" does begin to emerge and, as the lights dim, the two are back in bed again, but this time side-by-side, holding hands before the glowing television screen.

The cast is the real life husband and wife team of Kelly Uhlenhopp (Frankie) and Andrew Uhlenhopp (Johnny).

In 1961, only one year out of Columbia University, Terrence McNally was hired by novelist John Steinbeck to accompany him and his family on a cruise around the world as tutor for his two teenage boys. The voyage would prove influential as McNally completed a draft of what would become the opening act of "And Things That Go Bump in the Night."  McNally only became truly successful with works such as the off-Broadway production of "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" and its screen adaptation with stars Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. His ensuing body of work has made him one of theatre's most important and award-winning playwrights with "Lips Together, Teeth Apart," "Love! Vallor! Compassion!," "Master Class," "Kiss of the Spiderwoman" and "Ragtime" just to name a few.

"Frankie and Johnny in Claire de Lune" received Tony Award nominations in 2003 for Best Revival of a Play.

Vintage Theatre presents
"Frankie and Johnny in Claire de Lune"
July 29 – Sept. 4

A bittersweet comedy traces the unlikely romance between two middle-aged “losers.”

Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St., Aurora 80010
For mature audiences; contains nudity and sexual situations.

Friday, August 19, 2016

The 12th Annual Last Waltz Revisited

The 12th Annual
LAST WALTZ
Revisited
Fillmore Auditorium
November 23 – Thanksgiving Eve
Showtime 8:00 pm / Doors 7:00 pm


Come join us to make this year’s Last Waltz celebration better than ever and to ensure the success of the holiday canned food/desired items drive for the Denver Rescue Mission

          Culminates a canned food/desired hygiene items drive for the Denver Rescue Mission.

          FREE Special Artwork Poster with a Donation of Canned Food Items. Bring cans to the Venue Day of Show and receive the Special Poster.

          Portion of Proceeds to Benefit the Denver Rescue Mission.

Back in 2005, Denver's “number one jamband,” Polytoxic, wanted to put on a show that could showcase all the great local musicians they had been playing with for the past few years. They decided to re-enact The Band's "The Last Waltz," a concert film by Martin Scorsese of The Band's last performance that included all of that era's greatest musicians - Eric Clapton, Dr John, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, etc. The show was held at Dulcinea's in Denver's Capitol Hill area on May 25, 2005, and Polytoxic planned on it being a fun little show that would garner a little bit of interest. It sold out in minutes, surprising the band and fans alike, and became the biggest show they had ever thrown. So big, in fact, they decided to do it again in 2005, this time on the night before Thanksgiving at Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom.

Polytoxic's "The Last Waltz - Revisited" immediately went from a "fun little" idea at a small venue to one of the biggest events of the year. It has become an annual tradition, playing to sold-out capacity crowds.

This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the Last Waltz and the 12th anniversary of Polytoxic’s "Last Waltz – Revisited", and it boasts over 50 guest musicians from across Colorado, a full horn section, and over 30 songs from The Bands extensive catalog, focusing primarily on songs played at The Last Waltz. The concert has become a tradition for many of those involved in the show, as well as for many of the people that come out and see the show year after year.  To celebrate the last 10 years, we have added special guests and additional songs from years past. In addition Buck Perigo will be opening the show at 8:00, performing Arlo Guthrie’s entire “Alice’s Restaurant.” 

This year if fans bring Canned Food Items for our affiliated charity, The Denver Rescue Mission, they will receive a FREE Limited Edition Poster commemorating this year’s Last Waltz – Revisited (Poster artwork by Diana Azab – Publicist/Graphic Designer @ Cervantes’). As always we will be donating the food and a portion of proceeds to the Denver Rescue Mission.

So come out and enjoy this magical evening, our local musicians and our local sponsors - Anthony’s Pizza & Pasta, YellowDog Printing & Graphics, KBCO and The Westword.


JOIN US FOR A SPECIAL PRE-THANKSGIVING EXPERIENCE!
DINNER WITH THE BAND
AT THE 12th ANNUAL “LAST WALTZ – REVISITED” CONCERT!
Presented By Anthony's Pizza & Pasta

Special Dinner with The Band Ticket – celebrating 12th Annual Last Waltz – Revisited
(Commemorating the 40th Annual Historic Performance by The Band – The Last Waltz)
The 12th Annual Last Waltz Revisited

Special Ticket Includes:
Early entrance to the Fillmore Auditorium and sound check listening with the band at 4:45P.M
Delicious Pizza, Salad, Fruit and Dessert served from 5-6:45P.M.
Dinner provided by ANTHONY’S PIZZA & PASTA
Special 12th Annual Last Waltz – Revisited Commemorative Poster 
For more information, visit www.lastwaltzrevisited.com. For questions, please contact Stacy Parker at SParker@DenRescue.org or 303.313.2410.


 
TICKETS WENT ON SALE FRIDAY, AUGUST 12 @ 10:00 AM
at the Fillmore Auditorium Box Office, online at www.ticketmaster.com or call 800 – 745 – 3000. 

Tickets are $25.00 GA ADV and $30.00 GA DOS plus applicable service charges.   

Limited VIP Dinner with the Band tickets:  $50 available via DenverRescueMission.org
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
For Private Box seating and other VIP ticket option information, please call (303) 837-1024. 

THIS SHOW IS AGES 16+

CONNECT WITH US ON THE WEB                                                          

CONTACT: Gayor Geller
(303) 916-0770 / gg11g@cs.com

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Tips for Longer Life from the Nob Hill Inn

The horse and mule live thirty years
And nothing know of wines and beers.
The goat and sheep at twenty die
And never taste of Scotch and Rye.
The cows drink water by the ton
And at eighteen are mostly done.
The dog at fifteen cashes in
Without the aid of Rum and Gin.
The cat in milk and water soaks
And then at twelve short years it croaks.
The modest sober bone-dry hen
Lays eggs for nogs, then dies at ten.
All animals are strictly dry,
They sinless live and sinless die.
But, sinful, Ginful, Rum-soaked men
Survive for three score years and ten!


Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Jerry's Cafe - The Chili King of Colfax!

As well as being the first theater of any kind in Aurora, Colorado, the Hollywood Theater building at 9758 E. Colfax Avenue was also known as Jerry's for a time. I never knew there was a Chili King of Colfax!

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Immaculate Collection

This depiction of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception is hanging on the hallowed walls of the Nob Hill Inn, which is across the street (photo by Jonny B)

Sunday, August 14, 2016

World War Art

Photo by Tom Fesing
Cool World War Art piece in front of the Shepherd's Motel at Valentia & East Colfax Ave.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

New Sidewalk Project First of Its' Kind in Denver

“Connecting the Community with Art” 

The East Montclair/East Colfax Neighborhood has received funds from the Denver Arts & Venues, “P.S. You Are Here Campaign", along with private donations to install a sidewalk mural on East Colfax Avenue. The design for the project was created by local artist, Nik Arnoldi and encompasses the history and diversity of the East Colfax Neighborhood. Team members worked with local school students, Denver’s refugee community and other stakeholders to create symbolism that expresses East Colfax Avenue, and its history by "Connecting the Community with Art”. The mural features the iconic HWY US 40 sign, the flags of both the City of Denver and the State of Colorado, along with a Columbine flower. The design also incorporates elements of flags from several countries belonging to refugee populations within the neighborhood. 

The East Montclair Neighborhood Association will be installing the project. Media is welcome to visit the mural site to view installation of the project and learn more about the design process and creation on August 13, 2016, and August 14, 2016 from 9:00AM to 2:00 PM (MST).

Community members and volunteers can assist with completion of the project. The best day for media coverage will be on Sunday, August 14, 2016 when a large majority of the project will be installed. The project will be installed at 7400 East Colfax Avenue at Quince Street on the South side of Colfax.

For More Information Contact: Tom Fesing, President East Montclair Neighborhood Association 303-591-2886 / tfesing@gmail.com


Friday, August 12, 2016

Up-at-the-dome with the Goldy Bats

“Last night I saw bats flapping about the Golden Dome of the State Capitol. If I were a bat, I’d go and get gold. Up-at-the-dome with the goldy bats.” - Jack Kerouac (included in a letter to Allen Ginsberg; June 10, 1949)

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Kerouac Drank Here - Nob Hill Inn

Jack Kerouac first visited Denver in 1947. Thumbing through an old Denver directory from 1947, I found that the Nob Hill Inn has kept the same name and location since then. And the odds of Jack drinking there are 99.99% because of his proclivity for Colfax bars, as evidenced in On The Road. Anybody want to meet up for a pint?

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

This Used to Be...Where Bob Dylan lived.


Denver-Capitol Hill - 1736 East 17th Avenue - Bob Dylan Residence

In the early 1960s moments before fame came his way, Bob Dylan stayed at this address for a short period of time. The house is adjacent to a cinder block building on the SW corner of 17th & Williams. This would have been at the time when he played the Satire Lounge on East Colfax. I would assume Dylan was loosely acquainted with local performer Judy Collins who hit fame concurrently. On one occasion, roughly 1989 if I recall, Dylan returned to Capitol Hill after doing a local concert. He walked straight into Wax Trax Records at 13th and Washington as a customer. Dylan has been seen around these parts in relatively low profile on other occasions. (courtesy ColoradoArts.net)

Monday, August 8, 2016

Remembering Tiki Boyd's

Tiki Boyd's
Boyd Rice: Designer & Tiki Consultant
Tiki Boyd's designer, Boyd Rice.

Tiki Boyd's was a somewhat legendary tiki bar designed by tiki-hound and Modern Drunkard magazine staffer Boyd Rice. Located in a Ramada Inn in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver, Colorado, it existed from early 2005 to mid 2006.

Prior to the inception of Tiki Boyd's, the hotel's bar had been a floundering, ill-conceived cross between sports and Southwestern themes blandly named The East Coast Bar, which enjoyed almost zero non-hotel clientele. After mixologist Lorin Partridge (née Ferguson) began bartending at the E.C.B., Rice and his friends soon became its only sizeable group of regulars, and the bar began to generate modest profits. When management enquired as to how sales might be further increased, Rice's friends suggested that he be enlisted overhaul the E.C.B. and convert it into a tiki bar, a proposition Rice eagerly accepted.

Entranced by the tiki phenomenon as a child in the 1960s, Rice had rediscovered and rekindled his love of tiki culture at the end of the '70s when he first began exploring the dwindling number of original tiki bars and restaurants still operating near his home in Southern California. In the early 1980s (along with his tiki enthusiast friends Jefferery Vallance and Michael Uhlenkott) Rice was involved in organizing tiki-themed parties at which he and his friends served fruity umbrella drinks and played exotica and surf rock records.

Boyd Rice and friends at a tiki party - California, early 1980s

Boyd Rice with a Tiki catamarran - Hawaii, 1982

On the cusp of the first wave of tiki culture revival, in 1982 Rice traveled to Hawaii to interview exotica music pioneer Martin Denny for the magazine Ungawa!, and would do so again (via telephone) for Seconds a decade later.
Taboo: The Art Of Tiki
By the 1990s, such activities had established Rice as a serious tiki-hound, and at the end of that decade he penned an introduction to Martin McIntosh's art book Taboo: The Art of Tiki and acted as a consultant for the BBC's Rapido TV program on tiki culture, "Air-Conditioned Eden." Thus, having been a devoted tiki-hound for more than two decades, it had always been his dream to create his own tiki bar, and the E.C.B. was the perfect opportunity for him to do so.

Immersing himself in the project, Rice quickly redecorated the bar, transforming it into a lavish tiki environment replete with bamboo huts, colored lights, hanging lanterns, carved wood masks and stuffed blowfish lamps - all of which was complimented by the exotica sounds of his own collection of Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman and Les Baxter LPs.

The East Coast Bar (before)

Tiki Boyd's (after)

Soon after Rice's reworking of the locale, business picked up as expected and management of the E.C.B. rechristened it - appropriately enough - Tiki Boyd's. Serving as Modern Drunkard's staff hangout and being the only tiki bar in town, Tiki Boyd's quickly became a highly profitable watering hole, where an unusual cast of characters from all walks of life took in the lurid exotica ambience while imbibing incandescent, rum-based cocktails topped with umbrella-skewered fruit.
As word of the popularity of Tiki Boyd's spread during its first few months as Denver's only tiki bar, a local tiki aficionado and expert in Denver's tiki history, Tiki Central's "Tiki Mike," combed through the city library's microfiche collection and uncovered the surprising revelation that back in the heyday of American tiki culture (the 1950s and '60s), a tiki bar occupied exactly the same spot as Tiki Boyd's locale. As it turned out, the Ramada Inn in which Tiki Boyd's resided was originally called The Heart O' Denver Motor Hotel when it was built back in the 1960s, and its bar was called simply the Tiki Lounge - designed by none other than legendary beachcomber and consultant to Disneyland, Eli Hedley.


All of this information was presented by Tiki Mike at the first of several "Night Of Tiki" history events at Tiki Boyd's, during which Mike gave slideshow presentations about the history of tiki culture, using photographs and postcards from his own personal collection. Mike further revealed several of the original advertisements for the Tiki Lounge, which were promptly converted into ads for Tiki Boyd's.

Unfortunately, there was trouble in paradise ...

Patrons drinking at Tiki Boyd's
Rice, who had decorated Tiki Boyd's in exchange for an open bar tab, had no direct control over how it was run, and thus was forced to work with management inherited from the bar's previous incarnation. As the months wore on, the bar's manager came to hubristically believe that Tiki Boyd's overnight prosperity had come about as if through sheer luck, rather than the efforts of Rice and his friends who bartended there, and he increasingly took both for granted. Compounding this, Rice was never reimbursed for the materials or labor he put into creating the bar's tiki theme - essentially meaning that regardless of Tiki Boyd's cash-register-bulging success, Rice still technically owned every bamboo stick, colored light bulb and vinyl platter in the place. As his involvement was increasingly downplayed and as the bar's management began to mistreat his friends who were employed there, Rice soon became frustrated with the situation. Thus, sadly for Denver's tiki enthusiasts, after about a year of doing business, Tiki Boyd's disappeared even more quickly than it had arrived.

One Spring afternoon in 2006, on Rice's direction, a dozen members of both the Modern Drunkard staff and a group called The Denver Gentlemen's Pipe Smoking League set upon the bar with a barrage of power tools and moving boxes, dismantling it completely and essentially stripping it bare in under an hour. Despite management's subsequent attempts at implementing a faux-tiki theme, the bar failed shortly thereafter and later incarnations of short-lived theme bars to follow at The Ramada Inn's bar-space never even remotely approached the success of Tiki Boyd's in its rum-slinging heyday.

Although Tiki Boyd's only existed for about a year and a half, it left an indelible impression on Denver's collective consciousness, and remains one of the city's more legendary bygone haunts to this day.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

The Lakewood Theater

The city of Lakewood's first movie theater, The Lakewood, opened in 1950 at 8000 West Colfax Avenue. Though apparently someone used to sell Yamahas at this location, today it's the Avalanche Harley-Davidson dealership (courtesy Lakewood Heritage Center).

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Colfax A and Colfax B

Colfax A
 Between Colfax and Fourteenth Avenues between Cook and Madison Streets is the Snell Addition Historic District. This tiny district consists of Colfax A and Colfax B. The area is named for Frank Snell who built 25 houses here between 1905 and 1911. Snell fit more houses into the block by eliminating the back yards. The developer himself lived at 3421 Colfax A. Today Colfax A and Colfax B remain virtually unchanged. (Denver Municipal Facts, Vol. 3, No. 38, Sept. 16, 1911.)

Colfax B

Friday, August 5, 2016

R.M. Quigley Residence, 1911

This beautiful and unusual home, built for R.M. Quigley, used to sit at the corner of Colfax Avenue and Vine Street. The house was later replaced by the Leetonia Apartment Building. (Denver Municipal Facts, Vol. 3, No. 40, Sept 30, 1911)

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Colfax Concourse, 1970s

The Colfax Concourse was completed in the late 1970's in an attempt to beautify the street. This fountain was at the corner of Florence St. and Colfax Avenue. (courtesy Aurora History Museum)

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Colfax Bottling Works

Can anyone provide any information about the Colfax Bottling Works in Denver, Colorado? Where it was, or the years it was in operation? Thanks! write info@colfaxavenue.com

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

People Who Wouldn't Like Colfax #1: Christie Brinkley

Christie Brinkley hosed down a woman trying to pee in the bushes near her beach house in the Hamptons. I don't think she'd like Colfax very much...

Monday, August 1, 2016

The Graduate

Some guys have all the luck...So cool that the guy who took this photograph of Marilyn Monroe (Silent Film star Harold Lloyd) graduated from East High School on Colfax Avenue.