Picks and Pans – Denver, CO

Denver was a bit of a surprise. After spending time in Utah and continually wishing for more time to explore, we had hopes that we might find a new home in the vicinity, but didn’t think our chances were very good. Driving alongside a river of whitewater, through the picturesque Rockies on our way in to Denver, the Montana girl in me already felt a pull toward this place. Turns out that, although Denver may be lacking in some crucial requirements (we’re not sure of the tech presence in the city and Colorado culture is still a bit on the conservative side), it has definitely made our list of possible places to live. A few of the big perks: active art scene, lots of live music, affordable rent in a liveable downtown, bike lanes, amazing weather (over 300 days of sun per year), a teaching children’s hospital, a spectacular book store, Mexican food, parks and green space everywhere…. and the mountains, oh the mountains. We’ll see. The west coast contenders are going to have to step up in a serious way if they want to compete.

PICKS:
City o’ City

Recommended to us by an oddly friendly parking cop, this coffee shop/bar/vegan restaurant was our first stop in Denver. And while buffalo seitan wrap may not sound like the most tempting of menu offerings, go against your intuition and get it. It was spicy and crispy with blue cheese and lettuce. Yum. Plus it was way better than the falafel wrap that Sean got. Oh, and their mango iced tea was good too, especially with the never-ending refills.

Walking tour of Capitol Hill and the Golden Triangle

Since neither one of us had really been to Denver before (I’ve been to their airport a couple of times), we decided to spend our first afternoon walking around and getting acquainted with the place. The Capitol Hill neighborhood seems pretty hip and the Golden Triangle is home to some cool spots like the Denver Art Museum and The Cell. We didn’t quite find Santa Fe Street on the first day (it was our initial goal upon setting out to find this art gallery district), but we were happy just to toodle around anyway.

Pints Pub

During our walking tour we happened upon Pints Pub, which is a very British kind of pub that brews a lot of their own beers. We had a nice time sitting on the porch, sampling their brews and reading Westword to check out the local happs.

La Fogata

Denver has way more than its fair share of Mexican restaurants and while we’re not sure if La Fogata is the best, their Mexican classics were certainly decent (we sampled the pork tacos and the chicken mole enchiladas). I am anxious to try out some of the other fabled Mexican food spots the next time we go to Denver, though….so send any recommendations our way.

Studio 6 Coffee House

Right in the center of one of Denver’s art districts, the Studio 6 Coffee House has good coffee, super friendly staff and clientele and is literally in an art gallery. We liked it so much we returned for more the next morning. Oh, and, of course, they have free wi-fi.

Santa Fe Arts District

The galleries in the Santa Fe district were definitely a mixed bag. There were some cheesy, commercially driven galleries, but there were also a few that took art and the artists seriously and exhibited some interesting pieces. Among the galleries we liked were: abecedarian gallery (with special thanks to artist and owner Alicia Bailey for a friendly introduction to the Denver art scene and some great suggestions!!), Gallery T and Gallery Cuvee.

Argonaut Wine and Liquors

Quite possibly the largest selection of wine, beer and liquor I have ever seen amassed in one location, Argonaut Wine and Liquors is a one stop shop for all your ethanol related needs. I mean, they had one full aisle of scotch alone plus row upon row upon row of wines from anywhere they might possibly make wine. We left with a single bottle of Portugese vinho verde for our picnic in City Park.

City Park

City Park is home to the Denver Zoo, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and also plenty of green space on which to stretch out and relax, or play croquet, or ultimate frisbee, or go for a jog…well, you get the idea. We had a wine and cheese picnic while trying to figure out how to best spend the rest of our Thursday in Denver.

Tattered Cover Bookstore

Thanks to Sean’s relaxed, post-picnic state, I managed to convince him that our next stop should be the famed Denver book store, The Tattered Cover. Let’s just say, I am in love. The store is in an old theater and they have managed to make every nook and cranny enticing with intimate bookshelf-created hiding spots and thoughtfully placed comfy reading chairs. After depositing Sean at the wi-fi zone near the coffee shop, I whiled away a couple of hours curled up in a little red easy chair devouring books. It was great. And although The Tattered Cover is not as big as Powell’s or as cheap as Strand’s, I am officially a huge fan.

Hi-Dive

Hi-Dive is on Broadway, in an area that reminded me of some of my favorite places in Portland. It’s surrounded by bars, coffee shops, record stores, vintage clothing places… a generally fun place to hang out.We were there on a Thursday night, and although the crowd wasn’t the most lively, we had a great time listening to Deep Sea Diver, a band making lushly intricate but funky music, with a passionate stage presence reminiscent of Thom Yorke. These people love making music and it oozes out of them when they perform.

Dikeou Collection

The Dikeou Collection is a private collection of contemporary art housed on the fifth floor of a downtown Denver office building. We certainly would not have found this uber cool spot without a tip-off from Alicia at the abecedarian gallery. We were impressed with the scope of the collection which included photography, drawing, painting and plenty of multimedia. I particularly liked Somehow I Don’t Feel Comfortable by Momoyo Torimitsu, which consisted of two enormous pink rubber inflatable rabbits. The Torimitsu wrote that he liked to make art that forced people to confront the synthetic nature of their environment in a jarring way and what better way to do that than with a room filled with pink rubber rabbit. Sean and I both really liked 100 by Paul Ramirez Jonas, a series of 100 portraits in sequence from a newborn up to a 100-year old person, each year represented by a portrait of a person of that age. It was particularly interesting that, were the pictures not in sequence, it would have been tremendously hard to guess the correct age of even the children. Sean says: Kids with mustaches, 90 year olds with hardly a wrinkle. It made me think about the arbitrariness of time in our lives and how it doesn’t necessarily capture how we change either in body or in mind.

Museum of Contemporary Art – Denver

First off, it’s remarkable that a city of Denver’s size supports a fairly sizable contemporary art museum in the middle of their downtown. The museum is made up of a series of small galleries with very thoughtfully curated exhibitions. I really enjoyed some of the witty print pieces in their Paper Works Gallery and was utterly delighted by Unplugged by Jim Green, an interactive whoopee cushion work. The enormous canvas by Rex Ray in the Promenade Space was captivating and his playful use of texture and color made me wish that our friend Ana was there to marvel at it with me. Although some of the Damien Hirst works were disturbing (San Sebastian), they were balanced by the wryly humorous medicine cabinet sculpture and the simply beautiful and affecting butterfly paintings (real butterfly wings embedded in bright house paint or collected into an elaborate collage).  After perusing the entire museum, we found our way to the cafe and the rooftop deck, a bright and inviting space that made me wish for a summer cocktail party.


Chief Hosa Campground

In the city of Denver’s Genesee Mountain Park, Chief Hosa is a forested private campground. We deeply appreciated the fact that, although they had coin operated showers, they charged the very low rate of a quarter for 5 minutes of delightfully warm water in a clean bathroom.


RiNo Art District

Sean says: The RiNo (River North) arts district is the up and coming arts scene in Denver. It’s an industrial district north of downtown that has in recent years had a large number of artists making studios out of the relatively cheap warehouse space. We planned to leave Denver on Friday, but thanks to the suggestion of Alicia Bailey of abecedarian gallery we came back for the Sunday pancakes studio tour of the RiNo district. And boy are we super glad we did. It was a beautiful sunny day to eat free pancakes, look at fresh contemporary art and walk around RiNo, mixing industrial views with the quiet lush bike path near the Platte River.
Seeing art in studios is often a very different experience than in a gallery. Artists usually struggle to find a balance between honest expression and selling their art — where selling serves as a means of making money and also a means of connecting with a wider audience. But in the studio the feeling of expression often overshadows that of sale. And in the studio you get to see the work in a “context” that helps to carry the artist’s message. Some highlights for us were the Ironton Studios, especially the work of Andy Sweet and the Blue Silo Studios, where we saw some super work using mixed media paint and thread by Jeff Richards, and painting by Sarah Ashford who, upon hearing we were on a road trip, offered for us to come over for dinner at her place!! Too bad we were leaving that afternoon to head for Rocky Mountain National Park… Hopefully we can take a rain check for when we move to Denver!

8 comments to Picks and Pans – Denver, CO

  • Brianna

    I love Rex Ray!! The picture of his work was neat-o!! I am jealous that you got to see some of his work. Can’t wait to see you!!!!

  • brianne

    Erica-Your description of that bookstore made me tear up a little. It’s the one thing missing from Strand is the spaces and comfy chairs in which to curl up with a book and forget where you are (and aren’t). I’m so jealous that you got to spend time in a place that sounds like heaven to this booklover!

    • It’s probably best that The Tattered Cover is not in NYC because you may never leave. You could find a place to hide right before closing and subsist on baked goods, coffee and all the intellectual sustenance you could get your reader hands on. Do I feel a plot for your next children’s book coming on??

  • Abby St. Lawrence

    I had no idea that Denver was so happening! Being a Montanan, we tend to regard Colorado as producing annoying drivers who come up here with their greenie license plates and generally stealing our Rocky Mountain thunder. If that’s where you guys end up, I’ll be in Denver to help you move in and to check out the scene. I’m looking forward to hearing about the Swetsville Zoo–cool stuff. And Xander will be stoked about Thomas at the Zoo! I also loved the video of Unplugged at the MCA. It gives a whole new meaning to artsy fartsy. 😉

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