Getting Real...At The Whole Foods Parking Lot

Maybe you've figured out by now, we here at Gastronomista have some deep Colorado roots.  Yep, that's right.  We've got some hippie in us.  So it's no lie when we tell you that we grew up in health food grocery stores; teenage years spent pursuing cheese counters, aisles of dry goods stocked with organic grains, and flirting with all of those bearded cashiers and cheese mongers.  Ah, those were the days.

We are tickled by this video by Fog and Smog - which explains all the ails of trying to find a parking space at Whole Foods.  We feel your pain, Fog and Smog.  Things can get rather aggresive at the Red Hook Fairway.  But now we've got your track all lined up and ready to go when we pull in next time.

... Im ridin' slow in my Prius...
all leather, tinted windows... you cant see us!!
Everybody's trying to park, you can feel the tension
I'm in electric mode... can't even hear the engine (Shhhhhhh)

Without further ado, Whole Foods Parking Lot:

Amazing.

But us veteran health food shoppers know, before Whole Foods there was Wild Oats.  And before Wild Oats there was Alfalfa's.  Ah yes, nostalgia.  

Leftover Salmon performed a song for KBCO Studio C Volume 2 in 1992 called Alfalfa's.  A witty diddy about wanting to work at Alfalfa's and enjoy wheat-grass lemonade, spinach yogurt, and the like.  We date ourselves; those were the days before all the cool kids started brewing their own Kombucha.

  "Alfalfa's" by Leftover Salmon by fullpedal

Thank goodness for corporate embetterment - Alfalfa's is back!  So Fog and Smog, we recommend you drive your Prius on over to Boulder.  Maybe the parking is better there?

Want more?  download it here.

Old Fashioned in Denver

We recently went on a mission for the best Old Fashioned in Denver. Truth be told, it is our grandmother's favorite cocktail, and we cannot get enough of them. We've been on the hunt: every bar, every city. This quest is similar to the search for the holy grail, the fountain of youth in the form of whiskey: liquid gold adorned with oranges and brandy soaked cherries.

Denver, thank you for having us. You are always delightful.



Our summations:

Drum-roll please...

Colt & Grey in the Platte River Valley. Note to all burgeoning bartenders out there: the key is the slab of hand chipped ice, clear and slow melting in those gigantic Lowball glasses that make our hands feel tiny and child-like.



A close second is the Old Fashioned at Beatrice & Woodsley



The drink was not the best we've ever had, but let us tell you the bar is incredible: logs cut in half that are held up by chainsaws. For any of you in the Mile-High, this is restaurant is certainly worth a visit. Part tree house, part magical forest, part boozy heaven. Yes please.

Denver, keep it up.

A Night Out - Denver

To sum it all up - the best damn bar in Denver, Colorado is The Cruise Room in the Oxford Hotel. With its glowing red up-lit walls that make us weak in the knees, and it's extensive list of signature cocktails, it is impossible to go wrong.



The bar opened the day after Prohibition was repealed in 1933, a worthy cause for celebration if you as us, and was modeled after a bar on the Queen Mary. The interior is original - the leather banquets, the vertical orange murals on scalloped walls, and the most exquisite glossy black bar that makes us want to lie down on it and have someone feed us maraschino cherries. It is Art-Deco heaven. And then they went and added that pink and red neon over the door - ecstasy.


They brag about their vodka martinis, but we much prefer the Gin and Juice served with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice.


A side note about the Oxford Hotel: it was the first hotel in Denver, and was built in 1890 by local architect Frank E. Edbrooke, who also designed the Brown Palace Hotel.


"The classical simplicity of The Oxford's exterior belied an extravagant interior, as opening day guests discovered on October 3, 1891. This luxury downtown Denver hotel, according to the Rocky Mountain News, sported the latest in gadgets and technology as well as Gilded Age opulence. The hotel had its own power plant and the most perfect system of steam heating, electric and gas lighting, and on each floor bathrooms had separate water closets with the latest improved sanitary appliances. The kitchen, added the News, is located so that none of the odor can possibly permeate through the house, and is provided with a series of ranges, broilers and all the utensils known to the culinary art. Dining tables glistened with cut, engraved glassware and Haviland China and silverware inscribed "Oxford." In a separate dining room for gentlemen only, merchants and bankers, politicos and attorneys, could feast privately before getting down to cigars and business. Antique oak furniture, marble and carpet floors, frescoed walls, silver chandeliers and stained glass glistened inside. Every room had an abundance of light and air because Edbrooke wrapped the hotel around a light well. With its own dining rooms, barber shop, a library, a pharmacy, a Western Union office, stables and a splendid saloon serving Zang's "Fritz Imperial," The Oxford was and still is an authentic Denver hotel, a city within a city."